Ruth Cronig Stiller died in her native Vineyard Haven on Sunday, July 10, 2016. With her passing, Martha’s Vineyard lost a pillar of its Jewish community and an enduring spirit of its social, educational, and cultural life. She was 94.

Ruth was born on June 10, 1922, in Vineyard Haven, the youngest of five children of Samuel Cronig, the first permanent Jewish resident of Martha’s Vineyard, and Libby Cronig, both of whom had emigrated to the United States from Lithuania. Before moving to the Henrietta Brewer House in Vineyard Haven in September 2014, she had lived for 14 years across Center Street from the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, in the house where she was born and grew up.

Before and after graduating from Tisbury High School in 1940, Ruth worked for many years at Cronig’s Market on Vineyard Haven’s Main Street, which her father and his three brothers, who had followed Sam Cronig to the Vineyard, founded in 1917. From the early 1960s through 1986, she worked as secretary to the principal at Tisbury School.

From her late 60s into her early 80s, Ruth shopped for and curated the displays of greeting cards for the Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven. Her duties also included serving refreshments during book-signing parties for authors ranging from David McCullough to Hillary Clinton.

She was active in the life of the Hebrew Center, which her family co-founded in 1940, from her teens well into her 80s, including numerous terms as corresponding secretary and a long tenure in charge of planning for burials at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Cemetery in Vineyard Haven.

Ruth served as secretary to the Tisbury finance committee for many years. Her community activities ranged from volunteering with the Martha’s Vineyard League of Women Voters to leading a Brownie troop. Ruth was instrumental in the formation and growth of the Island Theater Workshop, and she often hosted visiting musicians and actors at her former home on William Street in Vineyard Haven. For decades she regularly attended ecumenical gatherings of the Neighborhood Convention.

Ruth enjoyed many summers with family and friends, bustling among the beaches and parades and fireworks displays, as well as events such as the annual Agricultural Fair in West Tisbury and Illumination Night at the Campground in Oak Bluffs. Throughout the year, she attended plays, lectures, concerts, and other cultural events.

Long after Ruth retired from the workforce, former Tisbury School colleagues and students, bookstore customers, summer residents, friends of her own and of her children, and cousins and nieces and nephews stopped by her restaurant table or her theater seat to say hello, catch up, and bask in her glow.

While her life centered on Martha’s Vineyard, Ruth also traveled extensively, including a 1989 visit to cousins in South Africa, during which she went on a wildlife safari; two trips to Israel; and jaunts around the United States with her longtime companion Bernard “Bunny” Lewis of Oak Bluffs.

She leaves her four children, daughters Gayle Stiller of Oak Bluffs (and son-in-law Bill McConnell), Pamela Kelley of Williamstown, and Goodie Corriveau of Lebanon, N.H. (and son-in-law David Corriveau), and son Neal Stiller of Vineyard Haven (and daughter-in-law Janet Walgreen Stiller); and a brother, David Cronig of Deerfield Beach, Fla. (and his wife Grace Cronig). Survivors also include five grandchildren, Ethan Kelley of Flesherton, Ontario, Canada (and his wife Linton Jack), Emily Kelley Darling of Arlington, Vt. (and her husband John Darling), Seth Kelley of Williamstown, Megan Stiller Maynard of Vineyard Haven, and Benjamin Stiller of Brighton; a great-grandson, Quint Neal Maynard of Vineyard Haven; one cousin and three nephews, two nieces, and many second and third cousins, grandnephews, and grandnieces.

In addition to her parents and Mr. Lewis, Ruth was predeceased by her sister Anne Cronig and their brothers Carlyle Cronig and Robert Cronig; her husband Leon Stiller; and a son-in-law, Jeffrey Kelley.

Services will be held at 1 pm on Wednesday, July 13 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center in Vineyard Haven. The family will observe shiva at Mrs. Stiller’s home across Center Street from the Hebrew center starting at 7 on Wednesday night.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, Post Office Box 692, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts 02568.