Mark David Rose of Falmouth died from complications of liver cancer at his home in Falmouth on Sept. 30, 2023, surrounded by family. He was 62.
Mark was born on Nov. 16, 1960 in Fort Dix, N.J. to the late Ernest and Mary Grealish Rose of Wellfleet. An Air Force family, the Roses lived in Great Britain and traveled extensively. Mary was a native of County Tipperary, Ireland. They moved back to Wellfleet when Mark was a young man.
The Roses’ roots here go back to the Mayflower, and the family also has a proud Portuguese heritage of skilled fishermen. Ernest and Mary considered Wellfleet a good place to raise their sons.
A restless spirit, Mark left school and started commercial fishing out of Provincetown on the Silver Mink and other boats in the 1970s and ’80s.
In the late 1980s Mark moved to Falmouth, where he fished commercially out of Woods Hole, Fairhaven, and New Bedford. He began his own inshore quahog and scalloping business in the 1990s and continued to fish offshore from commercial ports.
Mark was a lover of the ocean and the natural environment, shellfish, art, music, food, sailing, and reading. A skilled craftsman, he built many boats and worked on other craft projects. He loved football, soccer, and other sports.
Mark’s goal was to live a peaceful existence and to be at one with the world.
He is survived by his children, Nathan Ernest Rose and wife Mindy of Upland, Calif. and Olivia Blackburne Rose of Provincetown and the world. He also leaves grandson Knox Mark Rose of Upland and his kind and patient longtime partner, Debbie, of Falmouth. He is also survived by the extensive Rose family of Wellfleet and Truro, including his two brothers, Keith and Shawn Rose.
Mark was predeceased by his mother’s longtime partner, Tony Castelo of the Wellfleet Oyster House and Castelo Court, where many happy family times were spent.
In lieu of a memorial, his children urge people to get the help they need to be healthy in body, mind, and spirit. They expressed thanks to the hospice nurses who cared for their father, the medical staff at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and the team at Falmouth Hospital for their care and kindness.
