Obituary: Dr. Edward E. Nawotka Jr., 1940-2024 

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• Courtesy
• Edward Nawotka Jr.

Dr. Edward E. Nawotka Jr., 83, died peacefully on Sunday, May 26, 2024, at the Arbors in Shelburne.

Ed was born on July 16, 1940, in Detroit, Mich., the son of Dr. Edward E. Nawotka and his wife, Marian, in a Polish- and English-speaking household. A graduate of the University of Detroit High School, the University of Detroit and University of Detroit School of Dentistry, he was proud of his Jesuit education and credited it with granting him wisdom. In college, he competed in saber fencing at a national level and took great pleasure in defeating opponents from the Ivy League. A member of the university’s ROTC program, he subsequently enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving for more than two decades and achieving the rank of colonel. His happiest memories — prior to meeting his wife, Evelyn, in 1971, to whom he was married until her death in 2010 — were of his freewheeling twenties spent on military bases in California in the 1960s, where he raced his Mustang convertible in the desert, attended the Monterey Jazz Festival and hunted.

Ed subsequently returned to Detroit, where he developed his medical career. He moved to Vermont in 1989 and became co-owner of Champlain Dental Group in South Burlington, practicing dentistry until his retirement last year. A devout Roman Catholic, he was also a dedicated member of the Freemasons and the Knights of Columbus. Ed’s passions included coin collecting, supporting the Second Amendment and watching the Detroit Lions play football. He is survived by his son, Edward E. Nawotka III, and grandchild, Quinn Nawotka, both of Houston, Texas.

Dr. Nawotka’s funeral will be on June 15, 2024, 11 a.m., at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church in Richmond. A burial will follow at Resurrection Park Cemetery in South Burlington.