Judith Randal, a seasonal Vineyard visitor since the 1940s, died Feb. 3 at her home in Lovettsville, Va., after a brief illness. She was 93.

She had summered in childhood in Chilmark, where her parents were friends of the late artist Thomas Hart Benton; at East Chop; and in West Tisbury.

She had been the chief science writer for the Washington Star in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s, a former medical and science writer for the Newhouse National News Service; a contributing writer to The Economist and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute; and was a past president of the National Association of Science Writers,

She had also received awards for her science and health journalism from the National Society for Medical Research, the National Association of University Women, the National Press Club, the Albert and Mary Laker Foundation, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Writers Association and the Washington Baltimore Newspaper Guild.

She was currently a member of the Loudon health council and health systems agency of Loudon County of Northern Virginia’s advisory board. She had also done government service as a congressional fellow in the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress.

She was born in Buffalo, N.Y. on July 8, 1929, a daughter of the late Jules and Judith Randal. She was a 1947 graduate of The Brearley School in New York city and a 1962 graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism’s Sloan-Rockefeller Advanced Science Program in New York city. She was a devoted cat lover and supporter of animal care organizations. She was also an inveterate traveler, spending holidays — when not on the Vineyard — all over the world.

She is survived by her brother, Jon Randal of Paris, France and Chilmark. She was predeceased by her husband, William Hines.

A celebration of life service will be held in Lovettsville in the spring.