Margaret (Maggie) Schwartz, formerly of Music street in West Tisbury, died on Sept. 10 in Norwalk, Connecticut after a long illness with dementia. She was 95. Family members and her longtime caregiver were with her when she died.

She was an educator, volunteer, great cook, knitter, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and compassionate friend.

Together with Bob, her husband of 72 years, she frequently gathered friends and family together for wonderful meals, both on the Island and at their home in the New York city suburbs. Sunday night dinners were a calendar staple. Both she and Bob knew their way around a kitchen and enjoyed good food, good wine and the company of an ever-growing extended family.

She enjoyed initiating lively discussions around the dinner table, based on her extensive reading and interest in current affairs. The world’s problems weren’t solved, but they were well lubricated by wine and opinions, sometimes for hours. After moving year-round to the Island, Maggie was a longtime volunteer at the Community Services Thrift Shop in Vineyard Haven until her dementia required her to stop. Her knowledge of fashion and clothes was extensive, which proved an invaluable skill in sorting out the massive contributions that arrived there daily.

She was an avid and skilled knitter, producing beautiful and distinctive sweaters with intricate Nordic designs that arrived on your birthday or at Christmas.

She loved the Vineyard. To the exclusion of all others, her favorite beach was Lambert’s Cove and you could expect to find both she and Bob there every summer day when they were on-Island.

Margaret Wilson Schwartz was born in Northern Ireland on April 17, 1926 to James and Agnes Wilson. Her family emigrated to Canada shortly thereafter and her sister Gertrude was born there.

The family eventually moved to the Bronx, where the sisters grew up. Maggie attended New York city public schools and got her undergraduate degree from Hunter College, a public college for women.

Her family was of Scotch-Irish heritage, thus Protestant, and belonged to the Bedford Park Presbyterian Church in the north Bronx. As a teenager, she met Robert Schwartz, an aspiring engineer and architect, there. Their long courtship began and was interrupted by World War II. Maggie began teaching high school in the Bronx during the war, and continued into her marriage to Bob in July 1948.

After having three children in the 1950s, and moving to the suburbs, her interest and involvement in education continued. She became an elected school board member in her town and, eventually, on the regional high school board known as BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services).

In 1970, as interest in environmental education grew, her BOCES district received a large federal grant in support of training teachers to incorporate environmental education into their curricula. She left the board and took the position of coordinator for the nationwide program known as ECOS.

She spent the next 10 years organizing and managing highly successful four-day workshops for teachers all over the country. When Ronald Reagan became president, his appointed education secretary declared the program “un-American” and ended the funding. Maggie continued to work at it until the 1990s.

She was predeceased by Bob and her sister.

She is survived by her three children, their spouses, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren with a fourth about to be born.

Her ashes will be interred in the West Tisbury Cemetery.

Her many friends miss her gracious kindnesses, and compassion.