The Vineyard community said goodbye this year to friends and neighbors who left a lasting impact on the Island. Jerome Kohlberg Jr., a pioneering Wall Street businessman, philanthropist and longtime third baseman for the Chilmark softball league, died in July at age 90. Mr. Kohlberg and his wife Nancy purchased the Gazette in 2010, ushering in a new era for the paper.

Bob Carroll, a storied Edgartown businessman and colorful Island character, died at age 90. The Vineyard also said goodbye to Sen. Edward Brooke, a longtime seasonal resident; art collector and philanthropist Olga Hirshhorn, beloved Island locksmith Buzz Blankenship, and local actor, playwright, and all-around Renaissance man Leslie Stark, who died in July at the age of 76.

Trudy Taylor, matriarch of the musical Taylor family, died in October at age 92. Oak Bluffs said farewell to longtime fire captain Donald Billings. Stories told by Meverell Good, a proud veteran and gifted storyteller who was a substitute teacher for years at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School and died in February at 91, will be remembered for years to come.

The Island also lost several accomplished artists whose works will continue to inspire: Poet Peggy Freydberg at the age of 107, just before the publication of ther 12th book; horror film director Wes Craven, 76, who wrote a column for Martha's Vineyard Magazine; Marianne Goldberg, the Chilmark arts patron and founder of Pathways Gathering Space; and former Gazette columnist Will Monast at age 67. William Waterway, who founded Martha's Vineyard Magazine and was instrumental in saving the Gay Head Light in the 1980s, died at 66.