Daytona condo developer Ed Peck Sr. delivers 'final memo' at funeral. Here's what it said.
Clayton Park, The Daytona Beach News-Journal
5 min read
ORMOND BEACH — Edwin Peck Sr., the pioneering Daytona Beach Shores condominium developer who died Tuesday a month after celebrating his 104th birthday, enjoyed giving speeches.
Fittingly, he managed to find a way to even deliver some last words at his own funeral.
Peck, who died Tuesday, had one of his grandsons read aloud a "Final Memo from Ed" at his memorial service on Saturday.
"Ed, as you know, had a hard time his entire life resisting a podium and a microphone," said Blake Davidson to the gathering of 150 people who packed the chapel at the Lohman Funeral Home in Ormond Beach. "He gave me his first final funeral memo 12 years ago. ... He kept changing it every year."
Sherry Davidson and her brother Edwin Peck Jr., right, view the casket of their late father Edwin Peck Sr. at the funeral service for the pioneering Daytona Beach Shores condo developer on Saturday, July 30, 2022. Also pictured from the left: U.S. Air Force Chaplain Andy Peck (a great-nephew of Edwin Peck Sr.), Nancy Lohman, and Skip Dailey, the general manager of Lohman Funeral Homes & Cemeteries.
The actual final last memo from Peck was written shortly before his 104th birthday on June 21. Peck died on Tuesday in the Daytona Beach Shores condo unit that he shared with his daughter Sherry Davidson.
"I guess it will be no great surprise that someone (Davidson) will be reading this message from me as the sun sets on my life," Peck wrote in the memo addressed to family and close friends. "Please do not grieve for me because I have had a full and very blessed life for more than 104 years."
Peck's son, Edwin Peck Jr., today runs the two businesses his father started, Peck Realty and Peck Construction. He said his father were determined to live long enough to see the June 24th opening of the beachfront park in Daytona Beach Shores named in his honor.
"He wanted to make it to the opening of the park so that he could thank the people responsible like (Volusia County Council member) Billie Wheeler and some of the county staff," Peck Jr. told the gathering. "This park meant a tremendous amount to him."
Edwin Peck Sr. began his second career as a condo developer at age 51, following the sale of his timber business in Gainesville when in 1969 he began construction of the seven-story 61-unit oceanfront Surfside Club condo complex 3601 S. Atlantic Ave. in Daytona Beach Shores.
"A lot of people start winding down at 50," said his son. "Not Ed. He kept going ... stronger and stronger."
Sherry Davidson, foregro0nd left, the daughter of the late Edwin Peck Sr., gets a hug from Barbara Brown as Brown's husband Gary looks on at the funeral for Peck at Lohman Funeral Home in Ormond Beach on Saturday, July 30, 2022. Peck died on Tuesday at age 104. The Browns are the former longtime owners of the Sun Viking Lodge in Daytona Beach Shores where Peck was a pioneering developer of oceanfront condominiums.
At age 56, the elder Peck began construction of the 29-story Peck Plaza at 2625 S. Atlantic Ave. in Daytona Beach Shores. When it opened in 1974, the distinctive cylindrical tower became the tallest oceanfront condo complex on the U.S. East Coast.
Over the course of his career as a condo developer, Peck Sr. built more than 30 condo complexes in east Volusia County, including some in Ormond Beach as well as Daytona Beach Shores.
The elder Peck's accomplishments after age 50 included personal milestones including learning how to snow ski by skiing down the side of a mountain after just one day of training at age 70 and at age 80 earning both a black belt in karate as well as being ranked No. 5 in the world on an international website for gin rummy players, Peck Jr. said.
'Giant of a man'
This photo of the late Edwin Peck Sr. was one of several displayed at the funeral service for the pioneering Daytona Beach Shores condo developer on Saturday, July 30, 2022.
Peck Sr.'s life was also recapped in the form of a poem written and recited by nephew Drew Peck. Another nephew, Rob Ellis Peck, a full-time musician who lives in St. Augustine, performed one of his uncle's favorite songs, the Sam Cooke classic tune "Bring It On Home To Me."
Close friend Lowell Lohman, the co-founder and one of the former owners of Lohman Funeral Homes, described the elder Peck as "a giant of a man. I can't think of anyone in this community that had a bigger effect than Ed did."
Lohman, a proud graduate of Florida State University, ended his remarks by donning a cap bearing the logo of the FSU Seminoles' dreaded sports rivals, the University of Florida Gators in Peck's honor. Peck was an avid fan of the Gators.
Grand nephew Andy Peck, a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force, delivered the eulogy for Peck Sr.
"When Big Ed saw a good thing, he held on tight and when he did something, he did it with excellence," Andy Peck said of his grand-uncle. "He worked hard, he loved his family well, and he loved Daytona Beach. When he saw an opportunity, he measured the cost and then he fully committed himself to it.
"How do we summarize the life of this amazing man? By remembering him, by remembering his love, by remembering his quiet gentle nature, his persistence, his faithfulness, his generosity and his faith."
The elder Peck regularly attended First Baptist of Daytona church.
Peck Jr. recalled how his father taught him and his sister, as well as the rest of the family the importance of having compassion for others and for helping those in need without calling attention to one's self, as well as lessons in how to be successful both in life as well as in business. He would often impart those lessons in subtle ways that Peck Jr. said he would only realize after reflecting on them after the fact, in some cases years later.
Blake Davidson called his grandfather "a superhero. Instead of wearing a cape, he had a cigar. He sat behind a big desk and he was larger than life."
'So much to be thankful for'
Peck Jr. said his father's health quickly deteriorated after giving speeches at both the opening of Edwin Peck Sr. Park as well as his 104th birthday party celebration the next day.
In his final days, the elder Peck struggled to speak more than a few words at a time, but managed to communicate with family members by squeezing their hand and giving a wink, his son recalled.
"One of the last things he said to me was, 'I have so much to be thankful for,'" Peck Jr. said of his father.
