East Hampton Town Trustee Norm Edwards Dies

Norman C. Edwards Jr. of Amagansett, an East Hampton Town Trustee since 2005, died on Wednesday night at his house next door to the trustee's office. He was 64.

Diane McNally, the trustees clerk, said he had been batting a brain tumor for the past few years, but had continued his work not only as a trustee but as a commercial fisherman until recently.

"He did everything up until -- he just had gone to Arizona for the holiday and to investigate some other therapies down that way just before Christmas," McNally said on Friday. "He was using a walker, attending meetings with the supervisor," she said, but, "It was winter flounder -- it was one of his passions."

The trustees recently re-instituted its stock enhancement program of flounder and it was because of Edwards work "trying to get the DEC to be agreeable and amenable" that the first phase was initiated, McNally said.

At an East Hampton Town Board meeting on Thursday night, Supervisor Bill Wilkinson asked for a moment of silence in honor of Edwards, and two other community members who had died, Sunshine Lemme and Gail Weaver.

Edwards grew up in Amagansett, where the Edwards family has strong roots. "Norman had said pretty much Napeague Harbor and the meadows surrounding it were his playground growing up," McNally recalled.

From 1968 to 1998, he was a member of U.S. Coast Guard. "He told me once that he had done inventory of all the lighthouses along the east coast for the Coast Guard," she said.

Edwards worked a small dragger out of the commercial docks in Three Mile Harbor. In 2004, he first ran for trustee and was reelected in 2007 and 2009. His third term would have been up in December.

Another major accomplishment of Edwards was the drafting of the waterways management plan. "He did that as a trustee working with the harbor management committee and coordinating with the Natural Resources department."

"He was very intelligent," she said. "He was able to communicate the board and the public his passion for his role as a trustee. "When Norman spoke people just stopped and listened. He was a voice of reason."

"He's just one of those men I will remember," McNally said.

A viewing will be held at on Sunday night from 7 to 9 p.m. A service is scheduled for Monday morning at the at 10 a.m.

He is survived by his wife and four children.