John Brant Eaton, 84, of the Vineyard died May 27 at the Royal Nursing Center in Falmouth.

Mr. Eaton was born on June 8, 1922 in Brookline, the son of Frederick C. and Marguerite Brant Eaton. He graduated from Scarsdale High School in Scarsdale, N.Y. and attended Dartmouth College. Toward the end of World War II, he became a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps and received his pilot's wings.

During most of his working life, he worked in sales, where he was a real ideas man. He was an avid sailor. For many winters, he participated in the Frostbite races in Long Island Sound in the one-man sailboat he had painted in plaid. He retired to the Vineyard.

Survivors include two nieces, Susan Eaton and Christie Eaton Leininger; five Eaton nephews, Brant, Frederick III, Scott, Austin Jr. and Barry; and two sisters in law, Margaret Eaton of Hilton Head Island, S.C. and Elizabeth Eaton of Fayetteville, N.Y.

His parents and his two brothers, Frederick Choate Eaton and Austin Whittington Eaton, predeceased him.

John's ashes will be scattered over Vineyard Sound.