C. Lawrence Schuster, who spent almost three decades living in a dune shack on Provincetown’s back shore, died at his home in Steuben, Maine on May 18, 2024. He was 79.

The eldest of five, Lawrence was born to the late C. Lester and Lulu May Schuster on Feb. 21, 1945 in Turtle Creek, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh. The family soon moved to West Chester, Pa., where Lawrence grew up.

He sang and studied at St. Peter’s Choir School in Philadelphia and then attended West Chester High School, graduating in 1963. He joined the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps and attended Marquette University in Milwaukee for one year, then set out on a summer journey that turned into a five-year adventure in Europe.

Lawrence brought a suitcase full of newly minted Kennedy half-dollars with him, which he sold as memorabilia. When he ran out of coins, he joined the Merchant Marine, sailing the blood orange circuit to Morocco; he also bagged groceries on U.S. Army bases and ran with the bulls in Pamplona.

Over those five years, he never called his mother; his family called U.S. embassies looking for him.

While taking German lessons at the Goethe Institute in Munich, Lawrence met Geneviève Martin. They married in Paris in 1970 and then made a transatlantic passage on the RMS Elizabeth so that Lawrence could finish his B.A. degree at Penn State University, which Geneviève made a pre-condition of their wedding.

Lawrence went to Mexico for anthropology digs and started an Indigenous art import business. He completed most of the work for a master’s degree in anthropology but dropped out when his adviser unexpectedly died.

Lawrence moved to Provincetown in 1977, joining his wife and his newborn daughter, Talilla. He lived here for 35 years, except for a couple of years in the early ’90s when he worked at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Lawrence worked as a commercial fisherman out of Provincetown and New Bedford and lumped fish on Cabral’s Wharf. He became a boatswain on the tall ship Regina Maris, a mate on the schooner Rambler, and a naturalist on the Ranger and the Portuguese Princess whale watch boats and finished his career on tugboats as a dredged materials inspector for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York district.

His nautical adventures included two whale research expeditions to Greenland on the Regina Maris, a 144-foot wooden barquentine. In 1986, Lawrence and Talilla departed from Gloucester for a year-long trip on the 106-foot three-masted schooner Rambler, sailing to Brazil, Patagonia, and around Cape Horn into the South Pacific.

For 28 years, Lawrence lived year-round in a dune shack on the back shore. He carried water in buckets from a pump at the foot of the dune, cooked on a propane stove, and used a kerosene and then a propane heater. He eventually added solar panels and a mini wind turbine, mostly to power his piano keyboard.

He worked hard but also played hard, enjoying his evenings at Rosie’s, the Fo’c’sle, and the Old Colony Tap.

Around 2007, Lawrence was surprised and delighted to learn he had a second daughter, Suzanne Alexander. She and her wife, Jenn Tinker, later chose to get married in Truro.

In 2012, Lawrence left his home in the dunes for the coast of Maine. At 75, he took his last tugboat job: a slip in New York City urgently needed to be dredged to accommodate the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, caring for Covid patients in March 2020.

He spoke fluent Spanish, which he learned in Spain, and he was teased in Central and South America for his European accent. Fishing captains in New Bedford appreciated it more, as he was able to speak Spanish to his Portuguese crewmates and understand well enough when they replied in Portuguese.

In Maine, Lawrence resumed playing and composing for the piano. He was also a passionate sports fan. One of his favorite days, he said, was a game at Fenway Park at which the Red Sox destroyed the Yankees, 19 to 3.

Lawrence was dedicated to his friendships, deepening old relationships and cultivating new ones. Despite having been a dad who was against having pets, he eventually succumbed to being owned by a cat; first Loqui and then Guin.

He is survived by his siblings, Jeff Schuster of Lewiston, N.Y., Lavonne Bartholomay and husband Tom of Hudson, Fla., and Elaine Isaacs and husband Nick of Belle Fourche, S.Dak.; his daughters, Talilla Schuster of Provincetown and Suzanne Alexander and wife Jenn Tinker of Philadelphia; his granddaughters, Riley and Reese of Philadelphia; and numerous nieces and nephews.

He is also survived by his ex-wife, Geneviève Martin of Provincetown, and many other friends and family around the world.

He was predeceased by his brother Rick Schuster.

A gathering will be held in Lawrence’s memory from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 13 at the Beachcombers Club in Provincetown.