Robert S. Douglas, Founder of the Black Dog, Dies at 93

Robert Douglas, who founded the Black Dog on Martha’s Vineyard and transformed a tavern’s logo of his Labrador retriever mix into an international emblem for summertime, died on Wednesday at his family’s home on the island. He was 93.

His son Jamie Douglas said the cause was prostate cancer.

Robert Douglas moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 1960 after growing up spending summers on the Massachusetts island with his family, falling in love with its maritime culture — and hoping he would eventually be the one waving goodbye to summer visitors from the shoreline as they took the ferry back to the mainland.

Mr. Douglas spent his first years on the island designing a topsail schooner, named the Shenandoah, which is still a fixture on the Vineyard Haven waterfront. But he later turned his attention to building a restaurant, something that would be good and reliable at the head of the harbor, a place people could gather throughout the year and get a cup of real New England chowder.

His Labrador-boxer mix, Black Dog, named after a pirate in the Robert Louis Stevenson novel “Treasure Island,” would be its mascot.

The Black Dog Tavern opened on New Year’s Eve in 1971, and the stately profile of Black Dog, drawn by Stephanie Phelan, would be incorporated into the business in 1976, according to The Vineyard Gazette.