Cornwall’s 2016 grand marshals, Ed and Floranne Moulton, on the deck of their home in Cornwall-on-Hudson.
On Monday afternoon, Ed and Floranne Moulton will climb into the back seat of a friend’s convertible. They’ll wave to spectators on either side of the road, as the car cruises uphill from the Village to Chadeayne Circle.
The grand marshals for this year’s parade have been together for a long time. They met in biology class at SUNY New Paltz. She had been the valedictorian and a cheerleader at Walden. He had played baseball and football for Newburgh Free Academy, while singing tenor in the high school chorus.
“The biology was pretty good between us,” Mr. Moulton recalled last week — with a grin that suggested he had told this story before. There was another connection between the two college students. She was rooming at a professor’s house, while Ed had been dating the professor’s daughter.
Before long, there was a change in allegiance, with young Ed Moulton growing attached to the professor’s tenant. “My eyes kind of wandered,” he explained more than 60 years later.
The couple graduated in 1952, became engaged, and then took off in separate ways. She became a teacher on Long Island, while he enlisted in the Air Force, and spent a year in Texas as an aviation cadet.
When he got his Christmas furlough, Ed Moulton and three of his buddies piled into an old Brewster Buick (a chauffeur’s car) and drove nonstop to the Empire State. “I don’t know why we didn’t get a ticket,” he mused. They had zipped through the South at speeds well above the limit.
Ed met Floranne in Long Island; she drove him to Newburgh, and within seven days they were married at St. George’s Episcopal Church. The wedding reception took place at the Storm King Arms in Cornwall-on-Hudson.
He served 20 years in the Air Force, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. During that time, the couple and their three children (Anne, Curt and Mary) would return to the Hudson Valley to visit Mrs. Moulton’s parents, who owned the Campus Luncheonette and Bowling Alley in Cornwall-on-Hudson.
In 1972, Lt. Col. Moulton retired. “I got out,” he said, “so the kids could have a home town, with relatives around. And so they could all graduate from the same high school.”
He had once been stationed near Santa Barbara, Calif. It seemed like a good place to settle. But his wife had other ideas. “I wasn’t allowed to consider that any further,” he said. “We moved to the Village, and I’ve never regretted it.”
ABOUT THE GRAND MARSHALS
ED MOULTON served in the Air Force (1952-72) during the Korean, Vietnam and Cold Wars. He retired as a lieutenant colonel after receiving the bronze star and two commendation medals. He was nominated for an air medal while serving with the USA’s Security Service Recon Mission.
-He was elected to the Cornwall-on-Hudson Board of Trustees in 1977, and served as mayor from 1981-2007 (longer than anyone else in the Village’s history).
-For more than 40 years, he has belonged to the Cornwall Lions Club (where he was a former president), American Legion Post 353, the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, and the Temple Hill Association (where he was the past president).
-He also served as chairman of the July 4th Committee and the Bicentennial Committee.
FLORANNE MOULTON taught in England and four states before arriving in Cornwall-on-Hudson, where she became the head teacher and introduced a hands-on environmental program.
-She was a member of the Hudson Highlands Nature Museum, the Cornwall Garden Club, and the Orange & Dutchess Garden Club. She served as an arrangement judge in Cornwall.
-She served on the Bicentennial and July 4th Committees, and was a long-time chair of the Sands Ring Homestead Committee.