The year just past brought its share of mourning for the well-known Islanders who died.

On Jan 5 Robert T. Morgan died at the age of 84. Perhaps most widely known for his role as Island legislative liaison from 1985 to 1992, he was a ubiquitous presence around the place, a farmer, swordfisherman, scalloper, harbor master and civic leader.

Peter M. Williamson died on Jan. 23. He served 32 years with Oak Bluffs, 28 as chief. He was 70 years old.

On Jan. 25, Helen Edith Vanderhoop Manning Murray died at age 89. She was a Wampanoag elder, educator, mentor and historian.

For more than 30 years, Louise Aldrich Bugbee’s columns graced the pages of the Vineyard Gazette. She died on Jan. 27 in Crystal River, Fla. She was 94.

Patricia N. Nanon, famed modern dance artist and choreographer, and creator of the Chilmark performing arts colony The Yard, died Feb. 29 in New York city. For 35 years she had choreographed a new work at The Yard each summer. She was 84.

On March 5 Virginia F. Poole died at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She was 73. During her life she was a champion of the theatre, particularly for children. She also was a Gazette writer in the 1980s and a pillar of various organizations performing good works. She was an assistant casting director for Jaws.

On March 9, Herbert N. Putnam 3rd died of pancreatic cancer. He was 59. At one time or other he had owned, co-owned or operated several Island businesses, including the Hot Tin Roof, Island Food Products, The Atlantic Connection, Balance and Pomodoro. He was a prime mover in bringing the Boston Pops to the Island.

Lois A. DeBettencourt, 79, died on May 7 in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. She was a longtime Oak Bluffs resident and school teacher, and had been active in a wide variety of community endeavors and causes.

On July 16, bluesman Maynard Silva’s three-year battle with cancer ended. He was a true Islander, which is to say he was born here. But he went away for his musical education, south, to where the blues was born. He played with many of greats — Bukka White and Buddy Guy among them. Few on the Island would not have heard his wicked slide guitar, his keening harmonica, his gravelly voice. He was 57.

John Walter died Sept. 11 of complications from surgery. He was 61. He was a former editor and publisher of the Gazette, managing editor and executive editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution and a founding editor of USA Today. In 2005 he and his wife Jan Pogue set up a custom book publishing business, Vineyard Stories.

Donald W. Vose died peacefully at his home in Edgartown on Oct. 1 at age 97. He was born in Edgartown to Leroy and Gladys Pease Vose. In 1957, he succeeded his father as president of the bank his grandfather helped found.

The Very Rev. Francis B. Sayre Jr., former Dean of the Washington National Cathedral, grandson of the late President Woodrow Wilson and last baby born in the White House, died on Oct. 3 at home in Vineyard Haven. He was 93. A lifelong champion of liberal causes, he helped organized a bus trip to Selma, Alabama in the spring of 1965. He was a seasonal visitor since boyhood and moved here full-time in the early 1980s.

On Nov. 14, David M. Flanders, lifelong Chilmark resident, country realtor, farmer and patriot with roots here going back more than 400 years, died after tending his cows on Thanksgiving day. He was 76.