Ed, whose piano artistry delighted undergrads when he performed with the Round House Eight, the Tiger Town Five, and Ken Stocker's big band, but whose real love was barbershop harmony, died of cancer May 2, 2006, in Melville, N.Y.
He entered from St. Paul's School in Baltimore and played football and baseball. He majored in civil engineering, sang in the choir, and dined at Cannon Club. After graduation, excluding six months in the Air Force, he was an executive at Grumman Aircraft until his retirement in 1994.
As a 48-year member of the 32,000-man Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Singing in America, he wrote more than 700 arrangements. The Mid-Atlantic Hi-Note music publication echoed our sentiments by saying,
"Ed was a successful businessman, a devoted husband and father, and a barbershopper's barbershopper."
He is survived by his wife, Katharine; son J. Edward IV; daughter Katharine Van Eron; sister Tilghman; brother Richard Woodward; and five grandchildren, who have our very real sympathy.