Matthew Stackpole has ridden the crest of so many successful Island endeavors for so long, it should be no surprise that on Saturday, July 9, he will receive a coveted Island award. Mr. Stackpole is the recipient of the second Walter Cronkite Award; he will be honored at the 20th annual Seafood Buffet and Auction, a fund-raiser for Sail Martha’s Vineyard at Tisbury Wharf.

The award is given by Sail Martha’s Vineyard as a perpetual tribute to Mr. Cronkite’s role for many years as their honorary chairman. It is not an annual award, but will be given from time to time, as a reminder of Mr. Cronkite’s own enthusiasm about sharing his love for the sea and encouraging youth to sail. He died on July 17, 2009.

The artist Ray Ellis of Edgartown was last year’s recipient.

Mr. Stackpole is a former president of Sail Martha’s Vineyard and now serves as an honorary director. Throughout his life Mr. Stackpole has stayed close to the waterfront and shared his love for maritime heritage. This love for the sea has been his keel in work and play.

Mr. Stackpole is a writer and sailor whose father was the former curator at Mystic Seaport. He knew Mr. Cronkite through his father. “I met Walter at Mystic in my father’s office,” he recalled.

“Peggy Schwier [president of Sail Martha’s Vineyard] called me in mid-May. When she mentioned the Walter Cronkite Award, I was thinking she was going to ask me to introduce this year’s recipient,” Mr. Stackpole said.

Mr. Stackpole, a West Tisbury resident, currently works as the major gift officer for the restoration of the world’s last wooden whaleship, the Charles W. Morgan, at Mystic Seaport. He took the job three and a half years ago when the restoration project was just a plan. Today the vessel is substantially restored and the seaport has raised nearly half of the $10 million needed to complete the project. The plan calls for the Morgan to sail again, hopefully in three years.

As a child, Mr. Stackpole climbed the rigging and played with his twin brother, Chris, in the hold of the ship, when their father was curator of the Mystic museum. Their older brother, Renny, worked as a rigger on the Morgan. Their father wrote extensively on the whaling era, including in 1967 a book that is still considered the definitive history of the ship: The Charles W. Morgan, The Last Wooden Whaleship.

When Edouard A. Stackpole was writing the book, Matthew was working aboard the topsail schooner Shenandoah and falling in love with Martha’s Vineyard.

Mr. Stackpole said the story of the Morgan is a Vineyard story. She was built in New Bedford by shipyard owners from Chilmark. Her first captain was an Edgartown whaling captain and through the years a significant number of crew came from the Vineyard. Six of her 20 captains were Vineyarders. Their last names seem to come out of a Vineyard telephone book: Norton, Ripley, Fisher, Athearn, Earl and Cleveland. Her last port captain was George Fred Tilton, a whaling captain from Chilmark.

“I grew up surrounded by the story. I have the honor and an incredible opportunity to be part of those who are collecting and retelling her story,” Mr. Stackpole said.

Mr. Stackpole told the Morgan story earlier this year in an article in the National Maritime Historical Society’s flagship publication, Sea History.

On May 21, after the presses had stopped running, the maritime society was not finished with Mr. Stackpole. They presented him with the Rodney N. Houghton Award for the best feature article on sea history for the year.

“I didn’t know the award existed,” Mr. Stackpole confessed.

Early this month The Boston Globe carried a front-page story about the Morgan restoration effort.

Mr. Stackpole and his wife, Martha, a retired elementary school teacher, divide their time between West Tisbury and Mystic.

Mr. Stackpole’s work on the Vineyard has spanned many nonprofits; he is the past executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Museum and past development director for the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. He worked with the late David H. Smith to help create the Polly Hill Arboretum. Mrs. Schwier said Mr. Stackpole brings a lot to the table when he attends a meeting or is on the other end of a telephone call.

Mrs. Schwier, who has been president of Sail Martha’s Vineyard for five years, said the Cronkite award is well deserved. “I really feel that Matthew should get this award. He was close to Walter. I always want his ear, to make sure that we are not straying from our course . . . Matthew is an old friend to Sail Martha’s Vineyard,” she said.

The Sail MV Seafood Buffet and Auction starts at 5:30 on July 9. Tickets are $150 per person and are available at sailmv.org.