One measure of a well-lived life is not just accomplishment but how one’s work affected people met along the way.

Several hundred people who interacted with Herb Putnam 3rd for more than 30 years attended a memorial service on Tuesday evening at the Chapman, Cole & Gleason funeral home in Oak Bluffs.

“Herb had a way about him that made me want to stand a little taller, to be more positive in my life,” recalled Bob Wilcoxson, an Edgartown resident.

“I spent a lot of time with Herb in the mid 1980s and that positive feeling he engendered stays with me today,” Mr. Wilcoxson said.

Herbert N. Putnam 3rd died at home on March 9 of pancreatic cancer at the age of 59. Herb was a longtime and beloved Island resident who at one time or another owned, co-owned and operated many of the Island’s most familiar businesses, among them the Hot Tin Roof, Island Food Products, the Atlantic Connection, Balance restaurant, Pomodoro and most recently, Vineyard Financial Services. He was instrumental in producing the Festival Network’s Boston Pops concert last August in Oak Bluffs and was working on making the concert an annual event.

“Herb was a real gentleman in every way, I painted signs for him, worked gigs for him and attended cancer support group meetings with him. He was a gentleman and a friend in all those environments,” musician Maynard Silva said.

Herb was born on Dec. 12, 1948 in Cleveland, Ohio. He first visited the Vineyard in 1966 with friends and his first Island job was at Ralph’s Kafe in 1967. He visited the Island during summers while in college (where among other jobs he helped paint downtown Edgartown white) and became a full-time resident in 1971. During the 1970s he worked at Lawry’s and the Dock Street Deli and started his first business with the Bred Shed Bakery.

He subsequently founded the Quarterdeck where he brought the “Swiss burger” to the Island. During the filming of Jaws in 1974, he expanded his job of babysitting the Bruce the Shark character prop at night by arranging free tours of the machine.

Herb’s best-known Island business may be the Hot Tin Roof, which he founded in 1979 with George Brush and Carly Simon. The partners managed to attract big-name acts to the Roof, transforming what Islanders could experience as nighttime entertainment. Herb managed the Roof for a second time in recent years, overseeing badly needed renovations.

The magnitude of Herb’s contribution to the Island community can be difficult to encapsulate. In addition to his recognizable businesses, he tirelessly supported Island friends and organizations, often via fundraising but also with hands-on assistance. Many have remarked that they would not be on the Vineyard if not for the music and services Herb brought to the Island which previously did not exist.

After expressing her condolences to Herb’s family, Kate Taylor of Aquinnah said, “His vigor was inspirational. Herb was a generous man who did a lot of things that made this Island a better place to live.”

For recreation, Herb adored golf; he was a charter member of Farm Neck Golf Club and won the men’s club championship in 2003.

More important to Herb than his business ventures were his friends and beloved family. He is survived by his wife, Marsha Smolev of West Tisbury, and her three sons, Lukas, Tyler and Davis Kendall; his parents, Herbert N. Putnam Jr. and Carolyn Putnam of Shaker Heights, Ohio; his sister, Sandra Guida and her husband, Patrick Guida, of Barrington, R.I., as well as their children, Ross Guida and Kristin Todd, and her husband Matthew; and his brother, David Putnam, of Garfield Heights, Ohio. He was pre-deceased by his loyal springer spaniel, Murray, and survived by his new springer sidekick, Zeke.

Herb was diagnosed in June 2005 with pancreatic cancer, one of the most deadly forms of the disease, which usually kills within months. Herb fought courageously for over two and a half years, supported by his loving family and friends. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to pancreatica.org to support research. A graveside funeral took place Wednesday morning, March 12.

Bill Davies, Herb’s partner in Pomodoro restaurant in Oak Bluffs for seven years, deeply mourns the absence of his friend.

“He had this unique ability to make you feel as if you were the most important person in the world when you were talking to him,” he said. “I’ll miss that. I hope I can get a little of that ability to listen intently.”

During Herb’s battle with cancer, Mr. Davies found and gave Herb the St. Francis prayer, a belief system Mr. Davies felt summarized Herb’s approach to life:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Herb displayed the prayer in his bedroom from the day he received it, Mr. Davies recalled.

Jack Shea contributed reporting from the service.