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July 7, 1936
September 11, 2026
The family of Edwin Cecil Townsend shares that he passed away on September 11, 2026, of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 90.
Edwin was born in 1936 in Vienna, West Virginia, to Eva and Cecil Townsend, and grew up on the family dairy farm along Lee Creek in Belleville. He carried a lifelong pride in that heritage--in the land, the work, and the people who raised him.
At eighteen, he left for West Virginia University, working his way through school on the college farm for 40 cents an hour. What began as an education in agriculture became a lifelong study of it: Edwin went on to earn a PhD in biostatistics at Cornell, then returned to WVU as a professor, where he spent thirty years in the College of Agriculture training agricultural scientists to be as scrupulous with data as they were generous as colleagues and thinkers.
Even after many years away, Edwin never lost his pull toward Wood County. He returned often to the farm along Lee Creek, and when his parents grew ill, he drove back to care for them.
In 1957 he married Carol Cochran at the Hopewell Church of Christ, and for 64 years they built a life together rooted in faith, hospitality, and family. They raised three children, Ken, Kathryn, and Sarah, and later moved to Atlanta to be near their children and grandchildren. Faith was central to Ed and Carol’s lives, lived out through decades at the Church of Christ.
This summer, all his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren gathered to celebrate his 90th birthday. He is missed, every day, by all of us who loved him. “The memory of the righteous is a blessing” Proverbs 10:7.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Eva and Cecil, his brother Larry, and his wife Carol. He leaves behind cousins, nieces, and nephews in the Belleville area, and children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, former students, and friends across the United States.
A memorial service will be held Saturday, October 10, at 11 a.m. at North Atlanta Church of Christ.