Edward Hand Stringer Jr.

Edward Hand Stringer, Jr.,72, beloved husband, father and grandfather, passed away peacefully at his home, with family by his side on December 26, 2016, in Oklahoma City. Ed was born on April 13, 1944, to Edward Hand Stringer and Gertrude Shaffer Stringer in Brunswick, GA where his father was stationed with the Coast Guard. The family returned to the Philadelphia, PA area where Ed grew up. His summers were spent at Cape May, NJ where he enjoyed many years of competitive sailing with numerous awards to attest to his skills.

In 1956, at age 12, he was selected to play for the Philadelphia Little Quakers football team , a team made up of the best football players throughout the Delaware Valley. Thanksgiving Day of that year found Ed and the Little Quakers in Florida playing Ft. Lauderdale in the Kumquat Bowl.

Ed attended The Haverford School where he was an excellent student, a leader and an outstanding athlete winning 8 Varsity Letters; Football Captain, Wrestling and Baseball. He was All Inter-Academic center for two years, All Main Line and All-Scholastic. Ed won a Maxwell Award and the Delaware Valley Coach’s award twice, the Blue Cross award, and the Crowell Award as the MVP of the Greater Philadelphia area. He was the team MVP and Captain of the 1961 Undefeated Inter-Academic Champion Football team. In 2004, Ed was inducted into The Haverford School Athletic Hall of Fame.

Upon graduation in 1962, Ed was offered an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. He declined the appointment to accept a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to play football where he started at center for two years, was captain of the Freshman team, Co-captain of the 1965 team, was twice 1st team All-ACC, was twice 1st team All-ACC Academic and an Academic All American. He played on the 1963 Gator Bowl championship team and the Co-ACC championship team. One of his fondest memories was beating Ohio State at Ohio State. Ed was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Following graduation from UNC in 1966, Ed entered Harvard Business School earning his MBA in 1968. Naval Officer’s Candidate School in Newport, RI, followed. However, his Naval career was cut short due to a health concern and he was given an honorable discharge.

Ed moved to Houston, TX to accept a position with Gulf Oil Corp.. There he met Sally Morrison on a blind date and they were married on January 3, 1970. In 1972 he was moved to Gulf’s Corporate Office in Pittsburgh, PA, to work on mergers and acquisitions. Gulf had an interest in acquiring a company headquartered in Jacksonville, FL. However, that company decided they would rather have Ed run their company than sell to Gulf Oil. So, in 1973, the family moved to Jacksonville where Ed became President of Horne’s International, a national interstate highway restaurant chain and Vice-president of Serve America.

In 1978, wanting to live near family, Ed and Sally moved to Oklahoma City. Ed became Vice-president of Sally’s family’s business, Morrison Paper Company. Their daughters attended Heritage Hall School and Ed’s service and dedication to the school was instrumental in its growth. He served as a Trustee for a number of years, served as Secretary of the Board, and Co-chaired the development committee during the fundraising for and construction of the new Upper School. Following the sale of the family business, rather than retire, Ed’s strong work ethic led him to Massco, Inc. where he finished his career in sales, retiring last August at age 72.

Ed was in attendance at all his daughters’ activities when they were young and that carried over to his grandchildren’s activities as well: baseball, basketball and soccer games, school programs and Grandparents’ Day, ballet recitals and gymnastic performances .Ed was there. He was a true family man putting his wife, daughters and grandchildren above everything else.

Ed was a gentleman. Friendly, positive, welcoming, kind, engaging, made friends easily, people were drawn to him, honest, humble, made you feel special, and an excellent listener - these attributes have all been used to describe him by so many. He was also an animal lover having given a forever home to many a stray dog and cat. He will be so very missed.

Ed is survived by his devoted wife of 47 years, Sally; his two daughters, Sarah Shaffer Stringer Butler and her husband Doug of OKC and Katherine (Kate) Morrison Stringer Koetting and her husband Jake of Leawood, KS; 8 adoring grandchildren, Luke, Thad, Beau and Blythe Butler and Jeb, Tom, Whit and Gus Koetting; his brother Henry Stringer and his wife Candace of Berwyn, PA: his sister Hannah Stringer Manry of Salem, MA; an aunt Marilyn Stringer of Berwyn, PA; brothers-in-law Bob Morrison and Dan Morrison and his wife Diana; sister-in-law Susan Morrison Dyke and her husband Tony all of OKC and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. Ed was preceded in death by his parents Edward and Trudy Stringer and his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Robert and Sarah Ann Morrison.

A Memorial Service celebrating Ed’s life will be held Thursday, January 12, 2017, at 2:00 PM at Nichols Hills United Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: Nichols Hills United Methodist Church Music Fund, 1212 Bedford Drive, Oklahoma City, OK 73116 or to Heritage Hall School, 1800 NW 122nd Street, Oklahoma City, OK 73120.

Arrangements under the direction of Hahn-Cook/Street & Draper Funeral Directors, Oklahoma City, OK.