Throughout his 80 years, Edmund Colby Munger walked in love. He was a loving husband, father, brother, and friend. Born in Washington DC, he lived much of his younger life in San Francisco. He was a sailor from the time he was very young. Colby designed boats, competed in sailing races, and graduated from the US Naval Academy. He was the executive officer of a ship during the Vietnam War and went on to command his own ship. Later, he went on to MIT on a Navy scholarship and received his Master’s degree in Naval Engineering. He taught at the US Naval Academy and helped reconstruct the curriculum there. He was an engineer and system architect for DARPA, a branch of the Department of Defense, and worked in the private sector where he invented technology that helped develop the encryption technology that we all use today.
Colby never stopped exploring. He had a wide range of interests including bonsai, scuba diving, well-made cars, beautiful boats, and wide ranging travel experiences. He loved music and played the shakuhachi flute, the dulcimer, and, more recently, the piano. He had a lifelong practice of Tai Chi.
In the 1980s, he began an exploration of mystical traditions that changed the course of his life. During his daily meditation practice, he had an epiphany. The shift in perception from that day never left him. For over thirty five years, he continued to contemplate daily through silent prayer. “With every insight gained through contemplation has come a greater awareness of how vast, unknowable and divine the universe is.” Colby shared his understanding through a series of podcasts on meditation and later, through a website. He also captured the awe he felt in seeing the Divine in creation through photography. Whether small or grand, Colby shared his sense of the sublime with others in a myriad of ways.
Colby celebrated the positive in everything. He believed that if you’re doing something, excel at it. Give it your best. His advice was threefold:
Do what you love
Make sure whatever you do is good for the world
And make enough money to do 1 and 2
Twelve years ago, Colby reconnected with and married his beloved Linda Wexler. That connection began a new chapter in his life. Together, they cruised on Colby’s boat, down the east coast from Annapolis, Maryland to Dunedin, Florida, drove their RV throughout the US and Canada, toured Europe by sportscar and enjoyed Jeep off-roading. They went on many expeditions with National Geographic, including the Galapagos Islands, Alaska, Iceland, and Antarctica. Dear friends introduced them to Olympia, Washington, where they joyfully spent part of the year on Puget Sound with a view of Mount Rainier.
Colby was an inventor, engineer, sailor, musician and mystic but most of all, he was a great love. The immensity of his love was truly his defining characteristic. He had a unique intelligence and lived with optimism, brilliance, intensity, accomplishment and love. His memory is a blessing, reminding us to love fully with an open generous heart, and to rejoice in the big and small moments that make up a life.
He leaves behind his beloved wife, Linda, a sister, Susie Clark, five children, and ten grandchildren.
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