Edward Petros Betor

Edward was born on September 21, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio, to the late Petros and Afife Betor. His parents, who immigrated from Syria in the 1900s, were active in the Syrian-Lebanese community in Cleveland and raised their family at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, where Edward was a faithful member for many years and where he and his family’s faith was deeply nurtured. Edward graduated from Lincoln High School in Cleveland in 1945, served in the U.S. Army and then attended Western Reserve College. Soon after, in 1951, he married the love of his life, Lillian (Sabath) Betor, with whom he enjoyed 68 years of marriage before her passing in 2019.

Edward worked as a plant manager for Westinghouse Electric in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, for 28 years. He and Lillian raised their children on Cleveland’s West Side and then later in Akron. In 1976, they moved to Massachusetts, where they owned and operated several McDonald franchises, which he and his family ran more like a family-owned restaurant, getting to know their customers and welcoming them by name.

Edward was a lifelong lover of poetry: he had a vast collection of spoken poetry on vinyl records and spent many years in high school and beyond memorizing his favorite poems. Along with poetry, he could sing the lyrics of hundreds of songs. His children and grandchildren used to quiz him by saying a random word and seeing if he could sing a song that included that word. He was near impossible to stump.

Not only did he have a poem and a song for every occasion, he had a vast repertoire of jokes for every situation and audience. He used to catalog his jokes on a special computer program set up for such an inventory. His mind was always sharp, and he could sing those songs, recite those poems, and tell those jokes, even at the age of 97.

He also loved the theatre, and he and his wife spent many weekends in NYC to see the latest Broadway musicals. They were subscription holders at several local playhouses, where they enjoyed the annual productions of their favorite playwrights, from Shakespeare to Neil Simon.

A lover of history and genealogy, Edward read and even reread every one of David McCullough’s books in the last 20 years of his life. Upon his own retirement, he wrote his own memoir of more than 300 pages as a legacy to his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, whom he loved deeply.

Even with his move to the Massachusetts in the 1970s, his heart was always in Cleveland, Ohio, where he grew up, and he maintained his allegiance to the Cleveland Browns, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Cleveland “Indians” and the Ohio State Buckeyes. It was a good day for him when Boston TV stations aired a Cleveland sports game.

He is survived by his son Paul Betor and his wife Kerrie of Dartmouth, MA; his daughter Lynn Marcotte and her husband Thomas of Herndon, VA; his grandchildren David Banville, Kerrie Anne Banville, Adrienne Dykstra (Matthew) and Peter Marcotte (Leah); and his great-grandchildren Joelle Dykstra, Rose Dykstra, Daniel Dykstra, and Claire Banville. He is also survived by his sister and brother-in-law Laverne and William Ameen, and his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Edward and Mary Sabath, and many beloved nieces, nephews, cousins, godchildren, and friends. He was predeceased by his beloved wife, his parents, and his sister Helen Betor.

Funeral arrangements will be private at a future date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Ronald McDonald House Charities, 26345 Network Place, Chicago, IL 60673-1263 or online at rmhc.org.