A celebration of life for Allen MacMartin Look will be held on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 4 p.m. at the Agricultural Hall in West Tisbury.

Allen died on Nov. 8, 2024, surrounded by loved ones. He was 79.

He was born on June 21, 1945 in New York City and spent much of his childhood in Rye, N.Y. He was the third child of Allen Look Sr. and Maria Auchincloss Look. He had two older sisters, Barbara (Bull, Edgar) and Maria (Hart), and a younger brother, Dan.

Allen went to The Fay School followed by Phillips Academy Andover and then returned home to graduate from Rye Neck High School.

Following high school, he turned to the classroom of the open road and spent the summer with a backpack and a motorcycle traveling across the country, staying with family and friends.

His father and uncle (and generations before) grew up on the Vineyard and Allen spent many summers at the family farm in West Tisbury, called Crow Hollow. It was during these years that he discovered a lifelong passion for sailing, which began with racing Vineyard Haven 15s and teaching at the Edgartown Yacht Club.

In 1967, in the magic of the Vineyard summer, Allen met Carly Thompson. They started dating and were married a year later, and would remain so for 30 years.

From the beginning, their life was filled with adventure and creativity, eventually settling for a time in Western Massachusetts, where Allen completed his bachelor’s degree at Hampshire College, studying film.

During the Northampton years, Allen and Carly took leave to help deliver George Moffett’s sailboat Snow Goose from Gibraltar to the Vineyard — along with George, Charlie Blair and Trudy Taylor. Allen and Carly flew to Paris a month before meeting the boat to explore Europe. Their sail from Gibraltar to the Vineyard — with stops in the Canary Islands and the Caribbean — was full of cinema-worthy stories.

After crossing the Atlantic, Allen and Carly had a daughter, Samantha, born in 1975 in Northampton. Soon after, they decided to make the Vineyard their permanent home.

In 1978, Allen’s father passed away, and their son Wesley was born. Shortly after, they began construction of their house across the hayfields from where Allen’s mother lived. Carly and Allen designed the house together, and friends and family helped build it. The house was a beloved unconventional home of the heart for Allen and his family.

The Vineyard community meant the world to Allen. For a number of years he ran Burt Marine. He also served as an EMT and was the chair of the West Tisbury finance committee. He was a long-time youth hockey coach and a fierce player himself in the men’s league. He was a photographer and filmmaker and a passionate lover of the arts. He was an active member of the Art Worker’s Guild, where he had a studio. He was also a gifted cabinetmaker and writer, and had been working on various screenplays into his final years.

It was common to hear him rhapsodize about the talent on the Island, and he worked to promote this. He was a MVTV board member and a regular at PathwaysARTS, the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, the PA Club and anywhere his honorary son Phil DaRosa was playing. He never missed his grandchildren’s artistic events, and he was deeply moved by artistic expression.

Above all, he loved his family — a status he extended to many close friends. He was commonly sighted with bare feet, a broad smile and a firm handshake or bear-hug. He is survived by his ex-wife Carly Look, his daughter Samantha, his son Wesley and his grandchildren Tasman and Ayla Strom.

The celebration of life on Sept. 13 will be followed by a gathering afterwards; potluck items are welcomed.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to: Polly Hill Arboretum, the Visiting Nurses Association of Cape Cod-Martha’s Vineyard and Pathways Center for the Arts.