In 2015, Patricia Bergeron was honored at a ceremony for the Spirit of the Vineyard award. Her friend Sue Medeiros addressed Ms. Bergeron and the assembled well-wishers.

“Over the past 36 years, I have witnessed you selflessly pour more energy, love and kindness into this community than we could possibly tell here,” Ms. Medeiros said.

It was a common refrain heard this week all over the Vineyard as the community reacted in shock and grief at the death of Ms. Bergeron and her partner, Roy Scheffer, two beloved Islanders whose generosity stretched from the waterfront and the Portuguese American Club to the hockey rinks and lacrosse fields, the emergency room at the hospital and oyster farms all over the Island.

The couple died on New Year’s day, the result of what officials say appears to be a tragic boating accident. They were scalloping together when the weather suddenly turned, eventually capsizing their boat. The exact details of what happened are still being investigated.

What is known, however, is that the legacies of Mr. Scheffer and Ms. Bergeron touched nearly every aspect of the Vineyard community.

Roy and Patricia in 2013 at the Feast of the Holy Ghost at the Portuguese American Club.

Mark Alan Lovewell

Roy and Patricia in 2013 at the Feast of the Holy Ghost at the Portuguese American Club.

Mark Alan Lovewell

“Everyone is related here,” said Rick Karney, a forefather along with Mr. Scheffer of the Vineyard’s aquaculture community. “This is a huge loss for the Island.”

Ms. Bergeron was the longtime president of the Portuguese American Club in Oak Bluffs, which her grandfather Bill Amaral helped start in 1930. From this perch she organized large events each year such as the Feast of the Holy Ghost and the Chili Fest. Those were the high profile affairs, swirling moments of potential chaos organized to perfection. But the real work was in the day-to-day reaching out to the community at large.

“We provide help when people are in trouble,” Ms. Bergeron said in a 2008 interview with the Gazette. “We help them. We cook for them. We pay their mortgage. We raise money for different things. When somebody’s in need, we try to come to the rescue.”

Gina deBettencourt, the current president of the PA Club, said Ms. Bergeron always used the same line to get others to pitch in: “We are going to help some people and it will be fun.”

“You wanted to follow her because you knew it was going to help someone,” Ms. deBettencourt said this week, while at the PA Club, working on preparations for a gathering on Tuesday, Jan. 6 to honor Roy and Patricia. The event begins at 4 p.m. today.

Bertha Blake, who worked with Ms. Bergeron at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital for decades, was also at the club. Ms. Blake and Ms. Bergeron performed the same job at the hospital, as unit coordinators in the emergency room.

Ms. Bergeron awarding a scholarship in her son's name during graduation season.

Ray Ewing

Ms. Bergeron awarding a scholarship in her son's name during graduation season.

Ray Ewing

“The role of unit coordinator in the emergency room is intense, dealing with people you know coming in and having to keep a calm demeanor,” she said.

Last Thursday, the team at the emergency room had to do just that, when Ms. Bergeron and Mr. Scheffer were brought in through the efforts of the Coast Guard and the Oak Bluffs and Edgartown EMS departments.

“She was large and in charge, wherever she went,” Ms. Blake recalled. “She was a force but kind and not abrupt with people. She went out of her way to help patients and staff in any way she could.”

Ms. Bergeron’s son Thomas Wilkins said, “She was an amazing mom and grandmother. Her love for her granddaughter was immense as it was for all people.”

Similar sentiments were shared on the waterfront, where Mr. Scheffer was remembered for his larger than life presence and his generosity. He is the patriarch of a family tree of aquaculture experts, including sons Jeremy, Isaiah, Noah, daughter Martha and grandsons Matteus and Brayden, who all work on the water.

“He was the most loving father, and he found so much joy in passing along his experiences and knowledge to his kids,” wrote Jeremy Scheffer, who runs Spearpoint Oysters, in a statement. “He taught us kids the simplicity of kindness, how to make a living doing what you love, how to love your family unconditionally... and maybe a thing or two about oyster farming.”

Mr. Scheffer at the office.

Mark Alan Lovewell

Mr. Scheffer at the office.

Mark Alan Lovewell

Noah Mayrand, who runs Tisbury Oyster Company, referred to Mr. Scheffer as selfless, and as someone who helped set the tone for the Island’s aquaculture industry.

“He worked the way an industry should be, not competitive and cutthroat but helpful to everyone, even competitors,” Mr. Mayrand said.

Mr. Mayrand had moved off the Island but returned in 2015, wanting to leave the cooking world and try his hand at aquaculture. He asked around for advice and all roads led to Roy Scheffer.

“He took me in and taught me everything about aquaculture, he treated me like a son, teaching me like he had taught all of his family,” Mr. Mayrand said.

“He taught me how to work year-round, moving from oysters to scalloping, how the business works and to love the work,” he continued. “He taught me to watch over the oyster farm like a shepherd tending a flock of sheep.”

Mr. Mayrand said that Roy and Patricia were a fantastic team, “in aquaculture, in cribbage — they were both killer cribbage players — and in the garden. Roy was a master at growing dahlias. He really taught us all a way of life, of generosity. He watched over the whole fleet of us.”

Marching in the Holy Ghost parade.

Ray Ewing

Marching in the Holy Ghost parade.

Ray Ewing

Steve Ewing, Edgartown town moderator and founder of Aquamarine Dockbuilders, said he knew Roy going back to grade school in Edgartown.

“He was wild, born to be a fisherman,” Mr. Ewing said. “He was capable and he was generous, he would share whatever he had.”

Each Friday, Mr. Ewing and his crew, along with others from around the Edgartown waterfront, take a moment at the end of the workweek to have a drink and toast those who have died. The unofficial ceremony takes place outdoors, at what Mr. Ewing calls “The Bulkhead Lounge.”

“Roy would often show up with a bag of oysters for us all to share,” Mr. Ewing said.

Last Friday, the crew raised a glass for one of their own.

One of many places on the Island that Ms. Bergeron gave her heart to each year was her involvement in a scholarship fund for graduating high school seniors. Called the Eric Bergeron MacLean Memorial Varsity Hockey Scholarship, it honors her son who died in a car accident in 2001.

“This community, when my son died, it held me up, it made me walk, it gave me everything I needed to get through it,” Ms. Bergeron said in a 2005 interview with the Gazette. “I could work from now until I cannot even move and never repay what this community has done for me.”

Each June, at scholarship night, Ms. Bergeron presented the award, and exhorted in a brave and emotional address to the graduates to be careful when driving and to wear their seat belts.

“Students, don’t make your mom stand up here next year, please,” she told the seniors each graduation season.

Ms. deBettencourt and Ms. Blake both agreed that spreading kindness was the best way to continue Ms. Bergeron’s life of service to the Vineyard community.

“If everyone did one nice thing for someone once a day, even if it’s just talking to a stranger in the supermarket line, that would be the best way to honor her,” Ms. deBettencourt said.