Ed Marks passed away today after losing his fight with pancreatic cancer. He was my lifelong bestfriend and I will miss him.
12/04/1966 - 04/21/2021
There was a lot of life in that dash.
I met Ed in middle school and we formed a friendship of four guys including Joe and Withers. We would bike to the major malls in St. Petersburg to watch movies and check out the merchandise at Spencer's Gifts. We would bike to the 28th Street Drive In Theater and put our transistor radio inside the fencing and got to watch the R rated movies even though we were too young. Most weekends we would hang out at Ed's house as they had a soda machine that you didn't need quarters for and it it also had beer in it but we were told only to take the sodas. We played board games mostly on the weekend nights. RISK was always a popular game to play as was Monopoly. Sometimes the games lasted multiple weekends. Ed had the cool car in high school a Formula Firebird, I think it was a '74 in orange with the honeycomb wheels.
After high school Ed served in the Navy for 3 years until he had to be medically discharged as he kept hitting his head on the bulkheads, Ed was 6' - 7"(at least he didn't work on a submarine.) During his time in the Navy he acquired a 5 foot tall carved mahogany eagle with 5 feet of wingspan in the Philippines from his home base of Subic Bay. Beautiful sculpture. Not sure it is made out of one tree but it looks like it. He worked for the USPS for 30+ years and was planning his retirement when he became ill. He collected all things Disney/Mickey Mouse and Coca-Cola. He was a season pass holder for Walt Disney World for several years. Ed was a huge Elvis fan and once travelled to Graceland after winning a chance to go on an Elvis Trivia Show on Elvis Radio. He won and got to play the next three songs on Elvis Radio. He even gave me a shout out on the show. I've traveled with Ed on several vacations including to my parents farm in Sturgeon Bay WI, the Black Hills of South Dakota to see Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and even Sturgis during Bike Week as well as Devil's Monument. We also visited Las Vegas several times and took the tours of the Hoover Dam, Ethel M's Chocolates and also visited the Valley of Fire in the Vegas area and the Grand Canyon Skywalk on the Haulapai tribal lands.
He is survived by his love Eva and his mother Pat, as well as several cousins.
Here we are at Epcot Center to see the Flock of Seagulls perform. The first concert Ed and I ever attended was the Go Go's and the Flock of Seagulls at Bayfront center in 1982. Eva made us the replica concert t-shirts from that tour and that is what we are wearing in this picture in the Moroccan area of Epcot.
Here is Ed, Joe and myself at Carmine's in Ybor City where the best Cuban sandwiches are made along with huge Carmine's Deviled Crab Balls.
Here is Ed and Eva when they came out to visit me in Colorado. We took the Denver Mint tour and got free samples.
Ed, Eva and myself at Crazy Horse.
Here Ed is mowing the grass at my parent's farm. he really liked that riding lawn mower. Spent almost the whole day on it.
We made an every other 4 year visit to each other's football stadiums when they played against each other. When the Buccaneers were in Denver, Ed would make the trip out to Denver to go to the game in my season ticket seats and when Denver was in Tampa Bay I would travel to Raymond James Stadium. Here we are in Mile High Stadium. I grew up with the Bucs as my home town team so I will wear their gear when they are in Denver. Otherwise I will wear my Broncos gear to games. We got to carry the flag out on to the field at one of the games. We had to disguise our Buccaneer attire as they made it clear that no one in the opposing teams gear would be allowed to carry the flag.
Thank you for being a part of my life Ed. You were a brother to me. It has been a pleasure to know you. I'll see you again. I love you.
Rest in Peace You Gentle Giant.
