Edward Ross Bartley grew up "close to power" in Washington, D.C., where his father was The Associated Press Chief White House correspondent, and later, personal secretary to General Charles Dawes, Vice President under Calvin Coolidge. During the summers, the Bartley family traveled to Evanston, Illinois, where Ed's father continued working for Gen. Dawes. At the end of the Coolidge administration, the Bartleys made Evanston their home.

After graduating in the top of his high school class at age 16, Ed entered Washington & Jefferson College, an all-male liberal arts school in Pennsylvania where, he recalls, "there were few girls and no social life." In his sophomore year, Ed transferred to Indiana University and served on the prestigious IU Union Board.

While at IU, Ed met fellow student Rosemary Miner when he and a fraternity brother traded dates at a campus-wide dance. "That event shaped my life more than any up to that point," Ed recalls. "There was an instantaneous attraction!" While enjoying Sunday dinner at Ed's fraternity house, the couple heard the announcement that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.

Two months after graduating in May 1942, with the Beta Gamma Sigma award, the business school's equivalent to Phi Beta Kappa, Ed left for officers training at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. In January 1943, Ensign Bartley was assigned to sea duty aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Antietam, an anti-sub escort cutter patrolling the Atlantic Coast.

In late spring 1944, Ed returned to New London where he received intensive, albeit brief, training on the newly developed Loran radar system which would prove crucial to winning the war in the Pacific. While traveling to San

Francisco to join the crew of the USS Menkar, Ed was shocked to learn that his former ship, the Antietam (renamed the USS Bedloe), along with its sister convoy ship, went down in a hurricane with significant loss of life. "Most men who were in the service realized that luck played a major role in determining whether one would be a survivor," Ed recalled.

A few months after the chain of Loran stations was completed in May 1945, Ed returned home on leave before he was to rejoin the Pacific fleet for the planned invasion of Japan. On the day he and Rosemary, his wife of less than two years, arrived in Indianapolis, the Japanese surrendered.

"Active duty was an experience that not only gave me the great satisfaction in serving my country," Ed said, "but also contributed importantly to my maturity and appreciation for life."

Once discharged from service, Ed began a life-long career in market research and marketing, just as the country was entering the post-war era of consumerism and the explosion of pent-up demand for new products and services. For the next 40 years, he remained in the forefront of research, development and implementation for a range of innovative products and businesses-from pharmaceuticals to fast food.

After gaining experience with Eli Lilly's Economic Research Division in Indianapolis, Ed joined BFGoodrich, one of the "Big Four" tire companies in Akron, becoming head of the marketing research department. He was recruited by Armour & Company, best known as Chicago's meatpacking company, and United Shoe Machinery, to direct their joint marketing effort to produce Coriseal, a "man-made leather" made

from collagen, a natural element in animal hides. Instead of this ill-fated venture ending his career at Armour, Ed was promoted to Director of Corporate Planning in charge of short- and long-range planning for the multi-faceted conglomerate's enormous breadth of products.

In the early 1970s, Armour took advantage of the "Boomer" generation's increasing preference for convenience foods and "away from home eating" by creating a new Food Services Division which Ed was asked to lead. In an era of corporate mergers, Greyhound, which operated more food service restaurants than any other company, acquired the division. Ed then became Vice President in charge of developing a very successful line of "heat and serve" products used by hospitals, schools, airlines, and the U.S. forestry service.

In 1973, Ed joined Swiss Colony Stores, a division of Swiss Colony, renown as America's premier mail-order cheese company. Under his direction as Vice President for Marketing and Planning, the chain of stores and kiosks grew to 225 units, and a host of new products and packaging were developed for the company's catalog. Ed's team also market-tested yogurt and fresh baked cookie stores, both considered novelties at the time.

While he was enjoying great success at Swiss Colony, Rosemary, Ed's wife and mother of their two children, was battling inoperable lung cancer. She passed away in December 1975, just weeks after moving into the house she and Ed had built in Monroe, Wisconsin. "I believe she took great comfort in knowing that I would have a comfortable home," Ed remembered, "full of memories of our 32 years of marriage." Life would never be the same, but he was determined to live each day to the fullest and to "make the most of both the good and the bad.

The "bad" presented itself when intense competition from supermarkets and shopping mall food courts resulted in the decline of Swiss Colony Stores business. The "good" was when

Mary Schmitz, a vivacious leisure travel expert in Chicago, entered Ed's life. "She was practical, with a sunny disposition," he says. "I called her 'Mary Sunshine'." Their friendship turned into love and then marriage in January 1977.

In 1980, Ed, Mary, and her teenage daughter, moved to Toledo where Ed became Vice President of Marketing for "Big Red Q" Quickprint Centers. In the days of carbon paper and dittos, with computers barely on the scene, an instant printing store was a necessity for small businesses. Several years later, when the corporate offices were moved to California, 64-year-old Ed decided it was time to think about retiring. In 1984, he and Mary moved to North Carolina and "Paradise."

The couple built a home they designed on the shores of Lake Pinehurst where they lived for more than 30 years. Shortly after arriving, they founded the "Newcomers of Pinehurst" as a way to meet people who were also new to the area. Within a few years, membership expanded from 61 to 400 members. With 50 years of experience in the travel industry, Mary founded a second group called the "Pinehurst Voyagers" for whom she planned trips and cruises to more than 50 countries. It gave her and Ed an opportunity to see the world, allowing them to fill their home with treasures from their extensive travels. When not planning trips or writing the group's newsletter, Mary was on the golf course, her No. 1 priority, and served as president of the Pinehurst Country Club Birdies golf group. She also volunteered at the Given Resale Book Shop and Pinehurst Welcome Center operated by the Sandhills Woman's Exchange.

Ed's chief concern about retiring was that he wouldn't have enough to do. He kept physically active at the FirstHealth Center for Health and Fitness, played golf and tennis, gardened, sailed his boat, and got his realtor and broker's licenses. But as busy as he was, it still wasn't enough. "I believe that happiness involves more than just 'play,'" Ed maintained, "and that one needs to find

a way to keep his mind active and challenged, and to give back to society some of his blessings."

In 1980, he began nearly two decades of civic service when Mayor Charlie Grant asked him to join a task force to write and codify zoning regulations for the newly incorporated Village of Pinehurst. Ed also was a founding member and chairman of the Village Planning and Appearance Commission, serving for more than a decade. "Pinehurst wouldn't be the unique village it is today without the extraordinary effort of the members of the Commission," Ed said. "It won't remain that way unless others step forward and dedicate their time and talents to benefit this community."

Throughout his life, Ed was generous with both his time and his philanthropy. "I have long believed that every citizen has an obligation to give something back to the community where he lives." He was active with the United Way for more than four decades, and was a devoted member and trustee of The Village Chapel.

Ed was also a longtime supporter of The Foundation of FirstHealth as a member of the Scroll Society and the President's 500. As part of his legacy, he made a generous charitable bequest

to The Foundation of FirstHealth benefiting FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital. "The Foundation has done a good job in educating people about the health care needs in this community and convincing them to support it financially. It is a tribute to them and certainly to Moore Regional Hospital. Thank goodness we have this hospital."

At age 94, after a lifetime of service to his country, to commerce, to his church, and to his community, Ed was finally willing to "sit and smell the roses" with Mary by his side. "The Almighty has been gracious in blessing me and my family-far more than I deserve, and I give Him thanks each evening in my prayers," he said in September, 2014. "Our intentions now, and hopefully God will permit, is that we spend the rest of our years right here in this house, surrounded by the yard we love, the peaceful lake, and the possessions collected over a lifetime."

And God did permit. Edward R. Bartley, Jr. passed away on June 22, 2015, in FirstHealth Hospice care at his home overlooking his beautiful rose garden and the lake, with Mary, his wife and partner, where she had been for 38 years-right by his side