Deceased July 8, 2021
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In Memory
It is impossible to remember Ed Yourtee without remembering his smile. Ed seemed to have a positive attitude about practically everything, and his optimism was contagious. He was a diligent student, a skilled clarinetist, an empathetic friend. I had the good luck to live next door to him one year in Theta Xi, and our conversations were warm, easy and restorative. As for his social life, suffice it to say that his prom date in his senior year was that year’s prom queen.
Born in Austin, Texas, and raised in Clinton, N.Y., Ed went on from Amherst to earn his M.D. at Johns Hopkins, then to develop his specialty in infectious diseases at Yale. He had a long career in internal medicine, serving as chief medical officer at the Parkland Medical Center in Derry, N.H., and for 35 years as a partner of Southern New Hampshire Internal Medicine Associates.
In 1991, after traveling to Romania to adopt their son Jonathan, Ed and his wife, Elaine (MacEwan) Yourtee, founded Nobody’s Children, an organization that provides medical and humanitarian resources to needy children. Working directly with doctors in Romania, they developed a wide network of donors and a carefully monitored system of delivering antibiotics, medical equipment, children’s shoes, clothing, toys and other supplies directly to the people who need them. They created a similar program in Bosnia.
Ed was a sailor, photographer and birder, and he enjoyed travel, especially to Italy and to Prince Edward Island. He died in July 2021 following a battle with kidney disease. He is survived by Elaine; his children, Jonathan, Sumiko and Matei; and his golden retriever, Mr. Gibson.
As his classmate Jack Hailey ’67 observed of Ed, “He was a standard-bearer for a better and more peaceful world.”
John Stifler ’68