A beloved mentor, businessman, and entrepreneur, Ed McVaney leaves behind a lasting legacy.

C. Edward "Ed" McVaney, a co-founder of software company J.D. Edwards, sadly passed away on June 4, 2020. He was 79.

For decades, Ed invested in his local community and was able to empower hundreds of students in Denver through the ACE Scholarship program, which he invested in alongside Alex Cranberg, Charlie Gallagher, Ralph Nagel, John Saeman, and John Walton. The ACE program supports low-income students with access to an education they may not have otherwise received.

"He gave so generously of his time and treasure, that today feels like a hole in our community that will never be filled," ACE President Norton Rainey wrote in an email to Our Community Now.

Beloved by everyone he came into contact with, Ed's drive and passion for helping others was just a natural part of his being.

Luis Villarreal, the founder of Save Our Youth, had known Ed for 25 years and when we spoke with him, he had nothing but kind words to share about his friend.

"Ed was a man committed to integrity and what was right," said Villarreal. "A man of compassion, he led the charge for school choice in Colorado ... and his dyslexic background tenderized his heart to help the poor—something he used for good."

Ed was a mentor at Save Our Youth during his time at J.D. Edwards, and one boy, about 16-17 years old then, came from an impoverished background and lacked any sort of father figure. "Ed took this boy and mentored him; he was the only model [the boy] had, and that relationship meant a lot to him," Villarreal said.

The boy, now 30 years old, has a son named Eddie.

Even after his retirement from J.D. Edwards, Ed would continue to invest in helping those in need. In fact, just a mere year after he "retired," Ed spent six months with the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, Iraq. He also founded the J.D. Edwards Honors Program and the Raikes School of Computer Science and Management, both at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as became one of the founding members of Valor Christian High School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. And if that wasn't enough, in 2016, Ed then went on to found Nextworld, an ERP software company that's run by his daughter, Kylee.

Yet, despite all of his success, Ed never lost sight of what was truly important in life: his family and his faith.

"Ed and Carole were a team. It was never just Ed, it was Ed and Carole ... and you can see their fingerprints all over the city of Denver—through education, housing, and parenting," said Villarreal. "Those are the triple threats for good human function."

He then quoted Proverbs 19:17, "Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done," before adding that the verse was the epitome of who Ed strived to be.

Ed is survived by his wife, Carole; children, Kylee and her husband, Gerry; Kevin and his wife, Colleen; Keith and his wife, Suzie; and grandchildren, Samuel, Ben Victoria, Charlie, Josh, Colman, Caroline, Thomas, and Rose Marie.

Thank you, Ed McVaney, for all that you did to foster young minds and better your community. You will be dearly missed.