Dr. Waldron Morton Sennott of Baltimore, Md., died at his apartment in the Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson, Md. on March 3. He would have been 107 years old on March 31.

He passed away peacefully in his home of congestive heart failure. He will long be remembered for his warmth and good humor, his service to others and his belief in the goodness of all. His spirit will be missed.

Wally was born on March 31, 1909 in Keene, N.H. to Arthur K. Sennott and Ethel Benjamin. He grew up in Torrington, Conn. During high school he played on the football and basketball teams and managed the track team while excelling in Latin and other college prep studies. Towards the end of high school he decided he wanted to become a doctor. This objective would be daunting given the financial depression to come. Part-time jobs, scholarships and loans from a dear friend would help him through both college and medical school.

Upon arrival at Colgate University in 1928 he worked in the Commons kitchen while diligently pursuing his studies. The summer of his sophomore year he worked at Camp Mohawk, where he met a certain Girl Scout counselor, the love of his life, Adelaide Stanley. In June 1932, he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Then it was off to Harvard Medical School. Between the second and third year he left school to work in sales for a pharmaceutical company. In his final year at Harvard he became particularly interested in public health, and upon graduation in 1937 accepted an internship with the United States Public Health Service at its Staten Island, N.Y. hospital.

After a long courtship, Wally and Addie were married on Jan. 9, 1938. That same year he received a reserve commission in the U.S. Coast Guard, serving in New York and Boston, as well as aboard the USCG cutter Cuyahoga in the North Atlantic as the ship’s doctor.

In 1940, following his Coast Guard duties, he joined the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, beginning training in radiology in Staten Island, followed by stints at New Orleans and Cleveland hospitals. In October 1942 he was called to Washington to head a large scale tuberculosis X-ray screening of 120,000 federal employees. From that point forward he rose through the USPHS system, heading the Department of Radiology in Staten Island, advancing to captain’s rank, and appointed to diplomat rank in the American College of Radiology. In 1958 he was transferred to the Wyman Park USPHS hospital in Baltimore, Md., retiring from the service in 1965 with honors. Subsequently he joined the radiology staff of Baltimore City Hospital, specializing in pediatric radiology, and was appointed assistant professor of radiology at Johns Hopkins. Full retirement in 1972 afforded him time to pursue and share many interests with Addie and family.

Late in the summer of 1945 Wally was invited to visit the Vineyard by a colleague stationed at the U.S. Marine Hospital, a small facility instituted in 1895 to serve the busy merchant marine of that era. Thus began a lifelong summer pilgrimage for Wally and his family. After two years renting at Lambert’s Cove they bought a beachfront parcel by Dogfish Bar in Aquinnah where they built their camp. There were no other homes, no electricity and no roads in the immediate vicinity. Lumber was hauled in by ox team by Jack Belain, a Wampanoag tribe member. Eventually a dirt road came, fittingly named Oxcart Road.

For more than 60 years, up until his 99th year, Wally spent his summers there with wife Addie, and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. enjoying and maintaining his cottage, reading, socializing, fishing, snorkeling and clamming. Last spring, in his 106th year, he encouraged the full restoration of the camp by his son Jim and grandchildren Kyle, Randy and Sara.

In the early cottage days Wally became close friends with a number of Gay Headers in Lobsterville, who perhaps felt the doctor from New York City was a bit out of his depth. Billy Ryan bailed Wally out of many a plumbing challenge, and Albert Saunders of Lobsterville was a constant source of encouragement. Meanwhile the Sennotts became great friends with Roy Mankinen, head of the Vineyard Haven hospital, and his family. And Wally’s annual boating maintenance routine often began with trips to Burt’s Boat Yard. Wally and Addie developed a long and close friendship with Erford and Alice Burt.

In the early ‘50s Wally convinced the pastor of his church in Staten Island, N.Y., Rev. John Reid, to visit the Island, and thus a camp was built next door, salvaged from sections of an old fishing shack washed up on Lobsterville beach in the 1938 hurricane and hauled by oxcart.

Wally’s most notable friendship was with Jay and Mary Lou Wright. Jay’s mother had been a patient of Wally’s at the hospital in Staten Island and Mary Lou the organist of his church. The Wrights fell in love with the Vineyard and built their summer home on the Chilmark side of Menemsha Pond. Their friendship continues through four family generations.

Until his 104th year Wally pursued his great love of golf, particularly enjoying rounds at the Mink Meadows course at West Chop, as well as Mt. Pleasant and Pine Ridge courses in Baltimore. In 2013 he was honored by the Pine Ridge Senior Golf Club membership for his steadfast devotion to the game.

Since growing up in the Baptist church in Groton, Vt., Wally was active in church life. He served as elder in the First Presbyterian church of Staten Island and as deacon of the Babcock Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, and regularly attended the Gay Head Community Baptist Church during the summers.

Wally is survived by his wife Adelaide (Addie) Sennott and their son James Waldron Sennott of Sarasota, Fla.;,five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his mother Ethel Farrow of Torrington, Conn., his father Arthur K. Sennott of South Deerfield, his sister Winifred O’Donnell of Torrington, Conn. and son Roger Stanley Sennott of San Diego, Calif.

A memorial service was held March 12  at the Pickersgill Retirement Community, officiated by Rev. Harry Cahill, followed by interment at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens in Timonium, Md.  In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Babcock Presbyterian Church, 8240 Loch Raven Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21286.