In Memory of Edwin Fonner Jr.

Edwin Fonner Jr., passed away on January 26, 2014, was born in Denver, CO on December 5, 1948. He is survived by his spouse of 42 years, Maribeth Ann and his son Clifford Edwin. 
He was raised in an Air force family and descended from Croatian coal miner and Ohio Swiss steel workers who spent his childhood summers in northern (Raton) NM. Ed lived in Japan; Denver; New Mexico; Maine; Munich, Germany; Dover, Delaware; Florida; and Ft. Worth, TX before leaving home for college. After college, he resided in New York City; Houston; St. Louis; Topeka, KS; and Kansas City, KS. 
Ed’s ambitious education included earning multiple degrees: a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Psychology with a minor in philosophy from the University of Texas, Austin, 1972; a Masters of Public Health (MPH) in 1976 from the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston TX; a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Houston in 1979 and a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in 1979 from the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston. He interned at the U.S. Bureau of the Census in 1976 under Jacob S. Siegel, senior demographer, Population Division in 1976. 
His professional endeavors included spending early studies in clinical psychology in Chicago and working six years in retail stock brokerage in Houston. He had significant exposure to branch money management and consolidation of brokerage operations with the Treasurer (Paine Webber and Rotan Mosle); investment research; and municipal debt underwriting (Denver and NYC). Ed also worked with Voluntary Hospitals of America – capital unit and clinical/financial information system (NYC and Irving TX, 1987 to 1988). Ed directed research and information systems at the Catholic Health Association, St. Louis from 1989 to 1995. 
More recently, Ed was the Executive Director for the California Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the Kansas Health Insurance Association (the state high risk pools), and the Virginia Cardiac Surgery Quality Initiative. He convened data managers nationally with the STS Congenital Cardiac and General Thoracic Surgery user groups. He started the web site HealthDataForum.com. He served on the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database Taskforce. He assisted the Kansas Insurance Department in funding their Affordable Care Act initiatives (health exchange planning, rate review, consumer assistance, and health insurance exchange establishment) in 2010 and 2012. He wrote the business plan for the Kansas Health Cooperative loan ($80 million) in 2012. 
Ed’s past consultancies include the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the STS, Inova Health System, and others. He was Kansas Health Insurance Association Board member from 1997 to 2005. He was Director of Outreach at the Kansas University School of Medicine, working with Kansas Medicaid to promote community-based disease prevention in rural and inner city areas. Ed helped start the Kansas Health Institute and was Executive Director of the Kansas Governor’s Public Health Improvement Commission. He helped form a health insurance purchasing pool for small business and served as grant writer and evaluator to the Manhattan, KS Community Health Council, Project Access (Medical Society of Sedgwick County), and other HRSA Community Access Program sites. He conducted a community health assessment for the Junction City, KS Health Council and won three Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants, one for a state health policy grant to the Kansas Department of Administration. 
He completed over two dozen published articles and posters for scientific sessions; grants including 3 for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Federal; assistance to graduate students and to multiple agencies for consulting services. 
Ed’s athletic accomplishments: At Nolan High School, Texas, Ed played varsity basketball for three years and was on the football and track teams. He won All-District and All-State (2nd team) honors in basketball in his senior year, 1966. His team won All- District in 1966 (1st time). He placed first in the District high jump and high hurdles in 1966. 
Ed was a runner and competitive athlete most of his adulthood. He completed over 70 triathlons and similar endurance events after age 50, including IronMan Louisville in 2007 and 2008. He rode in over 10 ‘century rides’, 2 five-kilometer swims (Big Shoulders, Lake Michigan), multiple half-marathons, and similar endurance events. He finished the Olathe Marathon and the Big Sur Marathon. 
Ed’s Key Learnings: Be self-made; bring out the best in people; have pure intention; and listen. 
“WITH HIS LOVING WIFE AND ESTEEMED SON, THERE WAS NOTHING IN HIS LIFE WANTING.” 
Visitation will be Tuesday February 4, 2014 from 2:00 P.M. until 4:00 P.M. at the Yaksich-Long Funeral Home in Raton. Recitation of the Most Holy Rosary will be Wednesday February 5, 2013 at 9:30 A.M. at St. Patrick’s-St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Raton recited by Frank Cimino Jr. Mass will follow at 10:00 A.M with Father John Trambley as the celebrant. Inurnment will follow at a later date. Arrangements and celebration of love for Edwin Fonner Jr are under the direction of the Yaksich-Long Funeral Home of Raton.