jpdalton wrote
I received word today that one of our very good contributors, edma194 (“Ed from Rhode Island”) passed away last weekend.
I had the pleasure of meeting Ed a number of times - we bought some machines from each other, and socialized at last year’s Makers event at Shopsmith HQ.
For some background on his interesting life, his obituary can be found here: https://www.jjduffyfuneralhome.com/obituary/edward-malin
John,
Thanks for sharing. I appreciate it. It is sad to hear that Ed Malin has passed. We communicated on e-mail in January of last year and he spoke of the health struggles he had had the previous year. At that time I understood that these health issues were behind him, but presumably they caught up to him again. I had wondered why he stopped communicating via email and rarely on the forum in the last year, so I guess now I know. Thank you for including his obituary and I am including an excerpt from it below for reference. I don't know what other forums he was on, but I hope he found his conversations on the Shopsmith forum fulfilling. I believe that I had many constructive dialogues with Ed both on and off this forum. I know that he helped me to expand my own viewpoint and understanding with our discussions here so I am very grateful for this, but also very grateful for the conversation itself. I certainly felt they were always constructive and helpful and never felt like he was arguing. Lastly, I will share a snippet of a personal e-mail that I received from Ed last year. The context here is we were discussing whether I should continue on the Shopsmith forum or not last year. I took his feedback to heart and used it to change how I interacted with the forum since then and still contribute here occasionally thanks to him. When I do, I try my best to understand, to the best of my ability, what is being said on the thread and I try to constructively and positively contribute where I think I can add to the conversation. Hoping that I can fully express my viewpoint and avoid any misunderstanding. I believe that thanks to Ed and the feedback of others, I changed for the better how I interacted with this forum. I hope this is true. I am just thankful that I got to have some of these conversations with Ed and he will be missed here, in the Shopsmith community and of course by his family and friends. Sending lots of love to him and his family...
Ed,
Thanks. Thanks for the conversations. Thanks for the humor. Thanks for being a part of the Shopsmith family. Thank you for everything. You are missed here.
Excerpt from his Obituary:
"
Ed collected and restored Shopsmith woodworking machines, filling his basement with more of them than he could count. He also loved fishing, Pepsi, crossword puzzles, his Celica and Mustang convertibles, professional wrestling, and
arguing with people on internet forums."
Excerpt from a personal e-mail last year: (from Ed to me)
"I think you add a lot of valuable information to the forum and reality isn't always pretty...I know you and I have only talked a little but I feel like you are being misinterpreted by others, but also that you could hone your points for a better response. Sarcasm isn't easy, As soon as I emerged from my mother's womb I said to the doctor "What veterinary school taught you how to use forceps?" and then made an inappropriate but accurate remark about the nurses body shape. So I've had plenty of negative feedback from my sarcastic remarks over the years, and still can't contain myself sometimes. So I hope to see if I can convince you to use that energy for good instead of evil. Ok, it's not evil, but you could do a lot of good."
