EDWARD HARWOOD NABB (1916-2002) Cambridge lawyer, philanthropist and pilot

Edward Harwood Nabb was a proud Eastern Shoreman. Hailing from Cambridge, Nabb went on to serve in the Army Corps of Engineers and attained the rank of a captain during WWII. He also served in Korea with the 116^th Engineers Combat Battalion. He married Winifred Harrington and became a lawyer through her father who ran the law firm he later worked for, Harrington, Harrington and Nabb. He was one of the last people in Maryland to be admitted to the bar without proper study at a major law school; Nabb never even attended college. He was well known for his personal style and was an outspoken and direct man. He never drank, nor smoked and above all, loved the history and culture of the Eastern shore. In an interview with Sun magazine he said “Maybe it’s my background as an Eastern Shoreman. I operate on the principle of expecting something for something.” He grew up on the water and loved to sail and race powerboats. He also began flying in 1939, and he owned his own Air Coup plane which he occasionally used to deliver holly to Tangier Island residents. This became somewhat of a tradition as he persuaded pilots to join him in bringing the holly, and now more than 30 planes fly the 40 mile trip to deliver the holly to Tangier Island in December. He was president of the Nathan Foundation, a $600,000 scholarship program for Dorchester County students to Attend Salisbury University, for 25 years. He once said, “Let’s face it, this Chesapeake Bay region is where the United States began,” and he was excited by the history that is embedded here. A great philanthropist, he later donated $500,000 to Salisbury University for a research center about the history and culture of Delmarva, today known as the Edward H. Nabb Research Center. He believed in education and said “for every person you educate, you’ve sown the seeds for five more to be educated.”