The Vineyard has changed a lot since 1975. The landscape, the people and the place have all changed.

But if there is one constant in a sea of change for the past 36 years, surely it is William Wilcox. He was the face of the county extension service for so many years people stopped counting, there at the ready to help Vineyard farmers with their crops, their soil and their pests. And for many more years he has been the water quality resource planner for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

The skies threatened rain, but the event stayed dry except for the occasional shower of tears. It was standing room only at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs Sunday afternoon as hundreds of friends, family, teachers and neighbors gathered to watch the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Class of 2011 graduate. The graduates milled about with friends and family before lining up for their procession, the boys in their purple gowns on the right, the girls in their white gowns on the left.

The Vineyard boys’ tennis team turned in their strongest performance of the season Friday afternoon in Barnstable, but could not overcome the rackets of Cape Cod Academy, falling 3-2 in the finals of the MIAA South Section Tournament.

It was a game good enough for the likes of Bill Murray, who watched the wooden bat action standing behind home plate, as the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks defeated the Seacoast Mavericks with a score of 6-1 in their Island opener on Friday.

Red Sox Hall of Famer Bob “The Steamer” Stanley threw out the first pitch after a small ceremony honoring those, including Vineyard schools superintendent Jim Weiss and regional high school principal Steve Nixon, who had been instrumental in welcoming the Sharks to the Island.

Edgartown Marine has been sold to new owners.

George and Sheryl Roth Rogers of Lexington and Vineyard Haven will take ownership of the business at the town-owned boat yard on Monday, pending bank approval. The boat yard is at the end of Morse street on the Edgartown harbor.

The sellers are Maurice Dore and Anthony (Tony) Chianase; the sale price has not been disclosed. Edgartown selectmen approved transfer of a long-term lease for the new owners at a special selectmen’s meeting Friday afternoon.

Correction

A series of photographs showing the top 10 graduating seniors at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School in the Tuesday Gazette mistakenly switched the names beneath the pictures for Jill McHugh and Naomi Pallas, who are both tied for fourth honors in the class. The photographs appear above with correct identification. The Gazette regrets the error.

A life on Martha’s Vineyard, last year in Delhi, next year in Cairo and Stanford after that. Some people might relish the comfort and security of the bounded Island domain, but Sarah Johnson, this year’s co-valedictorian at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, wants to explore.

She shares the honor with Mary Harrington, who could not be reached for an interview.

The Class of 2011 is open. Open to the world — Edinburgh, Prague, India, Costa Rica and France are among the places they have lived and performed. Open to the community — volunteering at the hospital, the animal shelter, the YMCA. Open to opportunities — seeking out mentors at various Island businesses.

School president Rachel Pires called breaking down the barrier between upperclassmen and underclassmen one of their biggest achievements. “I think our grade’s really open to being friends with everybody,” she said.

Longfin inshore squid ( loligo pealeii ) may not be on the menu, but it is an important local seafood that has grown scarce.

Recreational and commercial fishermen are perplexed, wondering how a once profitable and abundant bait seems to have disappeared. Tackle shop owners can’t find enough of it. The draggers working in Nantucket Sound have had slim pickings.

The town of Tisbury will extend the contracts of the people overseeing work on its trouble-plagued new emergency services building, at a likely cost of around $100,000.

The extensions — for the architects, HKT, and owner’s property manager and clerk of the works — were ticked off by the selectmen on Tuesday night at a meeting with the building committee, called to discuss the allegedly shoddy workmanship by the main building contractor, Seaver Constructions, lengthening delays and increasing costs and frustration.