Edgar Dunham Kauffman

Edgar Dunham Kauffman, 86, died May 21st, 2024. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on February 24th, 1938, to Frank and Marion Kauffman.

He graduated from Towson High School in 1956 and continued his education at Dartmouth College. From Dartmouth, he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering science in 1960 and master’s degree in mechanical engineering with honors in 1961. He was a member of the NROTC unit at Dartmouth College and a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.

After graduating from Dartmouth, he served in the Navy as an engineer for almost 5 years. Following his service in the Navy, he led a successful career as an engineer working for Bell Telephone Labs, Whitman Requardt and Associates, and Rummel Klepper and Kahl. In 1968, he moved his young family to Brooke’s Cross Farm in Baldwin Maryland to help his mother and stepfather run the dairy farm. He eventually became a full-time farmer, milking over 100 cows, baling hay, planting and chopping corn. In 1975 the cows were sold and the farm’s cash crop was renting houses. All of the renovations on the farm tenant houses were DIY. Edgar went back to work as an engineer, working at Texas Instruments and as a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland. He spent some time in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in 1981 and 1982 working on the computer system that regulated the oil pipeline.

Edgar fell in love with sailing in high school, and pursued it for much of his life, taking his wife Sally and young children out on the Chesapeake Bay for a week at a time. When he sold his sailboat to buy a new farm tractor, he took up flying and was licensed to fly a small plane. He also was an accomplished wood worker and made fine tables and small boats.

He is survived by his four children, Virginia (Ginny) Kauffman Gillam and her husband Jeremy, Goss Kauffman and his wife Elise, Stephen (Murph) Kauffman and his wife Amy, Marion (Missy) Kauffman Coatrieux and her husband Eric, seven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

There is a viewing on Friday May 24th from 2-4pm and 6-8pm at Bethel Presbyterian Church in White Hall, Maryland. The funeral is on Saturday May 25th at 10am at Bethel Presbyterian Church.