Our July Activist of the Month, Ed Measom grew up in Milford, Connecticut, graduating from Milford High School. He is the oldest of 5 with 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Ed’s parents are both from the Bronx, NY. His Dad worked for the Southern New England Telephone Company and was a City Alderman in Milford. His Mom was a nurse for 50 years and a psychiatric nurse for the last half her career.
Ed earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and a MBA from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. Ed experienced a lot of variety in his career. He worked in production for Liquid Carbonic, sales for Airco, owned a home improvement franchise for a time, did a stint in property management, then sales/marketing for a card solutions company (credit cards & photo IDs), was an Adjunct Professor at UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management for 14 years and was the business manager for Orange Blossom Pilsner before retiring in early 2021.
As a pre-teen, he helped his Dad canvas. Ed did some campaigning for Bernie Sanders in 2016 and for Hillary Clinton, after her nomination. But, until now with his recent retirement, Ed did not have much time to participate directly due to work constraints. Nevertheless, he says, “I’ve always stayed politically alert and informed.”
Now that he has more time, Ed is signing up for every SemDems activity he can fit into his schedule to see what is the best fit. So far, he has enjoyed meeting thinking and energetic SemDems members, attending the meetings, knocking on doors, phone banking, and voter registration booth work. He has enjoyed meeting other volunteers, as well as, meeting the public. He has been learning about our new tool—Mapper. In addition to SemDems activities, he has attended local government meetings, including those for the Seminole Soil & Water Conservation District, Board of County Commissioners, and Seminole County School Board. Ed says his activism is because he wants to do “what I can to save our Democracy.” Ed is one of the SemDems’ new Precinct Captains and uses the slogan “The Fighting 43rd!”
When not working with the SemDems, you can find Ed brewing beer. He says, “It’s the best use of that Chemical Engineering degree I’ve found so far.” We are so happy that Ed has gotten so involved with SemDems activities and we would love to sample his brew!