Edwin 'Ted' R. Sage II, obituary
NORTH HAVEN — Edwin R. Sage II (Ted) died at home on May 25, 2025, after almost a decade with Alzheimer’s Disease.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 4, 1937, he was the son of Rodney C. Sage and Marjorie Llewellyn Sage. He graduated from Brown & Nichols School in Cambridge in 1955, Williams College in 1959, received his M.A. from Boston College in 1965, and did post graduate work in Computer Science following that.
He worked at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts from 1959 through 1992, teaching math and heading the math department for nearly 10 years. Beginning in 1966-67, he started and taught computer coding and programming courses. In addition to teaching full time, he lived in a dormitory of 30+ boys and coached football, wrestling, and crew. Ted went on to custom design software programs for Middlesex for their Business Office, Development Office, and for Registering and Grading students, training staff, maintaining and improving the programs for a decade. He wrote the first two textbooks for teaching programming to high school students and traveled to math conferences to inspire and instruct other teachers to begin computer science programs in their schools.
In 1963, Ted married Kristen Nelson, who died leaving him with two boys. In 1977, Ted married Hope Richins Quick who was Director of Development at Middlesex and they raised their combined family of four children together.
In the early 1980s, while still working at Middlesex, Ted consulted with Mary Waterman, Treasurer of North Haven to develop software programs to do the Town’s Sewer and Water billing. From 1986-88, he worked with Kim Alexander at Brown’s Boat Yard, developing and fine-tuning the billing systems for Brown’s over the years. After 33 years and three careers at Middlesex School, Ted retired early in 1992 to manage Y-Knot Boat Yard for Bud Thayer for a few years, so he and Hope moved to North Haven to become year-round residents.
Soon after starting work at Y-Knot, Ted was asked by North Haven Community School Principal Barney Hallowell to serve on the Math, Science, and Technology Curriculum Committee. As a result, he volunteered to teach one advanced high school math class. That led to his becoming a half-time high school math teacher when he left the Boat Yard. After twelve years teaching, he retired for a second time and did coursework at MIT to learn their newly developed programming language, Scratch, which was designed to teach programming to elementary students. He returned to NHCS to teach coding and robotics at NHCS, retiring a third and final time in June 2019 after learning that he had already been in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease for two or three years before that. In all, Ted taught for 54 years.
Throughout his decades in North Haven, Ted’s great joy was working in his 26 acres of woods, which he called his cathedral, designing, laying out, and maintaining a network of beautiful walking paths used daily by residents and visitors. North Haven Conservation Partners holds a conservation easement on Sage Woods to preserve it for posterity in its present pristine condition.
Ted is survived by his wife of nearly 48 years, Hope; their four children: Peter W. Sage (wife Trudi Skinder), Robert C. Sage (Nicole Vicencio), Margaret Quick Noble (husband David), and James E. Quick; eight grandchildren, Laura Noble Butler (husband Michael), Thomas Noble; Hannah Noble, Sarah Noble Pentz (husband Wade), Daniel R. Sage, Jonathan T. Sage, David C. Sage, and Allie Sage; six great-grandchildren: Nash Butler, June Butler, Olive Noble, Weston Noble, Jupiter Sage Tapparelli, and Bahia Tapparelli; sister Joan Sage Amory; daughter-in-law Amy W. Sage; brothers-in-law Alan E. Richins (wife Donna McFarland) and Brent J. Richins (wife Janet); and numerous nieces and nephews.
Ted’s memorial service will be held Saturday, July 12, at 11 a.m., at the Village Church in North Haven.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Sage Woods Endowment Fund, c/o North Haven Conservation Partners, PO Box 336, North Haven, ME 04853.
To share a memory or condolence with Ted’s family, please visit their Book of Memories at www.bchfh.com. Arrangements are in the care of Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock Street, Rockland.