Edward M. Carens, who lived in Wellesley for much of his life, died on June 16, 2024, at the Wilton Meadows Nursing Home in Wilton, Conn.
Ed was born on July 30, 1943, in Springfield, Illinois where his father George Carens was stationed during the war. In 1945, the family moved back to the Boston area and settled in Wellesley in 1953, first on River Glen Road in the Wellesley Farms area and then a few years later on the nearby Crestwood Drive. Eddie went to high school at Saint Sebastian’s Country Day School which was then in Newton, and he enjoyed a career as a student athlete, becoming the captain of the basketball team and a leading player on the baseball team. During the summer, he sometimes caddied at the Wellesley Country Club where he was first exposed to golf, the sport that became the great passion of his adult life.
After high school, Eddie went to the University of Notre Dame where he was a business major, a devoted golfer, and a member of ROTC. Throughout university he continued to date his high school girlfriend Marilyn and they married in the fall of 1965. Around the same time, he joined the army as a second lieutenant. After an assignment in the United States, by a stroke of luck he was sent to South Korea not Vietnam. He and Marilyn (who joined him there) spent a peaceful and interesting year abroad. After fulfilling his two year obligation, Eddie resigned from the army and returned to the Boston area.
Eddie and Marilyn’s first child Kelley was born in 1968, followed by Mark in 1970 and Heidi in 1971. The family moved from Burlington to Wellesley in 1973. The children grew up in Wellesley. Eddie competed successfully in town tennis tournaments, winning a number of them, and he developed his passion for golf. Eddie also coached Mark’s Little League and Majors baseball teams, becoming the first coach in Wellesley to draft a girl for his Majors team which then went on to win that year’s championship. As this illustrates, Eddie had a strong competitive streak and loved to win both as a player and as a coach, but he also had a deep commitment to fairness, sportsmanship, and having fun. Eddie and Marilyn divorced in 1987. In 1994 Eddie married Pam Wetherbee, but they divorced in 1998. They enjoyed times in Maine and being active in the Wellesley community.
Eddie began his business career in 1968 as a sales representative for IBM. In 1976 he became an investment broker at E. F. Hutton, a position that he held for a dozen years. Over the course of his career, he had many sales and marketing positions in the Boston area, several of them associated in some way with golf. In one job application late in his career, he wrote this about himself: “I have an extensive background in sales and marketing. I am reliable, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. I interact effectively with people. I am not looking to climb the corporate ladder, and I would like to work in an environment that emphasizes cooperation rather than competition among colleagues.” This was an accurate self-assessment and description of his goals. Eddie was friendly, funny, kind, generous, helpful, and reliable. He was known for the smile on his face, and the smile was real.
Eddie loved golf, and through golf he developed a number of close friendships, many of which lasted his entire life. He played weekly at Stow Acres, a local public course near Burlington, and then, after he moved to Wellesley, at Nehoiden Golf Club. He made very good friends in both places, but when he became a member of the Charles River Country Club, it became his home for many years and the source of many close and lasting connections. He was affectionately known there as “steady Eddie” and “everyday Eddie” (Ever Y. Day being an alias he used to enter in Massachusetts Amateur tournaments). He also enjoyed traveling to explore other golf courses, and he kept meticulous records of statistics on his rounds. He played on golf courses in 47 different states, and he played on over 150 different courses with his son Mark.
Eddie also loved to travel abroad, an appetite that emerged from his spending six weeks driving around Europe with Marilyn and his brother Joe in the summer of 1965. He traveled to many different countries around the world, culminating with a visit to Iceland with his daughter Kelley in 2015, a trip that had been on his bucket list, and a trip to Norway with Kelley and her daughter Skylar in 2016. Whenever he could, he combined his travel with golf. His favorite trips included famous courses like St. Andrews in Scotland, Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda and Sankaty Head in Nantucket.
In addition to playing sports, Eddie was a huge sports fan. In addition to following the PGA, he was a lifelong Red Sox fan, and thanks to his sister, his family has a picture of him holding the Red Sox 2004 World Series championship trophy, celebrating their victory. He also was an ardent New England Patriots fan. Indeed, he displayed his commitment to the Red Sox and the Patriots in the clothes that he wore and continued to sport after his move to New York.
In 2006, Eddie moved to a condominium in Armonk, New York, to be near to his daughters Kelley in Armonk, and Heidi, in New York City. This turned out to be a wonderful move. He grew very close to his grandchildren, and that enriched his life. He helped them and they helped him. He also found a job at the nearby Whippoorwill Country Club which enabled him to interact on a daily basis with other people who loved golf and to play there himself after work. Indeed, he made such a strong connection to the Whippoorwill community, that they continued to employ him and welcome him even after his Alzheimer’s disease had begun to interfere with his abilities. Another great benefit of his move to New York was that he lived right across the street from the North Castle Library in Armonk. He spent a lot of time there, finding books (both print and audio versions) and DVDs and volunteering at the Armonk Outdoor Art Show. He developed a close connection with the wonderful librarians who encouraged him to take advantage of all the library’s resources and programs.
By 2015, the effects of the Alzheimer’s disease that ultimately took his life were becoming visible. This limited him in some ways, such as the need to give up his driver’s license, but he managed to stay in his condo for another three years, work, and even to travel, like a trip to Notre Dame for his 50th reunion. In 2018 he moved to the Greens at Greenwich, a place that specializes in caring for people with dementia, and he received wonderful care from them for two years. When he declined even further he moved to the Wilton Meadows Nursing Home in Wilton, Connecticut, where he also received excellent care. He died there on June 16 which was both Father’s Day and the final day of the U. S. Open.
Eddie is survived by his three children: Kelley Sanders (Michael) of Armonk, NY, Mark Carens (Catherine Crowther) of Ponte Vedra, Florida, and Heidi Carens of Beverly Hills, California; by nine grandchildren: Skylar, Nolan, Lilly, and Charlotte Sanders, Mia and Luke Carens, and Lana, Sasha and Misha Lauer; by two siblings: Joseph Carens (Jennifer Nedelsky) of Toronto, Canada, and Paula Carens of Wellesley; and by three nephews and a niece.
A memorial mass will be celebrated at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Newton at 10:30 am on Tuesday July 30 (Eddie’s 81st birthday), followed by interment at 11:30 am at Calvary Cemetery in Waltham.
Memorial contributions may be made in his name to the North Castle Library in Armonk, NY.
Obituaries of current or past Wellesley residents and community members can be sent to theswellesleyreport@gmail.com
