Richard Reiss, a summer resident of Larsen Lane, in Menemsha for nearly 40 years, died of cancer on Jan. 5 at the age of 91. He died peacefully at his home in Weston, surrounded by his wife, Shirley Schiff Reiss, and other loving members of his immediate family. He will be remembered as a kind, generous, and deeply caring husband, father, grandfather, friend, and colleague. He defined the word gentleman for all who knew him.

Dick was well known around Menemsha harbor, where he tied up his classic wooden sport fisherman Peptide for many years. He was a regular at the Galley, the Menemsha Market, Larsen’s and Chilmark Chocolates. Dick loved everything about the sea: cruising the waters around the Vineyard, sunning himself on Lucy Vincent and beachcombing with the family in his other favorite places: Cuttyhunk and Penobscot Bay in Maine.

He was good at any skill or craft to which he put his energies and took pleasure in designing and creating things, particularly in wood. He had a great appreciation for classical music, enjoyed traveling, and loved reading stories related to the sea (true and invented). He was a considerate, unassuming man of extraordinary openness who was genuinely engaged with life and valued his family above all.

He grew up in New York city and graduated from Princeton in 1939. He had a long career as a sales, marketing, and product development specialist in the analytical instrumentation business, introducing and promoting technologies that saved, enhanced and benefited innumerable lives. He worked for the Sperry Corporation, Baird Atomic, Perkin Elmer, Aztec Instruments (his own company), and ESA, from which he retired in 1988.

Dick touched many lives and leaves a wide circle of friends and relatives. He has two children from his first marriage to Lorraine Dreyfus Reiss, who died in 1984: a son, Robert Reiss, his wife Carolyn and their sons Alan and David of Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.; and a daughter, Helen Reiss de Keijzer, her husband Arne and their daughter Hannah of Weston, Conn. and Menemsha. His family through his marriage to Shirley includes Andre Schiff of Weston, and Claire Schiff, her husband, Zachary Zandler, and their two children Noemie and Lucien, of Bordeaux, France. He is survived as well by two brothers in law and numerous nieces and nephews.

Donations in Dick’s memory can be made to the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group or the Vineyard Conservation Society.