Edward A. Deeds
1933-2022
Edward A. (Andy) Deeds, a community leader, accomplished pilot and outdoorsman and resident of Charlotte, VT, died at home Monday, February 28, 2022, at the age of 88.
Andy was born in Hartford, CT, on August 19, 1933. He graduated from Westminster School and Denison University, where he was captain of the tennis and football teams. Upon graduation, Andy was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force and spent two years on active duty at Craig Air Force Base in Selina, AL, as a squadron adjutant.
As a young man, he developed what would become a lifelong love of flying and flight. In 1961, he combined that passion with his business acumen when he founded Northern Airways, a fixed base operator at Burlington International Airport. Ten years later, he founded Air North, a regional air carrier that provided commuter service through Washington, D.C., New York City, and upper New York state.
Andy was also an avid polo player, sailor, skier and tennis player. In 1964, having nowhere to play tennis in the winter, he and three friends founded Burlington Indoor Tennis, Inc. or Twin Oaks, which was renamed The Edge and has grown to four indoor tennis and sports facilities in the Burlington area.
He was known throughout his community as generous, kind and adventurous, often flying off in his seaplane, a Grumman Widgeon, with his trusty co-pilot and wife, Birgit, to remote destinations such as the northern Ontario lakes and rivers, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Alaska, or wherever children or friends needed them. Andy was most comfortable in the air, whether at the stick of his Piper Cub, behind the yoke of his Widgeon or DC-3 (a World War II era cargo-plane) or at the controls of a Cessna Citation.
Andy is survived by his loving wife of 50 years, Birgit Nielsen Deeds; his six children: Diane Stebbins, Lisa Mackenzie, Andy Deeds, III, Susan Griffis, Martha Deeds, Jennifer Huff; four step-children: Harold Findlay, Kim Findlay, Lee Potter and Michael Findlay; 23 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Andy’s independent spirit will be missed by all who knew, loved and were inspired by him.
In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to the Andy Deeds Junior Sports Scholarship, c/o Mike Feitelberg, The Edge, 75 Eastwood Dr., South Burlington, VT.
