David Ogden Douglas, whose passionate love of the land, agriculture and all things farming related — including the often temperamental machinery it took to run a farm — inspired him to exchange the New York financial and business world for a seat on a John Deere tractor at his beloved Rainbow Farm in West Tisbury, died March 18 in Ocala, Fla. He was 75.

David was born July 6, 1940, the youngest son of four born to Grace and James Henderson Douglas 2nd in Lake Forest, Ill.

From childhood, David enjoyed summers on Martha’s Vineyard with his family. He attended Middlesex and Harvard University and ultimately made his way back to Martha’s Vineyard.

On the Vineyard in 1962, he met his first wife, Jenifer. Together they raised three daughters and a stepson.

He began his professional career at the New York Stock Exchange and later ran his own architecture business. Both were exciting adventures but not his passion. His passion was farming, which he did for several years in Essex, raising Charolais beef cattle. He conceived a plan to move to the Vineyard, design his own home and become a Vineyard farmer. Being David, that’s what he did. He bought and or leased a total of 90 acres in West Tisbury, carefully developed the property for a beef cattle operation, designed and built new farm buildings, restored worn out ancillary buildings, and when it was ready shifted his Essex farm to the hilly Vineyard property he called Rainbow Farm.

David was a smart farmer and a clever businessman. He raised cattle to serve as breeding stock to other farmers, carefully matching bulls and cows to get the best offspring. He served as president of the American-International Charolais Association during his 35 years raising cattle.

He also raised hay for sale to Island horse owners, feed corn for his cattle, and sweet corn for sale to summer residents, and he worked at it, mowing and baling the hay, and helping to get it into the big barns he built.

When a farm became available in Chilmark near the West Tisbury town line, he sold the West Tisbury Rainbow Farm property and shifted Rainbow Farm (now under new owners and known as Grey Barn Farm) and his growing farming operations from West Tisbury to Chilmark. The house he had built for himself on the South Road when he moved to the Vineyard was located just on the West Tisbury side of the Chilmark-West Tisbury boundary, making it a perfect fit for his new operation.

David was passionate about West Tisbury and its rural beauty. He realized that to keep the town he loved from losing that important quality he had to commit to it, so David ran for election to the West Tisbury planning board and served on the board for 30 years, from 1981 until 2011, when he moved to Chilmark.

In 1990, David married Laura Campbell. When they dispersed the cow herd in the fall of 1994, he realized he still loved the land. So David and Laura created a wonderful county store for animal feed and fine boots, to name a few of the products stocked at Campbell & Douglas Harness & Feed.

He helped many an Islander load feed or hay onto their trucks there. And this time of year, the early spring, he got on a tractor towing the plows, turning the soil for planting. And he would come into the house at the end of the day, cold and smiling.

David is survived by his wife Laura Campbell; daughter Jenifer and partner Jack Wildauer; daughter Alexandra Welch and his grandson Brendan Welch; daughter Diana DeBlase, her husband Glenn and granddaughter Gabriella; his first wife Jenifer Douglas and stepson David Breasted; brothers John and his children Leaf and Maya and partner Bobbie; James Douglas; Capt. Robert S. Douglas and his wife Charlene and their sons Brook, Rob and his wife Jackie, Jamie and his wife Marianne and children Grace and James, Morgan and his wife Griffin and their child Alexander.

A celebration of life and memorial in honor of David Douglas will be held when the corn is up to our ankles at a time, place, and date to be announced.