Earl Vance

EARL T. VANCE

Groveland, Fla.

Earl T. Vance, 72, of Groveland, Fla., passed away peacefully Monday, Feb. 3, 2020, from complications related to a stroke. He was born in Hartford, Conn., to the late Marion and Earl Vance in 1947. In 1985, he picked up and moved his family west to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

In his long and distinguished professional career, Earl worked as a manager of IT for Aetna, Cigna, Life Investors, Parsons Technology, Intuit and APAC. In his retirement years, he worked for the YMCA in Marion, Iowa, and he worked the scoreboards at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Florida.

Earl's main passion and love of his life (besides his wife, Nancy) was coaching youth baseball and basketball. He successfully led numerous teams to state championships in Bambino and Babe Ruth baseball, and he led a tough AAU basketball squad as well. He coached many kids during this period and impacted their lives for the positive on a daily basis.

Besides his love of coaching and playing sports, he enjoyed movies, television shows and reading. He could tell you about any actor that was on the screen at a particular time (dating back to the '50s). He also had vast knowledge when it came to professional sports and its players. He enjoyed telling old stories of how he played basketball against the likes of Calvin Murphy at the YMCA when he was young. He was also one of the best shooters in basketball that many of us have ever seen.

Earl's humor (especially sarcasm), integrity, stubbornness, kindness, intelligence and his love of popcorn will be missed by all that knew him well. As will his singing of "Duke of Earl," which he liked to belt out from time to time.

In addition to his loving wife, Nancy, Earl is survived by his daughter, Lori, and her husband, Kevin Bernoir, of Clermont, Fla., and their sons, Seth, Vance and Guy; his son, Eric, and his wife, Susan, of Phoenix, Ariz.; and his son, Raymond, and his wife, Sarah, of Cedar Rapids, and their children, Easton and Hadley.

Earl was preceded in death by his parents, Marion and Earl; his sister, Lynn Marino; and his son, Brian Vance.

A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, March 15, at the Woodlands at Church Lake clubhouse in Groveland, Fla. If you're coming, please let Nancy Vance or Lori Bernoir know.