Alida Butler Stange, a longtime summer resident of Chilmark, died Oct. 4 at her home in Boston. She was 87.

Alida and her husband, G. Robert (Bob) Stange, first vacationed on the Island in the summer of 1964, driving from their Minneapolis home to spend several weeks on Quitsa Lane. As it does for so many, the Island took its hold and they came every summer thereafter, first to a Quitsa Lane house, and after 1979 to a house they built overlooking Squibnocket Pond.

Alida, an avid tennis player, soon found a group of like-minded women with whom to share tennis courts near the Chilmark dump, and an institution was born. The dump court tennis gang became the center of a daily summer routine.

Alida and Bob — who died in 2007 — were enthusiastic hosts, as well as very appreciative guests. They became known for their lively cocktail parties and dinners that were cooked by Alida to a standard that would rival any French kitchen.

Alida was born in St. Paul, Minn. She went to high school there and in Maryland, and attended Smith College. In 1947 she pursued her interest in all things French and was among the first college-age Americans to travel to war-torn France for a work-study program at the Collège Cévenol in a small town west of Lyon. She later worked as an administrator for the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra before she and Bob married in 1963. They lived in Minneapolis until moving to Boston in 1967 when Bob took a post as chair of the English department at Tufts University.

Alida was an active supporter of the Vineyard Conservation Society, the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, and other organizations devoted to preserving the Island’s beauty and open lands. She will missed by her many Island friends, and also by her step-children Maren, Margit, and Eric Stange, her daughter in law Barbara Costa and son in law Charles Hobson, and her grandchildren Alex and Mia Stange and Clara Hobson. She also leaves her sister Allison Butler of Kennett Square, Pa., her brother David Butler of Denver, Colo. and many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Alida’s name to a Vineyard nonprofit organization of the donor’s choice. Plans for a memorial service will be announced at a later date.