Edward Thomas Motter, Jr.

The man was a mystery. We knew about his father dying post WW2, we knew his stepfather had been traumatized as a child, we knew stepson and stepfather disliked each other. But this life? People work on these issues. Most people.

On Saturday April 18 at 12:05am he was pronounced deceased by the hospice nurse, even as he had taken his last breath at 11:10pm the day before. A mystery.

Edward Thomas Motter Jr. retired from his role as the head of the Johnny Unitas Fan Club, only by leaving this plane of existence. It was rumored that he exclaimed TODAY’S THE DAY (Mel Fisher’s Maritime Museum founder’s mantra) as he expired, but as he died peacefully at home with his faithful dog Cookie, his bed partner Mouse (the cat) and his wife of 22 years Peg, we are assured he did not. Multiple times, family members offered him an old sock for his head.

Edward, affectionately dubbed Buddy by his father Edward Thomas Motter, Sr., in 1945 Baltimore, was known as Bud as he attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and then got his Electrical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech (1970) and became a devoted Yellow Jackets Football fan. He labored in the ship repair business as he and Sam dragged the children and their worldly belongings including pets from Baltimore to Jacksonville to Houston before he became President of his own company, Maritime Berthing Incorporated, in 1998 and began writing layberth contracts for the US Navy. He never retired. This is the same year he became a friend of Bill W and became a member of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Nassau Bay at the insistence of his children who were instrumental in his faith journey. He was grateful to them. He loved loved loved the choir. When he couldn’t stand up to rehearse he insisted they accommodate him

Ed leaves behind his half brother Steve Ellwood (Terry + Charley), his wife Peg, his son Edward Thomas Magicthighs Motter-Vlahakos (Alicia), his daughters Sonja Anne(Jeremy) and Georgia Emily, Peg’s daughter Libby Hallowell (Ibrahim), a daughter from a different mother Sue Logan, and the grandchildren that he always referred to as “the kids’: Maxwell Thomas, Logan Moriarty, Joseph Remo, Seraphine Snapdragon, Freya Anne, Mary Kate Peachee, Clyde Herring.

In our memory are William Maxwell Perkins, Joseph Andrew Motter and David Moriarty Perkins. Please pray for them and all the generations who have gone before us.

The memorial service will be at the Chapel at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church at 18220 Upper Bay Rd., Nassau Bay, Texas 77058 on May 7: visitation (10:00), service (11:00), reception (12:00). Family will do the committal of the ashes at a later date.