Your Dec. 4 issue brought me the sad news of Doug Dorchester’s death. Doug’s passing is a great loss to humanity, for he was not only a man of faith (as you noted), but also a role model to anyone who was lucky enough to know him.

My connection to Doug was initially through the Lagoon Pond Association, starting in the mid 1980s. We were neighbors on the Oak Bluffs side, and we worked side by side for 10 years in seeking to protect the public waters and shellfish of Lagoon Pond from outsized, privately-owned piers.

It is largely through force of Doug’s warm, embracing personality and common sense reasoning that he reached out calmly but directly to all parties of interest. Because of Doug’s efforts, the Lagoon Pond Association can claim, rightly, that the towns of Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven came together and arrived at a common set of regulations governing the size and environmental impact of future proposed piers. He was especially effective in hearing everybody out, in not prejudging motives, in gaining support from the shellfish community, and in setting the stage for a constructive resolution that has since served a vital role in protecting the pond.

The world has lost not just a former Vineyarder, not just a retired minister, not just a family patriarch extraordinaire, but also a man of great compassion, wisdom and capacity for love. As we all debate the fate of Lagoon Pond, let us remember this gentle giant and how he strived to make our Island a better place and everyone around him a better person.

Robert Klein

Oak Bluffs and New York city