Donald B. Edwards

Donald (Don) Bert Edwards died at home in Wallingford, CT on April 27, 2026 after treatment for pancreatic cancer. Don was born in Tulsa, OK in 1942 to George Bertrand Edwards and Martha Cory Edwards. After graduating from Will Rogers High School, Don traveled to Connecticut for the first time to enter Yale College with the Class of 1964, where he sang with the Yale Glee Club, Alley Cats (an a cappella group), and Battell Chapel choir, and earned a BA in History. He stayed involved with Yale throughout his life, serving on his class council and the Yale Alumni Chorus board, as well as enrolling in many lifelong learning programs.

Yale was also where he made, in his words, the best decision of his life: asking out Sara (Sally) Williams Barnard, who was studying for a masters in teaching in the Graduate School, on a blind date for his senior prom. Married six months later, Don and Sally moved to New Jersey where they lived for 50 of their 57 years together. Don entered Princeton Theological Seminary but left because it was “too conservative” for him. After masters-level coursework in history at Rutgers, he went to work for the New Jersey Office of Economic Opportunity (and later Department of Community Affairs), beginning a lifelong pursuit of expanding opportunities for others. He moved to Rutgers University first as Assistant Dean of Livingston College and then to the office of President Ed Bloustein who was his boss and mentor until his death in 1989. Rising to Vice President of Public Affairs & Development, Don was immensely proud of the work he, Dr. Bloustein, and others did to build Rutgers into a world-class research university that provided ever-expanding opportunities for students from New Jersey and around the world. His Rutgers tenure included service on the board of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.

After leaving Rutgers in 1997, Don began a new chapter as President of the Princeton Ballet Society/American Repertory Ballet, followed by serving as Vice President for Institutional Advancement and then President of the American Boychoir School, from which he retired for good in 2007. At both organizations, he was able to combine his dedication to educational opportunity and love for the performing arts.

Don’s life was marked by a commitment to serving society. From lunch counter sit-ins in Tulsa during college breaks - inspired by the leadership of Yale’s chaplain, William Sloane Coffin - to serving as president of Cranbury Housing Associates, a non-profit low-income housing corporation, and becoming a charter board member of Elijah's Promise, Inc., which operates a major feeding program for the poor in New Brunswick, he demonstrated his personal values through his deeds. Other examples included participating from 1990 to 1996 in the annual Anchor House Ride-for-Runaways, a 500-mile cycling fund raiser for a Trenton shelter serving runaway and abused children, and lay leadership of multiple Episcopal churches in both New Jersey and Connecticut. Having moved with Sally to Connecticut about a decade ago to be closer to family, he soon joined the board of St. Thomas’s Day School, the elementary school associated with their new home parish, St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church, in New Haven. With a long-standing commitment to fighting food insecurity, he found his way to the board of Loaves & Fishes in New Haven which provides food and clothing to hundreds of families each week, becoming president in 2021 until his illness forced him to step down last year. Before COVID limited volunteer opportunities for those over 65, he and Sally made weekly food deliveries to the local refugee resettlement agency, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, and were deeply involved in resettling a Syrian refugee family through IRIS in 2017.

Don’s personal and cultural interests were both deep and broad, with music as an abiding love throughout his life. He built a classical and jazz music collection of epic proportions over several decades and sang in both church and community choirs. Entire vacations were built around restaurant reviews from the (late, lamented) Gourmet magazine or New York Times, and also led to family favorites including Sunshine Cafe on Captiva Island (Florida) and Fore Street in Portland (Maine). The delicious food happened at home too: his specialities included homemade donuts, shrimp creole, amazing grilled meats and fish, and a recipe for oatmeal molasses bread inherited from Sally’s family that became known as Poppy Bread. His pies - especially the delicious crusts - were in a category all their own, and every family member has their favorite filling. An avid reader, he especially loved American history and British mysteries, and absorbed significant portions of the daily New York Times. He also finished the Grey Lady’s crossword every day, and had been a New Yorker subscriber for over fifty-five years. You could set your clock by Dad’s routines, including weekly trips to No. 1 Fish, and extremely dry gin gimlets and salted peanuts at cocktail hour.

Family was a centerpiece of Don’s life. He was a devoted son and brother, a supportive and loving father, and a welcoming father-in-law. He and Sally hosted wonderful multi-generational vacations for family and friends at Underoaks, the Williams/Barnard family’s Maine camp on Casco Bay, which also gave him a chance to mess about in boats. One legendary summer, the bay was warm enough for a huge bluefish run; Don spent many days on the water with Sally’s uncle, catching enough for months of weekly fish dinners back home in Cranbury.

Being a grandfather brought Don great joy. His love for and pride in his six grandchildren knew no bounds. Among his exploits since Sally’s death were international trips to Prague and Portugal with one grandkid each. He was very supportive of their educational journeys and was able to celebrate multiple high school, college, and masters graduations, either in person or remotely. He was keenly hoping to make it to Yale Commencement next month to mark three generations of Edwards Yalies.

Don is survived by his children Jenny Chavira (Ricardo) of Hamden, CT, and David Edwards (Helen), of Bend OR; sister Judy Burton (Savoy, IL), in-laws Jeanie Barnard (Andrew Bertocci) and David Barnard (Cynthia), both of Yarmouth, ME; and six amazing grandchildren: Alex Chavira; Nick, Charlie, and Margot Edwards; and Lucy and Sophie Waghorn.

A choral memorial service will be held at St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church, 830 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at 10:00 a.m., with burial at a later date in Yarmouth, ME. In lieu of flowers, contributions to Loaves & Fishes (loavesandfishesnh.com) or St. Thomas’s (stthomasnewhaven.org) are gratefully accepted.