Stephen Winfield Colley died on Dec. 15, 2024 at Cape Cod Hospital from complications of circulatory disease. He was 80.
The son of George A. Colley Jr. and Majorie (Reed) Colley, Stephen was born on Jan. 29, 1944 in Hansen. He grew up in Kingston and moved to Provincetown in 1957.
At Provincetown High School, he played baseball and basketball, and his yearbook class prophecy predicted he would become a jet pilot, an ambition he never quite let go. According to his son Stephen, he took flying lessons after turning 40.
In high school, Stephen worked at the old icehouse in the East End. One day he spotted Sheila Enos on the beach below. They married in 1965.
He earned a business degree at Burdett Junior College in Boston and began soon thereafter to work for the family business, Saltwater Fisheries and Seafood Packers. A major part of Provincetown’s fishing economy, the business bought local fishermen’s daily catches and shipped them to markets in cities up and down the East Coast.
In addition to the family business, Stephen owned three fishing boats of his own, one based in Provincetown and two in New Bedford. But by the mid-1980s, as the fishing industry declined and the family business shut down, Stephen sold two of his boats (the third sank off the coast of Nantucket) and he began a 30-year career driving a tanker truck for Cape Cod Oil. His days would start at 2 a.m. as he made 2 or 3 daily trips to Boston to load up with gasoline and heating oil.
Stephen’s family remembers him as a dedicated family man and provider with a strong work ethic. “My father taught me the importance of family,” his son Stephen said. “He worked hard, put in long days, but everything he did was to take care of his family.” The elder Stephen continued to work for Cape Cod Oil in an office job well into his 70s.
Stephen is survived by his brothers, George and John Colley of Truro; wife Sheila Colley of Eastham; daughter Lynn Costa, husband Michael Costa, and their children, Alyssa and Aurin Costa, of Eastham; son Stephen Colley Jr., wife Lisa Colley, and their children, Leah, Emily, and Hannah Colley, of Brewster; and son Douglas Colley and his daughter, Clara Colley, of Eastham.
