Buddy Vanderhoop is a larger-than-life charter boat captain on Martha’s Vineyard, and in my book I write about a fishing trip that brought the famous angler together with the art world’s Olga Hirshhorn. Buddy has a beautiful 64-pound striper to his name (you can see it hanging over the register at the Aquinnah Shop atop the Gay Head cliffs), but he is as famous for his stories as he is for any fish he’s caught. “I am a fisherman, therefore I lie,” he admits. Buddy came by it honestly: His father, a Wampanoag Indian swordfisherman, was a character of the highest order.
His stepfather lived a colorful life of his own. Luther Madison worked as an arborist, scalloper and school bus driver. He baked the pies for the Aquinnah Shop, the family restaurant. And for 36 years he served as chief medicine man for the island’s Wampanoag tribe. He passed away last week at 84, and according to the story in today’s Vineyard Gazette, his final words were befitting a sachem: “My beautiful sunset is coming.”
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