Edwin F. Sherman Jr. '38
Deceased August 28, 2007
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Edwin F. "Ted" Sherman Jr.
Class president, war hero, business leader, skilled sailor, tireless volunteer, Ted Sherman exemplified the best we had.
Ted, ninety, died August 28, 2007, at his Rhode Island summer home after a three-year battle with cancer. He underwent three operations.
A naval lieutenant on a minesweeper in the Mediterranean, he was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Silver Star for heroism during the invasion of southern France in 1944. His wife, Martha, said the action involved the rescue of soldiers after their boat was blown up in the Gulf of Frejus, which is near Tropez.
He also took part in the invasions of Sicily, Salerno and Anzio.
Highly respected and popular, Ted was elected president of the Class in our senior year. His honors included election to the Student Council and to Scarab. He was business manager of the Student and manager of the Glee Club. He was a member of Phi Psi fraternity. Born in Providence, he prepared for Amherst at Deerfield Academy.
Upon graduation, he went on to a top-level career in the textile industry in Providence, New York and North Carolina. When he retired in 1977, he was director of two textile mills at Longhurst and Roxboro, NC.
In our 1988 50th Reunion book, Ted said,
“Somewhere I read the definition of a gentleman as a man who can ‘entertain himself, a friend and a new Idea.’ I believe Amherst succeeded in imparting that ability to me as I’m sure it did to all of you . . . The need for it does not seem to diminish in retirement.”
Before and after retirement, Ted was a dedicated and effective volunteer, serving on the boards of the East Side YMCA, the Greater Providence YMCA, the United Fund of Providence, the United Fund of Roxboro, the Rhode Island Audubon Society, the Parents League, the Chorus of Westerly and the Roxboro Hospital.
He was instrumental in fundraising for the Moses Brown School and the Central Congregational Church. He chaired the Second Century Fund to restore the church building for its 1993 centennial, and he was a member of the church’s Permanent Deaconate.
An expert sailor, Ted sailed and raced his own boats and with others to many ports in this country and abroad. He taught all his four sons, two of whom went to Amherst, the arts of seamanship. After retirement, he also pursued lifelong interests in drawing, painting and music. He was a member of the Providence Art Club and of the Rhode Island Society of Colonial Wars. His homes were in Providence and Shelter Harbor, Westerly.
He married Martha Parkhurst (Wellesley ’39) in 1940. Besides her, he leaves his sons, Deming Eliot Sherman ’65 and Richard Adams Sherman, both of Providence, Robert Spink Sherman ’68 of Boston and Edwin Fiske Sherman III of East Lyme, CT, eight grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
George Bria ’38