Janet West, lifelong summer resident and retiree to the Vineyard, died Feb. 16 at Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She was 96.

Born at Kineo on Moosehead Lake, Me., she spent a few summers as a child in a camp rented by her family at Lobsterville before her brothers built two camps on land purchased in 1920 by her parents, Francis and Araminta, on the cliffs at Chilmark’s north shore.

Miss West was for many years an executive secretary at the United Nations, working closely with Secretary General U Thant in particular. She was always concerned about animal welfare and was a supporter of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society and other organizations. In her later years, she enjoyed exhibiting her father’s genealogy, which goes back to the mid-1600s on the Island.

She was predeceased by her sister, Gretchen Van Zandt, and two brothers, Francis (Pat) and Robert.

A sister, Sue Bruce, lives in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Nieces and nephews include Paulette Potter and Timothy Bruce, both of Vineyard Haven, Christine West Goessweiner of Vienna, Austria, and Nathaniel West of Friendship, Me.