Johnny (Seaview) Perry, an iconic Vineyard character, home-grown philosopher and friendly street-walker in a cowboy hat, died Dec. 12 at a care center in Malden where he had been living in recent years battling cancer. He was 84 and his real name was Oliver Perry, although he never used it. His nickname was earned in the 1960s when he tended bar at the old Seaview Hotel in Oak Bluffs.

“Want to know what the goal of life is? To relieve suffering, create beauty and make gardens,” he told the Martha's Vineyard Magazine in an edited oral history in 2005.

Dr. Joseph E. Murray of Wellesley and Chappaquiddick, a plastic surgeon whose pioneering work in organ transplant surgery in the 1950s later led to a Nobel Prize in medicine, died on Nov. 26 in Boston from complications following a stroke. He was 93. Dr. Murray died at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the same hospital where he performed his first kidney transplant in 1954.

“The privilege of taking care of fellow human beings is tremendous,” he told the Gazette in a 2001 interview.

Radio station WMVY, the popular independent local station that has been on the air on the Vineyard for nearly three decades, will sell its broadcast signal 92.7 FM to WBUR, the well-known National Public Radio station in Boston.

Bucking the national trend on the Republican side, but closely mirroring the electoral mood of the country on the Democratic side, voters in Dukes County threw their support to Sen. John McCain and Vice President Al Gore in the presidential primary on Tuesday.

Texas Gov. George W. Bush did not take a single town in the county - which includes Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands - but former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley did very well here, landing the majority vote on the Democratic ticket in Aquinnah and Chilmark, and trailing by only a few votes in the other five towns.

Closely following the electoral mood of the country, voters in Dukes County turned out in huge numbers this week to cast ballots for national, state and local offices and to add their collective voice to an array of commonwealth initiative petition questions on everything from greyhound racing to universal health care.

In a characteristic show of independence, Island voters also bucked a number of the statewide trends, although like the rest of the commonwealth, they voted in large numbers for Vice President Al Gore over Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

A South Shore bank executive has been named president and chief executive officer of the Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank, trustees announced on Thursday.

Paul Falvey, 48, is a resident of Hingham and currently president and chief executive officer of the Holbrook Cooperative Bank. His 25-year career in banking began at the Bank of New England and includes experience in restructuring and working closely with bank regulators, a press release issued by the bank said.

A joint purchase last month by the town of Tisbury and the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank completes a decades-old aquifer protection plan around the Manter well.

The town and the land bank paid $400,000 for 9.5 acres off Old Holmes Hole Road, with the town putting in $300,000 and the land bank $100,000. The transaction took place on August 24.

One of the listed sellers was Ron Monterosso, acting as a trustee for Redmont Realty Trust, which owned a fractional interest in the property. The sale was handled through a trustee appointed by the Dukes County Probate Court.

A rare, unspoiled property fronting an expansive and remote stretch of the south shore in West Tisbury was placed on the market Thursday with an asking price of $92 million.

The 266-acre property, one of the largest contiguous landholdings on the Vineyard, is owned by Gerald DeBlois, a longtime resident of West Tisbury. The property that has been placed on the market does not include Mr. DeBlois’s residence which sits on a separate parcel of about 50 acres and is not for sale.

How many pounds of flour, how many pounds of sugar, how many pounds
of butter have passed through this place in the last 37 years? How many
scones, how many shortbreads, how many jars of beach plum jelly, how
many rhubarb pies?

No one ever counted. And no one ever wrote down the recipes.

Last week's report calling for high-speed ferry service
between New Bedford and the Vineyard was submitted without any financial
information, and the acting general manager of the Steamship Authority
said yesterday that he will now have to step in to finish the crucial
financial piece of the report.