If you wanted to know anything about maritime lore — no matter how obscure — Mark Ercolin was the guy to ask. He loved digging into research, and he loved to share information.

Mark regularly weaved colorful historic anecdotes in his monthly maritime law column for Waterfront Times, putting a face on often dry legal concepts via real life scenarios.

A Miami native, he enjoyed reminiscing about the old Florida when his Uncle Pancho referred to the Everglades as a “cafeteria” and his great grandmother cooked swamp cabbage in the then tradition of living off the land.

Mark, 69, left us too soon on Dec. 10 after a months-long fight with heart issues.

“I put him in the category of one the classiest human beings with the upmost of integrity,” said good friend Bob DiAlberto who knew Mark since they went to college together in the 1970s. “He was the friend who if you needed something, he was right there.”

Since graduating from the University of Miami and Northeastern University School of Law in 1994, Mark specialized in admiralty law. Prior to that he worked as a transit planner in Miami-Dade County, an insurance agent, charter boat captain with a 100-ton captain’s license, computer consultant and dive instructor.

He served as an appointed member of the Broward County Marine Advisory Committee for over 25 years where his legal background was appreciated.

“He provided help in steering us so we could provide proper marine law enforcement services, or marine constructions projects, to improve the recreational boating industry in Broward County,” said John Fiore, a fellow member on the Committee and a retired Broward County Parks and Recreation Division planner.

Mark also loved to play poker, scout out excellent hole-in-the-wall eateries and was, said by many, a really good person.

“It you knew Mark you knew he was always professional and friendly,” said a statement put out by his friends, attorneys Stephen Moon and Michael Karcher.

“If you were a friend of Mark you knew you had a loyal friend that would assist you in any way possible.”

Mark is survived by his longtime girlfriend, and fiancée and a host of friends from his multi-faceted life.

In honor of Mark, Waterfront Times is rerunning a past column that ran in January 2023 when Mark always harkened back to the southern tradition of consuming black-eyed peas and for prosperity and good luck in the coming year.