Edward Easton
Edward Easton III, husband and father, passed away in Santa Barbara on August 28th from complications following a stroke. He was 83.
Ed was born in July 1936 in New York City to Edward Easton and Emily DeForest Easton. He attended Loomis Chafee preparatory school and received his Bachelor’s degree in 1958 and Masters in Architecture in 1965, both from Yale University. In the ‘60s and ‘70s he worked as an architect and city planner in Charlotte, NC, achieved the rank of Master Sergeant in the Special Forces of the North Carolina National Guard, and also volunteered with the Sierra Club in various chapter and regional leadership roles. In 1979 he moved to the Washington, DC area to become Director of Leadership Development at the National Wildlife Federation, and from 1990 to 1993 served as the Founding Executive Director of the Institute for Conservation Leadership.
After retiring to the Santa Barbara area in 2000, Ed stayed active in a number of community roles. He served the City of Goleta on the Old Town Project Advisory Committee, Design Review Board, and Chair of the Planning Commission. In 2008 he was elected to the Goleta City Council, was re-elected in 2012, and served a term as Mayor in 2012. Ed served on the Board of Directors of the Gaviota Coast Conservancy and chaired the organization’s Land Use Planning Committee. He also played a vital role in establishing the docent program to help restore the Western Snowy Plover to Coal Oil Point Reserve near UCSB.
Ed’s passions included protecting our natural environment, public service, snowy plovers and good architectural design. Ed is survived by his wife Ky, sisters Emily and Pat, brother Rob, sons Ed and Will, and granddaughters Summer and Clementine. A celebration of Ed’s life will be held at 2 PM on September 28th at the Live Oak Unitarian Church in Goleta, and his family requests that instead of flowers, donations in Ed’s memory be made to the Gaviota Coast Conservancy at https://www.gaviotacoastconservancy.org/donate . Ed’s online memorial can be found here: http://www.never-gone.com/Memorials/edeaston