Michael P. Salvatore (1969-2024)
Celebration of Life Service Bulletin, Streaming Archive, and Photo Album
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Michael (Mike) Salvatore, age 54, of Wakefield, MA, passed away Monday, February 5, after a ten-year battle with cancer.
Mike was born in Utica, New York, on February 12, 1969, to parents Philip and Mary Salvatore. He grew up in the country, playing hide and seek in hayfields or sledding on the big hill beside the family home on Paris Hill Road in Sauquoit, NY. He also began a 40-year career as a church musician, starting as the church organist at Union Presbyterian Church in Sauquoit at age 13. He attended Sauquoit Valley Elementary School and graduated from Notre Dame High School and Hamilton College, Class of 1991. He also studied at York University in England in 1990.
Mike's first post-college job was at the Adirondack League in Old Forge, NY, before moving to Boston and completing a Master's Degree in Music at Boston University. It was there he met the love of his life, Amy MacDonald, whom he wed in 1995. The couple were married at St. Elizabeth's Church in Sudbury and, in 2000, welcomed their daughter, Helen. Mike taught in the Lincoln-Sudbury and Walpole School systems and Shore Country Day School in Beverly, MA. He recently celebrated 25 years of teaching Music and chairing the Arts Department at The Fenn School in Concord, MA. During his tenure, he was proud to be part of the design of Ward Hall and to lead two choir trips to England, with performances at Castle Howard in Yorkshire, King's College Chapel in Cambridge, York Minster Cathedral, and before the assistant bishop of London. Mike also served in the Boston area as Music Director for St. Elizabeth's Church in Sudbury, St. Peter's Church in Beverly, and, for 20 years, Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Wakefield.
Mike led a joyful life with many interests. He valued community involvement, serving at various points on the Board for the historic Colonel James Hartshorne House in Wakefield, the Wakefield Cultural Council, and the Wakefield Cultural Exchange. He led the charge, alongside seven other individuals, to achieve a successful ownership transition to preserve the historic Hedges resort in Blue Mountain Lake, NY, for the public. Amy, Mike, and Helen enjoyed traveling together, spending summer days annually at The Hedges and making trips to Ireland, Italy, Oregon, Colorado, and Quebec City. The three learned to ski in NH, and while Mike never quite graduated to black diamond trails, he enjoyed a leisurely descent to savor the views.
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Michael is pre-deceased by his father Philip and is survived by his wife and daughter, Amy M. and Helen G. Salvatore, his mother Mary, and his brother and sister-in-law David D. and Jill Salvatore. Michael's mother, brother, and sister-in-law reside in New York State.
A service of remembrance will be held on Saturday February 24, 2024 at 11am at the First Parish Congregational Church, 1 Church Street, Wakefield, MA. Interment will be private at the family's convenience in the churchyard of the historic Church of the Transfiguration in Blue Mountain Lake, NY. Memorial donations may be made to Emmanuel Episcopal Church or the Witness Tree Institute.
