Ed Comer and I stood outside the church on a recent hot afternoon.  The landscaping machines were still there; the revised parking area was not yet quite ready for paving.  The raised flowerbed centered around the new white dogwood tree had its ground cover plants and Liriope already in place, with its blank areas awaiting some annuals for color.  We were standing on the sidewalk around the corner of the building, just out from under the port-cochere, and facing the base of the stairs that provide the “back” entrance to the office wing.  At our feet the earth had been dug away about six inches down from the sidewalk.  Ed had spent the morning digging out and carting off a load of clay that someone had unhelpfully dumped in that enclosed space, so that he could replace it with good soil.  That had been no small physical task, but Ed was as happy as a clam as he looked at the ground and saw in his mind’s eye the possibilities for plants that would beautify that space and the one just north of it. That scene, I now realize, gives a great introduction to Ed.  Wrapped up in it are his love of the outdoors, his passion for growing plants, his devotion to his church, his capacity to envision a better future and his willingness to invest his disciplined imagination and effort in realizing it.
Ed was the younger of two children born to a father who taught math in very rural high schools and a mother who was a nurse, in Boone’s Mill near Bedford, VA.  Later the family moved to Craig County.  Though both he and his sister were bright kids, their schooling was deficient.  Ed was an outdoorsy type, loving fishing and hunting, playing football and basketball.  When graduation loomed his father told Ed he was functionally illiterate, and so he went to Ferrum Junior College for a year, to essentially retake his last year of high school.  His father was a Methodist (his sister eventually married a Methodist minister); his mother a Baptist and Ed grew up a Methodist.  Ed told his mother at age 10 that he wanted to be a doctor, and he chose to go to the University of Richmond because it had a tie-in with the Medical College of Virginia.  His family had been very poor, but also very skilled at coaxing food out of the ground; from an early age Ed learned—and loved--the gardening enterprise. 
At MCV, in his first year, he met Cathy, a “devout Presbyterian” from Dublin, VA, who was in nursing school.  She was the daughter of teachers; her father was an agriculture teacher and her family members were avid gardeners too.  The couple attended church at Second Presbyterian Church in Richmond, where Ed was swept away by the Scottish burr of the pastor, Dr. Clark.  (Burrs have won over more than one Presbyterian.)  Ed managed to finish the first year of his residency in pediatrics at MCV before Uncle Sam’s Air Force beckoned during the Vietnam War. Now married, he and Cathy went to Loring Air Force base in northern Maine for two years.  Ed did find the outdoor life in Virginia more congenial than that in Maine, for “there was nothing but potatoes up there because the growing season was too short!”  Then it was back to MCV for his final two years’ residency.
Wanting to work in a partnership, Ed chose Harrisonburg where he joined Drs. Powell and McDonald in a practice entitled “Physicians for Children.”  He and Cathy moved here in 1969 with their daughter Pam and son Matthew; their younger son Jon was born here.  Pam now teaches biology at the Governor’s School in Richmond; Matthew is a health trainer in Orlando; and John is in sales with Orkin.  Ed and Cathy have five grandchildren.  They joined Harrisonburg First Presbyterian Church because the children liked the youth program.  Soon they bought a farm and then leased the farms on either side of them to raise Black Angus cattle.  These had been Cathy’s father’s specialty.
Ed kept learning, taking various agricultural extension courses—including some at Tech, which seems to be almost an adopted school for him.  His most recent venture has been the Master Gardener Course, so demanding that it had to wait until Ed’s recent retirement.  The course met 2½ hours, 2 nights a week for 3 months at Verona, requiring 50 classwork hours and 50 hours of intern work, plus 2 “dissertations.”  “Now I realize how much I didn’t know!” he admits.  He is working to have a Master Gardener course to be offered in Harrisonburg next year.
About 15 years ago, after some gentle persuasion from their long-time friend Bill Blose, Ed and Cathy moved their membership to MPC.  Bob and Doris Field begged them to take over the youth group leadership, which they did for about half a dozen years.  Now in his third year as an elder, Ed chairs the Adult Education Ministry.  To watch him in WOW is to realize how he thrives on loving the church’s children.  He has taught the Middle School class and parenting classes in adult education.  He was actively involved (and still is) in the New Era in Ministry Campaign.  He attends the Covenant Class and the Men’s Prayer Breakfast.  Nor has he neglected his larger civic setting.  He served on the Rockingham County School Board from 1978 to 1986.  He is active in the Cross Keys—Mill Creek Ruritan Club, and the Pleasant Valley Board’s Vo-Ag work.
Along the way he has loved music.  He took piano lessons as a child and now in his senior years is taking it up again, with help from Sharon Bloomquist.  He has served as a member of the Bach Festival Board of Directors for the past year.  Nor has he lost his love of sports, especially supporting Tech teams.  His love for hunting has been somewhat transmuted.  “I’ve killed enough deer,” he says.  “Now I just go because I love being in the woods.”  I can testify to his love of nature, as he often shares bird news with me and his hunger to learn more is one of his most endearing traits.  And then there’s the glory of accomplishment:  in his and Cathy’s gorgeous gardens, flowers from which often grace our sanctuary Sunday mornings at worship.
Looking ahead from this point in MPC’s history, he sees growth coming because we have programs that are working.  He hopes to see a strong emphasis on families continue so that young families will be able to bring their children to the church.  Ever conscious of his humble beginnings (“My family didn’t even have an indoor bathroom and running water until I was a teenager!”) and how far he has been able to come, he says of his Christian faith, that it helped him “keep on chuggin” until he could realize his dreams for his future.  What a rich asset to his community and his church is Ed Comer!  Blessings on him!
John Irvine