Paul Howle Madden

SANDWICH — Paul Howle Madden, a noted antiquarian specializing in Marine Arts and Americana, passed away at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston, on Sept. 30, 2008. He had just turned 70 and resided in Sandwich.

For more than 40 years, Mr. Madden was an active antiques dealer, appraiser, and lecturer for historical associations and museums in the specialty fields of scrimshaw, Nantucket lightship baskets, marine collectables, and American paintings. During the course of his career, he owned and operated antiques businesses on Nantucket and in Sandwich. Over the past decade, Mr. Madden's Web site was host to one of the largest inventories of marine antiques in the country.

Mr. Madden was active in the formation of the President John F. Kennedy Collection of Antique Scrimshaw and contributed his extensive expertise to a permanent whaling exhibit in the Berlin Technological Museum in Germany. He also served as a Marine Vetter for the esteemed New York Winter Antiques Show.

Upon hearing of Mr. Madden's passing, Stuart M. Frank, senior curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and director of the Scrimshaw Forensics Laboratory, told colleagues: "Paul Madden was of course a titan, a tremendous influence in the world of scrimshaw and marine antiques, generous-hearted, opinionated, and (at his best) relentlessly amusing. I doubt that there is any one of us who hasn't benefited directly or indirectly, from his astute insights, wise counsel, leonine personality, and controversial opinions. He has been a mentor and helpmate of collectors and curators for decades."

Mr. Madden was also a talented artist whose first brush strokes as a child centered on painting portraits of family members. Later in life, he held several one-man shows at galleries dotting the New England coastline. While he worked in many mediums, he took particular pride in his pen and ink line drawings.

In recent years, Mr. Madden and his epicurean wife relished in traveling the world. Paul's marvelously evocative sketches of places visited were rivaled only by his spirited recollections of fabulous foreign feasts savored and often recreated once back home.

Paul Howle Madden was born in Manchester, Conn., on Sept. 10, 1938, the son of Henry and Virginia Madden. His father was an executive at Sealtest and his mother was a well-known antiques dealer in Glastonbury, Conn., and Kennebunkport, Maine.

Mr. Madden graduated from the University of Connecticut and then entered the Army, where he served in Intelligence. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 1963.

Mr. Madden next held an executive position and directed his creative energies into retail displays at G. Fox & Co. in Hartford, Conn., where he met his wife, Diane Chase, during the 1964 Christmas season. Paul and Diane married in Kennebunkport, Maine, in September 1965. Their son, Parke Henry Howle Madden, owns The Weather Store in Sandwich.

In addition to leaving behind his cherished wife and son, Mr. Madden leaves his caring daughter-in-law, Jennifer Yunginger Madden, and two adored grandchildren, Elizabeth Jane and Henry John Madden, all of Sandwich. He also leaves an older brother, Henry Madden of Tampa, Fla.

Mr. Madden will most certainly be missed and remembered by family, friends, and colleagues for his wealth of historical knowledge, lively storytelling, sympathetic listening, Thanksgiving graces, and keen appetite for meatloaf and martinis.

Perhaps, most of all, Paul Howle Madden will be remembered for the exquisitely appointed and gracious 18th century homes he and his wife Diane restored and shared with so many through years of memorable entertaining on Nantucket and in the Cape Cod village of Sandwich.

A service and celebration of Paul's life will be held on Sunday, Oct. 26, at the First Church of Christ in Sandwich, at 4 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Nantucket Historical Association, New Bedford Whaling Museum, and Heritage Museums & Gardens in Sandwich.