Charles (Charlie) Urban Banta died peacefully at his residence in Williamsville, N.Y., on May 18. He was 102.

Charlie was born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1916, to Clara Urban Banta and Dr. Charles Woodbury Banta. The family was involved in the Bidwell and Banta shipyard in Buffalo, which manufactured large passenger steamboats for service on the Great Lakes. Charlie’s maternal grandfather, George Urban Jr., was president and owner of the George Urban Milling Company in Buffalo, one of the early flour mills east of the Mississippi.

He attended the Nicholas School of Buffalo and the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Yale University in 1939 and the following year attended the Harvard Business School, where he earned his MBA. He worked for the Ford Motor Company and Curtiss-Wright until the onset of World War II. During the war, as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Seabees, he served in the Pacific Theater at Guadalcanal, the Philippines and Okinawa.

After the war, he worked in Boston at Rath & Strong Management Consultants before returning to Buffalo, where he took a position at the First National Bank. Starting in 1954, he was a partner in the investment banking firm S.D. Lunt, where he oversaw mergers and acquisitions that would generate employment and business opportunities for the Buffalo area.

From 1974 to 1975 he worked for Kidder, Peabody & Company. At 63, when most people consider retirement, Charlie took on the position of senior vice president of investments and co-founder, with Robert Dwyer, of the Buffalo branch of Dean Witter. Dean Witter later merged with Morgan Stanley, and in 1999 Charlie retired at age 82.

Throughout his career he was a mentor to and revered by colleagues young and old.

He was a devoted husband to Melissa Wickser Banta, to whom he was married for 64 years until her death in 2011. The couple was known for their warmth, humor, intellect and wide circle of friends. Melissa, who held a Ph.D. in English literature, taught at Calasanctius, a school for academically gifted children, and in the English department at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Charlie and Melissa spent many happy years together living in Williamsville, N.Y. outside of Buffalo, with their children in a wonderful home formerly owned by Charles Goodyear. Beginning in 1959 the family spent summers on Martha’s Vineyard where Charlie’s sister, Clara Kennedy, and her family also vacationed. For many years they rented the home owned by Bayes and Polly Norton at the end of Crocker avenue, an historic 18th century house with a view of the Vineyard Haven harbor.

Friends remember the family’s wonderful parties where people gathered on porches that wrapped around the house.

The Norton property had beach rights on Abel’s Hill in Chilmark, and the family fell in love with the beautiful site. Later, Charlie and Melissa had the good fortune to buy a house from the Eddy family on Abel’s Hill.

Charlie loved to drive around the Island. He often met up in the early morning for coffee with friends at the Tisbury post office or in Aquinnah. During the 1960s and 1970s when hitchhiking was common, he would frequently pick up hitchhikers and take them anywhere they wanted to go.

Known for his unfailing loyalty, kindness and generosity, he was beloved by his many friends and extended family.

He is survived by three children, Charles Wickser Banta, Philip Livingston Banta, and Melissa Winspear Banta; and eight grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at the Country Club of Buffalo in Williamsville, N.Y., on July 9 at 4:30 p.m.

Contributions can be made to the Albright-Knox Art Gallery or Hospice Buffalo.