Ernest A. Fesler

Born on September 7, 1927 to Helen (Hoffman) Fesler & August Fesler, Ernie was the eldest of his 8 siblings. His family were founders & lifelong members of St. Matthias Church in Ridgewood, NY & at the age of 9 Ernie joined the St. Matthias drum & bugle corps as a bugle player. It was here Ernie got the drum corps ‘bug’. A few years later with WWII raging, Ernie enlisted in the Marine Corps at the age of 16, needing his parents permission to join. Ernie was driven by a sense of duty & honor and his Marine Corps & drum corps training helped shape his life. He met his wife Irene (Apanel) Fesler in drum corps, they married on June 12, 1949 & their life journey took them from Ridgewood, NY eventually to Mineola, Long Island where they lived until their relocation in 2015 to Naples, FL to be closer to family.

A truck driver at Schaeffer Brewery Co. in Brooklyn, NY Ernie, followed in the footsteps of his father & alongside his younger brother Andy. Ernie played in numerous drum & bugle corps throughout his life & was an instructor to even more. Ernie along with family members & friends founded the Blue Max Drum & Bugle Corps Ridgewood, NY in 1972. It was one of the greatest joys for everyone involved especially since it brought Ernie back to where it all began. The Blue Max fostered numerous friendships with many being maintained up until his passing. Drum Corps friends were the best friends & with the thousands of children Ernie taught over the years, many followed in his footsteps in the drum corps world. For Ernie, family & friends were the most important thing in his life & his influence especially on his granddaughters & great-grandchildren was paramount to everything Ernie loved growing his own tomatoes, fishing for fluke from Capture State Park, playing his bugle & keyboard, arranging music, teaching & playing with the ROMEO’s drum & bugle corps & riding his bicycle well into his 80’s with his granddaughters. Ernie had an awareness of healthy habits, good eating & love of learning new things.

Ernie loved life & lived joyously & purposefully & attributed his long life to being surrounded by his loved ones. He enjoyed holidays, going to the Casino to play slot machines & eat corned beef sandwiches & his great-grandchildren performing on the keyboard for him.

Ernie’s beloved wife Irene predeceased him last year & he is survived by his last surviving sibling Carol Ann (Mike Armando), daughter Rene (Ronald J Mount, deceased), son Ernest, granddaughters Lauren (Michael Solorzano), Alicia (Logan Glynn) , 5 great grandchildren, numerous nieces & nephews & countless friends.

A Mass will be held on Tuesday, July 23, 2024 at 10:00 AM at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church. Interment will follow in Naples Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers the family asks you to consider a donation to the Honeysuckle Foundation for Children with Cancer P.O. Box 1491 Melville, New York 11747