Edgar "Ernie" Ernest Morgenegg

Edgar Ernest Morgenegg Jr. — known to everyone who loved him as Ernie — came into the world in San Francisco, California, on September 21, 1931 — the city that, just six years later, would give him one of his most cherished memories: walking across the Golden Gate Bridge on the day it opened its gates to the world. It was a fitting beginning for a man who would spend his life showing up for the moments that mattered.

The eldest of four brothers born to Edgar Ernest Morgenegg and Lillie Ruth Vowels, Ernie grew up shaped by the bonds of brotherhood and the spirit of a generation that believed in hard work, faith, and the transformative power of a great song. He carried those values with him for more than nine decades, refining them a little more each day — because if there was one thing Ernie believed in, it was the quiet discipline of becoming better.

He answered a call to serve as a young man, fulfilling a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Texas Southeast Mission — an experience that deepened a faith that was already at the very core of who he was. Ernie loved the Savior deeply and personally, and that love expressed itself not just in quiet devotion but in creativity and intention. He wrote a Christmas Eve pageant for his family — complete with costumes and a wooden sword and shield he built himself for the children playing Roman soldiers — so that the joy of the season would never crowd out its meaning. He wrote an Easter ceremony as well, one designed to help his family truly feel the weight and the gift of the Atonement. Decades later, the family still has the original typed pages and handmade visual aids he created. That is the kind of father he was: one who thought carefully about what he wanted to pass on, and then built it with his own hands.

Because Ernie loved to build things.

His philosophy was simple and characteristically deliberate: measure three times, cut once. He planned. He drew. He thought it through. And then he built — fences, a finished basement he completed entirely by himself, and three bookcases for his wife Judy, one in each home they shared across the years, from St. Louis to Houston to Apex. His favorite medium was rough cedar, and there is something fitting about that — a material honest in its texture, warm in its grain, built to last.

That same hands-on instinct served him extraordinarily well in his profession. Ernie earned his degree in Mechanical Engineering from CSU and went to work in the oil and gas industry, spending the majority of his career with Monsanto. He was, at heart, an engineer's engineer — a man who loved the work itself with a clarity and contentment that most people spend their whole lives searching for. He specialized in pressure and tank vessels, becoming a recognized authority in his field and lending his expertise to inspection committees called upon to determine the causes of industrial accidents from equipment failures. It was exacting, consequential work, and Ernie was exactly where he wanted to be doing it.

At various points in his career, opportunities arose to move into management. He wasn't interested. Not out of lack of ambition, but because of it — Ernie knew precisely what he loved, and what he loved was solving problems. The elegant challenge of figuring out why something failed, or how to make something work better, was its own reward. He never stopped being an engineer. After retiring from Monsanto he continued working for other companies, because the work still called to him — and he answered it until he was 80 years old.

But ask the people who loved him what defined Ernie, and they might not start with the engineering or the woodworking.

They might start with dinner.

For fifty years, Ernie wanted dinner on the table at 5:30. Not approximately 5:30. Not sometime around 5:30. Five-thirty. He was a man who knew what he liked and saw no reason to be vague about it. And dinner, in Ernie's world, was never truly complete without dessert — preferably ice cream, preferably with toppings. He approached a bowl of ice cream with the same focused appreciation he brought to everything worth doing.

What made him especially delightful at the table, though, was his curiosity. Ernie always wanted to know what everyone else was having. He'd scan the dinner table, eyes landing on something unfamiliar or particularly good-looking on someone else's plate, and say — with genuine enthusiasm — "Oh, what's that?" And then he'd want a taste. It was a small gesture, but a revealing one: here was a man who, well into his later years, was still interested. Still curious. Still leaning in.

That same spirit extended to music. Big band was his language — the Swing Era his native country. In his later years, Ernie could often be found on YouTube, chasing down recordings of his favorite bands, losing himself in the brass and the rhythm of another time. He could talk about music with anyone willing to listen, and he had a gift for making them glad they did. It was the same warmth he brought to his church community, where he served faithfully in many capacities over the years, and to his beloved St. Louis Cardinals, whose seasons he followed with the devoted loyalty that only a true baseball fan understands.

And above all, to his family.

Ernie is preceded in death by his parents and his brother Roger. He is survived by his wife, Judith Pratt Morgenegg; his sons Danny, Kirk, and Bart Morgenegg; his daughters Carey Wassenberg, Jennifer Warneke, and Robyn Morgenegg; his brothers Carl and Bruce Morgenegg; eleven grandchildren; and eleven great-grandchildren.

He leaves behind a family that is larger, stronger, and better for having had him at its center — and a chair at the table that will never quite be filled.

Services honoring Ernie’s life will be held on Monday May 4, 2026. Visitation will begin at 4:00 PM, funeral services at 5:00 PM, and an ice-cream social immediately following. All activities will be at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints 590 Bryan Drive, Apex NC 27502.

If you are unable to join us at the service, please consider joining via Zoom at the link below.

https://zoom.us/j/97878956653?pwd=IlUaGcFowc9vlaMYb82hbdeaEx3L1U.1

Meeting ID: 978 7895 6653

Passcode: 138778