Ed Koskella

A lengthy and boisterous conversation with retired anesthesia nurse Nancy Woitkoski, described in Ed's obituary as his fiancee, leads us to amend and update his biographical submission. Nancy paints a vivid picture of "Captain Ed" as he was known by his many friends and admirers and while she did not know him until later in his life, the stories he told and she relayed could only have come from one source.

After high school, Ed went to The Admiral Farragut Academy, a residential naval prep school and then enlisted in the Navy. He served on active duty from 1968 to 1972 principally aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation off the coast of Vietnam. His initial assignments were in the aircraft mechanic field, rising to the rank of Petty Officer, Third Class. He was proud of his service which continued in the reserves for two additional years.

After his time on active duty, Ed returned to Massachusetts and in 1976 earned his bachelor's degree at Boston State College. His singular contribution to higher education may have been a nondescript van in which he sometimes lived and which was often the center of activity near the Huntington Avenue campus. Boston State merged into UMass in 1982; it's former main campus was later acquired by the Massachusetts College of Art and now serves as the main campus of that institution. That Boston State, which traced its roots back to the mid-1800's, ceased operations in 1982 almost certainly had nothing to do with Ed, although the van remained a fixture and the stories were legendary . . .

Ed's love of the sea and of boats was fully enabled when his grandfather died leaving him a home and waterfront vista right at the foot of the Sagamore Bridge on Cape Cod. He proceeded with a lifestyle which involved being out in his MacKenzie 26 foot wooden fishing boat as often as weather would permit. He had only a passing interest in fishing, but found an infinite set of reasons to take groups of people out with him to explore. His adventures covered all of the Cape and Islands and stretched into Maine and south well below New York. He had a USCG Captains license and could therefore sometimes be involved in the one way transportation of larger yachts to and from Florida and the Caribbean. What he especially loved was being on the water and telling stories to groups of fascinated friends. During the winters, he worked on boats in his large shop which was adjacent to his home in Sagamore. The predominant feature of the shop was a huge pot-bellied wood burning stove which kept inside temperatures at sauna levels. That the shop never burned down appears to have been something of a miracle as it was full of drying wood and sawdust and a whole array of highly combustible chemicals - varnishes and shellacs and the like.

From his earliest days as a teen ager, Ed had made a number of ill-considered dietary decisions which contributed to his winding up in a Boston hospital at about the age of 37 for open heart by-pass surgery, including the placement of a number of stents. After the surgery, he stopped drinking entirely and lived thereafter on Diet Coke. He also decided that he knew enough about boats that he might make a living helping people buy and sell them. He devised the Nantucket Yachts International Brokerage for that purpose, but soon discovered that living on Nantucket to help his prospective clientele was well beyond his means. Undeterred, he resolved to conduct the business while living on his boat. That worked well in the summer, but was a lot less charming in the winter. After one year, he repaired to his kitchen table office in Sagamore and conducted the business from there. Whether it was really ever a going concern did not seem to matter that much to him. He was able to meet people and be on the water and was having fun.

During his foray into international yacht brokerage, he purchased Ike, a cocker spaniel puppy, who immediately acclimated to living on the boat with him and in the period when leash laws were less in vogue, roamed happily through the streets of Nantucket. Ed and Ike became an unlikely but inseparable couple. Much like the black Labrador Retriever who became a sailing ship mascot on the Vineyard and eventually an internationally recognized "Black Dog" marketing brand, Ike was part and parcel of the Captain Ed brand, relishing nothing more than another offshore adventure with a new group of friends. Ed wrote some articles for Offshore Magazine, but continued to spend the majority of his time doing yacht restoration and puttering around New England harbors in his boat, always with Ike at his side.

Nancy Woitkoski describes Ed as a wonderful person and "a great pal of mine." She noted that their common denominator was wooden boats. She kept her 32 foot wooden sailboat at the Woods Hole Yacht Club when one afternoon Ed rowed over in a dingy to see if she knew anything about boats. She was working on applying varnish. According to a story which he then repeated dozens of times, her greeting to him was a bit frosty. Nancy is an accomplished sailor who knows a great deal about boats and the two became fast friends. Over the ensuing years, they spent countless hours together working in his shop sanding and painting and varnishing. She said that she always considered herself to be Ike's replacement.

Nancy has now retired to a Falmouth condominium from her work as an anesthesia nurse, but during most of their time together, she was working in Boston and would see him on weekends. She observed that as he got older, he became more careful, but his earlier diagnosis of diabetes began to take a toll. In the summer of 2004, he had to have surgery to correct damage to one retina. There were several occasions when surgery was required to replace failing arterial shunts. Nonetheless, the two enjoyed many years together often including taking her sailboat from Woods Hole across the sound to tie up in Oak Bluffs harbor on the Vineyard and bring friends onboard to entertain.

As a nurse with a discreet specialty, Nancy was required to get a specific number of continuing education hours each year. She discovered that some of the courses she needed would be offered at various hotels in Mexican resort cities and that a full year's requirement could be obtained by staying there for a week or so. For several years they did that together in the middle of the New England winter. The plan was to repeat that in February 2005 traveling separately, but staying together in Puerto Vallarta. Ed went well ahead of her and rented a beach front villa with several of his old boating buddies. There was a surfing competition and they were going to have front row seats. It is not altogether clear what happened next, although she speculates that a couple of weeks of unhealthy eating led to a system collapse. When she got there he was in critical condition in a hospital which was unable to perform any type of cardiac surgery. Together with Ed's sister Kristen, Nancy organized a medical evacuation jet which was waiting on the runway to fly him to Houston where surgeons were ready, but they could never get him stable enough to be transported. There is great sadness in her recounting of this story, but she believes that his doctors in Boston had warned him that his time was likely short and that he went out exactly the way he had lived.

Nancy's surmise is confirmed in part in a moving tribute published by Ed's longtime friend Steve Conroy in an April 2005 newsletter to fellow MacKenzie Boat owners. There he wrote, "Few of us will be lucky enough to live our own lives as we would have scripted it. Quality of life, friends and boating overshadowed fame & riches as Ed's priorities. Ed recognized no person or thing as perfect and his ability to overlook flaws and focus on substance was one of his main attributes." Conroy continued, "Ed & I shared one last meal together in Mexico. I had an enchilada and he had a cheeseburger. He knew what he liked, whether friends, boats or food. There was no pretension in his demeanor. Ed was always Ed. You could count on him to charm, beguile, exasperate and entertain you with his knowledge and life experiences - not for his benefit, but for ours."

Conroy concludes his tribute this way: "With only three days and word of mouth notice, well over one hundred people from all over the USA attended Ed's funeral in Sandwich, MA. It was a beautiful ceremony of like minded folks expertly organized by Ed'd sister Kristen, and long-time love, Nancy. The day before I took Ed to the hospital, we spoke of our respective maladies and jokingly speculated on the five or ten people who might attend our funerals. Little did either of us know that Ed would "Cross The Bank" within days and hundreds of friends would send him off. I feel lucky to have been by his side at his passing, called him my brother and to share a close bond with his many friends."

The son of Edward Koskella, our junior high principal, Ed Koskella was one of a kind. We salute his service during the Vietnam War but more we salute his fierce independence which led to a remarkable life. We extend our thanks and condolences to Nancy Woitkoski without whose cooperation, these stories would not have been preserved.

Ed living his dream

Ed’s doodling, often while on the phone!

A Bahamian 10’ skiff Ed had been working on when he died. Nancy
had his friends finish it. Second picture shows them riding in it,
with a MacKenzie in the background.

Nancy’s favorite picture of Ed with Ike clinging to his leg

Ed, Nancy & Steve Conroy in Puerto Vallarta

Ed & Nancy on an early trip to Puerto Vallarta

Ike on the stern of “Jack Tar” Ed’s 26’ MacKenzie