Richard Sher, creator, executive producer and host of the National Public Radio game show Says You!, died Monday at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston with his family at his bedside. He was 66 and had been a longtime summer resident of the Vineyard.

The weekly radio series he created has aired coast to coast for nearly two decades. A modern version of a parlor game, with comedic wit and wordplay, the show is played live and taped in front of audiences all around the country, including on the Vineyard last August at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.

“It’s not a free-for-all, but it’s a free-for-all,” Mr. Sher told the Gazette in an interview before the show was staged. “No mosh pits or stage rushing,” he said.

Born July 18, 1948 in Easton, Pa., he was the son of the late Albert and Jeanne Sher. His parents were founders and owners of Sherwoods for Kids, a children’s furniture and toy store in Easton. Richard graduated from Dickinson College in 1970, and received his graduate degree in communications from Boston University. He also became a certified optician working at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear during his graduate studies.

Prior to his success with Says You! he worked as a freelance producer and writer for Boston television WBZ’s Evening Magazine and WCVB’s Chronicle. His media company, Pipit & Finch, produced video for commercial purposes and documentaries on issues he was passionate about, such as autism. He was a resident of Weston.

“Richard had the uncanny ability to see something unique in each of us,” said panelist Paula Lyons, who lives in Vineyard Haven with her husband Arnie Reisman, also a panelist on the show. “And when stirred and blended his recipe satisfied all appetites for hilarity and intelligent fun. We have had a fabulous run because of this warm and funny man whom we will miss more than we can now imagine.”

Mr. Reisman said: “Richard and I shared a view of the planet — cynical but zany. We bonded and became brothers, broken up by humor and joined by disagreements. He was an entrepreneur of a style of programming where it feels like a big party and everyone is welcome. We all loved him and he will be sorely missed. I will never forget him — he’s never given me a reason to. And I can hear him now comically chastising me for ending that last sentence with a preposition.”

Other regulars on the show are Carolyn Faye Fox, Tony Kahn, Francine Achbar and Barry Nolan. The supporting cast includes two seasonal Islanders, Flash Wiley and Julie Jaffe.

In the Gazette interview last summer, Mr. Sher described the difference between seeing the show live and hearing it on the radio. “You don’t get to see the reactions,” he said of the radio show. “The disbelief, the scorn and the disrespect born of 20 years of love.”

He is survived by his wife, Laura Price Sher and his son, Benjamin Payne Sher of Weston. Laura is program producer for Says You! working for Richard’s media company, Pipit & Finch. An exceptionally devoted father, Richard assisted coaching staffs in Little League baseball and Tri-Town basketball over the last decade. He was an active participant in the stewardship of the town of Weston over the past 18 years, a frequent contributor to the Weston Town Crier and vivacious voice at the podium during town meetings.

Says You! will continue its broadcasts for the time being.