William Honey, the quiet, bespectacled, former longtime president of the Martha’s Vineyard National Bank and one of the last of a breed of small-town bankers who loaned money to Islanders in need with no paperwork and no questions asked, died Tuesday at the age of 89.

He had lived in West Tisbury since his retirement from the bank in 1984, and in recent years was better known as a farmer, livestock man and tinkerer with antique engines. He had always loved horses and like a true Islander, lived simply and close to the land.

But for nearly 25 years he presided over the affairs of the Martha’s Vineyard National Bank from his office in the bank’s historic stone-built headquarters on Main street Vineyard Haven. Schooled by the late Stephen Carey Luce, the peerless financier, philanthropist and politician who left his indelible stamp on nearly every corner of the Vineyard from the hospital to the Steamship Authority to the bank, Mr. Honey began as a teller straight out of high school in 1939 and quietly worked his way up to president.

There are countless stories of Mr. Honey and the loans he wrote, including short-term loans to Islanders in need that were known as “Honey loans.” In an interview with oral historian Linsey Lee published in her book More Vineyard Voices, the late Shirley Steere Smith recalled the story of how she bought her hardware store in Vineyard Haven with Mr. Honey’s assistance:

“In 1969 there had been a big fire that burned the store out. Brooks [former owner Brooks Carter] was tired and had had enough . . . one winter he slipped off the back step and broke his arm and he said, ‘This is it. I want you to buy the hardware store.’ I said, ‘Brooks, I don’t have any money. I can’t buy this hardware store . . .’ He said, ‘March up to the bank.’ So I went up to see Bill Honey, and they gave me a loan application and I filled it out. They had a meeting the next night, I think, and Bill Honey just couldn’t wait — he couldn’t wait to tell me! He had to come running down to tell me. ‘You got it! You had a unanimous vote at the meeting last night! Come and get the paper work done, quick. Let’s get this thing going.’”

William Morgan Honey was born on Sept. 26, 1919 in East Orange, N.J., the son of Henry Morgan Honey and Constance Daggett Lord. His mother had long family ties to Vineyard Haven, and when her husband died in 1924 she moved to the Vineyard to be near family.

Bill attended Tisbury schools, graduated from the Tisbury High School, and began to work at the bank. It would become his life career; the only break he took was during World War II when he served in the Army Air Force for three and a half years.

In September of 1948 he married Eunice Coke-Jephcott of New York city and Vineyard Haven at Grace Church. They had three children. The marriage ended in divorce in 1983.

In 1958 he was named vice president of the bank and in 1960 he was named president.

In the early 1980s, just before his retirement, Mr. Honey presided over a turbulent period when the Bank of Boston attempted a hostile takeover of the Martha’s Vineyard National Bank. Islanders were up in arms and the Vineyard Gazette editorialized heatedly against the takeover. And when it was all over and the big city bank had retreated, Mr. Honey told the Gazette: “Hooray. Wonderful. Terrific. Happy? Oh, boy, I should say so.”

Mr. Honey retired in 1984. The bank has since been taken over by a mainland concern and is currently named Sovereign Bank, owned by Santander, a Spanish bank.

“Bill was a consummate ideal of what a local banker was,” said Ronald H. Rappaport, an Edgartown attorney and Oak Bluffs native who served for many years on the board of the Martha’s Vineyard National Bank, as did his father before him. “His personal knowledge of people and their character and the community was forefront in his mind — and helping people, and that’s what we think of when we think of a community banker. Bill Honey was the essence of that; he was a very, very decent man.”

He was also a man of the land, who was devoted to his horses and oxen, a love he shared with his partner of many years Hilary Ann Blocksom of West Tisbury. They met in 1978 when she was a landscaper working on bank property. He hired her to be in charge of building and grounds, and later the mortgage department.

He was an active member of the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society, the Barnacle Club, the American Legion, the Martha’s Vineyard Chess Club and the former Vineyard Stamp Club. He served as the first treasurer of the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School District, a position he held until his retirement from the national bank.

He also had a keen interest in antique engines, and participated in the regular shows at the Agricultural Hall.

He is survived by two daughters, Sarah Honey Murphy and her husband Fred Murphy of West Tisbury, and Elizabeth Honey MacPherson of Vineyard Haven, whose husband Robert died in 1994; a sister, Elizabeth Ann Honey of Vineyard Haven; grandchildren Ross Eben MacPherson of Duxbury, Annie Daggett Sylvia and her husband Jake of Edgartown, Grace Lee Murphy of West Tisbury, Megan Lee Honey of Oak Bluffs and Reid Morgan MacPherson of Vineyard Haven; and a daughter in law, Laura Honey of Oak Bluffs. He was predeceased by his son, David William Honey, who died in 2005. His first wife also survives him.

A graveside service will be held Monday at 1 p.m. at the West Tisbury Cemetery, followed by a celebration of his life at the Agricultural Hall.

Donations may be made in his memory to Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard, P.O. Box 2549, Oaks Bluffs, MA 02557, or Vineyard House, P.O. Box 4599, 15 Church street, Unit D, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.