ALAN HEDGES

HEDGES ALAN As the tide ebbed from the Cohansey River, Alan Hedges, of Greenwich, Cumberland County, NJ, passed away quietly on November 6, 2022 while at Inspira Medical Center, Vineland, NJ. Born in Philadelphia, PA, he graduated from the William Penn Charter School (1967) and then attended Syracuse University. The highlight of his youth was summertime when he could devote himself entirely to his passion of sailing. With two friends, he ran the Little Egg Harbor Yacht Club Junior Sailing Program, was a skipper of a 28' Class E- Scow in the bay waters of South Jersey and competed in the E-Scow National Championship in Muskegon, Michigan. He continued sailing E-Scows in Beach Haven through his middle years. These were wooden boats, not fiberglass, which may explain his lifelong love and appreciation of working with wood. He learned fitting and marine joinery with Wright Boatworks in Germantown and Conshohocken, PA and then transitioned to being a cabinetmaker and furniture refinisher for several years with Fox and Wolf in Skippack, PA. Alan returned to watercraft when he worked with Cherubini Yachts in Burlington, NJ, where he built the elegant interiors of 44' ketches and 48' schooners. Alan eventually wanted to live nearer the water, so he and his wife Ann moved from Philadelphia to Greenwich, NJ in 1984 where he opened his own business as a woodworker and boat builder. His most recent projects, a sailing canoe and a flat bottom sailing skiff built only with traditional methods and local white cedar, are evidence of his mastery of design and aesthetics, such as the subtle taper of a hull plank as it approaches the bow of a boat. His paint and varnish work, always brushed rather than sprayed, was as smooth as glass. He owned various boats over the years and enjoyed sailing in the Chesapeake Bay, the Cohansey River and the Delaware Bay with his coterie of friends from the Greenwich Yacht Club and Hancock's Harbor. Appreciating Greenwich's maritime connections and unique history of a town older than Philadelphia by six years, he restored his first house, built 1830, before downsizing to a "newer" one, built 1893, in 2011. He was a member of the Greenwich Fire Department for 35 years, serving as its treasurer for the last 22 years. He also served on the Greenwich Township Planning Board and continued to volunteer on the Greenwich Township Land Use Board until 2022. Alan's many friends have been stunned by his passing and will always fondly remember his intelligence, perceptiveness and ability to listen closely. He had a wry sense of humor and many interests besides sailing, from tools to classic motorcycles to cars to local and national/international politics. An avid reader of non-fiction and a critical thinker, his convictions were always well grounded. He was a quiet and unassuming man but a steadfast pillar of the Greenwich community. He was predeceased by his parents Dr. and Mrs. Robert Hedges and is survived by his wife Ann Weigand; his brother Roger Hedges (Kristi); nieces Ann Hedges, Stephanie Acerra, Becky Pritchett; and his Fichter cousins Jim, Mike and Tom. A Celebration of Life will take place from 4-7:00 on Saturday, December 3rd, at the Bait Box Restaurant at 30 Hancock Harbor Road, Greenwich, NJ 08323. Donations in his memory may be made to The Greenwich Friends Meeting, c/o Burt Doremus, 484 Sheppards Mill Road, Bridgeton, NJ 08302, or The American Civil Liberties Union, 125 Broad Street, 18th floor, New York, New York 10004-2400.