Edward C Hempel

Ed Hempel, 84, died peacefully at Liberty Commons in Chatham on June 25.

Ed was born in Ware, MA to the late Edward and Marion Hempel. While growing up in Worcester County he attended schools in Blackstone, Spencer, New Braintree, North Brookfield, before graduating from Westfield High School in 1951. Ed also graduated from Stockbridge School of Agriculture and U Mass in Amherst. He served in the U.S. Army for two years.

He is survived by his wife, Jacquelyn (Morrill) of Orleans, to whom he was married for sixty-two years; their four sons: Edward and his wife, Sue, of Westfield, MA; Andrew and his wife, Kathy, of Florida; Matthew and his wife, Aisha, of North Carolina; and Benjamin and his wife, Linda, of Virginia; five grandchildren, and one great-grandson. He is also survived by four sisters: Virginia Reinhold of Florida; Kathryn Kenyon of Colorado; Marion Langley of Mashpee; and Dorothy Williams of Maine.

Ed taught Vocational Agriculture at the Narragansett and Baldwinville High Schools before becoming associate county agent in 4H Club work in Worcester County, and then County Agent in 4H Club work in Barnstable County.

In 1967 Ed answered a call to the ministry, attended Hartford Seminary, and pastored as a United Church of Christ minister in Becket, Massachusetts and on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. The Hempels moved to the Community of Jesus in Orleans in 1976 where he had been on the clergy staff until his retirement.

Ed combined a love for gardening with a love for people. He was a long time member of the Lower Cape Rose Society and was very active in nursing home ministries and outreach groups such as LOCAL.

The funeral mass will be celebrated on June 28 at 11 AM at the Church of the Transfiguration at Rock Harbor, Orleans. Interment will be at the Orleans Cemetery on Tonset Road.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Ed’s memory may to be given to the Community of Jesus, Box 1094, Orleans, MA 02653.

For online condolences, please visit www.nickersonfunerals.com.