Forty years ago, Angela Sanfilippo put a dream on hold.
This Saturday, Sanfilippo, who has put family and the local fishing community first since she graduated from Gloucester High School in 1969, will receive a honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Salem State College.
"I always thought that, when my family was grown, I would go back to school and get a degree," said Sanfilippo, the 32-year president of the Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association. "But between my family and the fishing industry being in a crisis mode, there has been no time."
Now, receiving the degree in honor of her dedication to the Massachusetts fishing community and her efforts to protect the ocean environment, Sanfilippo said, "my dream has come true."
Sanfilippo, whose family were fishermen in either Gloucester or her native village on Sicily, Italy, first became personally involved in the industry in August 1977.
The federal government had just begun its regulation of the coastal fisheries, and Sanfilippo found herself at the first meetings of the New England Fisheries Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service, translating government documents for the hundreds-strong, largely non-English-speaking Italian fishing community at the time.
Her husband, brother and father had, in 1974, purchased their first boat — the Padre Pio — and as Sanfilippo watched the impact the regulations were having on the fishing community, she decided to begin what would become her life's work as an advocate.
Her work with the Gloucester Fisherman's Wives Association and other groups has led her to provide resources and referrals for fishermen, offer moral support to families of fishermen lost at sea, and travel across the globe to advocate for the fishing industry.
"One thing my family never tolerated was injustice," said Sanfilippo.
It's proven to be fitting work for a student who had dreamed of becoming a lawyer.
Her schooling began in a small Italian fishing village, where education stopped at age 10 and parents had to send their children by bus to far-off villages to continue school. However, it wasn't permissible for a fisherman's daughter to do so, and for a time her education stopped, Sanfilippo explained.
Sanfilippo's education might have ended for good if not for the advice of her grandfather, who could neither read nor write. Sanfilippo said her grandfather took her father aside and explained that the pen was the most potent weapon in the world.
"You need to take your children where they can get an education," he told Sanfilippo's father.
So, in October 1963, Sanfilippo, her younger brother and sister and parents left Sicily for Gloucester.
Three years later, she graduated with honors from Gloucester High School, where she was a member of the National Honor Society and president of the Honor Business Club.
However, a degree would have taken her far from her family, and it was not something that was realistic for her family to accept, she said.
"I didn't put up a fuss," she explained. Within a year, she was married and a family soon followed.
Not long after that, she received a call asking her to come translate for the local fishermen and she began her life's work.
"I cannot think of a better issue than defending the fishing industry," Sanfilippo said. "Even 32 years later, there's a lot of injustice in things how have gone with the fishing community and the ocean environment."
Sanfilippo works part-time as the executive director of the Massachusetts Fishermen's Partnership, and with the Gloucester Fisherman's Wives Association, whose office at Jodrey State Fish Pier was recently closed after its state funding was cut in half.
Now, like in the early days, Sanfilippo and the rest of the organization are doing work out of their kitchens.
The honorary degree came as a surprise to Sanfilippo, who still doesn't know who, if anyone, nominated her.
Regardless, this Saturday, she and Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky will join Congressman John Tierney for a breakfast at Salem State College before she and Pesky are honored at the college's undergraduate commencement.
"As the day's getting closer," she said, "it's getting to be more real."
Robert Cann can be reached at gt_reporter@gloucestertimes.com
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