However accustomed to the rhythms of life we think we’ve become, unimaginable events intrude and overtake our faculties and our capacity for comprehension and expression. Pat Gregory, a man of rare centrality to Vineyard life, has been mindlessly taken away from us; we are angry and diminished and chilled, reminded again that we borrow but never own the instruments of civility which nourish and protect our community.
Pat Gregory’s individual acts of kindness, the range of his interests, his sacrifices to the public exercise of citizenship, and his grace and humility made him of our community in a unique way. Ever the teacher, Pat’s legacy is not the hole that his death has left behind, it’s the caring friend and neighbor he’s shown we each can be.
What follows is a selection of the more than 70 reader comments posted to MVTimes.com.
Peter Oberfest
Publisher
Dear Gregory family, My heart goes out to you as family…this is an incredibly terrible loss and my prayers are with you.
Always a Gentle-man, with a smile and caring nature that was sincere. I’m so sad, we have lost one amazing man!
This is an outrage. I am so sad for the Gregory family and the Island community. My heart aches. I am so sad. You are all in my thoughts and prayers ♥
Sara Piazza · Owner at Sara Piazza Photography&Music
This is unfathomable. It makes no sense whatsoever. May God grant strength and comfort to Pat’s family and to all of us.
Ellen Northrup · Marthas Vineyard Regional High
I am so sad. He personified decency.
Heartbreaking, senseless, devastating. God bless him, I wish, wish, wish with all my heart that this wasn’t true.
Mary Gould ·West Tisbury, Massachusetts
I hope I’m dreaming. What crazed animal would rob and then kill such a good human being?
We are all the richer for having known Pat and all the poorer for losing his gentlemanly presence. He showed us that it is possible to remain civil to one another when there are so many examples of the opposite in our world. My heart goes out to Dorothy and all their family & friends.
Frank Flanders · Marthas Vineyard Regional High
My heart goes out to this wonderful family. Pat has always been a very personable individual whose caring seemed unending. The family and all whom he was involved with have lost a great friend. May you rest in peace my friend and may your family find comfort. You will be greatly missed. My heart aches at the loss of such a gentleman.
Bill MacKenty · Director of Technology at American School of Warsaw
This is a terrible tragedy, meaningless and wrenching. I remember Pat in Educomp, what a decent, good, kind man.
Beyond horrible. There was not a nicer, more genuine, universally beloved person than Pat. Though I don’t know his family but if they are reading this, please know that I am one of thousands here in your community thinking of you, here for you, and mourning Pat. I’m also reminiscing about some funny conversations we’d have when randomly bumping into each other on Main St about how technology is supposed to work but, even as computer people, how sometimes we’d shake our heads at how it refused to cooperate. This is a tragic loss and the shock is impossible to measure.
Robert Abbey · Design Committee Volunteer at Gardiner Main Street
Pat Gregory was always a terrific supporter of the Island schools and actively advised and helped us implement then unknown technologies. He was able to work with anyone in such a friendly and engaging way. It’s hard to make meaning from this, but Pat’s life was truly of note.
Melinda Loberg · Smith College
So very sad! The island has lost one of its finest citizens and friends. God rest your soul Pat. You will be missed and remembered with love and respect.
Jan Pogue · Follow · Edgartown, Massachusetts
Speechless with sorrow
Larry Greenberg · Owner/Clinician at Greenberg Physical & Hand Therapy Associates
What a decent, gentle, kind, compassionate, intelligent and fine man. Struggling with such a senseless act. Heartfelt sympathies to Dorothy and their children. Pat was the best example of humankind.
So shocking that such a decent, kind and upbeat person should be lost in such a senseless way.
Jyl Manning · Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts
My sincere sympathies to the “Gregory” family. I have known Pat through soccer when his grandson, Jack, played with my grandson. Pat pitched right in and helped coach! I previously knew him from the Tribe, and the computer tech work he did with and for us. I am a loyal customer to his store as well. He will be so missed by the West Tisbury community, and the Island. I am filled with grief for his wife and family, and just to say: This world was a better place for Pat being in it. My prayers are with his family at this time. I am so very sorry.
