Malcolm Henry Meyer

Malcolm (Mac) Meyer, 90, passed away after a short illness on Monday, May 20, 2019 in New Bern, North Carolina surrounded by family. He was preceded in death by his wife of 48 years, Dorothy (Abramson) Meyer and his brother Bill Meyer. He is survived by his daughter Sandy Wilcox and her husband Dean of Livonia, NY and his son Bob and his wife Sandy (Arwood) of Wakefield, RI. Mac also had three grandchildren, Jenna Wilcox of Tampa, FL, Erik Wilcox (wife Beth) of East Greenwich, RI and Ashley (Arwood) Howarth (husband Adam) of Wakefield, RI. He had 4 great grandchildren, Luke and Jack Wilcox of East Greenwich and Axton and Addex Howarth of Wakefield, RI. Mac also leaves behind his partner and companion for over 10 years, Jan Meehan of New Bern, NC.

Mac grew up in Cranston, Rhode Island and went to Cranston High School. After high school he worked for a period at A&P Grocery Store before joining the Army during the Korean War, stationed in Germany driving troops during training missions. After the war, he returned to Rhode Island and married his longtime church sweetheart, Dot at St Paul’s Lutheran Church in Warwick, RI. He moved to Warwick and started his own business with Dot’s cousin Dick Abramson, creating M&A distributors based in Warwick, distributing soda brands including Cott, Polar, Lipton Ice Tea, Perrier water and other local brands to RI for close to 25 years before retiring at the early age of 55. M&A was the most successful distributor Cott soda had due in part to Mac’s incredibly strong work ethic, his great negotiating skills and the personal touch he gave all his customers.

When Mac and Dot retired, they moved to their second home of 15 years in Weatherfield, VT and began traveling the world, skiing 4-5 times/week and golfing any chance they could. Because Mac was very focused on work, he didn’t get the opportunity to learn to ski until he was in his late 30’s and golf until his early 50’s. He quickly excelled at both. They had season passes at Stratton Mountain and then Okemo Mountain both in Vermont for years and developed a great group of skiing buddies. They also joined Crown Point Country Club in Weatherfield and participated in every possible event and golfed almost daily during golf season. Every other winter they spent 6 weeks in Aspen, Colorado skiing daily and entertaining family and friends at their condo near the ski resorts.

After watching some ski and golf friends move south, they decided to look themselves and found the incredibly quaint and inviting town of New Bern, NC. After visiting for several years, they decided to move there and bought a house in a golfing community with two golf courses at their disposal, one in their backyard. They quickly made friends and golfed daily at their clubs in Fairfield Harbour; Shore Line and Harbour Point. Mac coordinated golf outings and tournaments for years while also hosting poker night at his house from when they moved to New Bern, right up until a week before his passing. Mac loved to entertain and stay busy, so he combined this with his love of sports to coordinate bus trips to local minor league baseball games and other events.

Mac was a Braves and Yankee fan but helped cheer on his children and wife’s favorite Boston Red Sox when the Yankees or Braves were out of the playoffs. He also was a devoted NFL fan and loved the New England Patriots. At 90, he would recall and recite both baseball and football stats, current and past which kept his mind incredibly sharp. Recently he corrected his son Bob regarding the current batting average of one of the Red Sox as he daily would study the box scores and knew his numbers. He could also tell you all 16 weekly games during the NFL season and who beat whom that week, the week prior and the current standings, all off the top of his head. Numbers were Mac’s thing. He also grew up as a Montreal Canadians fan but rooted for the Bruins with this family when not playing the Canadians. He loved the Celtics and especially the Bill Russell and Larry Bird eras.

Mac loved his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and never let a moment go by without telling a great story about them to anyone who wanted to listen. You didn’t even have to ask.

Of course, Mac also was a weekly church goer wherever he lived. St Paul’s and Pilgrim Lutheran in Rhode Island, several churches in Vermont and St Andrew in New Bern. When he moved to New Bern, he joined the search committee for a new pastor when the current pastor announced he was moving. Mac travelled to many churches to watch countless sermons and came back with his recommendation to hire Pastor Ted Rust from Ohio. Pastor Rust was called to serve at St Andrew and has been a steady rock of inspiration at St Andrew now for over 14 years.

Services are being held at St Andrew Lutheran Church, 1605 Neuse Blvd, New Bern on Friday, May 24 at 4pm with refreshments to follow. A Rhode Island service will be held at a later point this summer.

In lieu of flowers, donations are welcomed to be sent to the “St. Andrew Stained Glass Fund."

Arrangements by Cotten Funeral Home & Crematory. Online condolences may be made to the Meyer family at www.cottenfuneralhome.com