Edward Aloysius Casey Jr.

04/24/1942 - 03/24/2025

(Age 82)
Edward A. Casey, Jr, died at home in Chevy Chase, DC on March 24, 2025, exactly one month shy of his 83rd birthday. Born in New York City, NY, he grew up in Inwood, taking the subway by himself to school in the Bronx from the age of eight, going home after school to his grandparents' cold water flat, and spending summers with his cousins at the beach in Oceanside. At a career fair at Red Bank Catholic High, he saw a pamphlet for the Foreign Service, and thought it sounded like the kind of life he'd like—he was right.
After graduating from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, he went on to a long career serving in Tunis, San José (where he met his wife, Ellen, in the embassy), Paris (the second great love of his life), Guatemala City, Brussels, Cairo, and Madrid. In between were many stints in Washington, DC, the arrival of two daughters, Caroline and Claire, and the development of the skills that would be the hallmarks of his career and life—a gift for languages that let him meet people on their turf, a frankness that was sometimes more than what was appreciated (especially when testifying before Congress), an ability to cut to the heart of any problem, and an instinct for fair play that was the hallmark of his dealings with everyone he met. As a friend said at his 60th birthday party, he climbed the ladder without throwing any elbows. He was also extremely funny.
Ed and Ellen lived in the same two block radius for 40 years, cultivating friendships with decades of neighbors. He stayed friends with men from his Red Bank days, from his years at SFS, and from posts around the world. After he retired from the State Department, he went on to work for Carla Hills at Hills & Co., making new relationships there.
After a second retirement, he and Ellen decamped for two years to New York, another six months in Paris and Rome, and then they hit the road, driving around America visiting friends for three months and 13,000 miles. They traveled to new places, including China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Morocco, Russia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Mexico, and of course made new friends doing so.
He loved people, he loved to be a host (and was a legendary bartender), and attended more parties and concerts and exhibits than could ever be totted up. Every two years he and Ellen returned to Paris for a month, to spend time doing what they loved best: eating well and drenching themselves in culture in his favorite city in the world.
He will be remembered on Thursday, April 3, at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown. If you would like to remember him, he would be very grateful if memorial donations be directed to SOME (So Others Might Eat), whose work feeding and supporting unhoused people he had been devoted to for many years. One of his greatest qualities was his instinctive and unfailing generosity to anyone he passed who needed a buck or a hand.