She has treated her many years in the Tisbury town hall the way she takes her tea: a heaping spoonful of sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Aase Jones is sweet, helpful and smiling, but also unafraid to speak her mind or stand up for herself.

Now, after 32 years as the assistant town administrator in Tisbury, Mrs. Jones will retire at the end of January. Through the years she has witnessed growth and change in the Island’s main port town, much of it documented in the binders that line her office walls. A green bumper sticker on her office door says: Local Government Makes a World of Difference.

It was a long trip that landed her here in the first place, one that began in Norway, where she was born on Christmas Day in 1937. As a young girl, she lived through the second World War, a memory she associates with the taste of herring and potatoes. At age 18, she traveled to the United States on scholarship to attend Nasson College in Maine. After a year, she transferred to the University of Connecticut where she met her future husband, Harry Jones. Aase (pronounced OR-sah) was studying French and English with a plan to return to Norway and teach. Harry was working in construction on the new science building at the university. Over the protest of her parents, Aase and Harry eloped to Elkton, Md. “The home of runaway brides,” she said. They had two daughters, Suzanne and Siri. When Aase later obtained her degree in 1967, the family moved to Arizona for Mr. Jones's job with Combustion Engineering. The move kicked off an itinerant lifestyle that would last until the early 1980s.

“I’m definitely a renegade,” she said in an interview this week. “I admit it.”

Following Mr. Jones’s assignments, the family moved to Tehran, Iran with their two poodles, Molly and Lollipop, then to Indonesia, Korea and Cairo, Egypt. An adamant animal lover, Mrs. Jones made sure the dogs moved with them wherever they went. She relished in the adventures but admits they could be trying. Then in the summer of 1977, as she was preparing to move to Korea to meet her husband, Mrs. Jones heard about Martha’s Vineyard. At the time she had been living with her mother in law in Connecticut and a small summer escape sounded perfect. She inquired about a rental she saw advertised, but when she called the rental was gone. But a seed had been planted in her mind. When she saw another advertisement about developers who were offering land for sale on the Vineyard, she called again. On a quick trip to the Island, she fell in love with the place.

“It was so summery, it was like going to the movies,” she recalled.

In her retirement, Mrs. Jones plans to return to traveling. First stop — Costa Rica.

Mark Lovewell

In her retirement, Mrs. Jones plans to return to traveling. First stop — Costa Rica.

Mark Lovewell

In 1977 she and Harry bought a lot off Leonard Circle in Vineyard Haven; a house went up on the site the following year. Aase still lives there today.

In 1981, they decided to make the Island their permanent home. Mr. Jones accepted a construction job on the Vineyard and Aase began looking for work. After a summer working at The Golden Door, an Edgartown shop which sold imported items from the Far East, she saw an advertisement in the Gazette for work at Tisbury town hall. She was interviewed by executive secretary Marguerite Bergstrom, who asked Mrs. Jones whether she’d prefer a position in the tax collector’s office or work as assistant to the executive secretary in the selectmen’s office. She recalled saying: “I think I’d rather work for you.”

Mrs. Jones said she learned much under Ms. Bergstrom, known as Berg, an Army veteran, former nurse and longtime town hall worker. “Keep your mouth shut, don’t say too much, you don’t know enough quite yet — and that’s really not a bad idea, anytime,” Mrs. Jones recalled. Now, she knows more about the town than many, and if she doesn’t know the answer, she is willing to search for it.

She admits that while her original dream had been to be a teacher, she fell in love with small town government work.

“I found it fascinating, never a dull moment,” she said. “I liked being part of the town, I never really lived in a small town. But here it felt like I got to know everybody. I liked that. I liked knowing people and once you get to know the players it was fun to be sort of like one of them.”

She feels an enormous responsibility to the town, and believes above all in honesty.

“I’m never afraid to apologize if I make a mistake, I’m not always right that’s for sure,” she said.

One of her many responsibilities is compiling the town report. She takes special pleasure in picking the cover. Last year’s was a tranquil winter photograph of the harbor by David Dandridge. This year she will retire before the report is finished, although she has begun organizing information to hand over to her replacement.

“I just hope I’ll be able to help the new person in transition, because that’s really important,” she said.

She describes herself as apolitical although not always above the fray.

“Sometimes you have to say no to the board [of selectmen]. That’s hard, that gets you in a lot of trouble,” she said, adding: “I’m not afraid to say anything to anybody. You have to do it in a very diplomatic and not offensive way.”

She recalled fondly the different selectmen she served under, including Cora Medeiros, a businesswoman and town matriarch. Sometimes when Aase worked late, Mrs. Medeiros would see her office light on and send down a bowl of clam chowder.

Outside of work she stays busy. For the past decade or so, she has been rowing crew on Saturday mornings. She spends time with her Yorkshire terrier Spookie and is a skilled seamstress. Her husband died in 2012.

In retirement, Aase plans to pack a suitcase once again and travel. She wants to visit friends in Greece and plans to go to Norway in August when the blueberries are ripe.

In February she and her daughter Siri will be off to Costa Rica for a yoga retreat.

“We’ve never done yoga, either one of us,” she said. “It’s going to be a hoot, let’s put it that way.”