Thomas (Alden) Norton died peacefully on Nov. 28 at the Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. He was 95.

He was born in Vineyard Haven on August 8, 1926 to Carlton Ellery Norton and Hannah Irene Heikel, the eldest of their three children. He grew up and spent most of his life on Martha’s Vineyard.

He served as a gunner in the U.S. Navy during World War II, stationed in the Pacific, and then returned home to work on the Vineyard. Alden and his father converted the greenhouse in the back of their Daggett avenue yard into a two-bedroom home, where he happily settled for decades. In later years, he enjoyed the daily company of his sister Geraldine (Gerry), who lived in the family home in the front.

Alden was a jack of all trades, working for many years for Morrice Florist and the Tisbury highway and water departments, and painting model boats for the Van Riper Boat Shop on Beach Road in Vineyard Haven. Like his father, if you needed something fixed, Alden could fix it. He played saxophone for the town band, was an avid ham radio operator, and a talented woodcarver.

In 2018, he joined his sister Gerry at Windemere and they shared the past three years in each other’s company again. He treasured daily telephone calls with his younger sister Greta and liked nothing better than to reminisce about life on the Vineyard.

He is survived by his two sisters, Geraldine Pinto of Windemere and Greta Slade of West Yarmouth; a nephew, Scott Slade, of Marysville, Wash.; his niece Sheila Jean, of Kingsville, Tex.; and a nephew, Richard Jay Slade of Hyannis.

Services will be private, with interment at the Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven.

Donations can be sent to Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, P.O. Box 1747, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557, or to the First Baptist Church, 43 Spring Street, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.