Sumner Adam Handy, who never failed to marvel at a beautiful night sky, left this world on May 23, 2024, with the flower moon, one month shy of his 38th birthday. Sumner was born on June 23, 1986, in Brunswick, Maine, and lived in Yarmouth, Maine, with his parents, Bob and Elizabeth; older sister, Hannah; and younger brother, Caleb, until middle school, when the family moved to Maryland. He attended Severna Park Middle School, where his wife, Sarah, first admired him strutting into seventh grade science class, and Severna Park High School, where he met his bosom buddy, Dan Rodrigues Fox, with whom he nurtured a rare friendship and whom he loved as family. Up until his passing, Sumner had a weekly alarm on his phone so he wouldn't miss his regular call with Dan. Sumner was stepdad to Jonah, whose heart, brain, and baseball skills he always believed in, and most recently, he became a biodad to Laila, and has spent the last year marveling at her, feeding her good food, mostly berries, and watching her, with wonder, grow. He even let the "p" word (perfect) slip when describing her, and used the "m" word (miracle) for the first time ever with regards to her existence.

Sumner was a lifelong Red Sox fan but always rooted for the O's if the Sox weren't in town, ate Thai Paradise whenever possible, and wore shorts or jeans whenever he could, closed-toe shoes as seldom as he could, and Ultimate Frisbee shirts repping various tournaments he played in post-college. His favorite afternoons were spent at home, his dog, Lily, snuggled under a fleece blanket next to him on the couch. He used his wife's hair ties in place of a wallet, played the NYT's Spelling Bee daily and, to the annoyance of his wife, always found at least one pangram but usually a couple (let it be noted that he found the name of his cancer as a pangram in the bee posted on February 18, but the bee didn't recognize it as a word), and listened to WYPR and WTMD, loud, in the car with the windows down, drumming on the steering wheel at red lights. He made an enviable chicken stir fry, kept the freezer stocked with his family's favorite ice creams, enjoyed his Xbox, and (mostly) dominated his fantasy baseball league.

Sumner graduated from the University of Maryland, after which he worked as a teacher on the island of Oahu with Teach for America. He earned a Master of Education in Teaching at the University of Hawaii. After returning to the East Coast, he worked for DCPS's IMPACT Team before attending UNC at Chapel Hill for his second master's degree—a Master of City and Regional Planning, Transportation Specialization. He worked for WSP, where he was embedded with MDOT, and then Anne Arundel County's Office of Planning and Zoning. In all of his work, Sumner was meticulous in his writing, logical in his pursuit of best outcomes, and human in response to the needs of both the people he served and the people he worked with.

In addition to the aforementioned loved ones, Sumner leaves behind brother-in-law Colin and niece Ava of Washington, DC; sister-in-law Erin, nephew Porter, and niece-to-be Kinsey of Annapolis; in-laws Wayne and Cathy Downey of Severna Park, MD, and Pat Downey of Richmond, VA; Dan's family—Jessie, Quinn, and Nico—of Portland, OR; and friends residing from Hawaii to Scotland to Serbia.We will remember Sumner with every moon, but we will also remember that when the moon seems to be missing from our sky, it is simply in another phase, or maybe we just need to wait for the clouds to clear.

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Services were Private

Arrangements were by Johnson Funeral Home in Lake Charles, LA