Ed and Evelyn Whitcomb
In 1976, Ed Whitcomb sought the Republican nomination to the United States Senate, but was defeated in the primary by Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar. He then returned to his private practice which he moved to Seymour, Indiana. He served several years as the director of Mid American World Trade Association and took a job for a media company based in Indianapolis and spent traveling the United States setting up a network of FM radio stations.
Ed retired from his law practice in 1985, at age 68. Ed Whitcomb’s second book, On Celestial Wings, was published in 1995. He took up sailing as a hobby and purchased a 30-foot (9.1 m) boat. He sailed solo around the Mediterranean, across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1995, while attempting to sail solo around the world, his ship hit a reef in the Gulf of Suez and sank. He was rescued and returned to the United States. He wrote a book about his sailing experiences that was published in 2011, titled Cilin II : a solo sailing odyssey. In 2000 he established residence in Rome, Indiana, on the Ohio River.
In 2013, Edgar Whitcomb married Evelyn Gayer in a private ceremony at their home in Rome.