David Joseph Duarte, a second-generation Vineyarder, died on Oct. 17 from causes related to Lewy Body dementia. He was 81.

He was born on Jan. 4, 1941 in Oak Bluffs at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital to Emelia Burgess Duarte and Manuel (Manny) Silva Duarte. He was one of four siblings. His paternal grandfather emigrated to the United States from the Azores by working on a whaling ship in the 1800s.

He lived all but five years of his life on the Vineyard. During his childhood, his family lived in Vineyard Haven on North William street. He was popular among his neighborhood buddies for creating adventurous after-dinner games and hijinks but his childhood was troubled and he had no understanding of the adults around him.

His teenage rebellion eventually turned into vandalism and truancy. When he was in his 50s, he was diagnosed with adult ADHD by a neurologist.

He found employment in construction. This served him well in becoming a skilled mason. In later years he worked as a shellfish warden for the town of Oak Bluffs.

David has been dubbed “the first hippie on the Vineyard” and his Love Inn was the first commune. He also loved cars and was a walking Wikipedia on cars throughout his life. It was a toss-up on what he loved the most: cars or the ladies.

He married four times, to Lolita Campbell in 1963; Abby Alvin, the mother of his daughter Thea, in 1967; and Joyce Mayhew Humphreys, whose father owned and ran Island Food Shop Bakery in North Tisbury, in 1972. On April 22, 2002, he married Ginger Martin, a washashore from Texas who moved into his neighborhood with her son Mark in April of 2000. They were together for 20 years.

In the early 1970s, he dropped in on a friend who was studying the Bible with two Jehovah’s Witness elders. He joined the discussion and, as a result, underwent an epiphany. From that moment, he didn’t do drugs or alcohol for the next 25 years. After two and a half decades, he left the Kingdom Hall but never left Jehovah. The break with the Kingdom Hall was the biggest disappointment of his life.

A more detailed account of his life can be found in his memoir Martha’s Vineyard Burning.

David is survived by his siblings Jimmy and Paula; his wife and partner Ginger Martin-Duarte; his daughter Thea Alvin and three grandchildren Robyn Flanders Alvin and her husband Matthew Hallett, Aimee Flanders Hamilton and her husband Eugene, and Caleb Flanders and his wife Molly. He was predeceased by his sister Helen.

A memorial service will be held at Grace Episcopal Church at a date to be announced.