Ed Soltwedel, 86, died on September 14 at his home on Chautauqua. The beloved husband, father and grandfather was an engineer, a decorated World War II veteran, an avid ham radio operator and a 47-year Palisades resident. While often content to spend time at home and with his family, Ed charmed people easily and attracted groups of buddies wherever he went’even at the local Starbucks and the rehab unit at St. John’s Hospital. In World War II, Ed flew from Britain to Germany in nine combat missions as a B-17 navigator. In his last mission, he parachuted out of a burning plane at 30,000 feet over Berlin, only to be captured and imprisoned in a POW camp for the last 14 months of the war. After his release, he studied at USC and graduated with an M.S. in electrical engineering. He held various management jobs at Rand and Aerospace. In 1980 he married Nancy Beamish, a Palisadian since 1952. They had known each other since 1962 through the friendship of their two daughters. Ed’s favorite hobby was talking to people all over the world as one of the country’s most experienced ham radio operators. After building his first two-way radio at age 13, he eventually traded up to a stand-alone ham shack and four supersized antennas in his back yard, including a 60-ft. steel tower entrenched in six feet of concrete. Thanks to his first-class equipment and his willingness to talk at all hours, he garnered the ultimate prize among ‘hams”a complete set of ‘QSL’ postcards, verifying that he contacted other operators in all 325 countries of the world. Ed had a boyish grin, an upbeat personality and a quick mind that more than kept up with the big issues of the day. He was a role model for strength and hard work, overpowering numerous obstacles to create a better life for himself and his family. At age 14, during the depth of the Depression, he worked 11-hour days doing heavy yard work for a daily wage of 29 cents. In his early 30s, while earning his master’s degree at USC, he held two jobs to support his wife and his first child. He lived the last 60 years of his life with shrapnel in his leg, shoulder and back from a war injury. In addition, since the 1980s, he battled heart problems and underwent quadruple bypass surgery in 1995. Despite these health issues, he outlived the vast majority of his friends. Ed is survived by his wife Nancy, his son Edward Jr., daughters Kathy Soltwedel and Julie Montalvo, and his three grandchildren’Alex, Marissa and George. Funeral services will be held at United Methodist Church, 801 Via de la Paz, on Saturday, September 25 at 2:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to two of his favorite charities, the City of Hope (Central Processing, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010) and Heal the Bay (3220 Nebraska Ave., Santa Monica, CA 90404).
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