They need no introduction, certainly not on the Vineyard.

Nat Benjamin and Ross Gannon, the well-known Vineyard Haven boatbuilders and owners of Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway, were honored last night at The Grange Hall in West Tisbury with the prestigious Creative Living Award, the annual honorarium given in memory of the late Ruth Bogan to an Islander who exemplifies the Vineyard way of life.

More than 100 friends and family members attended, including a number of respected wooden boat captains.

Daniel Waters will be honored with the 2011 Creative Living Award, the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard announced this week.

The award will be presented on Oct. 18 at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury beginning at 5:30 p.m. All are invited to attend.

As hundreds of West Tisbury residents, including selectmen and moderator, awaited the beginning of the annual town meeting, Daniel Waters stood up to recite, not a prayer but a poem written especially for the occasion.

Tonight the gym is filled with chairs

In which our town will sit

Our democratic derrieres

And chew the fat a bit.

‘It seems we did this just last week,’

We comment with a groan;

Yet measured by our own physique,

Surrounded by friends and fans, Daniel A. Waters — poet and musician, among his many avocations — on Tuesday accepted this year’s Creative Living Award from the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard with characteristic humility.

“I feel so lucky to have come to live in a place where a community comes out to honor somebody just for doing what they love,” Mr. Waters told a packed audience at the Grange Hall.

And honor him they did.