Edward Solomon Charkey

Ed was born in 1928 in Astoria, Queens to parents David and Florence (née Albert). He had fond memories of all the wonders of the first World’s Fair of 1939–40 in Flushing Meadow. During World War II he volunteered as an air raid warden.

He graduated from City College in New York with bachelors degrees in mechanical and electrical engineering and became a licensed, professional engineer.

During the Korean War he was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey and Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, then transitioning to the Army Reserve. He was honorably discharged in 1957.

After a turbulent career working for a revolving door of engineering concerns, in 1972 Ed joined the American Insurance Association in downtown Manhattan, training underwriters to recognize product liability risks. He also served on advisory committees with Underwriters Laboratories, the National Fire Protection Association and Orange and Rockland Utilities. He retired from the A.I.A. in 1998. But that wasn’t the end of his career. In 1971, to supplement the family income. Ed started working as a home inspector in his spare time, assessing the condition of homes for prospective purchasers. He wrote the handbook Electromechanical System Components,published by John Wiley & Sons in 1972. After retirement from the A.I.A.,he continued to inspect homes,into his early 80s.

Ed met the love of his life Rhona Lee Damsey at a Hunter College Hillel dance in 1950 and married her on May 24, 1953. They first lived in apartments in Tarrytown and Mount Vernon. But in 1958, encouraged by the opening of new highways and theTappan Zee Bridge, they crossed the river to Rockland County and bought a new house in Little Tor Estates in New City, where they lived the rest of their lives.

Ed and Rhona had three children, Bonnie Jeneba,Lori and Alan. Before the children were grown, the family traveled together many times, to places up and down the east coast, including Maine, Cape Cod, Colonial Williamsburg and Quebec, Canada. In 1967, the family flew to Colorado and toured the national parks in the southwestern U.S. and California before flying home from San Francisco. During that trip, Alan celebrated his fifth birthday in Disneyland.After their kids were grown, Ed and Rhona traveled frequently to Europe, as well as to Israel, Turkey and Russia. Ed hung his framed travel photos around the house.

Ed and Rhona also loved attending classical music concerts at a number of venues, including Lincoln Center,Tanglewood in Massachusetts, Music Mountain in Connecticut and Friends of Music in Westchester.

In addition to travel and music, Ed enjoyed gardening, photography-both taking and developing –maintaining the house, hiking, reading the newspaper,political history and mysteries, watching the Yankees and searching for the perfect hot dog and chicken chow mein. In his later years, he walked long distances all over New City and loved to sit in the local parks to watch the ducks and the passing freight trains.

Ed was a founding member of the New City Jewish Center, where he worshipped for decades.His remarkable talents included a convincing impersonation of Donald Duck and the ability to talk to cats.

Ed is survived by Bonnie Jeneba of Brooklyn, Lori of Hillsdale, New Jersey and Alan of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. He was predeceased by his sister Shirley Moskowitz in 2016 and Rhona in 2017.

He was an amazing person. We love him deeply and struggle to imagine life without him.

In lieu of flowers, please direct any donations to Meals on Wheels Rockland, 121 West Nyack Road, Nanuet, N.Y. 10954.