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Douglas A. Archer, 54
Had Island Painting Firm
Douglas A. Archer, 54, died unexpectedly on Wednesday, Jan. 23, at his home in West Tisbury. A 1965 graduate of Barnstable High School, Doug had maintained an Island painting business since 1990.
The son of Sidney H. Archer of Hyannis and the late Linda Bearse Archer, he leaves his daughters, Clover Archer of Brooklyn, N.Y., Crina Archer of Chicago, Ill., and his brother, David Archer of Boston. He also leaves his loving partner of 17 years, Lori Calio.
A celebration of his life will be held for friends and family on Feb. 23, at 11 a.m. at the Sacred Heart Church in Oak Bluffs. A memorial service will be held at a later date at The Hillside cemetery in Osterville. Arrangements are by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs.
In lieu of flowers and donations, please do an act of kindness.
Dr. Edward B. Self, 91
Was Distinguished Physician, Surgeon and Administrator
Dr. Edward B. Self died quietly at home in Edgartown on Jan. 18 from complications of leukemia and malignant melanoma. He was 91.
Dr. Self was born in South Orange, N.J., in 1911. He was graduated from Carteret Academy in 1928, Yale University in 1932 and Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1936, where he completed his training and was an associate professor of surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center until his retirement in 1977.
In World War II he served in the Army Medical Corps as chief of surgery of the 160th Station Hospital in Bath, England, and Amiens, France, and as chief of surgery of the 229th 1,000-bed hospital in Nagoya, Japan. He was on the surgical staffs of Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, Babies Hospital, Bellevue Hospital, Harlem Hospital, Delafield Hospital, Dobbs Ferry Hospital, Phelps Memorial and for two years at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital.
He was a member of the New York Surgical Society, the Society of University Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the New York Academy of Medicine. He was a former president of the Physicians and Surgeons Alumni Association and a recipient of its silver medal and of Columbia's alumni medal and its Medical Society doctorate degree, and served as an assistant vice president on the board of directors of the medical center.
Dr. Self was a former member of the Yale Club of New York and of the Ardsley Curling Club, and was active in the Edgartown Reading Room, where he was made an honorary member in 1998. Also in 1998, he was appointed fleet surgeon of the Edgartown Yacht Club and corresponding secretary for his Yale class of 1932. He was a life trustee of The Trustees of Reservations.
As a teenager he worked during the summers as a runner on Wall Street and attributed his later financial security to this experience.
Dr. Self's love for the Island began with his first visit to Edgartown in 1920, when his father rented him a rowboat in which he explored the harbor. Later, as a surgical house officer in New York, he and fellow residents would drive to Osterville, rent a Crosby Senior Wianno and sail over to Cape Pogue, where they had rented the house nearest to the lighthouse.
As a result, in later years he and the former Beatrice Bellinger, whom he married
in 1941, bought property at Cape Pogue, where they summered with their three children for 26 years. In 1967 they moved across Cape Pogue Bay to Cove Meadow, a 70-acre tract on the west side of the pond.
After his retirement from Columbia in 1977, the couple moved permanently to Chappaquiddick, where Dr. Self became active in Island affairs. He served as president of the Chappaquiddick Island Association and of the Chappaquiddick Beach Club, and was a trustee and president of the Vineyard Conservation Society. He became a director of the Sheriff's Meadow Foundation and later an honorary director and a member of the Edgartown board of health.
Upon the occasion of the 350th anniversary of the Edgartown Federated Church, Dr. Self headed a committee which raised $373,000 for the church's endowment fund. He also became a force in the reorganization of the Chappaquiddick Beach Club from a privately owned enterprise to one owned by the members.
This Nov. 11, to mark the occasion of both Dr. Self's 91st birthday and their 60th wedding anniversary, he and Mrs. Self gave a dinner for 50 people at the Edgartown Reading Room, at which most of those present were children, grandchildren and members of their families, plus a few close friends. It was a sparkling affair and the celebration of two wonderful, full lives.
Dr. Self's loves were his wife and his family. His hobbies were the practice of medicine, reading and bicycling, and often he would combine two of them by bicycling to South Beach and then back to a friend's house to check their blood pressure. Bicycling stemmed from bicycle trips he made as a teenager all over Great Britain, France and Germany.
These teenage excursions created a love of travel which stayed with him his whole life. His most memorable trip was by train for two months, beginning in London and ending in Hong Kong, with stops along the way in France, Germany, Poland, Russia, Siberia, Mongolia and China. Another trip to the South Pacific took three months, and just the summer before last, Dr. and Mrs. Self were in Scandinavia with Joseph C. Whitney and Mrs. Hope K. Register.
Dr. Self is survived by his wife; three children, Mrs. Boyd Osler of Hingham and Chappaquiddick, E. Baldwin Self Jr., M.D., of Ridgewood, N.J., Kiawah, S.C., and Chappaquiddick, and Mrs. Judy Murphy of Chester, Conn., and Chappaquiddick; nine grandchildren, Jay Osler II, Erin Michaud, Mark Osler, Edward Self 3rd, Rachel Self, Peter Murphy, Kate Murphy, Douglas Kennedy and Meredith Antonelli, and one great-grandchild, Madeleine Antonelli.
Interment at the Chappaquiddick cemetery will be private. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Feb. 9, at 12:30 p.m. at the Federated Church in Edgartown, with the Rev. John Shule officiating.
In lieu of flowers, donations should be sent to the Vineyard Conservation Society, Hospice of Martha's Vineyard or a charity of one's choice.
Gaylord B. Barnes, 80
Was World War Veteran
Gaylord Beckley (Hap) Barnes, 80, former U.S. Steel executive and U.S. Steel International vice president for personnel relations, died Jan. 18 in Bradenton, Fla., after a lengthy hospitalization.
Born in Hartford and raised in West Hartford, Conn., Hap was graduated from Yale University (York Hall) in 1942 with a degree in industrial administration. His career at U.S. Steel began in the mills of Donora, Pa., and followed the history of the American steel industry as it evolved from Steelbelt production to international diversification, from American Steel & Wire to U.S. Steel to USX, from Cleveland (Lakewood), Ohio, and Pittsburgh (North Hills and Allison Park), Pa., to New York and Spain and Brazil. Spanning more than 35 years, his professional life was put on hold only once, for voluntary induction into World War II, when he was sent to New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines and Japan between 1943 and 1946, finally proudly serving as First Lieutenant, AGD, in General Headquarters Tokyo.
An early retirement, in 1978, allowed Hap and his wife, Mickey, to relocate to Martha's Vineyard, where for 15 years he was actively involved in community affairs. He served on the Edgartown solid waste study task force in the early eighties, was treasurer of Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, delivered Meals on Wheels, was an early supporter and volunteer at the recycling center, a member of the finance committee of the Martha's Vineyard Hospital and a pillar of the Vineyard Haven Unitarian Universalist fellowship. (Mickey was the librarian in Edgartown, Vineyard Haven and West Tisbury for many of these years.)
Great pleasures were taken by him through appreciation of the Vineyard's landscape and wildlife habitats. He sailed the Island waters (as he did earlier on Lake Erie from the family's summer cottage in Redbrook colony in Ashtabula, Ohio) and visited to and from daughters and their families, travels which fed his interest in history and in building new houses -- the first in Edgartown, the second in Tisbury, designed in long-distance collaboration with his architect daughter in Seattle. A third house was built for their move to East Falmouth in 1994.
His dry humor and thoughtful perspectives on world events made him sought-after company at the bridge and dinner tables, and on occasion at the ping-pong table. Married to Margaret Ann McKee in 1948, Mr. Barnes became the proud father of four daughters. Much of his life was devoted to their education and support. Above all, and after all, he was a family man and a true friend.
He is survived by his wife, Mickey (Margaret Ann McKee, now of Bradenton, Fla., and Harwichport); his daughters, Rebecca Gay Barnes of Boston, Nancy McKee Barnes of Danvers, Judith Caroline Gabriel of Arroyo Grande, Calif., and Katharine Elizabeth Finn of Sudbury; two loving granddaughters, and five loving grandsons.
A memorial service will be held this spring on Cape Cod, at a date to be announced. Remembrances may be made in his name to the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha's Vineyard, Main street, Vineyard Haven, 02568.
Janet P. Bosworth, 88
Piloted Planes and Boats
Janet P. (Blume) Bosworth, 88, a resident of Cuttyhunk and West Falmouth, died Jan. 19 at Falmouth Hospital.
She was the wife of Lloyd H. Bosworth, whom she married
in 1966 and who died in 1988. She was formerly the wife of Frederick W. Litzknow and Frederick G. Hodgson.
Born and educated in Chicago, Mrs. Bosworth later attended Bryn Mawr (Pa.) College. When she was three years old, her parents bought a home on Penzance Point and the family spent summers in Woods Hole, where she learned to swim and sail, for many years after.
During her first marriage, she and her husband lived for five years in Korea, where they worked in gold mines operated by her husband's grandfather. They later lived in South Africa and Atlanta.
After her divorce, she resettled in West Falmouth. She joined the Civil Air Patrol in Falmouth as a radio operator and worked out of Coonamessett Airport, where she had learned to fly several years earlier, eventually earning her pilot's license.
She returned to Falmouth permanently in 1950. A founder in 1953 of the Falmouth chapter of the League of Women Voters, she was also its first president. She was a member of the Falmouth finance committee from 1956 to 1962.
A boat captain and fisherman, she was the only woman on the Cape to hold a U.S. Power Squadron degree in navigation during the 1950s and 1960s, as well as a Coast Guard charter captain's license.
She competed in fishing tournaments for many years. In 1961, she caught a 45-pound striper off Cuttyhunk, the largest taken that season by a woman, earning her the Cuttyhunk Anglers Cup. In 1965, she hooked a 335-pound swordfish south of Nomans Land.
A year-round Cuttyhunk resident since 1974, Mrs. Bosworth was active in local affairs. She was a co-founder of the Cuttyhunk Historical Society and served as its vice president and curator. In recent years, she spent winters in West Falmouth, piloting herself between Cuttyhunk and Falmouth on a 16-foot Boston Whaler.
She was a supporter of many organizations, including the Woods Hole Library, the Coalition for Buzzards Bay and the Penikese Island School.
She is survived by a cousin, Margaret Williams of Gloucester.
A memorial service was held Jan. 28 at Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home in West Falmouth.
Robert M. Ferris
Enjoyed Life on Island
Longtime Island summer resident Robert M. Ferris 3rd died Sunday, Jan. 27, in Ithaca, N.Y. He first came to the Vineyard in 1914, after his father was drowned off Nantucket. His mother, Ada Crump Ferris, bought a house that had been moved onto the bluff at East Chop from the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs. He commuted between the tennis club and the beach club, took meals at the Ohoma Inn and played pick-up baseball, organized by the Brooks family. A ball hit over the bluff was an automatic double.
He courted his wife, Margaret Allan, from their home town of Montclair, N.J., bringing her first to East Chop on the overnight steamer that came from New York city with a stop in New Bedford. After their three children were born, he used the house his mother's sister had in Chilmark, now owned by Dela and Peter Darling, his first cousin. In 1950 his wife persuaded him to put a dollar down on land that Horace Robinson was selling to friends up-Island. Mrs. Brooks called him over at the East Chop Beach Club and declared that "the fields of Chilmark were no place to raise a family," but he did it anyway in a house his wife designed, built by William E. Dugan.
Mr. Ferris was active in public service in New Jersey, especially as the mayor of Montclair, where he worked hard on racial justice. He worked for the Bell System, primarily for Western Electric Manufacturing Company, both in New York city and for four years in Indianapolis, Ind.
Fifty years after his graduation from Yale University in 1931, the picture he sent to the class reunion book shows him casting in the surf, and he was a well known fisherman on the Vineyard. In 1968, his brother John loaned him a duck boat. Anyone coming to visit was asked to stop in Buzzard's Bay for blood worms. He took innumerable friends and children to troll the worms for bass in the creek at Menemsha, just south of the bar off the Coast Guard station. He also knew several good spots to cast from the beach at Squibnocket Point.
In 1973, he and his wife retired to the Island for more of the year. He enjoyed playing golf, birding, playing bridge with friends and gardening near the house he almost didn't build because he "didn't want to spend my two weeks vacation fixing screens." His vegetable garden was close enough to the road for extra vegetables to be put out on a driftwood board as a table, with a sign, "Help yourself, Free Lunch is back."
He is survived by his wife, Margaret; their three children, Nancy Hillegas of the Vineyard, Susan Hatch of Ithaca, N.Y., Sandy of Windsor, Vt., and five grandchildren. He was predeceased by one grandchild.
Memorial gifts may be sent to the Chilmark Public Library.
Robert A. Sylvia, 68
Was Veteran, Lover of Birds
Robert Alfred Sylvia, 68, a resident of West Yarmouth, died unexpectedly on Thursday, Jan. 10, at his home.
He was born and raised in Oak Bluffs and was graduated from the Oak Bluffs High School.
Mr. Sylvia joined the Marines and served in the Korean War. After returning to the Vineyard from Korea he joined the Cape & Vineyard Electric Company, later becoming active in the electrical workers union and ultimately serving as union president. He was an early activist for the rights of women and minorities.
During his early adult years on the Vineyard, Mr. Sylvia was an active and accomplished hunter. His outlook on all things natural evolved, however and, for the remainder of his life, he was an outspoken supporter of animals' rights. Mr. Sylvia subsequently moved to Hyannis, where he developed a special relationship with the animals around the Cape, to the point where he was known locally as the "Bird Man of Hyannis."
In the mid-1960s, Mr. Sylvia appeared on the popular television show, The Ted Mack Amateur Hour, entertaining millions with his expert whistling of the tune Sweet Georgia Brown. He played the trumpet and bugle for pleasure and could tell a joke with the best of them. Throughout his life, Mr. Sylvia enjoyed a spirited game of cribbage. He also had a gift for poetry and enjoyed writing about his experiences living on the Cape. In 1995, Mr. Sylvia published Silver Poetry, a collection of his poems. In the past several years Mr. Sylvia became more involved in nature photography, concentrating on the wildlife that abounded around his yard and nearby pond.
Surviving are three sons, Robert Rippcondi of Vineyard Haven, Jacques Sylvia of Centerville and Matthew Sylvia of Hyannis; two daughters, Janine Campbell of Clermont, Fla., and Wendy Colwell of Peachtree City, Ga.; and seven grandchildren. He was also the father of Camden Sylvia, who died in 1997.
Friends and relatives are invited to call from 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 19, at the Hallet Funeral Home, 273 Station avenue, South Yarmouth. A private service will be held at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made by feeding the birds in your own back yard.
Robert H.C. Seaton, 53
Loved Sailing and Family
Robert Hill Crump Seaton Jr. died on Dec. 25, 2001 peacefully at his home in Lambert's Cove surrounded by his family. He had recently been diagnosed with primary liver cancer and had fought hard to try to overcome that horrible disease.
He was born in Charlottesville, Va., on March 21, 1947 and grew up in Richmond. He summered on Martha's Vineyard at East Chop, where he learned to swim and sail - water sports were always his favorite. He just this past summer incorporated his family business, Hill Seaton Company Inc., and bought Island Water Sports. He and his wife, Alice, operated this boat rental business on Martha's Vineyard and had the best summer ever.
Hill's two passions were his family and sailing. He had many good friends and it was heartwarming to see and hear from so many friends recently.
Hill is survived by his wife, Alice Cashon; his three children, Mary Leigh Seaton-Jones, Hillary Seaton and Robert Seaton 3rd; three grandchildren, Kaitlyn Seaton and Myles and Haleigh Jones; his mother, Shirley Strange Seaton; two aunts and several cousins. His father, Robert H.C. Seaton Sr., predeceased him.
The family requests any donations to may made in his honor to Hospice of MV. P.O. Box 2549, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557 or to the American Cancer Society, 720 Main St., Hyannis, MA 02601.
There was a memorial, A Salute to a Sailor, at his home earlier and another memorial service celebrating his life will be scheduled for later spring or early summer this year. Arrangements were by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs.
Clifton Burt, 96
Grew Up on Farm in West Tisbury
Clifton H. Burt, 96, died at home in Tempe, Ariz., on Saturday, March 2. Born in West Tisbury on Oct. 25, 1905, Clifton was the second eldest son and last surviving child of Otis and Henrietta Burt.
He was raised on a farm, which contributed to his continuing love of the outdoors and active lifestyle. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1927 and in 1970 retired from Congoleum Nairn, then in Kearny, N.J., after 41 years. Sixty years ago in East Orange, N.J., he married
his beloved wife, Ruth Elizabeth, who survives him. He is also survived by his three sons, Donald, of Tempe; David, of Baltimore; and William, of Toronto, and by four grandchildren: Jenny, Clifton J., Stephen and Geoffrey.
He and his family lived for 54 years in the same house in Millburn, N.J. He was a member of Wyoming Presbyterian Church there for more than 50 years, where he served as a deacon and ruling elder. When his boys were young, he also acted as Cubmaster in the Boy Scouts.
When their son Donald moved to Tempe to teach at Arizona State University, Clifton and Ruth started spending winters in Tempe, and finally moved there full-time in 1997. Clifton was active in the Looney Tuners Kitchen Band, a volunteer group associated with the Pyle Adult Recreation Center. He also was a cast member in several of their spring plays.
He was a member of University Presbyterian Church, where a memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 9, at 1:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to University Presbyterian Church, 139 E. Alameda Dr., Tempe, AZ 85282.
Rabbi David H. Wice, 94
Was Counselor, Activist
Rabbi David H. Wice, 94, died on Saturday, Feb. 16, at his Rittenhouse Square apartment in Philadelphia.
Born in 1908 in Petersburg, Va., he was the fourth of six children of Russian immigrants Rose and Henry Wice. He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington and Lee University at age 19, and received a master's degree in history the next year. He was ordained as a rabbi in 1933 after finishing his studies at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. Temple Israel in Omaha, Neb., was his first congregation. From 1941 to 1947 he led Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in Newark, N.J.
Rabbi Wice moved to Philadelphia in 1947 to become Senior Rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Shalom. In 1981 he became Rabbi Emeritus.
After World War II, Rabbi Wice met in London with Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck, Lady Lily H. Montagu and others to organize efforts to rebuild world Judaism. He served as American director of Reform Judaism's organizing institution, the World Union for Progressive Judaism, from 1945 to 1955, as a member of the executive board from 1955, and as world president from 1973 to 1980, when he moved the headquarters from New York to Jerusalem.
The rabbi was a fixture in Menemsha, where he spent every summer from 1942 to 1997 and was an umpire at the up-Island Sunday morning softball game. The Rabbi Wice strike zone - waist to ears - is permanent Vineyard legend.
Rabbi Wice was also known for his wedding ceremonies. He performed 2,147 weddings, all committed to memory and hand-listed in a small black notebook. The first wedding was in January of 1934 in Omaha, Neb.; the last was in November 1996. His granddaughter, Deborah, was number 2,144.
Rabbi Wice was an honorary life director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. He was the founding president of the Jewish Chaplaincy Service and a past president of the Philadelphia Board of Rabbis. He was also national president of the Family Service of America (1965-1967) and served in the White House Conference on Children in 1970 and the White House Conference on Aging in 1980. He sat on the executive board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and on the Board of Governors and National Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. In Philadelphia he was a board member of the American Jewish Committee, the Family Service of Philadelphia, the National Conference of Christians and Jews of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Gratz College.
Rabbi Wice was an early Zionist, an early advocate of family planning (working with Emily Mudd on Marriage Council) and an early advocate for interracial justice and civil rights. In the 1960s he often exchanged pulpits with the Rev. William Gray Sr. of the Bright Hope Baptist Church.
Rabbi Wice's life spanned the 20th century, from boyhood chess games with a Confederate veteran to Depression-era Omaha, the Holocaust and its aftermath, the birth of Israel and the complexities of interfaith and intermarriage. This work never took him far from counseling families, making birthday and anniversary calls (another hand-written black book) and otherwise ministering to his congregation.
He was married
to Sophie Salzer Wice, who died in 1987. He is survived by their daughter, Carol Gross, their son, David Wice, five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
