Janet Frost Bank died peacefully on April 25. She was 86.

Janet was born in 1934 in Lebanon, N.H. to Lore Alford and Dorothy Mountain Frost. The family moved shortly after to Massachusetts where Janet attended Beverly High school. She went to Connecticut College and graduated with honors in chemistry and did graduate work in organic chemistry at Purdue University, where she met and married fellow graduate student, Shelton Bank.

They lived in various places after finishing their degrees and finally settled in Albany N.Y. with their two children, Todd and Brigeda.

The summer of 1964 they rented a cottage on Chappy with friends and, of course, fell in love with the Vineyard. After many years of camping and biking on the Vineyard, they bought a house in West Tisbury and moved to the Island permanently in 1997. Janet was a member of The League of Women Voters, the MV Garden Club, the Want to Know Club, and was a volunteer for Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard, the Friends of up-Island Council on Aging, the WT Byways Committee, and the All Island Transportation Committee.

Janet worked for several small research groups in the Albany area, and was coauthor of 20 scientific papers. In addition, she and her husband published a book, 1001 Ways to Pass Organic Chemistry. With the royalties from the book, they bought a boat, named it 1001, and spent many happy days sailing on Martha’s Vineyard Sound.

She is predeceased by Shelton, her husband of 52 years. She is survived by her son Todd, daughter Brigeda, and two grandchildren.

Janet’s family and friends will miss her fierce independence, love of nature and art, passion for good food and wine, sharp wit, conversations, and debates about local, national and world affairs.