RICK HERRICK

508-693-8065

(herricklr@verizon.net)

Sitting in the standby line in Woods Hole can be a nail-biting experience. That tension eases somewhat when the Island Home comes into view with its increased car-carrying capacity. Vineyarders take pride in the newest addition to the Steamship Authority’s fleet of boats.

Next time you travel on the Island Home, visit the purser’s office on the top deck. Right across from it there’s a plaque on the wall that recognizes members of the Port Council.

Your heart will fill with pride as you come across the name of the vice chairman, Robert V. Huss. Since the installation of the plaque, Bob has been elected chairman of the council.

The Martha’s Vineyard Museum is also fortunate to have Dr. Jim Richardson as a member of its board. Jim was recently honored at a conference on Andean archeology. He received the Distinguished Andean Archeology Award for his work in coordinating Heinz Foundation grants for Latin America over the last 21 years. Jim is professor of anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh and curator emeritus of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Lal Dowley’s family had reason to celebrate on many fronts last month. Her son Brian and Mimi Michaelson celebrated their marriage with family and friends at the Dowley beach house on the weekend of Oct. 20. Leading the wedding procession across the beach for the late-afternoon ceremony with his jazz clarinet was Brian’s 17-year-old son, Malcolm. That evening Brian’s son Luke, age 14, entertained the wedding party with his band. The couple resides in Cambridge.

One important reason that keeps Brian returning here is that he is shooting a film for public television on the Gannon & Benjamin boat yard in Vineyard Haven.

That same weekend Lal’s granddaughter, Nicole McNamee, a freshman at the University of Tulsa, rowed in the Head of the Charles in the Club Fours Women’s race. She was stroke for her boat, which finished 11th out of 32 boats. Nicole’s mother, Gillian Dowley McNamee, a professor and director of teacher education at the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development in Chicago, received a national award in early November for research published in 2006 on how to prepare future teachers of young children.

This will be the last East Chop column until next spring. I look forward to resuming the column in the coming year.