When Tom Osmers, the Island fisherman, advocate, radio personality and documentarian whose kind wisdom touched Islanders from Chappy to Aquinnah, died on March 12, the depth of his effect on the Island was evidenced by the letters and thoughts shared in the newspapers and on the Vineyard’s little corner of the Internet. But to get a picture of just how many people counted Tommy as a friend, you only needed to step through the doors of the Chilmark Community Center last Saturday night. From 7 p.m. until late into the night, every space in the parking lot, as well as the lots of the bank across the street and the library next door, were filled with equal parts rust-bucket Toyota pickups carrying salty tackle, leather-lined Mercedes sport utility vehicles and sun-baked, bumper-stickered Volvo station wagons.

Over the course of the evening, Tommy’s friends, contemporaries and fans aged 9 months to 90 years grazed the potluck buffet, where fresh fish dishes commingled with habanero salsa, homemade hummus and bakery-bought cheesecakes. The stage was lit up by an all-star lineup of Island music, courtesy of Johnny Hoy, Nina Violet, Willy Mason and Goodnight Louise. As families and friends ate, chatted and danced into the night, two projectors blasted images from Tommy’s hours of documentary footage taken on land and at sea over many years. “That’s Grandpa!” shouted one towheaded child, pointing a small cake-stained finger at the giant, sun-grizzled face smiling down from the ceiling.

All told, the wooden floor of the community center was trod by roughly 400 feet over the course of the evening. And while those feet may have been shod in footwear found in all walks of life, the people they carried all had one thing in common: Tommy Osmers.

— Cooper Davis