Edward J. Bohan

Edward Bohan. August 21st, 1933 – December 18th, 2020, on what would have been his 67th wedding anniversary to his beloved Helen who preceded him to Heaven on November 13th, 2000. Survived by his five children Linda (Brian Clark), Trish (Bob Miller), Ken (Megan), Carol and Jean (Steve Yakonetti), his seven loving grand children Peter (Amber), Allison (Greg Mistler), Geoffrey (Lindsay), Bobby (Leslie), Eddie, Cassidy and Shea, and his four great grandchildren Aiden, Helen, Nora and Wildfire.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Ed passed his childhood split between the borough he loved and Leeds, NY in the Catskill Mountains. He graduated from St. Francis Prep H.S., where he was a Varsity Swimmer, in Brooklyn and joined the Navy during the Korean conflict in which he earned three commendations. He proudly served from 1952 – 1956 mostly aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Antietam. For the next six decades he describe his time in the service as a life changing, difficult and honorable time when boys became men. Well after he had retired from a successful career in medical research equipment sales, he spoke of those years in the early 50s with a reverence reserved for greatness.

After leaving the Navy, Ed and his young wife and first daughter moved from Brooklyn to Hauppauge, NY with their two best friends Dick and Marge Woodford. The two couples bought the exact same house several plots away from each other in a brand new development. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, the foursome was soon entrenched in a burgeoning neighborhood, St. Patrick’s Parish in its infancy and become families that would both grow to include five children. We, as their children, would come to know the Woodfords as Uncle Dick and Aunt Marge, while the Woodford kids called Mom and Dad Aunt Helen and Uncle Ed. Our dad once told Ken that he would gladly lay his life on the line for Dick, for he felt he was truly a great man. To this day, Ken considers it the most Christ-like thing his dad said to him as a young man.

What made Ed happy is a question of the five of us kicked around for a while. The answer was too easy, because almost anything made him happy. Anyone who witnessed the bellyache laughter that any silly thing evoked in Ed can attest to that. Whether it was trying to tell a joke (he could never get to the punch line without laughing so hard his eyes would well up) or watching the “Where’s the beef?” commercial on television, Dad could laugh!! He spent a good amount of time laughing at his own antics with his old crew Bobby, Danny, Stutch and others in Brooklyn, as well as Dick and later Charlie and Mack, in various adventures. He loved playing competitive ping-pong in our basement, especially with Joe. Man he loved that basement! His bar was made of an Oak tree, sectioned and stained, based on the cabins at Valentine’s Lake in the Adirondacks (Danny Curtin, a Brooklyn compatriot did the work and for 40 years, that basement hosted birthday parties, graduations, anniversaries, Christmas and New Years parties. Ken tells the story of coming back from his H.S. graduation mass and being summoned to the basement bar where Ed had a keg of beer waiting. “Ken, when I was your age, I joined the Navy. Today we will have a beer together as men,” he said. Just Ken and Ed, father and son, 29 years apart, but never closer.

As the family grew, Ed’s happy place became the lakes in the Adirondacks that became the spot for family vacations. First Valentine Lake, then Loon Lake, and finally Indian Lake, the family vacationed together for three weeks every summer in the Adirondacks. From making life long friends to just relaxing with a Manhattan and taking in the views, these trips became the focus of the whole year, “The Lake” would often be the topic of conversation, photo histories and family movies. Following guidance from Bob Miller, Ed finally “retired” on a lake (this one in South Carolina, Lake Murray, just a few miles from Ken.)

Ed loved routines, from eggs and bacon every Saturday, cereal, coffee and juice every weekday morning and reading the paper every day in the late afternoon. The paper ritual took place during “cocktail time” where Helen would prepare cheese and crackers and Manhattans every day at 5:00 pm sharp, traffic permitting. It was a practice that continued uninterrupted until one day in the early 2000’s when at Indian Lake one day he called a family meeting to make the important announcement that “cocktail time had been moved from 5 pm to 4:30” because he was “getting old”; so everyone needed to adjust their schedules accordingly.

One of his greatest joys came from seeing all five of his kids together in one place and knowing that they all loved each other and genuinely got along with each other. “I’m so lucky” he would tell anyone who would listen, “to have everyone here together.” And if that made Ed happy, he grew downright prideful when talking about his grandkids and their amazing accomplishments. He was sincerely overcome with joy when discussing one or more of his grandkids.

From his time in the Navy and later Brooklyn Technical Institute, Ed was analytical by nature and could fix anything he set his mind to – televisions, radios, kid’s electronics, pool filters and later boat motors – you name it and he would have it apart and back together working in no time. And on the very few occasions where he didn’t, there may or may not have been a swear word uttered.

Ed loved to tell stories and he usually would get into one and catch himself and say, “to make a long story short” and then cut to the chase. Ken can attest to the fact that about 14 hours before he left us, he used his go-to phrase with a nurse he had learned was also from Brooklyn.

In the end, Ed Bohan didn’t make the long story short; he made the story just right.