Salvatore F. Pepe

For Family, a Tomatofest
Salvatore F. Pepe was an assistant vice president for technology at Marsh & McLennan, but to the Pepe clan he will be remembered as the originator of Tomatofest and the Pepe family calendar. Mr. Pepe's mother used to can tomatoes every August. So after she died in 1992, he organized a messy, joyous annual get-together where the next two generations of Pepes would gather to cut, skin, cook and can enough tomatoes to last everyone through the winter. "It was like Little Italy," said his sister Leonida Pepe.

The calendar was another way Mr. Pepe, 45, kept the family connected. He would put together a photo-filled calendar marking the birthdays and anniversaries of the 60-odd members of his, his wife's and his six siblings' families and hand it out to everyone.

Not everything he did involved huge numbers of people, though.

Mr. Pepe loved watching the stars, which was hard if you live in Elmhurst, Queens. So on a cold, clear winter day, he would call his wife, Cathy Ng Pepe, and say, "Let's go." They would take the afternoon off work, drive out with the telescope to the Delaware Water Gap and stand beneath the sky, bundled up in hunting suits and warmed by the sparkle of the stars.

The Pepes had not done much star-gazing since their son, Salvatore Loong Pepe, was born early last year. But Big Sal hoped to take Little Sal to Quebec someday to see the northern lights. "Maybe when he gets older, we'll take him out there," Cathy Ng Pepe said.