Leonard R. (Lenny) Jarek, a part-time resident of Oak Bluffs and lifelong resident of Lowell, died July 6 at Care Dimensions Hospice House in Lincoln, following a brief illness. He was 82.

He was the beloved husband of Donna M. Zusin Jarek, to whom he was married for 59 years after they met as teenagers.

Len was born in Lowell in 1941, educated in Lowell public schools and graduated from trade school in Lowell. He had a long career as a very valued, talented, intuitive machinist.

Beyond school and work, Len was self taught in nearly everything he did, combining his curiosity for how things worked with natural engineering skills to build or fix just about anything.

In 1967, Len and Donna went to the Vineyard for the first time and fell in love with the Island, starting a tradition of visits, including helping a relative to restore the historic Crystal Palace house on Pequot avenue in Oak Bluffs.

Their distant dream of one day owning a home on the Island was fortunately fulfilled when they built their sweet little house in Oak Bluffs in the mid-1980s. Len loved his Island home and spent time there with Donna annually, with visits from their children and grandchildren being something he looked forward to every year.

Beekeeping, gardening and mead or wine-making were among his hobbies and he generously shared his products with family and friends. He recorded a daily weather journal for many decades and every season tracked tropical storms on a chart. He could name just about any plant or flower.

Along the way, he tended bees in Oak Bluffs, at Solviva in West Tisbury and at Vineyard Sound Herbs at Seven Gates Farm in Chilmark, occasionally selling honey, wax and propolis to local merchants.

Len never wasted a moment, filling his life doing things and seeing places, “bee-friending” diverse people along the way.

On summer evenings he liked to sit on the former brick wall at Healey Park on Circuit avenue with the local regulars, catching up while endlessly people-watching. Any local construction projects happening were monitored daily by him, and he befriended the drawbridge engineers and operators during that rebuild.

Beyond enjoying the Island, Len and Donna loved to travel together and they took many road trips, including two cross-country road trips and visits to more than a dozen national parks.

In addition to his wife, Len is survived by his daughter, Laurie J. Healey and her husband Thomas of Franklin; his two sons, Mark L. Jarek and his wife Lori Sylvia of Milford and Bart S. Jarek of Oak Bluffs; plus four grandchildren, three brothers, his sister and extended family.

Memorial contributions may be made to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services and the Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation.