Edward J. Perrotta

A Grower of the Green
Ever since he was a child, Edward J. Perrotta could make things grow. Money, specifically. And plants.

As an 8-year-old, Eddie lent Laura, his sister, money with interest. Once, he gave her change to buy ice cream in exchange for a 1935 silver dollar she had been given as a baby. (His mother made him return it.)

He started his Wall Street career as a money broker and ended it managing the energy desk at Cantor Fitzgerald.

"He liked to make money, and he was good at it," Laura Perrotta said. "It wasn't so much the amount of money as it was the thrill of acquiring it."

A recently remarried father of two teenagers, Mr. Perrotta, 43, spent his weekends fishing with his brothers, nurturing a shared dream that they would one day catch a 50-pound striped bass.

Mr. Perrotta inherited his mother's love for gardens, doting on the one at his home in Mount Sinai, on Long Island, and the one at her grave, which he would visit every weekend, planting mums in the fall, tulip bulbs in the spring, impatiens in the summer.

"He loved beautiful things," said his wife, Josephine.