Larry Edward Pond

Larry Edward “Ed” Pond, beloved husband and father, heard the trumpet and crossed to the other realm on February 3, 2026, aged 88 years.

A funeral service to honor Ed’s life will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, February 14th at First Baptist Church of Davis, officiated by Rev. Chuck Houston. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service. Ed will be laid to rest privately at the Oscar Davis Cemetery. For those unable to attend, the funeral service can be viewed through his obituary page on Munden Funeral Home’s website.

Ed was born on December 15, 1937, to Blakely Sylvester and Effie Davis Pond, at their home on Croaker Street in the village of Davis Shore (Davis, NC). He was descended from a long line of New England sea captains on his father’s side, while on his mother’s side, he was in the eighth generation of Davises who first settled at Davis in 1737.

Education carried Edward many wonderful places in life, and it began in a one-room schoolhouse at Davis. From the 4th grade until he graduated as salutatorian in 1956, he attended Smyrna School. After discovering that he was prone to sea sickness on his first trawler voyage, he abandoned the dream of continuing his family’s heritage at sea and pursued a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics at North Carolina State College, now N.C. State University.

In college, he began dating Dorothy Lee Willis, a Meredith College student who had grown up just a few houses down from his family’s home in Davis. They were married at Davis First Baptist Church in September 1959.

Shortly after Edward graduated, the newlyweds moved to Charlotte for him to take a job with Southern Bell Telephone Co. It would be the first of many moves they would make with the Telephone Company in their life together. Edward started by climbing poles and splicing cable, but just a few months later, he joined the Air Force Reserves and then served six years in the inactive reserves with the N.C. Air National Guard. Once in the reserves, he returned to work at Southern Bell, and the young couple found their home wherever the Telephone Company sent them, twice in Charlotte, twice in Greensboro and once in Gastonia, before they moved to Basking Ridge, N.J., when Edward took a job with AT&T in Manhattan. By that time, their family had grown to include a son and a daughter, and Edward received his M.S. in Communications Engineering from Clemson University.

When they left the big city, they returned to Charlotte, where they lived for 17 years until they agreed to accept one last transfer, this time, to Atlanta. During all those years, the family would return home once or twice annually to visit family and to care for the Pond family home on Horseshoe Road overlooking Core Sound, where Edward had grown up.

After 32 years with the Telephone Company, Edward retired in 1990 as a Corporate Vice President with BellSouth, and he and Dorothy and their youngest daughter began the transition from Atlanta back home to Davis, so that Dorothy could care for her mother in her remaining years.

After concluding that the circa-1890 Pond family home could not be modernized or moved off site without felling the ancient live oaks on the property, it was torn down, shortly after Edward videoed every part of the house, to record it for posterity. With Dorothy, he designed the dream home where they spent many happy years, using CAD software on the home computer.

In retirement, Edward fulfilled many dreams, like catching spots in Core Sound with a gillnet, raising blackberries and asparagus in his Daddy’s garden, building museum-quality furniture in his wood shop, and traveling the world with Dorothy, visiting at least nine countries and making several dear friends while abroad.

He was an enthusiastic genealogist, local historian and a legendary storyteller. He offered memorable eulogies when friends passed at Davis, and he even wrote a book, titled The Secret Civil War Diaries of Beaufort and the Villages of Davis Shore. He expressed gratitude for all that education had given him by sending all his children to college and funding college accounts for every grandchild.

He was preceded in death by his parents, by his older brother, Eugene Pond, by his nephew, Andy Pond, by his sister-in-law Andra Hamilton Pond, and by an infant daughter, Catherine Rose Pond.

He is survived by his “Darling”, Dorothy, his devoted wife of 66 years, and their children, Richard Ashley Pond of Tampa, Florida, Priscilla Ann Pond DiNatale (Tony) of Atlanta, Georgia, and Anna Elizabeth Pond McLamb (Jeff) of Raleigh, NC, by seven grandchildren who all grew to know and love their Pops, Alexis DiNatale, Christina DiNatale Burks (Chase), Ellie, Cole and Weston Pond, and Nora and Anson McLamb, and by his niece, Heather Pond Williams (Jim).

The family dearly appreciates the loving care that Edward received at PruittHealth Crystal Coast in the last months of his life. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes you to make a donation to Davis First Baptist Church or the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum.

Family and friends are welcome to submit online condolences at www.mundenfuneralhome.net.

Arrangements by Munden Funeral Home & Crematory in Morehead City, NC.