for
Edwin Canner
September 2, 1923 to August 3, 2008
By John Lynch
I am sad to inform you that my good friend, sailing
partner and VSS member Ed Canner passed away on August 3, 2008 at his
home in Marblehead, MA. He had been suffering for some time from
leukemia, and it was that disease that caused his death. He was
just one month short of his 85th birthday.
Ed lived a full and active life. He was B-24
pilot in the second world war and a lifelong sailor. He
had an engineering degree from the University of Michigan and he
eventually owned his own company, which sold brushless electric motors
to OEMs, and even though he sold the company some time ago he was
active in it within the last 3 years. I also seem to remember him
telling me that he had been an avid skier in the past.
Ed is the guy who got me back into sailboat racing,
and he was almost always the helmsman of Summertime or Aurora
B when he was onboard for a race. Prior to meeting Ed I had
been going out by myself on Aurora B on Venice race days and
taking pictures, but Ed wanted to race so I became his crew on my
boats. That arrangement started in 2001 and continued until
November 2007, after which Ed's health stopped him from racing.
It didn't prevent him from sailing altogether, as he went out with me
on Summertime several times earlier this year and he sailed
his own C&C 35 in Marblehead several times in the summer of 2008.
Ed
(on the left in the Marblehead tee shirt) is standing on the deck of Summertime
with his crew after a race (probably in April, 2006).
Ed
with VSS
member Keith Embry next to Keith's beautiful RV-8 airplane after the
two of them had given it a pretty thorough shakeout (April,
2007). That
grin was plastered on Ed's face for days after that flight.
He is survived by his wife Suzanne, his sons Glenn
and Gary and three grandchildren. I miss him.