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Arthur Ashley Mayhew Jr.
Was Vineyard Youth, Member of Greatest Generation
Arthur Ashley Mayhew Jr., who passed away about a year ago, personified what many are calling the "Greatest Generation." Raised during the Great Depression, he was on the front lines defending our liberty during World War II. The recent tragic events create an increased awareness of the importance of his life.
Ashley, as he was known on the Vineyard, was born in Vineyard Haven on Nov. 22, 1921. The hospital had not yet been built, so he was delivered by a midwife at the family home on the State Road. He was the oldest child of Arthur Ashley Mayhew, the postmaster of Vineyard Haven, and Esther Crocker Mayhew. He also was a direct descendant of Thomas Mayhew, founder of Martha's Vineyard. His siblings include Mason L. Mayhew and Elwynn C. Mayhew (both deceased), and Irma Mayhew Van Steenburgh.
He had an idyllic, almost carefree boyhood on the Vineyard, which, despite the Great Depression, was paradise for an adventuresome boy. He explored the countryside, farmlands and ponds of the Island. During one of his explorations, he was pulled out of quicksand at the pumping station at Lake Tashmoo by a quick-thinking friend named Malcolm Diamond. Even though he summered near Uncle Seth's Pond at the family farm on Lambert's Cove Road, he and his friends never swam there (rumor had it that Norman Benson, who lived across the street, had placed eel pots in the pond). They preferred to swim at Lambert's Cove Beach, where his swimming prowess made him an unofficial lifeguard.
Uncle Seth's Pond, however, was where the local youths ice-skated during the winter. Ashley's cousin, Lloyd Merry, had a cottage with a pier on the pond. Ashley opened a hot dog stand during ice skating season, but lost money on the venture. Because he was a perfectionist, he had to buy the best hot dogs and hamburgers he could find. He couldn't sell them at a profit, but he and his friends ate very well!
Ashley loved nature and agriculture. He was president of the Vineyard Haven Poultry 4-H Club and a frequent winner at the agricultural fair. He was also a Boy Scout.
Due to the economic conditions of the depression, Ashley and his siblings would unknot used string for his father, who worked at the post office. String was scarce and expensive, and the post office would reuse the unknotted string. What is ecology today was necessity in the 1930s when supplies were limited.
Before he had a driver's license, he loved to drive cars fast in the wood roads near Mohu. When he finally got his license at age 16, his newfound mobility gave him the freedom to explore the whole Island. He had previously met David Noble, a former merchant marine who was a patient at the old Marine Hospital. David was so crippled with arthritis that he could barely turn the dial on his marine radio. After obtaining his license, Ashley would visit him weekly and turn the radio dial for him so that they could listen to the outside world together. Ashley often drove to the Seaman's Bethel at Vineyard Haven harbor to hear stories from the fishermen as they came in to rest. He also enjoyed going to the Grange halls, primarily at West Tisbury but also at Chilmark.
Ashley graduated from Tisbury High School in 1939. The class size was small, with only 30 or so in the graduating class. He was a popular boy, known for his fairness, reserve and even temper. He had a certain grace under pressure. Bob Chapman, who was a classmate of Ashley's from elementary school through high school, said he never ever saw Ashley lose his temper. This natural grace helped him through his next great endeavor.
In 1939, war erupted in Europe and it was unclear whether the United States would enter the war. It was during this uneasy time that he began to look for work after high school. He scalloped in Lagoon Pond during the cold autumn months following graduation. He worked for a short while at a lab in Tuckahoe on Long Island, N.Y. and ended up working as a salesman at a department store in Wellesley. Jobs were scarce, and he was competing for jobs against many college graduates.
Then, Pearl Harbor was attacked. Just days after the attack, Ashley enlisted in the Marines. As he would later recount, Ashley wanted to serve his country and, being a perfectionist, he wanted to serve in what he felt was the premiere branch of the service. After basic training in Parris Island, S.C., and New River, N.C., he was sent to the Guadalcanal to fight the Japanese. The Japanese had advanced at will during the first months of the war and occupied Southeast Asia and the Philippines. The Japanese controlled Guadalcanal, an island in the South Pacific, and were establishing a base from which to attack Australia. The Marines' mission was to wrest control of the island and establish a toehold from which they could turn the Japanese back. The result was one of the bloodiest and most pivotal battles of World War II.
In a front-page profile of Ashley in the Vineyard Gazette dated July 6, 1943, he discussed his experience on Guadalcanal. "Being under fire was a rather unnerving experience at first," he recounted in typically understated fashion. "I couldn't exactly describe the feeling. But after a while no one seemed to pay much attention to it, somehow. But some of those shells came damn close."
Despite his belief in the cause, he never glorified war. When asked by his young sons, who loved to play soldiers, if he had killed any enemy soldiers, he would always reply that he hoped not.
He was proud of his time in the Marine Corps, but he never liked talking about the horrors of the battlefield. The haunting memories of war stayed with him his entire life. Having seen many of his comrades-in-arms fall around him, he always felt as though he was living on borrowed time, and wanted to make the most of his life.
After contracting malaria on Guadalcanal, he was sent to the naval hospital in San Diego, Calif., for convalescence. He stayed in Southern California after the war, attending the University of Southern California (in Los Angeles), where he majored in business and was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, a national honor fraternity for business students. He was also an announcer at KUSC, the campus radio station.
In 1948, he married
a woman he met on Martha's Vineyard, Dorothy A. Carter. He had first met her through his uncle, Joe Merry, when he was 15 and she was 11; obviously there was no romance at that time. Her family would summer on the Vineyard and after the war he met her again. This time, romance flourished. They subsequently had two sons, Jeffrey C. Mayhew, born in 1953, and Robert A. Mayhew, born in 1960. They moved to Pasadena, Calif., in 1956, where he lived until he passed away.
After college, he became a certified public accountant, joining the national accounting firm of Touche, Niven, Bailey and Smart. In 1958, he started his own practice in Pasadena, Alne, Warnick and Mayhew, which ultimately became one of the largest local accounting firms in Southern California.
Even as he became a successful businessman in California, he never lost his Vineyard roots. He grew up on the Vineyard during the Depression, and his parents instilled within him basic New England values regarding life, hard work and compassion. He lived what he learned on the Vineyard. He passed those values to his sons through example.
After the death of his wife Dorothy in 1987, Ashley began to revisit the Vineyard on a more frequent basis. He attended his 50-year high school reunion in 1989 and reestablished contact with many of his childhood friends. He enjoyed doing some of the same things he did as a boy: hiking through the woods, swimming at Lambert's Cove Beach and picking beach plums for jelly at the sand dunes near Lobsterville Beach.
In 1994, Ashley unfortunately suffered a massive stroke that left him paralyzed on his left side and needing 24-hour nursing care. Despite constant pain and confinement, he rarely complained. Instead, he laughed and cracked jokes with family and nurses. It is fitting that he conducted himself until the very end with the same grace and calm dignity that he demonstrated his entire life.
He was able to see his son Jeff married
just before he died. It was pouring rain the day of the ceremony, yet the minister commented about what a great day the Lord had created for this matrimony. Ashley smiled, and commented to those around him that "the Lord
didn't do a very good job today." Even the nervous bride and groom had to smile.
He passed away on Oct. 18, 2000 at the age of 78 of heart failure and complications from his stroke. He is survived by his two sons, two daughters in law, and several grandchildren. He was one of only four males left from his Tisbury High School graduating class when he died. His remains were cremated and buried at Abel's Hill cemetery in Chilmark.
It has been a year since his death, and time - not to mention the recent tragic events - has brought into focus the profound meaning of his life, values and sacrifices. His heroism, along with that of many others of the "Greatest Generation," has enabled freedom to flourish. Arthur Ashley Mayhew Jr. will be missed, but his spirit lives on.
Darwin Blair Close, 75
Was Teacher and Mentor
Darwin Blair Close died on Oct. 11 in Sarasota, Fla. He was a dedicated teacher whose greatest role was that of mentor to scores of students who passed through his classes and were influenced by his high ideals and his riveting attention to bringing out the highest achievement possible in each and every one of them.
Darwin was born Dec. 24, 1925, in Millersburg, Ohio. He absorbed at an early age the values and resourcefulness which were at that time such an integral part of small town, midwestern life.
He excelled in sports and was a leader in many school activities. He was president of his senior class and co-captain that same year of the football team. Upon being graduated from high school, he was accepted into the V-12 program at Yale University.
He attended Yale until his active duty status began in the Navy in 1943. He served in the Pacific theatre in World War II. Upon discharge, he attended Ohio University, Athens, Ohio, where he obtained his bachelor of arts degree in 1946.
He married
Peggy Psiaki in 1947 and is the father of three daughters, Carolyn Connors, Elise Keith and Darla Humphrey; he also has six grandchildren, Kristen, James Howard, John Daniel, Meredith, Mackenzie and Brandon.
Darwin returned to the academic life in 1958, earning a master's degree in economics from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1961. He was awarded a Heubner Foundation Fellowship in 1962 at the University of Pennsylvania for work toward a doctorate degree in insurance. He sold his interest in the family insurance agency in Millersburg, which he had managed for 12 years, and took his family to Philadelphia for the three years of study necessary for the completion of the doctorate degree.
Darwin was on the faculty of Ohio State University, the University of Connecticut and Bowling Green State University. He was executive director of the Griffith Foundation for Insurance Education at Ohio State University for 12 years. He was on the board of directors of Republic Franklin Insurance Company for 22 years. His area of specialization throughout his academic career was property-casualty insurance and risk management.
His relationship with his students was of such a high caliber that he was awarded an honorary chair of excellence at the Undergraduate Student Forum, Ohio State University, for his "significant contribution to teaching." He was voted outstanding teacher of the year for the College of Business Administration at Bowling Green State University in 1987, 1988 and 1989.
He retired in 1993 and maintained residences in West Tisbury and Osprey, Fla., where he pursued his lifelong interest in boating and became an avid golfer.
He will be sorely missed by his many friends and students and by his beloved family.
A memorial service was at 11 a.m. on Oct. 15 at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church, Venice, Fla. Afterward, a gathering of friends and family was held at Southbay Club House.
In lieu of flowers, please make contributions to the Darwin Close Scholarship Fund, Department of Finance, College of Business Administration, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43403-0264.
David Ellis Rivers
Spent His Summers Up-Island
The life of David Ellis Rivers was ended tragically on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center in New York city on Sept. 11, 2001. He was 40 years old. While his childhood and teenage years were spent primarily in New Canaan, Conn., and Wayland, his heart was always in Chilmark, where he learned to swim, row, sail and fish on Quitsa Pond.
In more recent years, his love was the beach on the west end of the Island at Squibnocket, where he spent many summer days with his family. Always cheerful, seldom complaining and with a great sense of humor, he had many friends who will miss his enthusiastic nature and thoughtfulness.
David was graduated from Northfield Mt. Hermon School and earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, but perhaps he learned some of life's most important workaday realities under the tutelage of Everett Poole, with whom he spent six summers in the fish market at Menemsha. He was a reporter for Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal for a number of years and at the time of his death was editorial director of Risk Waters Group, New York and London, England.
He is survived by his loving wife, Ricky, and their five-year-old son, James, of New York city; his parents, Barbara and Tom Rivers of Chilmark; his sister, Diane D. Rivers and her son, James Anderson of Sarasota, Fla.
Donations in his memory may be made to Northfield Mt. Hermon School, 206 Main street, Northfield, MA 01360, or to Grace Church School, 86 Fourth avenue, New York, NY 10003. Memorial service arrangements will be announced at a later date.
Barbara Medeiros, 98
Was Native of Chilmark
Barbara A. Medeiros of Tisbury died on Monday, Sept. 10, 2001, at Windemere Nursing Home after a lengthy illness. She was 98 years old and was born on Feb. 17, 1903, to William Chase Allen and Sarah Francis Hammett in Chilmark.
She married
Raul B. Medeiros, who predeceased her in 1968. Mrs. Medeiros was a member of the Friends of the Council on Aging of Vineyard Haven.
She is survived by her daughter in law, Cora Medeiros of Vineyard Haven; three daughters, Barbara Ray of Beverly, Helen Mosher of Vineyard Haven and Joanne Smith of Chilmark; 16 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her son, Raul B. Medeiros, her daughter, Eleanor Hunt, and a sister, Mary Hull.
A graveside service officiated by the Rev. Roger Spinney was held at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 13, in Abel's Hill cemetery, Chilmark. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of Martha's Vineyard or to a charity of one's choice. Arrangements are by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs.
Arnold K. Brown Jr.
Was Conservationist, Sailor
Arnold Kaywood Brown Jr. of Vineyard Haven died peacefully on Wednesday after a valiant struggle with lung cancer. He was 68 years old.
Arnold was born in Providence, R.I., on May 2, 1933. He was the only son of the late Arnold Kaywood Brown and the late Alva Jefferds Brown. He grew up in Barrington, R.I., and was educated at Moses Brown School in Rhode Island and Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He was graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1955, majoring in history.
Arnold, or Brownie as he was affectionately known, met his wife, Edie, 50 years ago while a freshman at Harvard. They married
the day after college graduation, enjoyed a two-month honeymoon traveling throughout the United States, and started married
life in Germany, where Arnold served several years as a commissioned U.S. Army officer. They were later stationed in Texas and Missouri, until Arnold left the Army in 1962.
Arnold and Edie returned to Barrington, where he began his career at the Fram Corporation. He soon headed Fram's international division, traveling extensively throughout the world, and then served as executive vice president. In 1974, Arnold left Fram and moved with Edie to the Vineyard full-time. They purchased and expanded Woodchips Designers Inc., which they owned until 1990.
Arnold loved Vineyard life and treasured his 30 years as a year-round resident. He had been introduced to the Island in the early 1950s through Edie's family. His in-laws were the late Edwin and Helen Chinlund of Vineyard Haven and New York.
Arnold was involved in wildlife and environmental conservation. In the early days of Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, he helped to lay the groundwork for the sanctuary that exists today. It was at Felix Neck that he met his dear friend, Gus Ben David, who introduced him to the birding world. He became an avid birder, traveling frequently with Edie to scope out the latest species. Arnold also spearheaded Programme for Belize, an effort that ultimately set aside 700,000 acres of rain forest for conservation.
The family home on Grove avenue was warm, welcoming and housed many of Arnold's entrepreneurial ventures. Working with his treasured, invaluable assistant, Daryl Knight, he maintained his connection to Belize through a travel organization that booked accommodations at the Chan Chich lodge. His other ventures included caretaking and a mail-order book business.
During the past six years, Arnold managed the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club. He loved being out on the water, and truly had an appreciation for a wild, windy day. He especially enjoyed his role as mentor to the latest generation of sailors, and implemented a program bringing sailing to Island youth. He was touched to have an annual high school team racing event named in his honor this fall.
Through the years, Arnold held many positions that reflected his varied interests, including commodore of the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club, treasurer of the Southern Massachusetts Sailing Association, finance committee member for the town of Tisbury, deacon at the First Congregational Church and board member for a number of organizations including the Visiting Nurses Association, Massachusetts Audubon Society and Hawk Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary.
His years on the Vineyard were rich and full of friendship and warmth. If you were fortunate enough to walk down the street with Arnold Brown, you quickly realized the wide variety of his many friends and acquaintances. He was a master of conversation, an absolute individual. He was an interesting, vital, vibrant person, and his dynamic presence will be sorely missed.
He is survived by his wife, Edith Chinlund Brown; his daughters, Lynne Brown Strang and Cynthia Brown Andrews, and their husbands; five grandchildren and one great-grandson.
A memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 9, at the First Congregational Church in West Tisbury. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Box 494, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.
Edward M. Parker
Was Entertainment Mogul
Edward M. Parker, 47, succumbed to his cancer on Sunday, Nov. 4, at his home in Vineyard Haven, with his wife, Maria, and son, Edward M. (Mike) Parker 2nd, by his side.
Ed Parker began as a photographer and became an entertainment business mogul, as a tour manager for Paul Simon and traveling shows of Moscow on Ice, the Peking Circus and the then S.S.R. Georgia's National Adult and Children's Dance Troupes. He was also a production coordinator for a range of talent from Gloria Estefan to Frank Sinatra.
With an insurmountable good nature and a smile to match, a definite ear for and sense of foreign languages, including flawless Spanish, Ed Parker rose to some of the most diverse and international tasks that the entertainment industry had to offer.
Edward Michael Parker was born in Worcester on July 11, 1954, to Eleanor Leahy Parker and the late T. Edward Parker. He grew up in Worcester and was graduated from St. John's Academy before he went off to the New England School of Photography, Boston, where he finished in 1975 before he took a teaching position at the Essex Photo Workshop in Essex, MA.
His next move was to Florida and his next step was show business. He first established and headed Parker International in Miami in 1978 where he was involved in facilitating tours for an array of artists from Alice Cooper to James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt.
And it was in Miami that he met his wife, Maria Pedroso, a daughter of Julian Pedroso, a Bay of Pigs veteran and master mariner from Cuba who, among many such rescue voyages, brought an entire boat full of 43 priests to the safety of U.S. shores.
On a Friday night in 1981, Maria was going into a club when she ran into Ed Parker, who was about to take part in a bicycle tour from Coconut Grove, Fla., to Key West the following day. She recalls: "I saw him and just stopped; I thought he looked just like Paul McCartney." They were married
on July 11, 1984, in Coconut Grove.
Ed Parker managed José Feliciano and did production work for Elton John, Sting and Rod Stewart, to name a few, but some of his projects were spectacular. While Ed spoke a little Russian, mobilizing a Russian ice show, Moscow On Ice, handling visas, shots, catered meals and venues, won much trust and admiration on several continents.
After a series of complicated events in administrative disaccord left the touring Peking (China) Circus stranded in the Midwest without management, Ed, with his smattering of Chinese, took over the show with Maria, who came to this country in October of 1962 as the Communists and their missiles were moving into Cuba, as the ringmaster. Maria recalls their son, Mike, then in second grade, turned down frequent requests to be the only non-Oriental clown with his father's circus.
After coaxing Chinese acrobats and animals onto and off of trains, chartered buses and planes, from Bally's in Las Vegas and Reno, Los Angeles, Massachusetts and Virginia, Ed's linguistics moved up another notch. The tour complete, he earned a great deal of respect in the Asian arts community, which led to his introduction of pro wrestling -- International Wrestling All Stars -- to China. After China, and the introduction of the sport to Chinese TV, Ed and the wrestlers toured India, Malaysia, Singapore and Tokyo.
Ed also took a road production of My Fair Lady through 11 countries and arranged a tour of Soviet Georgian art, the Tbilisi Gallery, throughout the United States.
Since the Parkers settled on Martha's Vineyard in 1994, Ed, an avid fisherman, continued limited participation in the music industry and imported hardwoods from Central and South America and represented a line of South African wines, for as long as his health would allow. He had many friends around the globe, in every niche of society, and will be badly missed.
He is survived by his wife, Maria; a son, Michael; his mother, Eleanor, and a brother, Brian Parker. He was predeceased by a younger sister, Ann Marie Parker Andrews, and their father, T. Edward Parker.
Services will be held at Callahan Brothers Funeral Home in Worcester, 508-753-8171, with interment at St. John's cemetery in Worcester.
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Edward M. Parker II College Fund, set up through the Dukes County Savings Bank, 65 Main street, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.
Charlotte Jernegan, 53
Was Nurse and Mother
Charlotte Cora Jernegan, 53, of Curtis Lane in Edgartown, died peacefully on Nov. 19 after a brief, heroic battle with colon cancer. She died on her mother's bed in her childhood home.
Charlotte was born on March 11, 1948, the first child of Quentin and Dorothy Jernegan of Edgartown. Her father, who died in 1973, worked during various periods of his life as the Edgartown shellfish constable, cemetery commissioner and landfill manager as well as a gardener and fisherman. Her mother originally wanted to become a scientist, yet was dissuaded at an early age and worked for years as a governess. She had a relentless curiosity and was an inspiration to all of her friends at the Methodist Church in Edgartown.
Charlotte's childhood was marked by a passion for horses that would follow her throughout her life. When she was 12, she helped her neighbor, Patsy Scott, in the care of Patsy's horses. Her first pony, Cricket, was loaned from Margy Manter in West Tisbury. Quentin built a shed behind the house for the pony, yet was too busy scalloping to build an additional shed for her friend Muriel's pony. The two girls built the second shed themselves, using scrap lumber and corrugated steel. Later, she tamed a wild and unapproachable stallion named Domino from the Pinney farm and rode him in enough equestrian competitions to cover an entire wall with 4-H ribbons.
Charlotte performed exceptionally well scholastically, and excelled in her career as a nurse. She was graduated sixth in her class from the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School in 1965. She was motivated to go to a four-year college, yet due to the family's limited means initially attended Mt. Ida Community College in Newton while working as a governess for a local family. Her straight-A average enabled her to transfer to New York University on a full scholarship. She earned a B.A. in psychology in 1969 and a master's degree in nursing from New York Medical College in 1971. During most of her professional career, which spanned almost 20 years, she worked as an emergency department nurse at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Several years ago, she moved back to the Island and worked as a nurse at Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, taking care of many people she had known previously from her childhood.
Charlotte met her first husband, Stephen Finkel, as a student at NYU. They built a house together at Sweetened Water Farm in Edgartown. After the birth of two sons, Josh and Noah Finkel, in 1973 and 1975, the family was forced to move off-Island in 1979 in order for Steve to obtain a more promising job. The family resided in Acton while she worked at Beth Israel. Her stories from the emergency department sparked her son Noah's desire to become an EMT and eventually to enter medical school. She divorced in 1983 and married
Gerald Sullo in 1987. She gave birth in 1988 to a third son, Daryl Sullo. Subsequent years were complicated by her son Joshua's battle with mental illness. When her mother was stricken and died of breast cancer in the early 1990s, Charlotte took many trips to the Island to nurse her mother when she was so busy with work and family. She considered her mother her best friend, and was devastated by her eventual passing. Her last few years were enhanced by a deeply committed relationship with Tom Benedict.
Charlotte's illness was diagnosed in July and progressed rapidly until a crisp, sunny Monday morning in November. There was to the last a wide-eyed, pigtailed innocence that not even the cruelest break could dent. She awoke briefly the day before her death, speaking of her mother, pink ponies and a baseball park for little kids in Bedford-Stuyvesant and asked if it had all really happened.
She is survived by a brother, Warren Jernegan of Flossmoor, Ill., and Warren Automotive. Her oldest son, Joshua, lives and works in Worcester. Noah attends the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Daryl attends junior high school in Acton. She also leaves a multitude of friends from her childhood and career in nursing. She will be remembered as a loving mother, a talented and caring nurse and a devoted and loyal friend. "May the road rise to meet you."
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 1, at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown. Memorial gifts in her name may be made to Hospice of Martha's Vineyard Inc., P.O. Box 2549, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.
