Edmund Schneider

Edmund Schnei­der, 91, and a res­i­dent of Colum­bus departed this earth to join his beloved wife of 48 years, Rita Gehring, and son David on Tues­day morn­ing (June 19, 2012).

Edmund was the grand­son of Delaware County Ger­man set­tlers Mar­tin and Mar­i­anna Rein­hard Pfeufer. Edmund was always fond of recount­ing sto­ries of fam­ily vis­its to Delaware, where their very close-knit fam­ily resided, all on East William Street. Edmund was born and raised in Colum­bus, attended Holy Rosary Ele­men­tary, then grad­u­ated St. Charles Bor­romeo Prepara­tory School with the Class of ‘38. He attended OSU to study civil engi­neer­ing prior to World War II, which led to his becom­ing a Bat­tal­ion Mas­ter Sergeant in the 140th Field Artillery HQ Bat­tery of the 37th Divi­sion, Ohio National Guard, dur­ing his three and a half year deploy­ment in the Pacific The­ater. Bat­tling the Japan­ese through the Solomon Islands, the Fijis, New Guinea and the Philip­pines with his team, Edmund was most proud of his Bronze Star and Philip­pine Lib­er­a­tion Medal, among many oth­ers. He was life­long trea­surer of the 37th Divi­sion WWII Vet­er­ans Chap­ter, and has long been cred­ited with “keep­ing the gang together” by orga­niz­ing the annual reunions through­out the U.S. and Ohio. Ed was also a life­time mem­ber of the VFW Reynolds­burg Post 9473. Edmund began to see Amer­ica at a young age. He won trips as a news­pa­per boy, tak­ing spe­cial “news­boy trains” to Wash­ing­ton, D.C.; the 1936 Indy 500; Chicago, Detroit and Nia­gara Falls; the Cleve­land Great Lakes Expo­si­tion; Cedar Point in San­dusky; and he got to ride the pad­dle wheeler, The Island Queen, on the Ohio River from Cincin­nati to Coney Island. He was a youth mar­ble cham­pion, too. Edmund worked at the old Wash­ing­ton Brew­ery at 3rd & Perry, at City Ice & Fuel on Hud­son Street; he car­ried mail for the U.S. Postal Ser­vice; and, he worked as a fire­man on the C&O Rail­road. He worked with Rit­ter Lum­ber as a civil engi­neer before the war, and Bell Tele­phone imme­di­ately after as an appraiser/surveyor. His engi­neer­ing career began with the Ohio Dept. of Wildlife and he finally retired as a chief engi­neer from the Ohio Dept. of Nat­ural Resources. Both Edmund and Rita were devoted Catholics and life­long mem­bers of St. Catharine Parish, although Ed was a “reg­u­lar” at week­day Masses at Christ the King, and St. Mary’s in Ger­man Vil­lage where he mar­ried Rita in 1951. Ed “never met a stranger” no mat­ter where in the world he trav­eled, and he was always a friend to any­one in need. He has long been con­sid­ered quite the Colum­bus and Ohio his­to­rian, and he could read­ily recount the most incred­i­ble details of life here from the ’20s through to present day.

He is sur­vived by his daugh­ter, Bar­bara Sabo and hus­band John; sons, Michael and Stephen; daughter-in-law, Karin; and, his grand­chil­dren Alex and Gre­gory Sabo and Rachel, Gar­rett and Jor­dan Schnei­der. Edmund is also sur­vived by his sis­ter, Mary Ann, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Edmund was pre­ceded in death by beloved wife, Rita (died 1997), and his son David (died 2011).

Friends may call from 2 to 5 pm on Sun­day, June 24, at Egan-Ryan Funeral Home, 403 E. Broad St., Colum­bus. A Mass of Chris­t­ian Bur­ial will be cel­e­brated at 10 a.m. Mon­day, June 25, at St. Catharine Church, 500 S. Gould Road, Colum­bus. Bur­ial will fol­low at St. Joseph Ceme­tery, Lockbourne.

Visit egan-ryan.com to offer condolences.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Jun 21 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.