Samuel W. Fleming 3rd, a devoted father, beloved husband, favorite uncle and loyal friend to many, died on March 4 after a long battle with Parkinson’s at his retirement community in Scarborough, Me. He was 91.

Big Sam, as he was affectionately called, was charismatic, magnetic and possessed a special charm and humor that was infectious. It endeared him to friends and family up and down the East Coast, from Pennsylvania where he grew up and later managed a stock brokerage firm to Martha’s Vineyard where he resided most summers. After marrying his wife, Beverly, the young couple moved to Maine and returned to the state late in life. He and Beverly (Babs), were married for over 71 years.

Sam especially knew how to have fun and make everyone around him feel the same. He had an extremely quick wit often laced with irony and self-deprecation. He loved being surrounded by his bevy of friends — in Harrisburg, Pa., when he first started raising a family and later in Philadelphia, and always on the Vineyard where many of his best friends followed him and bought homes — so they could carry on their gin rummy and backgammon games on the beach or backyard. All gatherings were marked by back and forth banter and lots of laughter. He loved the competition even if just playing for dimes, quarters or a hamburger.

Sam especially loved sports. He was a deft and wily tennis player and especially excelled at doubles where his canny, well-angled shot-making unraveled more powerful opponents. As one friend put it: ‘How many tens of thousands of drop shots, greasy slice serves, no-look volleys and top-spin lobs did he hit?’ Most were followed by a laugh and insightful commentary.

He was also an avid sailor and did a lot of cruising with Babs — a hobby inherited from his father. In his mid-30s he introduced his family to skiing, taking them every Friday night — along with vast buckets of Gino’s Fried Chicken — to Ski Roundtop outside Harrisburg. Soon there were expeditions to larger mountain tops in Vermont and Colorado.

But it was golf that drew him to wax poetic. He relished the sport’s glory and history, whether in annual treks to the Master’s in Augusta, Ga., or the Scottish links where golf got its start in the 15th century. He joined so many different clubs it was hard to keep up, and often got coaxed into leadership roles because he was so popular with members and equally devoted and loyal to those working at them. He especially loved the Edgartown Golf Club, Yeaman’s Hall in Charleston, S.C. and Gulph Mills and Pine Valley, both near Philadelphia.

Sam was also highly successful in the brokerage business — becoming a partner in the late 1950s at Philadelphia-based W.H. Newbold & Sons. Sam ran the Harrisburg office before being transferred to Philadelphia where he became a managing partner for almost 20 years before retiring in 1988.

Sam Fleming 3rd was born in Bellefonte, Pa., in 1926, the son of Samuel W. Fleming Jr., a former colonel who served in Europe during World War I and later started a successful civil engineering firm in Harrisburg. Sam’s mother Sarah, the daughter of Pennsylvania Gov. Daniel Hastings, died in 1946. Young Sam had two older sisters, Barbie and Franny. At age three, Sam and his family lived in South Africa for a year while his father built a bridge in Cape Town. He returned and attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H. which he loved but struggled somewhat. Here is an excerpt from the St. Paul’s health director in a letter to Sam’s father in February 1941: “I agree with Col. Fleming that Sam looked rather ‘peaked’ and he was worried about his marks.” Sam remained at St. Paul’s for several years before returning to Pennsylvania and graduating from William Penn High School in Harrisburg. He went onto Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me. His time at Bowdoin was interrupted by a two-year stint as a private in the army based in Trinidad and Las Vegas.

Soon after returning from overseas, Sam married Beverly in June 1947. She was 22 and was from Baltimore, Md. They moved to Brunswick, Me., where Sam finished his college courses at Bowdoin and ran a diaper laundry business from a Jeep on the side.

They returned to Harrisburg, where Sam began working for his father’s engineering firm and started raising a family, including Sally, Nan, Sam and Peyton, all born between 1950 and 1956. In 1956, he left engineering and jumped into the world of stock and bonds. He never looked back, working hard and successfully at W.H. Newbold’s for three decades.

When Sam and Beverly first retired, they moved from Pennsylvania to Charleston, S.C. He eventually became president of the Yeaman’s Hall Golf Club and started a successful annual golf tournament. His retirement also rekindled his love for poetry, which he wrote throughout his adult life and especially in his later years. One poem of particular note titled The Demise of Turkey Tom was written in South Carolina following a weekend shooting turkeys with his friend Peter Lawson-Johnston. Peter still recites the poem from memory.

His poems were published occasionally in the Vineyard Gazette.

In 2003, Sam and Babs moved back to Maine to the Piper Shores Retirement Community, which has provided remarkable care, support and love for both of them.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter Sally Tomkins of Brooksville, Me. and her husband Bill Tomkins; daughter Nan Fleming of Williamsburg, son Sam Fleming 4th of Cambridge and his wife Emily Bramhall; son Peyton Fleming of Brookline and his wife Beth Daley; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

A service for family will be held at Piper Shores in Scarborough, Me., on April 7 with an additional gathering on Martha’s Vineyard this summer.