Edward Warren Lull

Edward W. Lull was born in North Wales, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Upstate New York. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1955 and began a twenty-year Navy career, serving primarily in submarines. He earned a master's degree from The George Washington University in 1969. After retiring from the Navy in 1975, he began a second twenty-year career in small consulting firms in the Washington, D.C. area, in the fields of manpower management systems and personnel administration. Subsequently, he served as president and chairman of a not-for-profit organization, The Professional Group, affiliated with George Mason University.

Mr. Lull began his writing career in 1997 as a member of The Williamsburg Poetry Guild. He joined The Poetry Society of Virginia in 1998, and was elected Vice President, Eastern Region in 1999. After serving two one-year terms, he was elected President of the Poetry Society of Virginia (PSV) in 2001 and served four one-year terms. He later served as an Executive Director of the Society. Starting in 2000, he organized and ran three-day Annual Poetry Festivals in Williamsburg involving poetry workshops, seminars, open readings, and readings by featured poets. He organized and ran the Saturday Poetry Series in Williamsburg for many years. He was also a member of an essayist organization, The Emerson Society of Williamsburg where he wrote and presented essays.

Mr. Lull’s first published poems appeared in Images of Williamsburg, a book commemorating the tercentenary of Williamsburg in 1999. In 2000, he edited a book entitled Vintage Wine and Good Spirits, and contributed ten poems to it. His first published book, Cabin Boy to Captain: A Sea Story, a historical novel set in Elizabethan England, written in blank verse, was published in 2003. His second, Where Giants Walked, a compendium of forty poems, was published in 2005, and was nominated for Virginia Poetry Book of the Year. With Carolyn Kreiter-Foronda, Poet Laureate of Virginia, he co-edited Four Virginia Poets Laureate: A Teaching Guide in 2006. He went on to publish and co-publish many additional books. Most recently Ed served as the editor of the PSV’s Centennial Anniversary Anthology of Poems by Member Poets.

Mr. Lull lived in Williamsburg, Virginia. He is preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Evelyn. Together they had three children, Jeanne Lull Hopke (John Hopke), Edward W. Lull, Jr. (Lynn Rosenberry Lull) and James Lull (Jan Roush Lull). Ed had eight grandchildren; John Hopke (Samantha Hopke), Elizabeth Hopke Randolph (John Randolph), Cali Lull Ryan (Michael Ryan), Samantha Lull Griffith (Taylor Griffith) and Hannah Lull, Jaimie St.Clair-Barrie (Roland St. Clair-Barrie), Michael Lull, and Jessica Lull Nachman. Ed had eleven great grandchildren: Catherine, Madelyn, and John Hopke; Brooks, Isabelle, Peyton, and Bruce Randolph; Adelynn and Clara Ryan; and RJ and Ryan St. Clair-Barrie.

Funeral Mass will be offered at St. Bede Catholic Church, 3686 Ironbound Rd., Williamsburg, on Friday, November 8, at 12:00 PM.