Edward Matthew McCann

1920 - 2017

Edward Matthew Ed' McCann September 19, 1920 - October 29, 2017 Carlsbad Edward Matthew McCann, the son of first generation Irish-American parents, his father a sailing ship's cabin-hand turned-highrise window washer and his mother a seamstress, was born in San Francisco in 1920. The family settled in Los Angeles. Ed attended military schools there and became a proficient woodwinds musician. He earned a college scholarship to Loyola, and as a present his father gave him a prized Selmer clarinet. With that instrument and saxophones he and a few friends started his own college dance band, and he learned to fly airplanes. In his junior year of college the United States entered the war and Ed left school to enlist in the Army Air Corps. First as a flight instructor, and then a C-47 (DC-3) pilot he made his way around the Midwest wartime air fields, to Brazil, and then on to England and France for missions over Germany towing troop gliders.As the war ended Ed was discharged as a Major and joined the newly formed Air Force Reserve. He began working in Denver, Colorado, flying for civilian airlines. In the course of routine ground training there he met his lifelong love, Jeanne who, as a Navy WAVE Link Trainer operator for WWII pilots, had also found herself in the civilian airline industry after the war. At about the same time Ed's younger brother, Gerald, had become an inventor and manufacturer of automated vending machines. Ed and Jeanne returned to California in 1946 to begin a vending machine business based at Camp Pendleton utilizing some of Gerald's equipment. Soon they became active in the incorporation as a city of the then-unincorporated community of Carlsbad. Ed and Jeanne made their home in Carlsbad for the rest of their lives. In the late 1950s Ed found his business passion as a real estate broker, and for more than 35 years operated his own brokerage in Oceanside, developing a reputation in the community for integrity and high ethical standards. Twice president of the Oceanside Board of Realtors, CREA delegate, GRI designation, and a large presence in the North County real estate community, Ed coordinated the real estate program at MiraCosta College and taught there for many years. He was a director of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, and along with Jeanne, was instrumental in assisting to form the first Carlsbad City Library.As his family grew Ed and Jeanne became active in organizations that sponsored foreign students in the United States, including the American Field Service, the Rotary Visa program, and several private student relationships. Serving as a host-parent for many students, Ed became a lifetime second dad to men and women from Mexico, France, Denmark, Norway, Thailand and Burma.As Ed journeyed into retirement he developed a new skill in International Style Trapshooting, competing in events around the country, and winning a Seniors' Division title in Chester, England. He returned to his bandsmanship along with his trusted clarinet, and for many years and into his nineties he practiced and performed with the Pacific Coast Concert Band.Ed was a lover of the arts, people, languages, religions and cultures. He was especially fond of the Jewish culture, its stories, humor, the Yiddish dialect which he could mimic convincingly, and Klezmer clarinet music. Ed kept and regularly studied rows of foreign language dictionaries, and could speak at least a few words in their patois to the many foreign people that he went out of his way to meet. Ed's most valued gift, and his lesson to his children and friends was the treasure of the love he had for wife, Jeanne. Though she preceded him in death by 13 years she remained foremost in his thoughts, and for the remainder of his life he continued to use the pronoun "we" when describing to anyone the events of his daily life. Ed is survived by his daughter, Kathleen (Kate') McCann of Bonsall, by his son and daughter-in-law, Kevin & Debbie McCann of Carlsbad, and by four grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.