Vineyard educator Bob Tankard has won the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services’ 2024 Buchwald Award, the organization announced on Monday.
Tankard, in his fifth year as the veterans outreach coordinator at Community Services, has had a lifelong career giving back to Vineyarders since moving here from Newark, N.J., as a teen. He has mentored Island youth throughout his life, whether as principal of the West Tisbury School, football coach at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, or chair of numerous school committees.
The Art Buchwald Award for Outstanding Community Service is named for the Pulitzer prizewinning humorist, also the host of Community Services’ Possible Dreams fundraising auction for 28 years. Recipients embody six characteristics: service, generosity, kindness, creativity, longevity, and perseverance.
Community Services has high praise for Tankard in its award announcement. “Dr. Tankard can rightfully be considered as one of Martha’s Vineyard’s greatest treasures. It was hard for us to imagine any nominee more befitting than Bob for the award,” the release states.
“Bob brings quiet authenticity and wisdom to all he does,” stated Beth Folcarelli, Community Services CEO, on Monday. “He cares deeply for Martha’s Vineyard, and gets things done. Bob has inspired so many to find and pursue purpose and meaning in life, and to focus on helping others.”
Tankard told The Times this week that his award came as a complete surprise. “This is blowing my mind,” he said. “I’m saying to myself, ‘How did this happen? What did I do to make this happen?'”
Though Tankard is still processing the announcement, he does remember how he came to serve in so many roles on-Island. “All my life, my parents and a lot of the people I dealt with always talked about giving back,” he said.
He recalled a moment of early inspiration during his military service, stationed at the DMZ in Korea during the Vietnam War. He remembered being asked once to transport commanding officers who wanted to see their college friends. “I had to sit over in the corner, because you don’t fraternize with officers,” he recalled.
He said that the officers called him over anyway. “They asked me, ‘What are you going to do when you get out of the service?’ And I was 19; I didn’t know. I almost had a year and a half left.”
“They said, ‘You’re going to get out of the service, you’re going to go to college.’ They said, ‘You’re going to go to your hometown community and give back.’ And when I got out of the service, that was exactly what I did,” Tankard said.
Tankard’s many positions within Island and regional education include coaching Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School football team in the 1980s, and serving as principal of the West Tisbury School until 2001. He has chaired the Tisbury School Committee and Cape Cod Collaborative; he was also the vice chair of the high school committee.
Being a positive influence on Island youth was always his purpose, Tankard said. “Most of my time was working within the educational system,” he remembered. “Working with [kids], trying to help them become all that they could be, and helping them feel confident in themselves. I told kids, ‘You’re going to be mad at me, because I’m not going to let you fail.’
“My main goal was that when that kid left me, that he had a good, positive image of himself,” he added.
Staying in education was important for Tankard even as he ended his tenure as principal. “I left the West Tisbury School in 2001. The hardest thing for me to do was to leave those kids … and when September came around, I really had trouble saying I’m not with them anymore, I’m not helping them anymore. And that’s when I was on the school committee,” he said.
Nowadays, Tankard said, he finds purpose helping Vineyard veterans at Community Services. “I enjoy working with these guys, helping them along. Helping them with PTSD, helping them with housing.”
Tankard has also contributed to the Vineyard community via media, hosting his show “Tank Talk” on Martha’s Vineyard Television. Originally named “Forum on Education,” Tankard estimates that the show spans 1,500 episodes so far. He has interviewed figures including John Lewis, C.T. Vivian, and Kitty Dukakis.
“As long as they’re not vulgar, I’ll do a show with them,” Tankard said.
For Vineyarders looking to get involved in their community, Tankard does have some advice. “When you are going to participate in a committee or group or whatnot, be a part of a team. You don’t always have to be a head of a team … And look at what you can bring to the table that’s going to benefit the team,” he said. “I think my athletic abilities and participation helped me to be that person. It didn’t always have to be my way.”
The Buchwald Award will be presented on July 21 at the Possible Dreams auction, held at the Winnetu Oceanside Resort. Tankard’s Buchwald Award follows inaugural winner and former Community Services board president Wiet Bacheller’s.
