EDWIN VILLMOARE III

1941 - 2020

VILLMOARE EDWIN SHERMAN VILLMOARE, III Edwin Sherman Villmoare lll (Ed), a native of Washington D.C., passed away at NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield, California on March 11, 2020. Mr. Villmoare was born on February 25, 1941 to Edwin S. Villmoare Jr. and Adelaide Henry Villmoare. He graduated from St. Albans School in Washington D.C. in 1959 and Harvard College in 1963 where he received a BA cum laude in English Literature. He earned an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia in 1966 as well as a J.D. in 1969. Subsequently he was admitted to the practice of law in Washington, DC, Maryland and California. Mr. Villmoare dedicated his 45-year legal career to providing legal services to the poor and disadvantaged, and to those whose civil and human rights had been violated. To this end he created and directed legal services programs for the Office of Economic Opportunity in both Washington D.C. and California and Directed the National Paralegal Institute in Washington and San Francisco. From 1983-2005, at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, Mr. Villmoare obtained legislative funding for and directed legal services programs for victims of crime and for persons with disabilities. He served as Chief Administrative Hearing Officer for the State of California. In 2000, shortly after the war in Kosovo ended, his concern for victims of that war led him to accept a pro-bono position as a Senior Rule of Law Liaison for the American Bar Association's Central and Eastern European Law Initiative. He and his wife, Paula Bowlin Huntley, lived and worked in Kosovo for 9 months, where Ed joined the international effort to recreate a legal system for that war-ravaged nation. He drafted and reviewed legislation and directed training programs for judges, attorneys and human rights advocates. He then taught human rights law at the American University Graduate School of Law in Yerevan, Armenia. In 1964 he married Martha Gillespie of Williamsport Indiana with whom he had two sons, Brian and Paul. In 1981 he acquired a step-son, another Paul, when he married Paula Bowlin Huntley, a native of Arkansas. Mr. Villmoare shared his love of hiking on the northern California coast and in the Canyonlands of southeast Utah with this blended family. His passion for wilderness brought fun and adventure into their lives. Mr. Villmoare is survived by his wife Paula Huntley, sons Brian and Paul Villmoare, step-son Paul Robert Wrapp, daughters-in-law Amy, Alma and Lisa, grandchildren Margo, Ava, Liam, Emily and Paul, sister Adelaide Villmoare and brother-in-law Peter Stillman, and his nephews Alec and Gordon. He was loved and admired, and will be greatly missed by all those who knew him. Memorial gifts may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee and Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in Salt Lake City, Utah. A celebration of his life will be held at some future date.A celebration of his life will be held at some future date.