Alan E. Counsell died on Easter morning, March 31, at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, at the age of 78.

Alan was born in 1945 in New Bedford, to Martha Counsell and Everett Counsell. As a child, he spent his summers on the Vineyard with his beloved cousin, Martha Jane, at their grandmother, Hilda Cottle’s house on Dagget avenue. As a youngster, he dove for coins thrown by passersby off the Oak Bluffs Ferry dock. With just a few coins, he could buy a movie ticket and sweets in town.

One of his first jobs was renting bikes on-Island.

He was a veteran of the Vietnam war, serving as an administration specialist in Germany at the I.G. Farben building — a dye factory that had been commandeered for use by the U.S. military. In a couple years, he became fluent in German and he always wished he could have returned.

Alan’s career was varied and interesting, working at places from telephone company Ma-Bell to Rosignol Skis, to independently pouring and selling fancy pillar candles on Island.

He met John Mercier, a longtime friend, who had been doing construction in Bolton Valley. Together they rented Last Run Café on Bolton Valley Mountain. After that, they moved back to the Island, where they bought a Cessna to pilot together and opened the Ocean View Restaurant in Oak Bluffs. There, Alan met his future wife, Cindy Roberts. They were married in 1984.

During the Blizzard of ’78, Alan got snowed in on the highway with his two Irish setters. When the National Guard came, they told him to leave his dogs behind. Refusing to do so, he and the Irish setters walked to a train station and illegally rode a train toward Pawtucket, jumping off the train when it came time. He was interviewed for this in the Attleboro Sun story “Quite a Tail to Tell.”

After he sold the Ocean View, he and Cindy moved up to The Inn on Magic Mountain in Vermont to open a new restaurant. He titled it “Zadoc’s,” with the slogan, “where captains dine,” after his whaling captain great-grandfather, Zadoc Cottle.

Later, he became most well-known on-Island as the manager for 26 years of the Navigator Restaurant and Boathouse Bar in Edgartown. There, he worked under owners Arthur and Nancy Young and alongside his wife, Cindy, to run one of the busiest restaurants on the eastern seaboard. His children grew up eating clam chowder, playing with Navigator walkie-talkies, and running about employee housing on South Water street.

During his reign as restaurateur, his boat, Summer Wind II, could be found docked right at the Navigator’s waterfront or out cruising around Cape Pogue. Sometimes he even drove out to Falmouth to grab Chinese food from Peking Palace.

He continued to be good friends with John Mercier. The two would eventually marry sisters, Cindy and Lex Roberts, and become brothers-in-law.

Alan was a sweet man who cooked for his family nearly every night and loved taking his dogs out for walks in the state forest.

He was emotionally moved by The Blues Brothers and the Flying Horses. He loved animals, and had many dogs over the years: Irish setters, labs and border collies. The art of bonsais interested him, and many decorated his home.

He is survived by his wife, Cindy Roberts, their children Chelsea Counsell of Easthampton, and Stowe Counsell of Oak Bluffs, and his beloved border collies, Charlie and Sage.