Edwin Solon CONNER

1881 - 1960  (79 years)

• Name	Edwin Solon CONNER
  Born	15 Apr 1881	Penobscot, ME
  Gender	Male
  Died	26 Apr 1960	Stuart, FL
  Person ID	I547254486	Primary
  Last Modified	29 Jan 2009

  
  

  Family	Vivian Inez KENNISTON,   b. 27 Sep 1881, Amherst, ME ,   d. 21 Jun 1960, Castine, ME  (Age 78 years)
  Family ID	F518361109	Group Sheet

  
  

• Notes

  Custom Field:<_FA#> Castine, ME Custom Field:<_FA#> coach; recreation dir. Edwin went to sea on fishing schooners as a boy, graduated from Eastern State Normal School (now the Maine Maritime Academy) and Bates College (starring there in baseball, basketball and football and for four years on the all-state football team [once as an end, once as a tackle and twice as a fullback]), then was principal and coach at Hallowell, Maine, then teacher and coach at Lincoln High School, Cleveland, Ohio (where his life-long nickname "Chief" originated). During World War I he was athletic director at Camp Sherman, Chillicothe, Ohio. His effectiveness there led Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. to induce him to come to Akron to coach its basketball team in the industrial league; he coached at Goodyear from 12 May 1919 until he retired 01 Sept. 1953. [After W.W. I he had a choice of three positions: recreational director for Goodyear, one with the federal Park Service, and an opportunity to go to Bermuda to be in a motion picture with Ann Kellerman, a famous swimmer.] He started every heat of the Soap Box Derby until 1950, served on the Akron Recreation Commission, 1934-51 (chair, 1941-51), originated the father-son banquet and pioneered the industrial recreation movement; he was in wide demand as an inspirational speaker. His obituary in the Akron Beacon Journal calls him "big in body, in voice, in mind and in ideals." He was an avid, serious fisherman, tying his own flies. He died fishing from a boat in the Indian River. He is buried beside his wife in Castine, Maine. He was a mesomorph in body type. Historian Phil Perkins told A. E. Myers in August, 1995 that Ed Conner had been touted as a contender for the national boxing championship, but that his wife (Vivian) protested strenuously, and he therefore did not fight. He was member 73083 of Lafayette Chapter of the Ohio Society of the Sons of the American Revolution as a descendant of Capt. David Dunbar, Jr. of Massachusetts.