Edward Daniel Youmans

Ed met Betsy just after getting out of the Army. He had been stationed in White Sands,New Mexico and Seattle, Washington where he installed Nike Missile Bases. He learned to love working with computers and so designed them and worked on them with Curtiss-Wright Corp. and then Bendix in NJ. Later he went with Lear-Siegler, Smiths industries, and Base 10, all in NJ, but then traveling to England and then to most of the free world selling electronics to the military. He earned his Electrical Engineering in Electronics degree at Fairleigh Dickinson University and also his M.B.A. in Business there at night school, where he went for about 10 years while Betsy was working at a Legal Secretary putting him through school. They had been married in December 1957 and so were married for 64 years.

They adopted their son Ed after being married about 7 years, and then in another 2 1/2 years their daughter Susan was born to them in 1967.

They settled with their family in Montclair, NJ after both of them had grown up in Upper Montclair, only 4 blocks apart. However, as Ed loved to tell people, an 8th grader certainly wasn't looking at the 4th grade girls! But after the Army, 4 years difference in age didn't seem like much when he found his Senior in High School! They məde a good move to country-living in Sussex County, NJ when the children were 10 and 12.

Ed worked around the house and on his cars through the years repairing all sorts of things. Tinkering like this was in a way his hobby. Yet then he loved boating - his father gave him a Cape Cod Knockabout sailboat at the Jersey Shore when he was just 8, and he learned his love of sailing.Ed and Betsy purchased first a Sailfish, then a Sunfish, then about a 20-foot sailboat that they loved going out in for years up on the Connecticut coast out of Branford's rocky beautiful coast of Long Island Sound. He then also got the yearning for motor boats, and owned his fair share, and brought one to FL where he fished for Tarpon.He had loved fishing for Blues in NJ, but the lure of watching that Tarpon jump out of the water really got him hooked in Florida.

Ed and his wife lived in Cape Coral then on intersecting canals for 25 years and had all the toys! But all that takes lots of work and so they downsized some before moving to Brookdale in October/November 2020.

Through the years he had loved owning many different automobiles starting with a Model T, a 1934 Packard, a couple of Jag coupes and Corvettes, many Chevy's and General Motors cars until finally not even being able to drive as he had many falls, broke his neck and also had Vascular Dementia. His Heart Failure really slowed him down even more. All of this was difficult for him to swallow, but he accepted it in some ways and always complimented “His Betsy" for taking care of him as he reached his 87h birthday. I think this was because of his great love of his Higher Power,God, who helped him for 43 years of sobriety in NJ,CT and FL. The friendships he made were so powerful and gave him the strength to carry on, along with being blessed with a loving, supportive family. He is survived by his wife, Betsy, and their two married children, Edward and Susan, and their spouses, Kim and Tony, and four grandchildren - Connor, Deidre, Felicity, and Edward. He also counted many close nieces and nephews and their children as family and deeply valued their company over the years. He will be seriously missed as he helped many people in his A.A. community and they helped him be a good and caring man. Thus he will be missed even more by his wife, Betsy, his Basset Hound,BELLA, and his family. And one cannot forget his sense of humor, as that will also be missed.

Bring your memories and anecdotes in remembering Ed to the Celebration of his Life at the YANA Clubhouse, 1185 Lake McGregor Drive, Fort Myers, FL.– 2:00 p.m., Sunday, March 6th, 2022. In lieu of flowers, if you are so inclined, you could donate to what would have been some of Ed’s choices: The YANA Foundation, Inc., The Dubin Alzheimer’s Resource Center in Fort Myers, or The Salvation Army in Fort Myers.

Arrangements are under the direction of Hodges Funeral Home at Lee Memorial Park. Info (239)334-4880.