Herbert F. Wass of Oak Bluffs and Topsfield died on Oct. 24 at the family cottage in the Camp Ground. He was 90.

True to the spirit of the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association’s Community Sing, he died shortly after his wife and daughters sang Sing Your Way Home. Although Herb didn’t attend the sings, he loved hearing his daughters and, later, his grandchildren, chorusing their way home.

He was born in Fort Wayne, Ind. where his writing and entrepreneurial spirit first ignited, writing and selling a newspaper for a nickel. While at Earlham College he managed to woo Dorothy Teal, write sports and news for the Richmond Palladium. He worked in the cafeteria, a funeral parlor and as a referee.

After graduation he had to choose between scholarships in journalism or economics. Although he chose economics, he was a lifelong letter writer known for his witticisms and infamous Christmas letters in which did not hold back on liberal politics.

Herb was a retired vice president and secretary of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He had previously taught economics at Babson College, University of Vermont, The City College of New York and Muskingum College in Ohio.

Thanks to the artist William Blakesley, a Muskingum colleague, the Wasses were introduced to the Vineyard as assistant house parents at the youth hostel. In 1963 they bought a gingerbread cottage in the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association — the one closest to the Oak Bluffs fire department engine number four back in the day. Herb once chased off boys flirting with a daughter’s friend, bounding up in a Superman T-shirt. In later years he had the T-shirt gift-wrapped and he presented it to his wife Dorothy at an anniversary dinner, pronouncing her the real superhero in the family.

Despite health challenges dating back to a stroke in 2011, Herb lived fully into his 90th year, enjoying hours of backyard sunshine, coffee from Our Market, an East Chop drive and dinners out. He and Dorothy celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary in late August.

He had many career accomplishments but his greatest personal one was as father and grandfather. After retirement in 1995 he was full-time “Gramp,” teasing another generation and teaching them how to manage money while dispensing fudge generously. He defied death more times than a herd of cats. Yet until the end he always claimed he was fine.

Herb is survived by his wife Dorothy; daughters Peggy Sturdivant and her spouse Martin Tollefson, and Gretchen Rehak and her spouse Walter Rehak; and grandchildren Emily, Jonah, Sarah and Grace. He is also survived by his older sister Nancy Robertson, her husband Kenneth and their children; and the three daughters of his late sister Mary Ellen Osborne, all of whom were his favorite niece.

He was predeceased by his dear friend Bill Blakesley, who asked him to deliver remarks for his own 90th birthday, as long as they didn’t begin, “Dearly beloved.”

Memorial donations can be made to World Central Kitchen at wck.org. A memorial fund supporting art and community has been established through the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association and contributions can be made at mvcma.org, attn.: Herbert Wass Memorial.

He always read the obituaries first.