Dexter Goodwin's Family Honors Him with Swim

The immediate family of Dexter B. Goodwin returned to Edgartown on Oct. 5 to bring his ashes home.

Dexter had lived on the Island as a child and returned for many summers with his own family. He and his wife, Betty, retired to Edgartown after selling their Oak Bluffs cottage. Years later, they moved to Virginia.

Gathered in Edgartown in his honor were Betty Goodwin, his wife of 67 years; daughter, Bevin Cetta, and her husband, Vito Cetta, of Charlottesville, Va., daughter Anne Draper, and her husband, Jerry Draper of Chattahoochee, Fla., and son Dexter Goodwin Jr. and his wife, Gale Goodwin, of Greenville, S.C.

They hosted a reception for Dexter's childhood friends and Island relatives.

Additional family members who attended included Dexter's niece Claire Costello Gray and her husband, Jack Gray, of West Tisbury; his nephews, John Costello of Falmouth and Jim Costello of Vineyard Haven; cousin Joe McDermott and Noreen McDermott of Cumberland, R.I.; and granddaughter Elizabeth Goodwin. Lifelong friends Ozzie and Rena Fischer also came.

The return to the Island included the Major Challenge, a swim at Bend in the Road Beach, a mini-tradition started by Dexter when he took Billie Gibbons Hancock and Anne Goodwin Draper swimming during their winter visits home.

Participating in this year's challenge, complete with old-fashioned swim costumes, were Elizabeth Goodwin, Anne Draper, Gale Goodwin and Dexter Goodwin Jr.