Ed Lormand: Musician, Teacher, Sailor
Edward Lewis Lormand, a charter member of the Amelia Island Sailing Club and longtime Fernandina Men’s Golf Association member, died on Saturday, June 22, in Fernandina Beach, Florida. He was 88.
A talented musician in the U.S. Navy and a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music, Mr. Lormand's musical journey began with the clarinet in his elementary school days in Crowley, Louisiana. He credits his high school clarinet teacher and bandmaster, Kenneth D. Long, with guiding him toward a successful music career.
After serving in the Navy from 1954-1958, Mr. Lormand married Frances Spear in 1960. Shortly after, he was accepted into the Juilliard School of Music, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in clarinet performance in 1964. During his time in New York, he taught woodwind students privately, performed with symphony orchestras in New York and New Jersey, and played with a studio group recording soundtracks for the Cannes Film Festival.
Mr. Lormand was awarded a graduate teaching assistantship at the Florida State University School of Music in Tallahassee, Florida, where he received his Master of Music degree in 1965. While there, he was a featured clarinet soloist with the State Symphony Orchestra of Florida.
He joined the music faculty of Georgia Perimeter College in 1965, where he taught woodwinds and music theory. His students went on to transfer successfully to the Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, the New England Conservatory, Duke University, Louisiana State University, Florida State University, and the Royal College of Music in London, in addition to other colleges in Georgia.
He performed regularly in the Atlanta area, including as a guest clarinetist with the Alard quartet of Pennsylvania State University on the college's Guest Artist Series and as a guest artist for the Brahms Festival Concert at Emory University. He performed as a guest clarinet, soloist, and recitalist in New York, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, and Georgia. He conducted woodwind clinics and adjudicated music festivals throughout the Southeast. He was the organizer and conductor of the DeKalb College woodwind ensemble, giving numerous concerts at local elementary schools and musical organizations in the community. From 1977 through 1978, he was conductor of the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra. In 1980, he organized and conducted the North DeKalb Symphony, Dunwoody.
Mr. Lormand pursued a sailing hobby in the summertime. He purchased a 28-foot single-engine, single-masted sloop he named “Lormand’s 2nd Folly” in 1974. After reading books on sailing adventures, he was inspired to sail solo across the Atlantic Ocean, which he did in 1977, launching from Fernandina Beach and ultimately reaching the island of Guernsey in the English Channel.
When the state of Georgia learned of Lormand’s trip, they entrusted him with carrying a proclamation of recognition to the Queen of England for ruling the country for 25 years. In addition, the state presented him with a document commissioning him an admiral in the Georgia Navy, an honorary title bestowed from time to time by the governor of Georgia.
His trip across the Atlantic with the proclamation earned him an invitation to Buckingham Palace. He and his wife, who had flown to Guernsey to join him, arrived at the Palace with a police escort, where he got to sign the royal guest list. He and his wife Fran wrote a book about his singlehanded sailing titled, “How to Sail the Atlantic Alone,” which was published in 1980.
He retired from DeKalb College as an associate professor of music in 1991.
Mr. Lormand, known as Ed, was born on April 20, 1936, in Abbeville, Louisiana, to Oscar Joseph Lormand and Thelma Landry. He grew up in Crowley, Louisiana. He is survived by his wife, Fran. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by his sister, Gale Lormand Anderson, and his niece, Joanna Anderson.
