Edith Rizer "Edie" Paffard, 92, of Mountain Lake, Lake Wales, Florida, passed away peacefully surrounded by her four daughters on September 18, 2008, in her family home at 381 North Main Street, Stonington after a courageous battle with cancer. She was the wife of the late Frederic C. Paffard, Jr., also of Stonington and Mountain Lake.
Edie was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 21, 1916, to the late Dr. Robert and Ruth [Lakerstein] Rizer.
She was a graduate of the Northrop Collegiate School [now the Blake School] in Minneapolis in 1933 and Wheelock College in Boston, MA, in 1937 where she majored in early childhood education. She also attended the University of Minnesota.
Following her marriage to Fred Paffard in November of 1939, she lived in Minneapolis briefly and for many years at 106 Beaver Road in Sewickley, PA, where he was an executive for Pittsburgh Plate Glass Industries.
In Sewickley she joined the Allegheny Country Club and began to play golf at the age of 35. It quickly became a life long passion.
In September of 1954 the Allegheny Club sponsored the National Women's Amateur Championships and Edie qualified for match play. She also played in the West Penn Championships from 1954-1960.
In 1966, Edie qualified to play in the USGA Senior Women's Amateur Championships, also held at Allegheny, and she went on to establish a remarkable record of qualifying for the next 17 years, finishing as high as tenth in 1971.
In October 1967, she won the 10th Annual North and South Senior Women's golf championship at Pinehurst Country Club in North Carolina
Edie was the Allegheny Country Club "Fairsex" Champion five times, their Ladies' Spring Medal Champion eight times, last winning in 1987 at the age of 71!
She was the Sewickley Heights Golf Club Champion in 1963 and the Pennsylvania State Women's Golf Association Senior Champion in 1978. In 1982 she won the Senior Women's Amateur Group IV National Championship [65 or older] at Kissing Camels Golf Club in Colorado Springs, CO.
Locally, Edie Paffard was a member of the Wadawanuck Club and a founding member of the Stonington Country Club, where she donated The Paffard Cup and won the women's championship twice at the age of 76 and 78. She was also a member of the Misquamicut Golf Club in Watch Hill, RI, where she was women's club champion in 1981.
In Stonington she lived at "Stone Acres", a farm that had been in her husband's family since 1765. In 2004 she worked with the Avalonia Land Trust to preserve a sixty acre wooded parcel of the farm with extensive frontage on Stony Brook and North Main Street. Previously she had conveyed a three acre parcel on Quanaduck Cove to the Stonington Cemetery Association.
She is survived by four daughters: Wynne Paffard Delmhorst and her husband Arthur of Riverside, CT; Jane Paffard Nichols of New York City, NY; Heidi Paffard Simmons and her husband Rob of Stonington, CT; and Helen Paffard Wertheimer and her husband Clay of Everett, WA. She is also survived by nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
In addition to her husband, she was pre-deceased by two brothers, Dr. Dean K. Rizer of Minneapolis, MN and Robert Rizer of Sanibel, FL; and a sister, Ruth Rizer Rue of Bryn Mawr, PA.
A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, September 23, 2008 at 11:00 am at Calvary Episcopal Church, 31 Church Street, Stonington, CT. Burial will be private.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Avalonia Land Conservancy at Post Office Box 49, Old Mystic, CT 06372 or to the Stonington Free Library, 20 High Street, Stonington, CT 06378
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