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Edsel Colvin
Edsel Vincent Colvin was born on May 30, 1923 to Frank and Estella Jane Miller Colvin in Gold Beach, Oregon. His paternal grandparents were Henry "Sam" Colvin and Miriam Dougherty Colvin. He was th...view moreEdsel Vincent Colvin was born on May 30, 1923 to Frank and Estella Jane Miller Colvin in Gold Beach, Oregon. His paternal grandparents were Henry "Sam" Colvin and Miriam Dougherty Colvin. He was the youngest of four children (Aina, Juanita, and Marjorie) and many aunts, uncles, and grandparents were involved in his early upbringing.
He went through the public schools in Gold Beach, and was the first and only person at Gold Beach High School to be elected president of the student body twice.
After graduating from Gold Beach High School in 1941, he spent a summer as a fire lookout on Rocky Peak, about seventeen miles north of Gold Beach. He entered Pacific University, where World War II cut his studies short. He served in the Army in France and Germany as an infantryman on the front lines and eventually made his way back to Oregon after the war. From his graduation to the end of the war, he wrote over 300 letters to his family. He entered the University of Oregon in Eugene in 1946 and graduated in 1948 with a degree in Business Administration. He returned to Gold Beach as a teacher at the high school, married Frances Lea Pennington later that year, and had three children (Penny, Cathy, and Paul) in the next few years.
During the summers in the late 50s and early 60s, Edsel took classes at the University of Oregon and got a Master's Degree in Education as well as his school administrator's certification. In 1963 he became superintendent-principal of Gold Beach Union High School and later superintendent of both the elementary and high school districts in Gold Beach.
He has been retired for several years. He and Lea spend much of their time catching and smoking salmon and steelhead and visiting their children, who are now spread out around the state.view less