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Richard A. Colson, 43
Was Contractor and Pilot
Richard A. Colson of Edgartown, 43, died on Tuesday, Nov. 12, when the plane he was piloting went down off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
Mr. Colson was born in Saugus on Nov. 26, 1958. He grew up in Lynn and spent his summers in Naples, Me. He attended Lynn Tech, where he studied carpentry.
He worked with his lifelong friend, Primo Lombardi, at Papa John's in Swampscott before coming to the Island in 1978 to work for Primo and with lifelong friends Johnny Teves and Eric Gaudette at Papa John's in Oak Bluffs. In the early 1980s, he began working with lifelong friend Michael Brandon at the Brass Bass Restaurant.
Between 1978 and 1982, Mr. Colson found his calling in the construction business. By the early 1990s he was an accomplished carpenter and started his own contracting and design business, Vineyard Builders Associates. He went on to build magnificent homes that reflected his own style, passion and ambition.
He was an experienced pilot and a member of the Martha's Vineyard airport commission and the Martha's Vineyard Rod and Gun Club.
Mr. Colson had a deep passion for the art of singing and songwriting. He brought pleasure to many people with the sound of his voice and his fingers strumming an acoustic guitar. He loved to cook and entertain his family and friends. His annual Labor Day parties will long be remembered by everyone who knew him. This tradition will be continued every year in his memory by family and friends at the dream house he designed and built for himself.
He is survived by his two children, Katelin Rose, 13, of South Carolina and Nathan, 25, of Linn; his parents, Janice Colson of Windemere Rehabilitation Center in Oak Bluffs and Richard Colson of Revere; two sisters, Debrajean Bissonette of Auburn, Me., and Rose Gaudet of San Diego, Calif.; two nieces and three nephews, all of Maine; the godfather of Katelin Rose and lifelong friend, Larry DeFilippo, and many loving friends.
A memorial service will be held at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown at 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 29. His family has requested that any donations be made in memory of Rick Colson and Robert Buchanan to the MV Harley Riders.
Dr. Gregory Carter, 80
Was Beloved Physician
Dr. Gregory P. Carter died on Jan. 29 at the age of 80 after a long illness.
Born and raised in Providence, R.I., Dr. Carter first came to Newport News, Va., "on the bus in 1948," as he loved to tell people. He served as school physician for Hampton Institute until he was called to serve in the Medical Corps during the Korean War in 1952. Upon his return from his tour of duty, he was stationed for a time at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino, Calif., where he was chief of surgical services for the base hospital.
After military service, Dr. Carter returned to the East End of Newport News, where he lived and practiced family medicine until 2002. During an era when the medical field became increasingly specialized and impersonal, Dr. Carter never failed to state that he "specialized in diseases of men, women and children."
He was a graduate of Meharry medical School as well as Providence College. Dr. Carter was recently honored by Providence College as one of the school's earliest African-American graduates. He was a lifetime member of the NAACP, a brother of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, a founding member of the Boston chapter of the Guardsmen and a cherished elder in the HM Club.
Dr. Carter served on the national board of the Family Service Association, as well as the board of the Norfolk State School of Social Work. Early in his career, he served for a time as school physician at the Virginia School for the Deaf, Blind and Multi-Disabled.
For many years, he was a physician for the International Longshoremen's Association. In this capacity, he was once part of a small group that traveled to Rome and was received in private audience by the Pope.
Other travels throughout his lifetime took Dr. Carter to Brazil, Ireland and Japan, but a constant destination, since boyhood, was always Martha's Vineyard.
Dr. Carter was predeceased by his parents, Dr. and Mrs. Ulysses T. (Susan) Carter; a sister, Margaret Hough, and a niece, Tina Fox. He is survived by his devoted wife, Gloria F. Carter, and a daughter, Patricia. Also surviving him are a brother, Dr. Ulysses T. Carter Jr. and his wife, Barbara June; a brother in law, Dr. Paul Hough; two nieces, three nephews, five great-nieces and two great-nephews. He also leaves a host of close friends, colleagues and patients -- all of them dear to his heart -- to whom he will be forever remembered as Doc, Uncle Greg or just plain Greg.
Funeral services were held at the Carver Memorial Presbyterian Church in Newport News on Monday, Feb. 3. Interment was at the Oak Bluffs cemetery at noon on Thursday, Feb. 6. Island arrangements were by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home.
Paul and Elsie Haber
Were Tisbury Residents
The Gazette this week received news of the death of Paul Haber on Dec. 13, 2002, and of his wife, Elsie Haber, on Jan. 27. Both were longtime residents of Vineyard Haven.
Mr. and Mrs. Haber started visiting the Vineyard in the 1930s, sometimes sailing from New York in a small catboat with a tarp thrown over the boom for shelter. In those earlie days Elsie and Paul were also well-known on the tennis circuit. In the 1940s and 1950s, they often visited the Island with their daughters, Ann and Jane, renting a variety of homes.
Being high school teachers in New York city, the Habers had time to enjoy Island summers fully. Their activities circled around sailing, tennis and music. Finally, in the 1960s, they bought their own home in Vineyard Haven and retired. They could often be found out in Vineyard Sound in their Boston Whaler, reeling in fluke after fluke. They loved being on the water and made such a study of fishing that they excelled at it. They could also be seen driving around town in their Sout, the Nut Hatch. Their skills and interests included vegetable gardening, which they did with a passion equal to fishing. They often shared their bounty of vegetables and fish with friends and neighbors.
Mr. Haber's death followed a lengthy illness. Mrs. Haber, vigorous until her death, had been planning to go to an Elderhostel program in the spring and to take an Alaskan cruise in the fall.
In addition to their two daughters, Ann and Jane, they are survived by three grandchildren, Mark, Lisa and Jeffrey.
Frederick Williams
Was Active in His Community
News this week of the recent death of Frederick H. Williams of Parkville, Md., after a year's battle with cancer.
Mr. Williams was born in New York city on June 29, 1915. He attended schools in New York through college before entering the business world.
His career in the New York city public schools spanned more than 30 years, and his first position was that of assistant to the president of the board of education. His business career was interrupted for six years by military service as a lieutenant in the United States Air Corps, after which he returned to the board of education.
Mr. Williams received many honors and awards for his work as an administrator, educator and humanitarian. He ended his career as executive director of the office of personnel for the New York city school system. Many praised him for his ability to lead with humility, strength and compassion.
After retirement, he and his wife, Doris, moved to Martha's Vineyard, where he continued to serve on town boards, was vice president of the Martha's Vineyard Hospital, served on the board of the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society, was deacon of his church, worked with the Oak Bluffs Council on Aging and volunteered with Meals on Wheels.
Some four years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Williams moved to Oak Crest Village in Parkville, where he continued to satisfy his passion for bridge, joined the computer group and enjoyed the lively dialogue in the current issues class. He enjoyed playing golf and watching football, baseball and basketball. A sensitive and caring man with a great sense of humor, he lived a full life.
He is survived by three children, Gregory Stephen, Gary Phillip and Marilyn Jean, each of whom he was very proud of and loved dearly.
A memorial service will be held on the Vineyard this spring at a date to be announced. Donations in his memory may be made to the Martha's Vineyard Hospital development office, P.O. Box 1477, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557; to the United Negro College Fund, 1444 I street NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005.
Antone A. King, 77
Was Veteran of World War II
Antone A. (Tony) King Jr. of Vineyard Haven died Feb. 4 at his Hillside Village home. He was born in Vineyard Haven on Jan. 23, 1925, son of the late Antone and Jessie Jesus (Goveia) King. He resided here until moving to Florida in 1970, revisiting the Vineyard during summers. Tony recently moved back to the Island and resided at Hillside Village.
Tony was an Army veteran of World War II, honorably discharged in 1946. He was a member of the VFW Post 9261, the American Legion and the Holy Ghost Association (PA Club), where he enjoyed visiting with friends and viewing sports, his passion, particularly football.
By profession, Tony was a barber in Vineyard Haven and Florida; also a bartender in Oak Bluffs and Florida, where he and Betty, his wife worked many years at the Jupiter Club. As a member of a musically talented family, he was blessed with the ability of a musician of numerous instruments and a rich singing voice. The King family will be remembered for sharing their gift by visiting friends and neighbors at Christmas, entertaining them with Portuguese hymns and carols.
He is survived by a daughter, Jo A. King, and her husband, Paul Smith, of Sinclair, Me.; his former wife, Jane S. King of Fort Kent, Me., and his stepson, Edward D. Chase, and family of Wendell. Tony is also survived by his sisters, Mary Ann Alwardt, Gloria Sylvia and her husband Buddy, and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his wife, Betty (Bruce) King, who died in 1987; also by his parents; a sister, Flora Silvia, and three brothers Louis, Arthur and Joseph King.
Funeral services for Tony will be held at a later date at a time and place to be announced.
Memorial donations may be made to Vineyard Nursing Association, P.O. Box 2568, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557, from which Tony has received compassionate care. Arrangements are by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs.
Whitney Blake, 76
Was Actress and Filmmaker
Whitney Blake died in her home on the Edgartown Great Pond at the age of 76 in the early hours of Sept. 28. At the time of her passing she was attended by the Hospice of Martha's Vineyard and in the presence of family members.
Ms. Blake enjoyed a long and varied career as an actress, television host of talk shows and filmmaker.
She was a staple of the "golden age" of television, guest-starring on all of the premiere shows of that era including Playhouse 90, Bonanza, Route 66 and others. She starred on the initial episode of Perry Mason and was the first performer to repeat starring roles on that show, once as a "black-eyed blonde" and later as a "restless redhead," and she enjoyed the same status on Maverick. Ms. Blake was perhaps most known for co-starring with Shirley Booth in the hit situation comedy Hazel.
Her career as a performer began on the stage, her arena of choice, at the noted Pasadena Playhouse, and whenever she had a hiatus in film work she would return to that and other stages around the country, playing roles as varied as Ophelia to John Carradine's Hamlet and a gay divorcee in Chin Chin. Her film work included starring in the first Mickey Spillane novel to be translated to the screen and as the wife of Jack Webb in :30 and opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in The Betsy. Her peers demonstrated their respect for the quality of her work by electing her as member of the board of directors of Women In Film.
When TV and film work became less abundant, and less attractive to her, she charted her own turn in the road and for a year co-hosted a talk show on the Los Angeles flagship station of CBS. Following that she reinvented herself again, this time as the writer, director and producer of an award-winning documentary about a California teacher and his "dropout" students. The film, Reno's Kids, 87 days plus 11, honored at the Mill Valley Film Festival, the Chicago Film Festival and the recipient of a Cine award, has been seen in theaters and on TV in more than a dozen countries. Following the success of that venture she showed even further versatility by co-creating the long-running situation comedy One Day At A Time with her husband, writer and producer Allan Manings.
Throughout her adult years, Ms. Blake was an activist for civil rights as a speaker for the A.C.L.U. and open housing. The role of women in our society was vital to her, and she devoted her energies in the causes of equal rights and a women's right to choice. She was unstinting in her willingness to travel far for political candidates who worked to make those beliefs a reality.
Nothing in her life was more important to Ms. Blake than family and friends, but music figured strongly as well. On the Vineyard she sang with the community chorus and the choir of the First Congregational Church in West Tisbury as well as playing recorder with small groups here. Her love of music went with her to her off-Island home in Malibu, Calif., where she sang in the choir of St. Aiden's Episcopal church and was a member of the Westside Ancient Music Group.
Mr. Blake first came to the Island in the wake of Hurricane Bob, and although she did not see the Vineyard at its best, she was immediately taken by the beauty and serenity of the Island and almost at once instituted a search for a site to make a place for her family. This culminated in the building of a home on the pond in Edgartown that has been a haven for her, her husband and their family.
Whitney Blake was born in Eagle Rock, Calif., the oldest offspring of Martha Mae Wilkerson and Harry Whitney. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Harry. Although in her early years her family moved around the country extensively, she attended 16 schools in as many different cities before her high school years, Whitney considered herself a Californian. She completed her education at Pasadena City College.
She is survived by her husband, Allan; three children, Richard of Beverly Hills, Calif., Brian of Minneapolis, Minn., and Meredith of Santa Monica, Calif.; nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
The family suggests that any donations in Whitney's name be made to the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust or the Vineyard Conservation Society.
Richard A. Colson, 43
Was Contractor and Pilot
Richard A. Colson of Edgartown, 43, died on Tuesday, Nov. 12, when the plane he was piloting went down off the coast of Martha's Vineyard.
Mr. Colson was born in Saugus on Nov. 26, 1958. He grew up in Lynn and spent his summers in Naples, Me. He attended Lynn Tech, where he studied carpentry.
He worked with his lifelong friend, Primo Lombardi, at Papa John's in Swampscott before coming to the Island in 1978 to work for Primo and with lifelong friends Johnny Teves and Eric Gaudette at Papa John's in Oak Bluffs. In the early 1980s, he began working with lifelong friend Michael Brandon at the Brass Bass Restaurant.
Between 1978 and 1982, Mr. Colson found his calling in the construction business. By the early 1990s he was an accomplished carpenter and started his own contracting and design business, Vineyard Builders Associates. He went on to build magnificent homes that reflected his own style, passion and ambition.
He was an experienced pilot and a member of the Martha's Vineyard airport commission and the Martha's Vineyard Rod and Gun Club.
Mr. Colson had a deep passion for the art of singing and songwriting. He brought pleasure to many people with the sound of his voice and his fingers strumming an acoustic guitar. He loved to cook and entertain his family and friends. His annual Labor Day parties will long be remembered by everyone who knew him. This tradition will be continued every year in his memory by family and friends at the dream house he designed and built for himself.
He is survived by his two children, Katelin Rose, 13, of South Carolina and Nathan, 25, of Linn; his parents, Janice Colson of Windemere Rehabilitation Center in Oak Bluffs and Richard Colson of Revere; two sisters, Debrajean Bissonette of Auburn, Me., and Rose Gaudet of San Diego, Calif.; two nieces and three nephews, all of Maine; the godfather of Katelin Rose and lifelong friend, Larry DeFilippo, and many loving friends.
A memorial service will be held at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown at 1 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 29. His family has requested that any donations be made in memory of Rick Colson and Robert Buchanan to the MV Harley Riders.
Ali Gaines Brown
Was Tireless Conservationist
Alice Rogers (Gaines) Brown of Edgartown, fondly known as Ali to all who had the pleasure of her acquaintance, died peacefully on Saturday, July 14, at the Windemere Nursing Center following a period of rapidly declining health. She was 71.
Ali was born on Nov. 11, 1929, in Buffalo, N.Y., the daughter of Alden and Ruth Rogers. She was an 11th-generation direct descendant of pilgrims John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, and counted numerous prominent early Americans among her ancestry. Her childhood was spent in Buffalo and Concord, where she attended Concord Academy and was graduated with the Class of 1947. She received her bachelor's degree in political science from Vassar College in 1951.
Ali was employed for several years in the administrative offices of Yale University, then arrived on the Vineyard in 1954 with the intention of spending just the summer, working at the Menemsha Inn. Here she fell in love with the Island's many charms, as well as swordfisherman Daniel Philip Gaines of Edgartown, and permanent residence followed suit. The couple was wed the next year and settled in Edgartown to raise three children, spending each summer in the remote and rustic family camp at Wasque on Chappaquiddick. There, Ali took special pleasure in the simple lifestyle, the beauty and bounty of the seaside environment and the abundant opportunities to pursue her lifelong passion for birdwatching.
A visionary and articulate advocate for the natural world, Ali was instrumental in the formulation and organization of the conservation movement on the Vineyard in the mid-1960s. As founding secretary of the Vineyard Conservation Society, and similarly of the first Edgartown conservation commission, she worked eagerly and tirelessly to promote the cause of conservation and planning long before the pressures of development came fully to bear on the Island. She was integral to the preservation of Lighthouse Beach, Katama Farm, the Wasque Reservation and numerous other far-sighted efforts to ensure the protection of natural resources and landscapes for generations to come.
Following the untimely death of her first husband in 1972, Ali entered the working world of downtown Edgartown, where her infectious good nature and unmatched integrity would become a fixture of community life for more than 25 years. She was remarried
to David N. Brown in 1976 and worked first at the Turf & Tackle Shop, then as classified ad manager at the Vineyard Gazette, and later as manager of the Ship's Store at Edgartown Marine. Her final job was as sales clerk at Edgartown Hardware, from which she retired at the end of 1998.
True to her spirit of volunteerism, Ali served on the Edgartown School Committee during the 1980s and lent her energy and talents to the Dukes County Historical Society and her perennial favorite, the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. On Sunday mornings from 10 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, countless visitors over the years were warmed by Ali's cheerful smile and obvious reverence for the natural world and all of its inhabitants.
For all who knew her, Ali Brown came to exemplify a spirit of neighborly courtesy, quiet competence and selfless devotion to family and community -- the very qualities of Vineyard life which so captured her heart and blessed the Island with her presence for the past 47 years.
She is survived by a daughter, Lynda L. Hathaway, and her companion, James LeBarre; two sons, Daniel Dana Gaines and Warren Vincent Gaines, and a daughter in law, Debra M. Gaines, all of Edgartown; a sister, Dr. Susan M. Markle of Chicago; her ex-husband, David N. Brown of Tucson; her beloved grandchildren, LuAnna H. Pinkham, Gary, Joshua, Brian and Kevin Hathaway and Cassaundra, Michaella and Daniel Philip Gaines 2nd, Vineyarders all; two stepchildren, Patricia Brown Fugee of Ohio and William Jeffrey Brown of Edgartown; a nephew, Alden Meyer of Maryland, and numerous cousins. She was predeceased by her first husband and a grandson, Timothy Joseph Hathaway.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 25, at the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home. Interment will follow at the New Westside cemetery in Edgartown. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in Ali's memory be sent to the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, P.O. Box 494, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 or Hospice of Martha's Vineyard, P.O. Box 2549, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.
Michael Wild
1941-2000
Michael Wild, a lifelong resident of the Edgartown Great Plains and whose singular spirit and legendary way of life left a lasting mark on Martha's Vineyard, died peacefully on July 31 in the Boston Medical Center at the age of 58. The cause of death was cancer.
From the pristine shores of the Edgartown Great Pond where he made his home at an old-fashioned camp named Forever Wild, to the far less pristine venue at the Edgartown landfill, where he held court on a regular basis — Mr. Wild was a familiar figure to a wide variety of Island residents. He was known for the fact that he never kept his light under a bushel.
He was a land planner and former executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Commission who cared deeply about conservation and environmental protection. He led colorful and memorable Island history tours for school children. He was a Vietnam veteran. He was the master of ceremonies at the pet show at the annual Agricultural Society fair, where he awarded only blue ribbons to children and their pets. As a side job, he made dump runs for anyone who needed them. Rattling along the Island roads in his pickup truck, also named Forever Wild, it was his habit to stop frequently, roll down the window and engage in high-decibel conversations with everyone he knew along the route.
With his unruly dishwater blond hair, his ruddy complexion and his penchant for speaking out on the issues, Mr. Wild was an Island character in the best sense of the word. His voice was articulate, cogent and worldly and he had a reservoir of altruism that was truly bottomless.
"It's so easy and quick for someone to have a spiritual, an emotional interest in the Island," he said in an interview with the Vineyard Gazette in 1982.
Michael Wild was born on Dec. 15, 1941, in New Rochelle, N.Y., the first child and only son of the late Ronold and Dorothy Wild. The Wilds made their first visit to Edgartown on a sailboat in the same year that Michael was born.
He spent childhood winters in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and summers on the family farm in the Edgartown Great Plains, where his parents worked the land. They grew potatoes and lived in a house with no electricity. During World War II his mother brought a dairy cow to the Island which she had bought at R.H. Macy's department store in New York.
He graduated from Rye Neck High School in 1960, and later attended Goddard College, Columbia University School of General Studies and also the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1967 he enlisted in the United States Navy, and spent the next three years in the service, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin on the USS Platte, an oiler, where he was a radar man and the ship's librarian.
He moved to the Vineyard permanently in 1970 after his discharge from the Navy. At that point extensive travels had taken him as far as Israel, where he had worked for a time in a kibbutz. In 1972 he took a job as the assistant to the director of the Vineyard Conservation Society. It was the beginning of a career in land planning which would span the next decade.
In 1975 he began working as a coastal planner at the newly formed Martha's Vineyard Commission. In 1976, while working at the commission, he completed his college education, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Goddard College. The title of his senior thesis was A Sense of Place: A Survey of Environmental Awareness. Much of the thesis centered on the Vineyard and the role of the unique regional planning commission in protecting special places.
In 1979 Mr. Wild became the executive director of the commission. In 1982 he resigned — not because of some seminal political event, but for simple personal reasons. In his own words, it was time to move on.
For the next 18 years, he continued to work a variety of jobs. He worked in real estate sales for a time, and he later became involved in working as a location scout for film producers. He continued to make dump runs.
He remained active in conservation work, and among other things, he was a member of the Edgartown Ponds Area Advisory Committee and the Edgartown Great Pond Foundation.
He battled tirelessly against a series of luxury home development plans for the Herring Creek Farm on the Great Plains, the same farm originally owned by his parents. Mr. Wild and his family were the target of repeated legal attacks by farm owners Neil and Monte Wallace.
At a recent public hearing on the latest development plan for the farm, Mr. Wild told a story about his experience on the Great Plains during the hurricane of 1954, when ocean waves broke across the farm fields, and he and his sister rode their bikes through the hurricane, spreading their coats with their arms to become small human kites in the wind.
He adored his family, including his daughter, Cleo Winsryg-Wild, who is a student majoring in art at Alfred University, and his step-daughters, Gia Winsryg Ulmer, who is a resident of New York city, and Nora Joan Winsryg Karasik of West Tisbury. He spoke of their accomplishments often, and with the glow that is uniquely shared between fathers and daughters.
Two weeks ago the sudden news of his illness spread around the Island like electricity and was the subject of conversation at every traditional Island gathering place — from coffee shops to town government meetings to the Edgartown landfill.
"Michael brings joy into someone else's life, and then he leaves. That is a Michael Wild attack," said Matthew Stackpole, a longtime friend.
"King of the yard sale underground," wrote Myrna Patterson in a remembrance of him this week.
Mr. Wild was especially known for his spontaneity and his humor. His visits to the office of the Vineyard Gazette inevitably took place during the deadline rush, when he would appear at the threshold of the newsroom, thrust both arms in the air and declare: "Stop the presses! I have an important story!" He was surrounded by the members of his family at the time of his death.
He is survived by his sister, Rebecca Wild Baxter of Sarasota, Fla. and Edgartown; a brother in law, Richard Baxter of Sarasota and Edgartown; two nieces, Julia and Alexandra Baxter, both of Sarasota and Edgartown; his three daughters, Cleo, Gia and Nora; his former partner, Marsha Winsryg; his friend Paul Karasik; and an aunt, June Reilly, of New Rochelle, N.Y.
His ashes will be scattered in the Edgartown Great Pond during a celebration of his life on Sunday, August 6, at Forever Wild. The celebration begins at 4 p.m., and will include a Quaker-style sharing of memories, followed by a potluck feast. Friends are invited to bring photographs, memorabilia and typed stories for a scrapbook. They are also invited to bring nonmotorized vessels to join a twilight flotilla in the Great Pond.
Contributions may be made in his memory to the Friends of the Edgartown Council on Aging, P.O. Box 1295, Edgartown, MA 02539; Camp Jabberwocky, P.O. Box 1357, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568; The Edgartown Great Pond Foundation, P.O. Box 2005, Edgartown, MA 02439, or the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School through Options in Education, P.O. Box 869, West Tisbury, MA 02575.
