Albert (Hap) Hamel died May 3 at his home in Saint Louis. He was 95.

Hap started life in Saint Louis, Mo. the son of Ellis and Lessie Hamel. Two sisters made his life interesting — twin sister Nancy and his older sister Suzanne.

He was a graduate and devoted alum of Washington and Lee University and a proud graduate of the law school at Washington University in Saint Louis. Between undergraduate and law school he served in the Marine Corps with stints at Camp Lejeune and Parris Island.

Hap was a practicing attorney for 38 years focussing on litigation and banking. In his early legal career he was an assistant US attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. Later he joined the staff of Cong. Tom Curtis in Washington DC.

After retirement he and his wife, April, moved to Edgartown residing on Cooke and South Water streets. Hap was chair of the Edgartown Public Library board of trustees, a member of the Land Bank advisory board, moderator of the Federated Church of Edgartown, and member of the Edgartown Yacht Club. He conducted a review of the early records and documents of Edgartown and secured the passage on the town warrant of a regulation to authorize and fund their protection and long term preservation. In addition, he created, developed and implemented a plan for Edgartown to incentivize property owners along the harbor to create scenic view easements across their properties to preserve a public view. Two easements can today be found: one at the former Federated Church parsonage on South Water street and the other on Dunham Road.

In August of 2005 he was featured in the Martha’s Vineyard Magazine in an article entitled A View: From Street to Shining Sea. In the article Margaret Knight writes, ”Hap likes to memorialize good deeds, so the two finalize easements are celebrated by plaques set at the edge of each yard.” Those plaques remain in place today.

In 2016 Hap donated his scenic view easement materials to the Martha’s Vineyard Museum.

In 2000 the Hamels moved to Wood Duck Way in Oak Bluffs. During that period Hap joined the board of Friends of Sengekontacket and served as president of the board. In 2016 the Hamels moved to Saint Louis.

Hap is survived by his wife of 43 years, April Vahle Hamel; his stepson Hugh Black of Sacramento and a professor of medicine at the University of California at Davis; Hugh’s wife Amy Black, an orthopedic surgeon at Kaiser South Hospital; his beloved grandsons: Oliver Black, a student at the University of Washington and member of the varsity rowing team, our “boy in the boat;” Charlie Black, a soon-to-be graduate of Jesuit Carmichael High School and an enrolled member of the class of 2028 at UCLA; and is much loved niece Julia Reffel and her husband Jim.

Donations may be made to Island Grown Initiative at igimv.org.