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Anthony K. Van Riper
Was Teacher, Veteran
Anthony K. Van Riper, a longtime Vineyard visitor and resident, died at his Vineyard Haven home on June 26. He was 74.
Mr. Van Riper's life was intertwined with that of the Vineyard for seven decades. The only child of Charles King and Helen Dorothy (Ordway) Van Riper, he first came to the Island as a summer visitor in 1933. His family later moved to Vineyard Haven year-round, when his father opened the Van Riper ship model shop on Beach Road. After attending preparatory school in New Hampshire, serving in the Pacific during World War II and earning a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Arizona, Mr. Van Riper moved to the Island full time in the mid-1950s. He left in 1957 to pursue a master's degree and a teaching career in Boston but returned for every summer and most school vacations. He retired to the Vineyard with his beloved wife Jan in the summer of 1981, and, though they traveled widely together, they always considered the Island their home.
Teaching was the heart of Mr. Van Riper's professional life. He taught grades seven, eight and nine at the Tisbury School, and later courses in English literature and composition at Emerson College, Newton Junior College and The Nathan Mayhew Seminars. He also loved to teach informally, as a youth baseball coach, a Boy Scout leader and an adult sailing instructor.
A fluid and versatile writer, Mr. Van Riper published newspaper stories, magazine articles, short stories and poems. Many of the latter were collected in Velvet Tides (1964) and Widow's Walk (1991). He delighted friends and family with his ability to produce clever, fitting poems for special occasions. He also loved the stage and served as writer, director or performer in amateur productions ranging from the Calamities of 1947 musical revue to Island Theatre Workshop's 1991 production of The Madwoman of Chaillot.
Mr. Van Riper was a Renaissance man, and his interests reflected it. He was an accomplished sailor of both one-design and cruising boats, especially his emerald green Vineyard Fifteen, Tyche. He served the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club for 25 years in a variety of offices, including that of commodore from 1979 to 1981. He was a dedicated golfer and bridge player and a skilled amateur pianist who often performed 1930s and forties standards at parties. After retirement, he immersed himself in the study of prehistoric archaeology, local history and genealogy -- interests that made him, for 20 years, a leading member of the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society. He traveled throughout Europe and North America and -- when at home on the shores of Vineyard Haven Harbor -- enjoyed books, music and the company of his family.
He is survived by two sons from his first marriage, Charles K. Van Riper II and Christopher G. Van Riper. He also is survived by his wife of 41 years, Janice Patricia (Riley) Van Riper; his son, Anthony Bowdoin Van Riper; his step-grandson, Josef Mundt, and his granddaughter Katharine Van Riper. He lives on in their memories and in the memories of countless friends on and off-Island.
A memorial service for Mr. Van Riper will be held at 11 a.m. on July 11 at the First Congregational Church in West Tisbury. His ashes will be scattered on Vineyard Sound. In lieu of flowers, donations in his name may be made to the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society, Box 827, Edgartown, MA 02539.
Editha Woods
A memorial service for Editha (Teddy) Woods will be held on Saturday, June 22, at Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven with the Rev. Donnel O'Flynn officiating.
Mrs. Woods died March 30 after a brief illness. She was the widow of the late H. Arthur Woods and the late Lloyd A. Trewhella.
Memorial contributions may be made to Wayside Hospice, 266 Cochituate Road, Wayland, MA 01778 or to Martha's Vineyard Hospital, Box 1477, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.
Mel Dunayer, 74, Was Veteran of World War
Mel Dunayer, 74, of Edgartown died unexpectedly at the New England Medical Center in Boston on Sunday, June 9. A retired World War II Navy Air Corps veteran, he was born July 19, 1924, and raised in the Bronx, N.Y. As a senior at the Dewitt Clinton High School, he enlisted in the US Navy following the attack on Pearl Harbor, and served in the South Pacific.
Mr. Dunayer had an eclectic career ranging from an AAA driving instructor, an insurance broker and a charter fishing captain to owner of the Edgartown Paint Store since 1985. Aside from his work history, he was a proverbial storyteller who made everyone smile.
Moving to the Island in 1975 from New York city, Mr. Dunayer found his home. He embraced his new life with enthusiasm and love. He was a popular member of the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School hockey parents' club, the high school touchdown booster club and the Pink Squid Yacht Club in Edgartown. He was a great fundraiser and asset to these organizations.
He leaves his wife, Joan (McLaughlin) Dunayer of 23 years; his three children, Philip Dunayer of Mobile, Ala., Kathy Jo Dunayer of Israel and Steven Dunayer of Boston; three step-children, Kathleen Dougherty of New York city, Kara Dougherty of Vineyard Haven and Patrick Dougherty of Weymouth; a granddaughter, Lucie Dougherty-Soares, and a sister, Marilyn Chuck of California.
A graveside service will be held Friday, June 14, at 2:30 p.m. at the Massachusetts National cemetery in Bourne. A remembrance gathering will be held at the Wharf restaurant in Edgartown on Sunday, June 16, starting at 1 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations in Mel's memory may be made to either the Martha's Vineyard Arena, the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School Touchdown Booster Club or to the Pink Squid Yacht Club Scholarship Fund. Arrangements are by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs.
George S. Frye
George St. Claire (Butch) Frye died of heart failure on Feb. 26. He would have been 64 years old on Oct. 23, 2002. Family and friends will have an informal tree planting service at 2 p.m. on Monday, June 17, at the graveside of his parents, Alma and Samuel Frye, at the Oak Grove cemetery in Oak Bluffs.
Cecilia Osborne, 92
Was Known for Musical Gifts
Cecilia Osborne of Mariner's Way in Edgartown died Friday, June 14, at Windemere Nursing Home. She was 92.
Mrs. Osborne was born on Oct. 26, 1909 in Baltimore, Md., one of 10 children of Mathias Wloch and Bernice Bardzikowska. Her father served as a desk sergeant on the Chicago police force and as a detective for the B&O Railroad, while teaching English to German and Polish immigrants in the evenings. He later worked for Ocean Spray in Massachusetts.
Mrs. Osborne grew up in Mansfield and worked as a jewelry solderer and as a seamstress in the Boston and Worcester areas. Her hobby was creating music by singing and playing the piano. In 1934, she married
Everett Osborne, an employee of the Massachusetts Metropolitan District Commission. After the death of her husband in 1982, she lived with her daughter in Rockville, Md., and then accompanied her to Edgartown in 1994.
Mrs. Osborne's Island legacy extends further with her husband's great-grandfathers. One was Edgar Marchant, founder of the Vineyard Gazette, and the other was Abraham Osborn Sr., an Edgartown whaling captain and owner of whaling ships.
She leaves as survivors her daughter, C. Marie Thompson and her son in law, Dr. Donald Thompson and a grandson, Perry Thompson, all of Edgartown and Rockville, Md.; a brother, Louis Wloch of Spencer, and a sister, Irene Serwa of Baltimore, Md. She also leaves many nieces and nephews.
Her funeral mass was held in St. Elizabeth's Church, Edgartown on Monday, June 17, 2002. The gifts to the altar were presented by Dr. and Mrs. Paul Lock. Interment in the New Westside cemetery, Edgartown, was followed by a luncheon at the Farm Neck Golf Club. Arrangements were by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs.
Nancy T. Sommers, 85
Was Artist, Proud Liberal
Nancy Trenholm Sommers died at Pennswood Village in Newton, Pa., on March 16. Born in St. Paul, Minn., on March 7, 1917, she lived 36 years in Princeton, N.J., and summered from 1956 to 1999 on Martha's Vineyard. She also lived in Boston, Los Alamos, N.M., Zurich, Switzerland, and Jerusalem, Israel.
She was an artist and patron of the arts, and a writer, poet and great conversationalist with a keen sense of humor. She read extensively and sustained lifelong interests in 18th-century American antiques, architecture, philosophy and psychiatry. Nancy was a social person and maintained contact with a wide circle of friends throughout her life.
She enjoyed the pageant of the changing seasons and the passage of light from dawn to dusk. She took delight in babies, kittens, bunnies and the greening of the earth after a long winter. The view from the deck of her summer home in Menemsha was always a source of delight.
An active member of the Unitarian Church, Nancy prided herself on being liberal. She was a romantic and a cynic, proud and humble, hopeful and cautionary, talented and constantly striving to improve.
She is survived by her husband of 64 years, Henry Stern Sommers; four children, Ann Harrington of Salem, Ore.; Craig Sommers of San Francisco, Calif.; Heather Sussman and her husband, Edward, of Chilmark, and Hank Sommers and his wife, Susan, of Madison, Wis.; three grandchildren, Lila Steere and her husband, Lee; Jody Sussman and Dillon Sussman, and three great-grandchildren, Landon, Rowan and Nevia Steere.
A memorial service will be held at Pennswood Village on April 18 at 1:30 p.m.
Bettie Bernard, Age 63
Was a Nursing Assistant
Bettie J. Bernard, 63, of Tisbury died on March 26 at Martha's Vineyard Hospital. She was the widow of James Robert Bernard, who died Dec. 9, 1997.
Born in Durham, N.C., on July 25, 1939, she was a daughter of the late Asa and Hannah (Newlander) Leonard.
Mrs. Bernard was employed as a certified nursing assistant at Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Oak Bluffs for the past 23 and a half years. She received her nursing education at Martha's Vineyard Hospital.
She resided in West Palm Beach, Fla., prior to moving to Wise, N.C., and then to the Vineyard 23 and a half years ago.
Mrs. Bernard enjoyed collecting angel memorabilia, spending time with and spoiling her grandchildren and attending yard sales.
She leaves a daughter, Deana Louise Keniston of Tisbury; a sister, Elenor Smith of Wise, N.C.; two brothers, Dwight Leonard of Wise and Leonard T. Leonard of Galloway, Ohio; two grandchildren, Asa and Atticus Bernard of Tisbury, and several nieces and nephews.
Relatives and friends will be invited to attend a memorial service to be held on a date and time to be announced.
Arrangements are under the direction of the Dyer-Lake Funeral Home in North Attleboro.
Anthony C. Shabica, 87
Was Renowned Chemist
Dr. Anthony Charles Shabica, of Oak Bluffs and Destin, Fla., died Tuesday, April 15, 2003. He was 87.
Chairman of the New Jersey Council for Research and Development he was instrumental in the creation of the $68 million Liberty Science Center of New Jersey, the state's first hands-on museum. As chairman, he provided leadership in industry/government cooperation in the fields of energy and environmental matters.
Born in Meadville, Penn., he is a graduate of Brown University, and earned his masters and doctorate from Pennsylvania State University in Chemistry. After graduation he worked for Merck and Co. for four years as a senior chemist. He joined CIBA Pharmaceutical Company in 1946 to head their newly established Developmental Research Division. When he retired from CIBA-GEIGY in 1980 he was vice president for development and quality control. He was commander of the Sigma Nu fraternity, member of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Society, and the Brown University alumni association.
He has authored over 40 original publications including papers on the development of synthetic blood plasma undertaken during WWII. His research was also the basis for most of the steroid and corticosteroid development in the pharmaceutical industry. He has published papers on vitamins and amino acids, synthetic chemistry, risk analysis, and holds 12 patents in these fields. He is coauthor of the book, How Modern Medicines are Developed.
He was a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists, a member of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Federacion Internationale in Pharmaceutique. As Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, he has served as vice chairman and chairman of the Chemical Section. Also member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, he lectured extensively on the pharmaceutical industry. From 1981 to 1982 he was adjunct professor at the University of the Virgin Islands where he provided his services pro bono.
He was an adult leader of Boy Scout Troop 23, served on the executive board of the Orange Mountain Council, Boy Scouts of America, was instrumental in the establishment of the Boys' and Girls' Club of Martha's Vineyard, was a member of the Kiwanis Club of Fort Walton Beach, and was a member of the board of trustees of the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association. He was a Sunday school teacher and choir member at Livingston Presbyterian Church, a choir member at the First Presbyterian Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and the Methodist Tabernacle.
He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Eleanor Wright Shabica of Oak Bluffs and Destin; 3 sons, Dr. Charles Wright Shabica, Dr. Stephen Vale Cofer-Shabica, Dr. Carl Sayles Shabica, Attorney; a sister, Mary Sciabica; 11 grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
The family will place a bench overlooking Oak Bluffs harbor in his memory. Those who wish, may remember Tony through donations to the Tabernacle Restoration Fund, Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.
Jeannette S. Davies
Jeannette (Shepherd) Davies, 79, of Cape Haze, Fla., died Saturday, Feb. 22, 2003 in Medway. She was the wife of the late Ross O. Davies for 54 years.
Mrs. Davies was born in Hyannis, and attended Boston Girls Latin School before graduating from Barnstable High School. A long-time resident of Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, she retired to Florida eleven years ago after a long career in banking. She held positions at Martha's Vineyard National Bank and Cape Cod Bank and Trust Company before retiring as an officer of BankBoston (now Fleet Bank). An accomplished crossword puzzler, avid gardener and collector of shells, and inveterate reader, she also had been children's librarian at the Vineyard Haven Public Library and volunteered at the Marstons Mills Public Library. She was a member of the Federated Church of Hyannis for more than 50 years.
She is survived by her daughters Allyson Ross Davies, of Medfield, and Kathryn Davies Bruce, of Mattapoisett; a sister, Elizabeth St. Coeur Hambley, of Centerville; sons-in-law John E. Ware, Jr., and James E. Bruce; grandchildren Gretchen Bruce Siano, Matthew Ross Bruce, and Katharine Davies Ware; great-grand daughters Alexandria Bruce Paine and Kyra Jane Siano; two nieces, and three nephews.
A private memorial service will be held at a later date. The family suggests donations to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 102454, Atlanta, GA 30368-2454 or at 1-800-ACS-2345, or to the memorial book fund being established in Mrs. Davies' name at the Marstons Mills Public Library, 2160 Main street, Marstons Mills, MA 02648.
Robert James Kelly
Was Avid Fisherman, Hunter
Robert James Kelly, 65, of West Newbury died Thursday, April 3, 2003 at home following a lengthy battle with lung cancer. He was surrounded by family and friends. An Irish wake promptly followed.
Bob Kelly was a resident of West Newbury for 40 years. He grew up in Haverhill, graduating from Haverhill High School in 1956. He received his associates degree from Merrimack College in 1965.
He founded and owned New England Precast Corp. in Amesbury until his retirement in 1999.
Bob was an avid fisherman and hunter. He recently traveled to the Everglades of Florida to hunt with his friends. He traveled extensively doing the things he loved. He was a member of the Boston Flycasters, Ducks Unlimited, Martha's Vineyard Rod and Gun Club, the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association and Haverhill Country Club. He was a proud father and grandfather and enjoyed working on his Christmas tree farm.
He leaves his wife, Patricia A. (Travers) Kelly; three daughters, Kathryn M. Johnson and her husband, Joseph, of Portsmouth, Kimberly M. Wiggin and her husband, Daniel, of Monument Beach, Andrea Kelly of Celebration, Fla., and one son, Robert C. Kelly of Greenland, N.H. He is also survived by five grandchildren, Chelsea Kelly of Greenville, R.I., Kelly and Christopher Johnson of Portsmouth, N.H., and MacKenzie and Michael Wiggin of Monument Beach. He also leaves a sister, Patricia Ruth of Haverhill, and a brother, John Kelly of North Carolina.
A memorial mass will be held on Saturday, April 12, at 1 p.m. at St. Ann's Church, Main street, West Newbury.
In lieu of flowers donations may be sent to Campership Fund c/o Clara Barton Camp for Diabetes, P.O. Box 356, North Oxford, MA 01537 or Merrimack Valley Hospice, 360 Merrimack street, Lawrence, MA 01843.
Arrangements are by Simplicity Burial & Cremation Services in Newburyport.
Charles G. Phillips Jr.
Charles G. Phillips Jr. died on Jan. 22 at his winter home in Palm Coast, Fla., after a lengthy illness. A summer resident of Tisbury, he was born in Cambridge on Sept. 8, 1928.
He is survived by his wife, Alice O'Connor Phillips; his daughter, Elaine S. Phillips; a son, Charles G. Phillips 3rd, and a grandson, Ian Samuel Phillips.
A memorial service for his Island friends and family will be held at a date to be announced this summer.
Harold Rogers
Harold Dickson Rogers, whose family name is woven through centuries of Island history and whose weathered face had become a part of the landscape he helped to shape with bucket loaders, tractors and his own strong hands, died on Saturday at the New England Medical Center in Boston. Mr. Rogers had been battling Parkinson's Disease and cancer for some years. He was 88.
He was born on St. Patrick's Day, 1912, at Meadowbrook Farm, which sprawls on either side on the Indian Hill Road in West Tisbury, embraced by woods and sheltered by the up-rolling North Shore hills. The weathered-shingle farmhouse was built in 1752; Mr. Rogers would live there all his life.
His father, William T. Rogers, was a seventh generation Islander who could trace his Vineyard ancestry back to the mid-1600s. His mother was Ethna Baird, who was born on Nova Scotia and grew up on the Vineyard from an early age. Mr. Rogers was an only child. He was born prematurely. By his own account, he weighed two pounds, 14 ounces at birth, and family lore had it, perhaps facetiously, that his first cradle was a shoe box. He would always be small of stature, but hard outdoor labor began early, and Mr. Rogers developed into a compact and muscular bulldog of a man who could wrestle stone into place and wield an ax, scythe or shovel by the hour.
His father earned a meager living as a farmer, carpenter and repairer of clocks, a skill he'd taught himself. He was known universally as "Tinker Bell" for his mechanical know-how, his curiosity and pleasure in tinkering. His ability and instinct, as well as a vast knowledge, was passed down to his son. Mr. Rogers was once asked how old he was when he was first able to take apart and reassemble a combustion engine; about five, he said.
He attended the Locust Grove School, a one-room schoolhouse a short walk up the Indian Hill Road, where today, beneath the belltower and bell that called him to school, his two granddaughters and great-grandson live. His father's health began to fail in the early 1920s —William Rogers had been born in 1862 — and after eight years of schooling, Mr. Rogers dropped out and went to work to help put food on the table. He was 14 years old and weighed 75 pounds.
It's hard, today, to conceive of how hard and unremittingly Harold Rogers, and others of his era, worked. As a teenager he routinely cut a cord of wood in a day with an ax and crosscut saw, and delivered it in an ox cart by sundown. For many years, he worked for the corporation of Seven Gates Farm, which abuts Meadowbrook Farm to the west, cording wood, repairing the roads, cutting brush, mowing hayfields, hammering nails, all for 50 cents an hour. He remembered digging cesspools and walling them with fieldstone.
He worked also for the West Tisbury highway department, clearing roadside brush with a scythe, knocking down trees, grading the dirt roads. He loaded sand and dirt on a dump truck with a shovel.
He worked for the Daggetts, Obed and Maria, residents of the ancient homestead high on the bluff at Cedar Tree Neck. The Daggetts rented out oceanside cottages in the summertime. In 1934, a pretty 18-year-old from Westport came to work for the season as a chambermaid. A year later, Mr. Rogers and Elizabeth Perry were married
. They had two children, Gertrude Mae and Harold Dixon, born in 1936 and 1940. Gertrude Rogers Cournoyer, who was called Trudi, raised her two daughters, Molly and Rebecca, in the renovated Locust Grove School. She died of cancer in 1985.
Mr. Rogers and Elizabeth Perry Rogers were divorced in 1968, and in 1970 Mr. Rogers married
Marjorie Manter of West Tisbury, member of another old Island family. Mrs. Rogers had grown up on a farm, and she settled quickly and happily into the rhythms of Meadowbrook. In haying season the two worked together, inseparable through the long days of mowing, raking and baling. In 1947 Ellsworth Norton, the West Tisbury highway surveyor, resigned, and Mr. Rogers was appointed to serve out his term. He held the position for 27 years. The town owned one snowplow, and it was up to Harold Rogers alone to open the roads after a blizzard. He remembered working 26 hours straight after one heavy storm. After another he plowed for 13 days, as the wind kept reburying the roads.
"Already fatigued from working 12 hours a day clearing state highways of snow," The Gazette reported in 1942, "Harold D. Rogers had a grueling experience when his truck was stuck in a drift on a sub-zero night, at Death Curve, near Whiting farm. Making his way on foot toward home, half frozen, he stopped briefly to seek warmth from the biting wind in another stalled car, and then forged ahead, reaching the home of Mrs. Nellie G. Vincent of Middletown close to midnight. Fortified with some hot coffee, he managed to make the rest of the long walk home before he was completely congealed."
There was always other work to do, always jobs on the side. For a while Mr. Rogers earned money as an auto mechanic, working out of the barn at Meadowbrook Farm. Alone, he moved the house called Windsong back from the edge of the eroding bluff above Vineyard Sound east of Cedar Tree Neck and installed it on a new foundation. He built what is now the Everett house on the Indian Hill Road, and renovated what is now the Ferro house on State Road in West Tisbury. He installed electricity and plumbing in his own house, and dug a cellar, much of it by hand, and put in a furnace. He built a sun room at the back of the house, with a fireplace and flagstone floor. It was Mr. Rogers who built the retaining wall at the top of the Indian Hill Road.
Mr. Rogers was one of three founders of the West Tisbury Fire Department in the years after World War II. He was an assistant fire chief and a member of the Dukes County Fire Chiefs Association. In 1992, when West Tisbury celebrated its centennial, Mr. Rogers was named grand marshal for the parade and rode at the head in an open car.
Mr. Rogers retired as highway surveyor in 1975, but the hard work wasn't yet all behind him. For many years he mowed fields and cut hay, and in winter he plowed private dirt roads, attaching a plow to his little Ford tractor. As a favor he would fell a tree for a neighbor, pull a car out of a snowdrift, bring bales of hay to insulate a leaky foundation. He gave up mowing and plowing by degrees, spending more and more time in a snug room with his feet up, usually with a cat snoozing in his lap. Mr. Rogers was a man of few words, but he had a keen memory and could tell a good story when prompted. Beneath the flinty exterior there lurked a sly sense of humor, and a deep loyalty to his friends. For all his crustiness, he was comfortable in the changing world, and had a grudging tolerance of its excesses. He took great pleasures in calling on friends, and receiving them in the cluttered and comfortable sun room, sharing tea or the occasional cocktail. He looked back on his hard early years without regret or self-pity, but with — perhaps — a touch of pride.
Mr. Rogers is survived by his wife and son, his granddaughters, and his great-grandson, Connor William Bettencourt. A graveside service will be held at noon today at the West Tisbury cemetery. In lieu of flowers the family has asked that donations be sent in Mr. Rogers' name to the Visiting Nurses Association, P.O. Box 2568, Oak Bluffs; Tri-town Ambulance Benevolent Association, P.O. Box 3409, Chilmark; or the West Tisbury Fireman's Association, P.O. Box 211, West Tisbury.
