Generous Ed

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Posted by Bill Berry on April 26, 2001 at 12:32:04 from 216.153.132.148 :

Ed's distinguishing characteristic was his generosity. Throughout the late sixties and early seventies he threw open his cavernous home on Jewett Parkway to dozens of huge, life-giving "movement" parties and mass meetings . He welcomed anyone. Many of us would escape from the revelry and dancing and head for Ed's office in the garret to drink beer and talk politics 'til the sun came up. Ed's unselfishness enabled me and hundreds of others to meet and get to know all sorts of strange and delicious counter-cultural characters who would otherwise have remained just strangers.

Some of them, like Ed, have remained my friends for thirty years and more, and others who were friends have left us, as Ed now has. One of those people became my best buddy ever, and Ed characteristically took him in and gave him a home as he lived his last days in 1984.

Aside from the comparatively recent celebration of Ed's 70th birthday and the 1984 memorial service for John L. Moorman, my most fetching memory of all those gatherings at Ed's home is that of the May Day, 1975, celebration of the Vietnamese victory over the United States. That night as hundreds of us emptied the kegs, danced and rightly congratulated ourselves on our role in the people's victory over the dollar, Ed gave me some advice fitting the occasion.

I had had a steady but humdrum job for four years and was used to the income. I thought I might want to be a legal services lawyer. Hesitant about starting law school that Fall because it meant economic deprivation and uncertainty, I asked Ed that night what he thought. He told me that, for him, "those things" had always taken care of themselves; to do what was right in trust that there would be enough to eat and a place to live.

He was generous and found the world a generous place; he placed people and their society before the pursuit of wealth and showed many of us that way. You have my sympathy, Karen, Steve and Jim.

Bill Berry

Buffalo, New York
April 26, 2001

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: Ed's distinguishing characteristic was his generosity. Throughout the late sixties and early seventies he threw open his cavernous home on Jewett Parkway to dozens of huge, life-giving "movement" parties and mass meetings . He welcomed anyone. Many of us would escape from the revelry and dancing and head for Ed's office in the garret to drink beer and talk politics 'til the sun came up. Ed's unselfishness enabled me and hundreds of others to meet and get to know all sorts of strange and delicious counter-cultural characters who would otherwise have remained just strangers. : : Some of them, like Ed, have remained my friends for thirty years and more, and others who were friends have left us, as Ed now has. One of those people became my best buddy ever, and Ed characteristically took him in and gave him a home as he lived his last days in 1984. : : Aside from the comparatively recent celebration of Ed's 70th birthday and the 1984 memorial service for John L. Moorman, my most fetching memory of all those gatherings at Ed's home is that of the May Day, 1975, celebration of the Vietnamese victory over the United States. That night as hundreds of us emptied the kegs, danced and rightly congratulated ourselves on our role in the people's victory over the dollar, Ed gave me some advice fitting the occasion. : : I had had a steady but humdrum job for four years and was used to the income. I thought I might want to be a legal services lawyer. Hesitant about starting law school that Fall because it meant economic deprivation and uncertainty, I asked Ed that night what he thought. He told me that, for him, "those things" had always taken care of themselves; to do what was right in trust that there would be enough to eat and a place to live. : : He was generous and found the world a generous place; he placed people and their society before the pursuit of wealth and showed many of us that way. You have my sympathy, Karen, Steve and Jim. : : Bill Berry : Buffalo, New York : April 26, 2001

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