He is a career civil servant and the familiar face of the Dukes County superior court, trained on the job more than 30 years ago and one of only seven clerks in the history of the court.

And this year, for the first time since he took the job in 1976, superior court clerk Joseph E. Sollitto Jr. faces a challenge for his seat. The court clerk is elected every six years in Dukes County.

"Every day I walk into the courthouse and into the courtroom and I look around and it's hard to express what I feel. There is a sense of history, a link to the past. We do justice here and I am proud to be part of that justice," he said during an interview on Monday morning in his cramped corner office on the second floor of the Edgartown courthouse.

With its antique roll-top desk and ancient hand-cranked adding machine, once used to tally tax rolls, cast in the soft blue glow of a computer monitor, the office is a study in courthouse culture old and new.

Sort of like Mr. Sollitto himself, with his bow tie, suspenders and conservative suit topped by a polar fleece vest when he ventures out into downtown Edgartown and beyond.

Which is not as often as he would like these days, between running the five-week fall sitting of superior court and running a political campaign to defend his seat against challenger Dan Larkosh, a West Tisbury attorney. Mr. Sollitto has taken the challenge seriously and his campaign is in high gear: he is handing out buttons with slogans ("Not your average Joe") and mailing glossy color brochures with a slew of endorsements from Island attorneys and longtime politicians.

"This is not a job that somebody can just jump in and do," he said, pointing to his own introduction as an assistant clerk in the early 1970s under the late Sophia Campos, who held the job for 57 years. His principal job involves managing the superior court docket, but he also serves as clerk to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (which has never held a session on the Island), and clerk to the Dukes County commission, which has the authority to convene as a court on property tax appeals and on land takings (but has only done so a few times in his memory).

Other duties include acting as the hearing officer for parking ticket appeals, swearing in new attorneys and county officials, and certifying election results for the county commission.

He supports the continuation of county government, but agrees that the charter study commission is a good idea.

Mr. Sollitto, who is 62, first came to the Vineyard in 1968, freshly discharged from a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, with a bachelor's degree in history from Stonehill College. His first summer he drove a tour bus, and then took a part-time job as an Oak Bluffs police officer. The job helped him pay for law school at Suffolk University. "The Ritz and the Lampost were the only places open [in the winter] so I had plenty of time to study," he recalled with a grin.

In the early 1970s he became involved in politics, first as an appointed member of the zoning board of appeals; in 1974 he was elected selectman, and served for one term, stepping down after he was elected court clerk for the first time.

In 30 years he has handled four murder cases. He handled the controversial case of Edward Hanify, the ousted director of the Martha's Vineyard Hospital who sued the hospital and several Island doctors for breach of contract and conspiracy in the early 1980s - and won a large judgment from a Vineyard jury.

His knowledge of the arcane workings of the county court system is encylopedic, and he rattles off names and dates from memory.

He lives in Chilmark, but confesses that his heart will always be in Oak Bluffs; he is married to an Oak Bluffs native and has two step-daughters. He likes old cars, and owns a 1933 Ford four-door and a 1926 Model T that he drives in the Fourth of July parade every year. He is a die-hard member of Red Sox nation, and a Republican who supported a Democrat (attorney general Tom Reilly) in the state primary last month. He likes to read history. The figures he admires most are Abraham Lincoln and Ted Williams.

And if re-elected, he said quietly that this will probably be his last term.

"There comes a time when you have to say goodbye and let someone else take over," Mr. Sollitto said. "And I think six years from now I will probably be ready for that.

But early Monday morning, there was little time to think of such things. An interview with a newspaper reporter was nearing an end, the phone was ringing, the judge had arrived and downstairs a group of jurors awaited instructions. The court clerk and his bow tie remained unruffled.

"It works because of the citizens. They are the people who come in here and serve on juries and make justice work. I always remember that," he said.