Obituary of Edwin Mitchell Woolverton

Edwin Mitchell Woolverton, 101, peacefully passed away Monday, October 23, 2017 at Carefree Living in Cook, Minnesota. He is survived by his sister, Ruth, daughter, Vicki, son, Richard, and grandson, Dan. Ed was predeceased by his wife, Marie Trucano (from Tower), and his brother, Frederick. Ed, an Eagle Scout, grew up in Albert Lea and attended the University of Minnesota. During college breaks he would hitchhike to diverse locations near and far. Trout fishing in the Ozarks, looking for black pearls off the tip of the Baja Peninsula (La Paz) and in 1939 he and a fellow Eagle Scout from Albert Lea set out to bicycle/hitchhike around the world. Talking their way onto a freighter in New York heading to France, then crossing Europe, down Italy to North Africa. When they reached East Africa to cross to Australia, WWII was about to start. They had to backtrack and got back to the States just before Germany invaded Poland. Over the course of WWII, he worked on merchant marine ships on the Atlantic and Pacific as a seagoing civilian in the winters. He spent the summers working in the border country first as a canoe guide for the Charles Sommer’s Boy Scout Canoe Base near Ely. In 1943, he manned the firetower on Kekekabic Lake, and in 1944 worked as a lineman out of the forestry’s Crooked Lake Cabin (you can see his journal from that summer online at the Minnesota Phenological Network site). After the war, Ed settled in the Oak and Wake-em-up Narrows area Lake Vermilion, making his living trapping, woodworking and doing assorted work for folks in the area. He met his wife, Marie Trucano, and they became the caretakers for Dayton’s summer cabin on Lake Vermilion. “I used to pull the Governor on waterskis.”, he would say. Dayton’s caretaker for almost 30 years, he raised two children and became proficient at carving wood, known for his duck decoys. Retirement didn’t slow Ed down, he took up training to run marathons and in his late 60’s ran one in the Twin Cities, two in Duluth as well as many 5K and 10K runs in Minnesota and Florida. Upon doctor’s advice, he switched to walking and walked at least an hour a day until just a few weeks ago. A snowbird for the next forty years, he is best known around his winter home area near Placida, Florida as the originator of the Woolverton Kayak Trail, a paddling trail through several miles of mangrove tunnels (online, see Youtube). Ed was kayaking, fishing and working on the trail well into his 90’s. Ed was a host and a world traveler in the organization, Servas. Servas promotes peace and understanding between countries by helping to connect average citizen travelers in one country to average citizen hosts of another. Many lifelong friendships from several countries were developed, and when he wasn’t traveling, Servas brought the world to his door. Much thanks to the staff and residents of Carefree Living in Cook for helping to make Ed’s last few months pleasant and comfortable. No memorial service planned before next spring. If you wish to honor Ed, spend a previously unplanned hour or more outdoors, walking, fishing, paddling, etc. and contemplate, ‘the wonder of it all’.