Richard (Dick) C. Brown of Oak Bluffs, 95, was the star of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy versus MIT football game last Saturday in Clean Harbors Stadium, Buzzards Bay. It was the Buccaneers’ first seasonal home game. As part of the half-time show, Mr. Brown received the academy’s alumni of the year award.

“Mr. Brown represents exactly what the Massachusetts Maritime Academy likes to see, involved, great citizens. He not only had a career in the maritime, he gave back to every community where he lived. That is why he got the alumni of the year award,” said Rear Admiral Richard Gurnon, president of the academy, on Tuesday.

In reviewing Mr. Brown’s service to the Vineyard community, and going back to his younger years in Staten Island, Admiral Gurnon said it is very clear that Mr. Brown is a most deserving recipient.

Mr. Brown was accompanied to the ceremony by his wife, Carolyn, and as many as 15 relatives and friends, including children and grandchildren.

Mr. Brown has received acknowledgement before. In 1997, he received the Councils on Aging of Martha’s Vineyard Senior Citizen of the Year Award. In the summer of 1996, he was honored for 30 years of serving as a youth baseball umpire, of which 25 of them were on the Island. The Vineyard Youth Baseball organization named the playoff tournament after him.

For many years he served as scout master of the Vineyard’s Troop 98 in Edgartown.

Mr. Brown said he remembers attending the academy for a three-year program and graduated with a third assistant engineer license, part of the Class of 1936. Back then, the institution was called Massachusetts Nautical School and was located in Boston. Mr. Brown was born in Attleboro.

For at least 15 years after graduating he served as a merchant mariner on many different ships, crisscrossing the Atlantic. He served on ships traveling the Pacific and Indian Oceans. He served on ships of varying sizes, including Liberty Ships. He said he stayed away from tankers, because they smelled so bad. “They stunk,” he said.

During World War II, Mr. Brown said, he crossed the Atlantic several times in a convoy and considered himself lucky for never having his ship sunk from under him by a torpedo. “I had a friend who was torpedoed three times in one trip, and he gave up the sea,” he said.

While crossing the Pacific he recalled seeing a Japanese Zero fly overhead. “It was being pursued by one of our planes,” he said.

One of the biggest ships he served on was the SS Flying Cloud, a 460-foot C-2 freighter, out of New York. He served as chief engineer for six months. He said he has memories of the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. He gave up going to sea, he said, for a simple reason: “I got tired of not being at home.”

While living in Staten Island, he married Barbara Bowman in 1941. She was from Martha’s Vineyard, and in that same year Mr. Brown made his first trip to the Island. Eventually they moved here.

After his wife died, he married her first cousin, Carolyn A. Ripley, in July of 1964. Together they started the Dairy Queen shop in 1968. They ran the store for 20 years, where today there is the Stop & Shop parking lot. In its heyday, the shop was a busy summer spot next door to the A& P grocery store. A lot of kids hung out at the shop and some got free ice cream. Under new ownership, the shop moved across Upper Main street.

Mr. Brown is known for his 70 years of skill as a wood carver. For many years he has donated a woodcarving of a Scottish bagpiper to the Scottish Society of Martha’s Vineyard annual Burns Nicht Supper.

Mr. Brown said he is quite happy about receiving the award. He received a Chelsea ship clock, which rings the ship watches. He said his wife is having a tough time figuring the time based on the bell ringing. Mr. Brown said he is very proud of his family, which includes five children, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

As for the football game, Mr. Brown reported it was fun that the academy beat MIT. The final score was 51 to 13.