Edward Lorenz Rosemann

Edward Lorenz Rosemann, known to many friends as “Mr Ed”, passed away peacefully on October 12, 2021, after a full life that spanned 96 years. Born on June 14th, 1925, he was the eldest child of Edward and Anna Rosemann. He had one younger sister, Mildred, who preceded him in death. Ed had a fun childhood in a brand new, west side, Cleveland, Ohio subdivision. Ed fondly recalled his dad would often load the neighborhood children into the car to go swimming at the nearby lake. Ed also loved his mother very much and as many growing boys do, enjoyed her cooking. He added that she was a good housekeeper too. This was back when housekeeping was a true domestic art. For instance, he remembered when the home’s wooden floors were all scrubbed and newspaper laid throughout. It was a time when boys were to walk carefully in the house during that one day each week, attempting to prolong the newspaper’s protection of the clean floors. But, Ed reminisced, it was a bit difficult to walk on those slippery papers without destroying their placement too. Ed grew up when coal furnaces were the home heating source. He was familiar with coal being put through the chute from outside to land in the basement bin, and would dutifully get up early to put coal into the furnace, helping to heat the home for the family. It was a time when young boys could take their dog and bb gun into the woods to hunt for rabbits. Ed spent many spring, summer and fall days enjoying this activity with his dog Trooper. When Ed was a teenager he was able to ride the streetcar to the YMCA rifle class with his own rifle in what is now considered ‘open carry’ style, and no one thought anything of it. Ed remembered barely arriving home from an outing with his dad when his mother came out of the house and exclaimed that something had happened in a place called Pearl Harbor. A few years later Ed applied for military service, only to be denied due to poor eyesight. Ed was always a thinker, though. And in Ed-like fashion, he found another way to accomplish his goal. He simply went to the dime store and bought an eye chart. After memorizing the chart, he went to a different recruiting center where he was miraculously accepted into the army! Ed served as an enlisted man in both the European and Pacific theaters during WWII. Although he rarely spoke of it, he participated in the liberation of Normandy. He remembered standing in the cold water for hours waiting for his turn to approach the land. When the war wound down he transferred with his unit to Japan as part of the peace-keeping force. He came to love the people of Japan and without fanfare sponsored a Japanese child who was living in an orphanage. This was Ed’s style. Many small (and some big) acts of kindness were his characteristic daily life. Ed enjoyed his student days at Ohio State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. He used this knowledge throughout the rest of his life, including a time as one of less than a dozen California State Electrical Inspectors, a job he considered a privilege to have. He also worked on engineering programs that sent a man to the moon. It was while holding that job that he saw a prototype of a unique set of materials that would help astronauts and other items stay in place in zero gravity. Later we all came to know this material as Velcro. After college he attended the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio. These national matches are considered America’s “World Series of the Shooting Sports”. Ed’s third place ranking was another of his life achievements in the sport he so loved. Not bad for a guy who failed the military eye test! Ed met the love of his life, Mollie Marie Branisel, at a dance held in Euclid Beach, Ohio. He was smitten. When her job at Pan American Airlines transferred her across the continent to San Francisco, Ed left everything behind to follow her to the west coast. He would tell his children that at first he went the acceptable speed of 35 miles per hour. But after a few days of that pace across the backroads of the United States (no interstate highway system then) he got up to the amazing speed of 55 miles per hour and was really flying down those roads! After convincing Mollie to marry him they settled in the small community of Pacific Beach, in San Diego, California. They were excited to own their first home and put a down payment of five dollars on their chosen design, to be built in a new subdivision named Clairemont, in San Diego. However, Mollie soon found another home already built on a small jut of land called Crown Point which was surrounded by what would become Mission Bay Park. Mollie told Ed the home had a fireplace, one of her dream amenities for a home. They decided to buy that home (and got the five dollar deposit back from the other house). Ed and Mollie moved to their new home a few days before their first child was born. Ed would later say he waited before painting the baby’s room. When his daughter Lynn Ann was born he smiled all the way to the paint store where he bought pink paint. Later another smile was in place as he and Mollie welcomed their second child, another daughter, Lisa Loren. Ed was meticulous in fixing up the home, including converting the iron plumbing to copper and eventually re-roofing it himself too. With his electrical background he was able to improve the home’s electrical wiring in several ways and has spoiled many of his posterity with 3-way light switches at all convenient places, lights in closets, and no-shadow overhead lighting for work areas. Once he even left sunny San Diego, the area he loved, to spend a month during an unusually cold winter to wire a house his daughter Lynn and her husband were building in South Jordan, Utah. Due to a miscommunication it turned out that he was actually not licensed to do this wiring. However, the Utah electrical inspector informally quizzed him and since Ed perfectly answered the difficult and unusual question regarding a special type of wiring, the inspector passed the house (to relief of all, especially Ed). Ed enjoyed his time as an adult leader in the Pacific Beach Junior Rifle Club and later as a Hunter Safety Instructor. He served on the San Diego Grand Jury for two separate one-year terms. One of the several perks he enjoyed while on the Grand Jury was his coveted assigned parking place in downtown San Diego! Ed appreciated being able to serve and ‘keep busy’. As dementia began to claim his clarity he moved to the Salt Lake City, Utah, area to be with and later near his daughter Lynn’s family. Late in life there were many visits, in-person and virtual, where his desire to serve again in the army were discussed, this time teaching math and firearms. Ed is survived by his daughters Lynn Ann Rosemann Nunes/Joseph; Lisa Loren Rosemann Ward Grandchildren: Jenny Nunes Shadel/Andrew; Katy Nunes Hansen/Jeremiah; Joseph Nunes VI/Krista; Daniel Nunes/Jenn; David Nunes/Nikki; Rebecca Nunes; Yvette Shelton; Ken Shelton/Lupe Great-grandchildren: Kare Hansen, Ammon Shadel, Kylie Hansen, Isaiah Hansen, Peter Shadel, Kambria Nunes, Maeli Nunes, Janessa Nunes, Alister Nunes, Noah Hansen, Laurie Shadel, Carmen Hansen, Ryder Shelledy, Kenzi Nunes, Rowan Shelledy and grandchildren of Lisa Ward.

Edward Lorenz Rosemann

June 14, 1925 - October 12, 2021