EDWARD GLANCY joined his family in heaven on January 4th, 2022. Born March 26th, 1927 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, he lived a life as full as it was long. He was the son of Edward Martin and Elizabeth Rose (Farrell) Glancy and brother to Mary, Joan, Anne, Joe and Jim. His father called him Bud. Raised in the steel town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania during the great depression, Ed loved playing football and basketball and hanging out with his buddies Squeaky, Pappy and Hoot. While in grade school Ed was given the name “Eddie Glancy the Fancy Dancer” by the great Gene Kelly who taught and instilled in him a passion for ballroom dancing.
After the 1944 football season of his senior year, he and his friends drove to Pittsburgh and enlisted in the Navy during World War II. After basic training he was chosen to join Lion Nine (an elite group of Navy frogmen trained to dismantle beachside ordinance in preparation for the invasion of Japan). Thankfully, the war ended before the invasion began. As one of the first occupying troops in Japan he served alongside the 4th Marine Division in clearing the Japanese countryside of munitions and working in a carpentry shop in the early stages of rebuilding Japan before being honorably discharged in September 1946.
Thanks to the GI Bill, Ed earned a degree in economics from St. Francis College in Loretto, PA in 1950. He spent the next seven years traveling the Midwest as a salesman for a venetian blinds company, Burger Beer Company and the 3M Company before an inner voice told him to move to Florida.
On New Year’s Eve 1956, he boarded a Greyhound bus on a one-way ticket to Jacksonville, Florida. Once the bus reached Jacksonville, he decided to stay on board and take it to the end of the line in Miami, Florida. He spent his early 30’s having a blast as a bachelor living on Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale. He would often refer to fun memories of The Fort Lauderdale Catholic Club and the friends he met that would last a life time. He recalled his fishing days out of Hillsboro Inlet on The Candy Kid where his prized catches were sailfish. During those early years he spoke of his trips to Cuba in its glory days of great music and dance before Castro’s regime.
In 1961 his brother Jim Glancy introduced him to Mary Lane Butler, a close friend of Jim’s wife Kathy, as she was visiting from Washington DC. On their first date at the Mai Kai Polynesian restaurant in Ft Lauderdale, he suggested they should marry. Just a few months later their wedding took place at St. Mary’s of the Cataract in Niagra Falls, NY. Returning to Fort Lauderdale, Ed & Mary Lane built a home and began to welcome children into their young family to include Kara Elizabeth, Genevieve Catherine, Edward Michael Jr. & Joseph Patrick.
Ed was a devoted father who gave everything he had to his children. He was patient, kind, understanding, generous, fun and loved his children more than anything. And they loved and appreciated him with all the fullness of love they received.
Ed settled into a career as an Allstate agent in 1971 and operated his award-winning agency until selling it in 1997. In 1983 Ed became a certified ballroom dance instructor with Arthur Murray Studios. In 1992 he began cruising around the world on the finest cruise ships serving as a Gentlemen Host. Each evening he would dance the night away with ladies aboard ship who wanted to dance. For ten years he sailed the seven seas visiting most ports around the world and building many great friendships along the way.
Deciding to live a life of sobriety in 1982, Ed became passionate about helping others live a fuller, richer and sober life for the next four decades. The spiritual principles of AA became cornerstones of his life. And yes, one can change their life! Through our father’s attainment of sobriety, he became more open minded, mended relationships and became more determined to help others. He gained remarkable friends and a supportive community which he found in AA. The principles he shared most were of acceptance and attitude. He recited The Prayer of Saint Francis in AA meetings and was known for sharing “The 4 Questions.” He helped thousands along in their journey for sobriety.
We hope the stories of his life and legacy pass on to others. As future generations read this, also know this about Edward Glancy: He could recite hundreds of poems. His favorite was Lasca by Frank Desprez. He learned it as a boy from his uncles on the Farrell side and it was one of many he taught to his children at an early age. He adored his mother. On St. Patrick’s Day in 1936, just shy of his 9th birthday, he witnessed the Johnstown flood from the hill where he lived. When his children were babies, and they woke up in the middle of the night, he would take them for a moonlit swim in the pool to calm them. He taught his children to swim before they could walk. He read books constantly. His favorite subject was philosophy. He never stopped studying and pondering it. He loved birds and flowers of all kinds. He loved the sea. He surrounded himself with beauty. Art and music spoke to his soul and it didn’t need to be expensive or famous.
He would often say, “Life is to be enjoyed, not endured.” It was because as a young man he briefly lived in NYC. It happened to be one of the loneliest times of his life in a dwelling that was depressing. After six months and giving it his all, he left. When we were old enough to live on our own, he advised us to always choose a place we would want to come home to and feel safe in. Take heed to these words of wisdom.
People called him a renaissance man and a romantic. His nieces and nephews called him the most interesting man in the world. He was devout in his Catholic faith. His eyes were the color of a gray blue sea before a storm. He had a head full of hair even to 94. He believed GPS stood for God’s Positioning System. He was great at telling jokes. At 89 years old he jumped out of a plane. He saw a UFO off Hollywood Beach in the early 1980s. He never joked about that experience. He truly lived every day as an adventure, he took risks, he continued to be curious, explore, learn, and try new things. While in his 90s, choosing to live in a senior living facility and through a pandemic, he would say that his life was outside those walls and that’s where he spent it. Eddie Glancy loved life and lived it to the fullest!
Ed is survived by his four children Kara (Tom) Pfister, Genny (Scott) Leggett, Mike (Laura) Glancy and Joe (Brooke) Glancy, thirteen grandchildren, two great grandchildren, his friend and ex-wife Mary Lane and dozens of nieces and nephews. A funeral mass at St. Sebastian Church will be held on March 25, 2022 at 10:30 am. The celebration of life is on March 26th.
For additional details contact mikeglancy@comcast.net.
