David Butler Vietor, 80

Edgartown, Mass.

David Butler Vietor died peacefully at home on February 8 after a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer. He was born and raised in New Haven, Conn. Each summer, and the Vietor family relocated to Edgartown, where his father taught David and his younger brother to sail. Over the years, David won virtually every trophy offered by the Edgartown Yacht Club in many different types of boats and levels of competition. A life spent around and on the water would come to define him.

He graduated from Yale University in 1963 and received his master’s in German literature from Stanford University in 1965. He was a lifelong historian and an erudite man who read deeply and enjoyed long conversations with many like-minded friends.

David was always talented in languages and became proficient in Spanish, German and Russian. He taught German and Russian at Boston University and the Choate School. But his true calling came from the marine industry when he was hired to work for Ted Hood at Hood Sails and would help various winning yachts as an astute sail trimmer, navigator and tactician.

He found it hard to turn down a customer’s request to join the crew and was famously listed as part of the crew on five different boats during one Bermuda Race. He raced in 16 other Bermuda races as well as several Transatlantic Races. He was often part of a U.S. team competing in Dragons, 6 Metres, or Solings all over the world.

He moved from Hood Sails to become president of Ratsey and Lapthorn where this pattern of intense racing continued and led to his association with the America’s Cup, competing in 1980 on Clipper and in 1987 on Courageous.

He became a founding member of the Courageous Sailing Center in Boston, which encourages teaching underprivileged children the skills of sailing and boat handling as a foundation for life.

Retiring to the Vineyard, he became involved in many nonprofit organizations and served on the board of the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and was president of the Dukes County Historical Society. He was also a staunch supporter of Sail MV.

His happiest days were spent in the company of other sailors, who always enjoyed his enthusiastic re-telling of close calls and dramatic decisions on the race-course, no matter how many times they had heard them before.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy Blair Vietor, whom he met on a port/starboard collision 71 years ago; sons Andreas, Oliver and Ed Vietor; daughters Susan Vietor Daughtry and Christina Vietor Osterman; his stepchildren Marshall Highet Prida and Ethan Trask; and 16 grandchildren. His brothers Richard and Sandy, and his sisters Louise V. Oliver, Polly V. Sheehan, and Martha V. Glass also survive him.