Mary Steele Knight, 76, Loved Collecting Books

Mary Steele Knight died at her home in West Tisbury on August 3 after an illness of several months. She was 76.

Mary and her family first came to the Vineyard in June 1976, renting a cottage on Old House Pond, behind Nip ‘n‘ Tuck Farm. Mary was enthralled by the Island, and returned every summer thereafter. In 1980 she bought a plot of land from her dear friend, the late Fred Fisher of Nip 'n' Tuck Farm. She built a house several years later. After her husband retired, they eventually became year-round Island residents.

Mary Carter Steele was born August 2, 1929, in Hartford, Conn. Her father, Maurice Gaylord Steele, also born in Hartford, was a descendant of John Steele, a principal founder of Hartford, and could trace his ancestry back to that first band of colonists who landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. Her mother, Minor Gibson Porter, was from the eastern shore of Maryland. Her parents met in 1918, when he was an Army officer stationed at the Aberdeen Proving Ground on the eastern shore. Her father, an engineering graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, subsequently had a long career in the cable manufacturing industry, most of it spent with firms in Rome, N.Y.

Mary spent several years of her childhood in Baltimore, Md., and on the eastern shore, but lived most of her early life in Rome. She was graduated in 1947 from Rome Free Academy and then attended Washington College, on the eastern shore, for two years. She transferred to Cornell University and was graduated from there in 1951. She enrolled in graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley, where she met her husband, Robert E.L. Knight. They were married Sept. 2, 1954. In 1956 she was awarded a master of arts degree in English literature.

Mary had a home for more than 40 years in College Park, Md., where her husband was on the faculty of the University of Maryland. She taught briefly there in the English department, but did not pursue an academic career.

Literature remained a central and abiding interest throughout her life. Mary was an impassioned book collector. She was a habitue of Book Den East in Oak Bluffs. On car trips she delighted in seeking out second-hand book stores on or near the route, which she could explore for discoveries to add to her collection. Her house in College Park overflowed with books, and these books now overflow her house on the Vineyard.

Mary was a dedicated supporter of conservation efforts to preserve the Vineyard as the place which so enchanted her when she first came to it. She had great concern for animal protective organizations. Over the years she provided a home to a number of the cats that appeared at Nip 'n' Tuck Farm.

Mary campaigned ardently for Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and from then on followed the political scene. She participated in protest marches against the Vietnam War and campaigned for Eugene McCarthy in 1968. Despite discouraging developments in recent years, she continued to hope that our nation would evolve into a more just and humane society.

She is survived by her husband, Robert E.L. Knight; by her daughter, Minor, and her husband, Salvatore Della Torre, also of West Tisbury; and by her son, Robert, and his wife, Lori, of Claremont, N.H. She is also survived by four grandchildren, Zachary, Breanna and Robert Knight and Robert Della Torre; a sister, Minor Steele Kelley of Fort Collins, Colo.; a brother, Col. Maurice G. Steele Jr. of Albuquerque, N.M., and by several nieces and nephews.

Interment took place on August 9 in the Steele family plot at Rome Cemetery, next to the graves of her mother and father.

Her family wishes to express their deep gratitude to those who cared for Mary conscientiously during her illness: Dr. Ellen McMahon, her home health care aids, members of the Visiting Nurse Service, and especially Juleann VanBelle, of Hospice of Martha's Vineyard, whose service was invaluable.