Edward Joseph Salvador died peacefully at his home in Plantation, Fla. on Easter Sunday, April 17, 2022, with his three children and their spouses by his side. He was 87.

Born in Provincetown on April 12, 1935, “Eddie Marcey,” as he was known, was the only son of Edward and Priscilla Salvador.

Eddie was a precocious and mischievous boy. He loved horses and was so skilled a rider that new horse owners would often ask him to “break” their steeds for them.

According to his son Jon, Eddie and his friend Danny White once sank a 12-foot skiff they were using to drag for clams. Both were implicated in a small field fire that was more embarrassing than damaging. They both denied involvement, but Danny was the one, as Eddie later told the tale, with the singed eyebrows.

After graduating from Provincetown High School in 1954, Eddie worked for five years in the family’s oil business. He was expert at handling tractor trailers, which he drove to haul fish to Maine and New York.

He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1957 and served until 1961. For unknown reasons, he was actually drafted twice, and, rather than protesting, he served both two-year stints cheerfully. The Army, he told his son, was good to him, especially because he was the only soldier in his troop who knew how to drive tractor trailers. That skill served him particularly well during his tour of duty with the 24th Infantry Division, 24th Quartermaster Company in Augsburg, Germany.

Eddie was president of the family business, Marcey Oil Co., which had been founded by his father, Edward Salvador Sr., in 1937. Having inherited the business and then passed it down to his own son, Eddie thought deeply about his family’s history. Jon has since passed the business to his son, the fourth generation of Salvadors to run it.

Eddie was a man of action who expressed his feelings through the way he lived. He had three rules, said Jon: “You don’t lie; you don’t sneak; you do what you say you’re going to do and do it when you say you’re going to do it.”

He was also a master tuna fisherman. He used a 28-foot Bertram sport-fishing power boat and fished, as Jon put it, “the old school way” by standing on a six-foot plank on the back of the boat and using a harpoon attached to a 500-foot line.

Eddie lived several lifetimes of experience on the sea, according to Jon, from riding out big storms in his boat, the Junie L, to harpooning giant bluefin tuna, including one of more than 1,200 pounds, which required a construction crane to get it out of the water. He worked hard, played hard, and fought hard for the things he believed in.

He was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Lions Club, and he served on the board of Seaman’s Bank.

He is survived by his sons, Jon Edward Salvador and wife Wendy of Provincetown and Edward J. Salvador Jr. and wife Mary Sue of West Hartford, Conn.; his daughter, Margo Peyton and husband Tom of Columbia, S.C.; and seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Eddie was predeceased by his sisters, Nancy Stephani and Rosanne Rego.

At Eddie’s request, there will be no service.

Memorial donations may be made in Eddie’s name to the Provincetown Rescue Squad, 25 Shank Painter Rd., Provincetown 02657.

To share a memory or leave an online condolence, visit gatelyfuneralservice.com.

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