Edward Footer, of Chatham, died suddenly in a traffic accident on Route 6 on August 26, 2024. He was 57. Ed had been a Chatham Fisherman his entire adult life, despite having spent his early childhood in a landlocked town in central Massachusetts.  But fishing was in his blood right from the first dogfish he caught as a kid on the Bass River Bridge while on vacation with his family. He thought he hooked the fish, but in fact, the fish hooked him, for life.  When his family moved to Yarmouth, just in time to start high school, he and his brother Jimmy chose Cape Cod Regional Technical High School, all the way down in Harwich and of course Ed chose the Commercial Fishing program. Favorite teacher? Mr. Eldridge! 

He got his first Job working on a commercial boat before he even graduated.   When it came time to buy a house, “it had to be in Chatham,” and he came across an old fisherman who could have sold to anyone and for a lot more money, but he chose Ed because, “he’s a fisherman!” Imagine that?  Ed fixed the place up himself with help from friends and family, just as he did with every boat he ever owned. Anything Ed ever wanted to do, he figured out. He was cooperatively self-reliant and lent a hand or advice to anyone who needed help with any project they were working on. He was reliable, honorable and prepared. Always. He thought things all the way through. Bottom line. Steady-Eddie. He had character.

 Fishing for a living can be hard and once, when complaining to his mother about it, she asked, “Ed, why don’t you get a different job?” He replied “There IS no other job.” He lived the life he wanted and was proud of it.

He leaves behind his mother, Dorothy Ann Footer of West Yarmouth, his brother and best friend Jimmy of Chatham, his sister Melanie who lives off Cape and an amazingly astonishingly large number of friends and admirers in the Chatham fishing community who came to know him well and who’s outpouring of love has been a great solace to his family.

 Ed is predeceased by his father, James J. Footer Sr.  We hope they’re hanging out together, watching over us all. 
 
 

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