Herb Searle died Dec. 12 at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. He was 92.

Herb was born on Nov. 22, 1915 in Pittsburgh, Pa., to James Herbert Searle and Ivy Anderson. He was graduated from Peabody High School, and earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree and a doctorate of education at Temple University.

Herb met Jane Ritenbaugh in the spring of 1938, when he was 22 and she was 18 and a freshman at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University. Herb earned his way through Pitt by working three years at the Pittsburgh Rolls steel rolling mill as a timekeeper. Herb and Jane loved the big band dances in college, and were dance partners for almost 70 years. They were married on Aug. 9, 1941 at East Liberty Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh.

Herb worked for the Ordnance Department of the War Department in Pittsburgh. He received a commission in the Navy as an ensign and served three years of sea duty in World War II as a lieutenant gunnery officer in the Navy Armed Guard on the merchant ships Mayo Brothers and the Carole Lombard, delivering men, munitions and materials to the Atlantic, Pacific and Mediterranean theatres. Herb was a member of the American Legion for more than sixty years. His son Stephen was born in 1945; Herb did not get home to see him until 10 months later. After the war, he and Jane moved to Ocean City, N.J., where their second child, Georgia, was born.

Herb worked as a high school English and social studies teacher, and then became superintendent of schools in Somers Point, N.J. Memorable family events were a cross-country road trip out West in the sky-blue Chevy Bel Air station wagon in 1956 and a summer New England road tour in 1957. In 1961, the family moved to Haddonfield, N.J., where Herb designed the curriculum and became principal of Haddon Township High School.

Herb began teaching college at Rutgers University in 1963 and became a full professor at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania in 1966. Herb and Jane moved to Shippensburg, Pa., where he was head of the secondary education department until retiring in 1978. In 1974, Herb and Jane traveled on a sabbatical for six months, during which Herb compared the teacher training techniques of 14 European countries for the university’s department of education.

For many years, Herb and Jane enjoyed their antique Mathews powerboat Day Star, built in 1938, on Chesapeake Bay, traveling the inland waterway. They retired to Lighthouse Point, Fla. Herb was an avid fisherman all his life.

Hooked on travel, Herb and Jane explored Australia and New Zealand, Hawaii and Tahiti, Japan, China, Mexico, Egypt and the Nile, Eastern Europe and the Danube, Scandinavia, Russia and the Greek islands.

In 1995, after spending many summers with their grandchildren on the Vineyard, Jane and Herb moved to Vineyard Haven to be a part of their lives and to be near their children.

Herb had been an active member of Presbyterian churches in Ocean City and Haddonfield, N.J., Shippensburg, Pa., Pompano Beach, Fla., and the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury.

Survivors include Jane, his wife of 66 years; his sister, Ruth Costly; his son, Stephen Searle; his daughter, Georgia Morris; his son in law, Len Morris; his grandchildren, Sam and Lily Morris; and his devoted dog, Willy. He will be greatly missed and will lovingly live on in us all.

A memorial service for Herb Searle will take place on Sunday, Dec. 23, at 3 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in West Tisbury, with a celebration in the church hall to follow. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard, whose Web site is hospice.vineyard.net, or to the National Parkinson Foundation, whose Web site is parkinson.org.