The Board of Kent Attainable Housing, Inc. mourns the loss on July 27th, 2021, of Ed Minch, Co-Founder and Vice President of Construction. From the beginning, Ed was integral to our mission of creating and expanding opportunities for affordable homeownership in Kent County, Maryland.
When Ed collapsed at 24909 Lambs Meadow Road, he was doing exactly what he wanted to be doing. He, along with three dedicated volunteers, were spreading straw and burying silt fence on the site of Kent Attainable Housing’s second affordable house. He was determined to leave the lot in “buildable shape” before his scheduled kidney donation that very week to his wife Shelley.
Kent Attainable Housing and Ed Minch were a perfect match. When Ed learned about the mission of Kent Attainable Housing, he volunteered to oversee our home construction program. Ed was eager to apply his considerable expertise gained from a 45-year career in energy-efficient home systems. He viewed his new position as Vice-President for Construction not as a title, but as a good excuse to put himself back to work building houses. And he knew the “backwards and forwards” of house construction. He and his brother, Dave (an architect who provides designs for our houses) previously had built 7 houses from the ground up, and Ed had been in and out of thousands of homes, advising builders, architects, and HVAC contractors in the science of energy efficiency.
Ed and Dave went right to work designing our first house, the Garnet House on College Avenue. Ed got plans approved, lined up contractors and volunteers, and oversaw the delivery of the modular home. Not one to let anybody outwork him, he logged nearly 700 hours of volunteer service on that house alone. Then he moved on to our next property on Lambs Meadow Road where his work was so tragically interrupted.
As colleagues and friends of Ed’s, we also learned a lot about his pride in the remarkable accomplishments of his three daughters, his attention to every move taken by his three grandchildren, and, of course, his no-holds-barred devotion to dear Shelley. We knew of his mastery as a wood artisan, long tenure with the Sultana, service to the Town’s Historic District Commission, wooing and cajoling of instructors for Washington College’s Academy for Lifelong Learning, perfectly average performance for the Bocce Botchers, and lifelong addiction to chocolate. To every one of these and other pursuits, he brought passion, joy, and intelligence – the same qualities that he brought to our organization, Kent Attainable Housing.
What Ed did was design things and improve upon the ordinary–he made things special. In recognition of Ed’s foundational impact to the organization and his community, Kent Attainable Housing has established a special fund in his name.
The Ed Minch Housing Equity Fund will provide subsidies and loans to low and moderate-income first-time homebuyers in Kent County, Maryland and ensure that his impact lives on forever.
Donations can be made in Ed’s memory via Paypal and mail to Kent Attainable Housing at P.O. Box 501, Chestertown, MD 21620. The family will be notified upon receipt of donations. Kent Attainable Housing is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization and all donations are tax-deductible.