Edwin R. ‘Eddie’ Malin, liquor salesman

Edwin R. “Eddie” Malin, a wholesale liquor salesman and beverage consultant, died Sunday from lymphoma at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 85. The son of Samuel Malin, a tavern owner and grocer, and Florence Malin, a homemaker, Edwin Ronald Malin was born in Baltimore and raised on Dolfield Avenue.

Mr. Malin was an outstanding basketball player at City College, from which he graduated in 1951. He then attended Bowling Green University in Ohio on a basketball scholarship.

After a year he returned to Baltimore and enrolled at the University of Baltimore. He played basketball there as well, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in 1955.

After serving in the Army as a cryptologist from 1955 until 1957, he was discharged and worked with his father, who owned and operated the Lafayette Tavern.

In 1963, Mr. Malin joined the Kronheim Co., and worked there as a salesman for 31 years. After the company was sold in 1998 to Republic National Distributing Co., he continued working part-time for the successor company.

He later founded and operated Ed Malin’s Brands, a consulting firm for the beverage industry, and had not retired at his death.

In the early 1960s, he founded the Ner Tamid Greenspring Synagogue Basketball League, where he organized and coached youth basketball teams that played initially in the gym at Wellwood Elementary School on Smith Avenue, and later at Summit Park Elementary School in Pikesville.

A longtime resident of Old Pimlico Road, he was an avid golfer and a member of the old Bonnie Ridge Country Club. He still met 12 golfing buddies who lunched every Friday, family members said.

He was a member of Ner Tamid Synagogue, and as president of its Brotherhood, he sold $5 million in Israel Bonds.

Funeral services were held Wednesday at Sol Levinson & Bros. Inc. in Pikesville.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, the former Doris Schwartz; two sons, Alex Malin of Santa Fe, N.M., and David Malin of Scottsdale, Ariz.; a daughter, Jodie Stappler of Pikesville; a sister, Bonnie Fagan of Kittery, Maine; nine grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. Mr. Malin and his wife also raised a nephew and niece, Brad Mandel of Olney and Ellen Goldstein of Potomac, after the children’s parents had died.