Sunday, November 9, 2008
Sam Arlent Edwards, 87, a CIA analyst who later became a master carpenter at the Studio Theatre, died of leukemia Oct. 25 at his home in the Georgetown section of Washington.
A world traveler from a young age, he toured Europe in the summer of 1939 and left England on an overcrowded steamship on the day that Hitler invaded Poland and started World War II. After the war ended, Mr. Edwards was a regular in Paris at the Sunday salons of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.
Born in Bruges, Belgium, the son of a prominent British mezzotint engraver, Mr. Edwards was educated in England and traveled extensively with his parents, including on a year-long voyage around the world. He recalled in a memoir that he didn't spend Christmas twice in the same place until after World War II.
As a teenager, Mr. Edwards moved with his family to Scarsdale, N.Y., and then to Westport, Conn. He had just finished his freshman year at Princeton University when he spent the summer in Europe in 1939. He graduated in 1942, and was drafted into the Army, where he said his most memorable accomplishment was learning to type 30 words per minute. He liked to recall that he was among the troops who landed at Normandy in 1944 -- 79 days after D-Day.
After the war ended, Mr. Edwards received a master's degree in government at Yale University in 1947. He worked for the CIA from 1948 to '65, then became business manager of St. John's Episcopal church at Lafayette Square in downtown Washington.
He was also a development consultant for the U.S. Agency for International Development on projects in Haiti, Morocco and Jamaica, and a management auditor for the technology and strategy firm Booz Allen Hamilton working on domestic anti-poverty projects.
He began building stage sets for local theaters in Washington as a volunteer for the Christmas Revels. He joined the staff of the Studio Theatre in 1980 and built sets for 26 productions, beginning with "Medea."
An expert sailor, he enjoyed boating with friends on the Chesapeake Bay and vacationing with family on Great Guana Cay in the Bahamas. He also enjoyed the arts, fine chocolate and backgammon.
Survivors include his wife of 58 years, Susan Edwards of Washington; four children, Addison Edwards of Carcassonne, France, Victoria Edwards of Berkeley, Calif., Andrew Edwards of Warsaw, Va., and Christopher Edwards of Honolulu; and five grandchildren.
-- Patricia Sullivan