Edward J. Kingsbury Jr., 90, film enthusiast, activist

EDWARD J. KINGSBURY JR. (Fabian Bachrach)

Edward J. Kingsbury Jr. relished the timeless climax of "Casablanca," as Humphrey Bogart bids farewell to a tearful Ingrid Bergman as the fog descends.

"He saw that movie so many times he could write it," Martha C. Kingsbury of Cambridge said of her father. "He loved that line about their lives amounting to a hill of beans. Because they really did amount to so much, and he did, too, in his own way."

Mr. Kingsbury, classic-film enthusiast, New England fund-raising icon, and Wellesley community service activist, died July 8 in the Mary Ann Morse Nursing Home in Natick. He was 90.

Mr. Kingsbury was born and raised in Keene, N.H. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1936 and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1940 with a degree in business. Mr. Kingsbury served in the US Army in Europe during World War II, receiving a Bronze Star.

Mr. Kingsbury worked as the treasurer of his family's company, Kingsbury Machine Tool Co., in Keene until 1963. That year, he moved to Wellesley to serve with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, where he was named Unitarian Universalist Man of the Year for his work as associate director of development.

In 1968, he became an account executive at E. F. Hutton, where he worked until his retirement in 1979. "But his main love, really, was the theater and the classic movies," said his wife of 67 years, Edith (Cameron) of Wellesley.

In retirement, Mr. Kingsbury split his free time between the Wellesley Historical Society and the Wellesley Free Library as he pursued his passions for history and films of the 1930s, '40s, and '50s.

In 1989, he established a film series at the Wellesley Free Library, where he showed domestic and foreign classics, including "Casablanca," for more than 12 years, his daughter said.

"Back in those days, they were running the classic movies at about 2 in the morning" on television, his wife said. "He had a VCR at the end of the bed, so every night . . . he would get up, and click, click, click, the thing would start taping. Now, those movies are available everywhere, but back then they were not."

In addition to serving as president and later as a board member of the Historical Society, he created slide shows to celebrate the town, including "Wellesley Yesterday," which aired to more than 5,500 people when the town celebrated its bicentennial in 1981.

He also served as fund-raising chairman for the Keene YMCA and Senior Center in the early 1960s, where his efforts helped to finance the community swimming pool.

In 2005, Mr. Kingsbury and his wife were honored in Wellesley's Memorial Day Parade for their outstanding citizenship and service to the community.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Kingsbury leaves two daughters, Susan Levine of State College, Pa., and Lois McDonald of Maynard; two sisters, Priscilla Maynard of Peterborough, N.H., and Alice Millet Bakemeier of Denver; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 2 at the United Church of Christ in Keene, N.H. Another memorial service is planned in Wellesley for September.

Globe correspondent Anne Baker contributed to this obituary.