The Roanoke Times | File 2000

Paul Corne holds a salmon that he brought back to his Roanoke market from one of his twice-weekly trips to Maryland.

Paul Corne's heart was on the open sea, but for a time, his passion was on land, selling fresh seafood in Roanoke.

In fact, Corne, known as Capt'N Paul, routinely handed out his home phone number to customers if they needed special orders.

From 1998 to 2006, the boisterous Corne, who wore a tattoo of a clipper ship on his arm, ran Capt'N Paul's Seafood, a fish market with several locations in the Roanoke Valley.

He died Sunday at age 53.

His family declined to disclose the cause of his death.

Known for his jovial personality, Corne grew up in Roanoke, graduated from Cave Spring High School and went off to college. His journey took him to Hampton to learn the fishing business from his grandparents.

He eventually moved north, where he made a living as a commercial fisherman in New Jersey and Massachusetts.

Corne moved back to Roanoke in 1990, working as a vinyl siding contractor. In 1998 he returned to the seafood business, but in a different way.

Corne's friend Bobby Ferguson, of Salem, remembers when Corne mentioned his idea of opening Capt'N Paul's.

"I said, 'Man, this is not going to work,' " said Ferguson, who was Corne's wholesale manager. "It was just nothing like that had ever been here before."

But the fish market thrived at its space on the lower level of Towers Shopping Center, where an ABC store is currently located, and beside what was once a Hallmark store.

"We couldn't have picked a better location," Ferguson said.

To many, Corne seemed to have limitless energy. He drove to Maryland twice a week to buy loads of fish from fishmongers to bring back to Roanoke to sell. He would leave at midnight and return to Roanoke by midmorning the next day.

"The whole time that I knew him, I never saw him sleep," Ferguson said. "He was a superhero in people's eyes. He was just bigger than life."

Corne made life comical. He lost the first joint of a finger during his fishing days, and he often made up stories to tell children about how he lost it to a shark, Ferguson said.

Corne also had other Capt'N Paul's markets in the Roanoke Valley, including in Daleville and Salem, but his Roanoke location seemed to be the most recognized.

In 2003, he moved Capt'N Paul's from Towers into a building owned by Frank Guilfoyle, the owner of Heavenly Ham, off Colonial Avenue in Roanoke.

Guilfoyle bought Capt'N Paul's when Corne abruptly left the market three years later. It's unclear why Corne got out of the business.

"He knew the seafood business inside out and upside down," Guilfoyle said of Corne. "The products that he carried and sold, most people would regard it as the best you could buy."

The next year, Capt'N Paul's became the Seafood Co., a combined full service restaurant and fish market. The space at 2626 Broadway Ave. now houses the Golden Moon Restaurant.

After leaving Capt'N Paul's, Corne did some more fishing in Massachusetts, Ferguson said.

Corne later returned to the Roanoke area. He worked for Guilfoyle this past holiday season, helping to deliver box lunches and make sales calls.

Coincidentally, Guilfoyle recently found a DVD of a commercial that he and Corne made together in front of their two businesses years ago. Corne did not tell Guilfoyle until just before they started that he planned to have a wave of water heaved at them, to resemble ocean spray and signify that his seafood was indeed fresh.

"We were drenched," Guilfoyle said, laughing. "He always had a big sense of humor."