Helen Gans Hines, a Vineyard summer resident for nearly 40 years, died peacefully on Oct. 4 at her home in Lantana, Fla. She was 93. Helen was predeceased by her loving husband Leonard in 1994.

Active as a volunteer at the Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, N.J., for decades, Helen was the first woman elected to serve on that hospital’s board of directors. She was also active in other New Jersey Jewish community and Vineyard causes.

Helen was born in Bradley Beach, N.J. She resided in South Orange, N.J., Martha’s Vineyard, and Florida for the last several years.

The Vineyard was first a port of call for Helen and Len Hines on their boat for some years running. They were smitten, and built a house on the Katama waterfront in 1975. Since then Helen spent every summer here, and savored every moment of it. She enjoyed painting (having real talent for it), clamming (and serving as a deputy clam warden, zealously guarding Katama Bay for some years), quality time with her extended family and many friends, and involvement with a number of worthy community groups. And she pined for her Vineyard nest over the last two years when too weak to return here.

Helen leaves a daughter, Gail Hines Schoenbach of Boynton Beach, Fla., two sons — Andrew of Boonton, N.J., and Jon of Moscow and New York; six grandchildren: Steven, Beth, Marissa, Josh, Sam and Josie, and five great-grandchildren.

Tributes may be directed either to Hospice of Palm Beach County Foundation, 5300 East avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33407, or to the Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.

There will be a remembrance gathering next August at the Hines’s Katama family home.