Lifelong East Chop summer resident Capt. Sterling Hollinshead Ivison Jr., USN, (Ret) died August 16 at the age of 89 after a brave struggle with Alz-heimer’s disease.

Sterling was born in New York city in 1919, and grew up in Great Neck, Long Island. He was president of his high school senior class and an avid Boy Scout. He graduated from MIT with a degree in industrial engineering in 1941 and immediately entered the Navy to serve his country during World War II. After completing officer candidate school in Quonset Point, RI, he received his commission as an Ensign and was transferred to the Pacific Theatre.

Sterling met his wife, Katharine Phelps Brown, when he was stationed in Washington, DC, and after their wedding the Navy sent him to Harvard Business School, where he graduated with an MBA in 1951. He was transferred to New York city then back to DC, where both his children were born. After three years in Coronado, Calif. serving with the Bureau of Naval Weapons, he was promoted to Captain in 1960 and spent his last three tours of duty in Washington stationed at the Pentagon. He was twice awarded the Legion of Merit for outstanding service to his country.

Sterling and his wife raised their two children in Chevy Chase, Md. Upon retirement from the Navy, he began teaching at American University and pursuing his PhD but was sidetracked when he was appointed acting dean of the Kogod School of Business at AU. He served in that capacity from 1981 to 1983. His dear wife, Katharine, died in 1997, and in 2003, Sterling moved from his home of 44 years to be closer to his daughter in Narragansett, R.I.

After retirement from the Navy, he spent his summers on his beloved Martha’s Vineyard where he had been vacationing from the age of seven. He was an active volunteer for the East Chop Association for which he served as president for several years; the Union Chapel holding both the offices of treasurer and president; and the East Chop Yacht Club for which he served as commodore in the 1980s. He worked hard to slow or reverse the deterioration of Crystal Lake and organized a number of work parties planting beach grass on the bluffs to curb erosion. His dream was for people boating off the bluffs in years to come to see the lush vegetation and perhaps think of the role he played in making it so.

Sterling’s love of sailing began on the Island when he was a child. He and his boyhood friend Bob Dowley sailed the waters of the Vineyard for years. In 1958, while he was stationed in California, he bought his sloop, MUTINY!, and sailed her for the next 45 years. For many summers, he would sail her with his son from the Chesapeake Bay to the Vineyard. Perhaps his most enjoyable sailing experiences on the Vineyard were the sail-aways he helped organize with the East Chop Yacht Club. At the beginning of every summer he would circle the days on the calendar when the tides would be just right to help push the Gems and 420s to Tarpaulin Cove and bring them safely home.

Sterling leaves his loving children, Katharine Fowle Meleney and her husband, Ted of Narragansett, R.I.; his son, Sterling H. Ivison 3rd, and his wife, Leigh of Landenberg, Pa.; grandchildren Eliza Ballin, William Ivison and Andrew Ivison. He also leaves his beloved sister, Eleanor Ivison Jensen of Del Ray Beach, Fla.

Memorial services will be held on Martha’s Vineyard next summer. Donations in his memory can be made to the Union Chapel, PO Box 1164 Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.