EDMUND JOSEPH SLEVIN
Sometimes when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated. (Lamartine) We who loved him now feel the painful emptiness that is the privilege of those who have loved someone this grand. Ed grew up in Oakland, the son of Irish immigrants John Slevin and Bridget McHugh who came from circumstances difficult to imagine in modern times. He was the last surviving of their four children. He was no stranger to hardship and struggle and started working as a golf caddy when his was nine, a job which gave him his lifelong love of the game. A natural athlete, his other favorite sport, basketball, sent him to play at the University of San Francisco during its storied championship era. It was there that he made many lifelong friends and where he met the love of his life, Georgiana. Although a city boy by birth, work in the farm equipment business moved the family eventually to the small San Joaquin Valley town of Dos Palos where Ed and Georgie raised their kids and made more lifelong friends. He participated in every aspect of the tight-knit community, coaching sports, sitting on the school board, and attending every activity that his kids and everyone else’s participated in. His neighbors were his extended family. Finally, Ed and Georgie retired to Lake County, where she had grown up and where they again created a new circle of great friends. A master storyteller, his collection was so deep and wide that he amazed his family when he occasionally told a story that no one had yet heard. To Ed it was the quality of the story that mattered and when accused, he would say that he hadn’t exaggerated in a thousand years. He was unconditionally kind, generous and empathetic. His humor was his trademark. His loyalty was unquestioned and never faltered. He appreciated every kindness, no matter how small. He was not just a father to us but a mentor and a coach to so many more. He loved people and truly knew no strangers. He was saddened recently by the loss of his beloved sister Rosie and by many of his old friends but he appreciated the magical good fortune to still be feeling well 23 years after an epic heart surgery. On March 16th, his big heart finally gave out while taking his beloved dog Rosie on her daily drive. He was not ready to leave behind his best friend and wife of sixty-three years, Georgie. He also leaves his devastated children Bridget, (Rick), George, (Julie), and Danny, (Debbie), his grandchildren Bridget, (Steve), Edmund, Isabelle and Danny as well as his great granddaughter Georgie who will only know him from the stories told to her. He leaves his sister-inlaw and brother-in-law, Maureen and Jim and his oldest friend of 73 years, David Lillevand. He brought so much joy. We will all miss him forever.
