Harold Augustus Bauld of Edgartown and Dania Beach, Fla., died peacefully on the Hospice Unit at Broward Health Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale on Jan. 6 after a brief illness. He was 86. His daughter, Robin Bauld, and wife, Dr. Patricia Tyra, were at the bedside and his sister, Donna Marshall, and her husband David were also in the room.

Born August 5, 1930, in Somerville, Harold graduated from Medford High School and worked with his father in the building and plastering trade for a short while before joining the U.S. Air Force for four years. He later graduated from Tufts University and began a lifelong computer career, first with ECA in East Cambridge and then as an independent contractor working for Blue Cross, DOT and others in New York city, Syracuse, Phoenix, West Virginia and New Jersey. Part time, he and high school buddy Charley Hoarty of Medford had a tax preparation business for several years.

A sports enthusiast all his life, he enjoyed running track and handball at the Cambridge Y and attending Red Sox games at Fenway Park and later at spring training parks in Florida. He played tennis and racquetball with his wife, Pat, and let her teach him to ski in New Hampshire. In Florida he regularly rode his bike until a fall had him sticking to golf, the pool and gym exercises. With the beginning of Parkinson’s disease he was often seen this part summer using a four-wheel walker for his regular walks in town.

After his wife designed their modular home on Shurtleff Way, they spent summers and early fall on the Vineyard. Harold enjoyed lunches and entertainment at the Anchors, Vineyard Haven Band concerts and Edgartown library lawn concerts, fishing with friends, the Agricultural Fair, Illumination Night, art shows and plays, Martha’s Vineyard Museum exhibits, dinners at local restaurants, riding his bike on local bike trails in the early years, and anything else his wife planned, including yearly birthday celebrations with daughter Robin and granddaughter Caitlin.

A secret poet, in 2006 he received an award for outstanding achievement in poetry by the International Library of Poetry for his poem Appalled. And to keep his mind alert he daily worked on crossword puzzles and nightly watched Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.

Harold was predeceased by his parents, Gladys (Churchill) and Harold Bauld and first wife, Lorraine (Cino) Bauld. He is survived by his wife, Pat, siblings, June Silva of Topsfield and Donna Marshall (and husband David) of Reading; three children and their spouses, Robin Bauld and Gary Conserva of Medford, Harold Bauld and Ines Gomez-Ochoa of New York city and Steven and Lori Bauld. He is also survived by seven grandchildren and nine nieces and nephews.

His body was donated to the University of Miami and to Science Care for research, tissue donation, and education. No services will be held, but family and friends will gather in Edgartown later this year to celebrate his life.