Here’s how it goes, Michael R. Corcoran said on a recent morning, summarizing his take on the cycle of life: “It’s doctor, undertaker, lawyer, then me.”

Mr. Corcoran is an auctioneer. Born in 1928, just as Herbert Hoover was elected president, he is both the proprietor of and the force behind Gustave J.S. White Estate Auctioneers in Newport, R.I. If he is not, at 96, the oldest person still actively plying his trade in the area — although that seems likely — he may be the best known and connected.

Death, of course, is not the only event that feeds inventory in his business. There are also debt and divorce. Yet, regardless of the reason, when the time comes for the material evidence of a life to be dispersed, for a great mansion or a Colonial landmark or a Victorian pile or an old farmstead to be emptied out, Mr. Corcoran is often the first call.

“There’s not another one like Mike out there,” said William Vareika, the president of William Vareika Fine Arts, a gallery in Newport on Bellevue Avenue, the city’s grandest thoroughfare. “It’s worth the price of admission just to see Mike conduct a sale,” he added, speaking figuratively (auctions are typically free).

Mr. Vareika was referring to Mr. Corcoran’s habit of whipping through hundreds of lots while engaging crowds with a blend of repartee, potted histories, antiquarian acumen and name-dropping with the subtlety of an anvil being shoved off a roof.