Edward Raymond Towns

Funeral services for Edward Raymond Towns will be held at noon Saturday, March 15, 2025 at Christ Episcopal Church, 3445 Warrensville Center Road, Shaker Heights. He died on March 3, 2025 at the age of 89.

Ed was born in Kenmore, NY and raised in Eden, NY, both suburbs of Buffalo. He was the son of Edna (Stellrecht) Towns and William D. Towns, both deceased as is his oldest brother, William. He is survived by his younger brother, Richard, and several nieces and nephews.

Ed worked for 38 years in Human Resources with Reliance Electric and Engineering Co., now Rockwell Automation. At the time of his retirement he was vice-president of Human Resources and Community Relations.

A prime interest during his retirement years was Business Advisors of Cleveland which was started many years ago by a group of executives including one from Reliance Electric. Ed volunteered for 26 years helping clients with their businesses, old and new.

During his nearly 40 years living in Chagrin Falls Village, Ed was deeply involved in several activities including Boy Scout Troop 448 and coaching girls basketball for the Chagrin Falls Athletic Association. As a trustee of Fieldstone Farm he helped build diving boards for turtles, condominiums for rabbits and wind-sheds for horses (as a side hustle he pitched hay). The fiberglass canoe he built with the Boy Scouts was put to good use by his family during vacations to Lake Temagami, Ontario.

Ed entered political life in Chagrin Falls in the mid-eighties, serving as president of Chagrin Falls Village Council for two of his three terms. He then served 4 years as village mayor. Never one to brag, he would admit to his two proudest accomplishments. One was acquiring some 80 acres of riverside land from Ivex Corporation which led to turning a one-time bag factory into Whitesbug Nature Preserve. The second was his hiring of Police Chief James Brosius who served four subsequent mayors and is now himself retired.

Always involved in his church, Ed served as senior warden of St. Martin’s Church in Bentleyville as well as of Christ Church in Shaker Heights.

At 6’7” Ed carried his height gracefully and the merry prankster in him was known to tell people (mostly women) who asked if he ever played basketball that he had also been a jockey. He was indeed a basketball player, a star in both basketball and high-jumping at his high school where he was named to the hall of fame. He set records both there and at his beloved alma mater Westminster College in New Wilmington, PA.

Ed leaves his wife the former Martha Cordes to whom he had been married for 65 years; two daughters, Elizabeth Towns of Chagrin Falls and Abby Wilson and her husband Peter, of Lakewood; grandson Ian K. Wilson, of Los Angeles; granddaughters Leslie Cikra of Santa Fe; Lucy Jones and her husband Charles of Menlo Park, CA, and great-grandchildren, Sophie Celine Jones and Theodore James Jones.

The service will be streamed at: https://www.youtube.com/@christepiscopalchurch3201/streams

Memorial gifts may be sent to:  Westminster College, In memory of Edward Towns Westminster Fund, 319 South Market Street, New Wilmington, PA 16172 or Business Advisors of Cleveland, 2800 Euclid Ave., #501, Cleveland, OH 44115