Jennie A. Greene died on Feb. 13 after an extended battle with cancer. She was 77.

Jennie had a passion for community service and environmental preservation. She committed much of her adult life to public service and safeguarding legacies of the natural environment she loved.

She was the daughter of Nathanael and Jane (Williams) Greene, and grew up in an old house surrounded by an orchard, in Guilford, Conn. Her early years were spent working hard to keep up with three focused elder siblings, and being a big sister to her little sister. She loved sailing, dancing, skating and horseback riding with her cousins.

She attended The Country School in Madison, Conn. where she played on the boys soccer team, and graduated from the Shipley School in Pennsylvania.

At Marlboro College in Vermont, she found resonance with a group of kindred souls. She explored mathematics and art, and especially enjoyed the history of Scotland.

After graduating with a B.A. in British History, she maintained a strong connection to the institution, fundraising for the school and later serving on the board of trustees. Marlboro’s emphasis on self-reliance and civic responsibility resonated across the span of her life, as did the friendships she made there.

While in college, it was a Marlboro friend who brought her to the Vineyard. After graduation, they spent a summer living in the Whiting’s boathouse on Tisbury Great Pond. She met John Walsh literally by accident at the end of Quansoo Road that summer and a year later they married and settled in an old family house in Wellesley. They had two sons, John and Prescott, and Jennie enjoyed running the ToT Time Daycare Center among other things. During those years Jennie and John’s eggnog parties were legendary. Beyond a wickedly good homemade eggnog, they had the biggest Christmas trees anyone had ever seen.

Eventually, the pull of the Vineyard became irresistible for Jennie and John, and when John and Bea Whiting gave them a chance to buy some land, they embarked on building a house there. After Jennie and John parted ways, Jennie and the boys moved to the house on the Vineyard full time.

The house on the edge of the big field was over a mile and a half from the nearest paved road, without electricity and only a wood stove for heat. It was several years before the luxury of electric service arrived. To Jennie, what mattered most was the Vineyard community, culture and natural world: beautiful, quiet walks to the Great Pond with generations of dogs; swapping thoughts with other regulars after work on the bench at Alley’s; jovial evening gatherings with Quansoo neighbors; painting pond, trees and sky Christmas cards; watching the changes of the seasons across the old field in front of the house through her plant-framed, oversized picture windows.

With the arrival of grandchildren CJ and Nate, she became a fan of soccer games again and enjoyed Sunday afternoon Grandma visits.

Once settled on the Vineyard, Jennie turned her energies towards working to protect her adopted home for future generations. From 1989 to 2006 she served on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, doing her best to balance the needs of Islanders to earn livelihoods and access affordable housing through public planning that strove to assure that the Island’s special way of life continues. Jennie held the distinction of becoming the first woman to serve as chairperson of the commission in 1991.

In addition to caring for special places, Jennie worked to help people during her 18 years as administrator of the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal Housing Authority. Not only did her daily work for almost two decades help families by managing housing affairs, renovations and repairs, but she also served as a negotiator with federal entities as part of the South and Eastern Tribes coalition, and the National American Indian Housing Council. This work extended to advocating for tribal communities’ rights and opportunities across the continent, such as testifying before the Federal Reserve and Congress against predatory lending on tribal reservations.

In Chilmark, she served on the human resource board for the last 24 years, attending her last public meeting just in December, where she advocated for Chilmark town employees to receive an important cost of living increase.

She also served as an election officer for the last 17 years, and was an intrepid poll worker as well.

Jennie’s passing has left a gap on the bench at Alley’s General Store. Island meetings about sustainable development will be quieter, and the sky and trees along the Great Pond have lost a committed and studious admirer. But Jennie had great faith in those of the younger generation, and her footsteps are waiting to be followed.

Jennie leaves her sons, Prescott Walsh of Chilmark and John Walsh of Edgartown, John’s wife Kelley Nagi, and grandchildren Caroline Jane and Nathanael; two sisters, Elizabeth and Esther Greene; a brother, Nathanael Greene and his wife Frances; a brother Walter Greene and his wife Joan; niece Kate Greene, her husband Rob Migneault, and great-nieces Hailee and Casey.

Donations in Jennie’s memory may be made to Polly Hill Arboretum, mailing address: P.O. Box 561, West Tisbury, MA 02575.