Gone Too Soon: Ed Schwille (1970-2017)

Looking at the list of students who have died in the fifty plus years Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas has been open, I have always seen our Class of 1988 as the healthiest, or perhaps the luckiest. Only one student from our class passed away and that was in 1995. If I was to count the two others from our class who didn’t graduate with us who also passed away, then that number makes it three.

On March 17, that number jumped to four when fellow alumni and friends learned on social media that fellow classmate, Ed Schwille, passed away at the all-too-young age of 47. No one I asked knows what happened except the news of his death shocked everyone.

My only response when Ed’s obit was posted on social media was, “NO!”

The only thing I could think of at the time was how I had nothing to wear at the funeral. Nothing in my closet fit anymore. Everything I owned was for someone close to the 300-pound range. The clothes I owned no longer fit for someone whose weight now ranges between 175 and 190. I had to buy a size 40 black slacks at Target the day before the service and even then, I probably should have gone with a size 38.

When I met friend and former classmate, Anne Marie Ross at the service, she remarked that the black jacket I wore was “too big” on me.

I loved the comment just as much as I enjoyed hearing her sing the memorial songs. If Ed was looking down from the heavens to see who was at his funeral, he would have had no trouble finding Anne Marie. His spirit would just follow her booming operatic voice. I then realized why she got the lead role in the play, Guys and Dolls, senior year.

I’d speculate as to what happened to Ed, but I am not going there. Instead, I’m going to recall the fond memories. No one will argue that Ed liked to make everyone laugh in high school. Such is the reason our senior class voted Ed as the “Most Humorous” according to my 87-88 high school yearbook.

He always had some funny quick-witted comment to say, and no one cared if it was on the slightly raunchy side. I found it ironic that the week of his funeral I saw an advance movie poster on the web for the upcoming Baywatch movie starring Dwayne Johnson. The poster showed two beach balls and a surfboard in the center that was an obvious reference to the male anatomy with the tagline, “Lifesaving takes a pair.” I have a feeling Ed would have liked that.

In high school Ed called me “Stumpo Joe – Action Adventurer” modeling my name after the fictional movie archeologist Indiana Jones Harrison Ford played. That name was later expanded by another friend, Kelly Reed, who turned the name into a sequel, “Stumpo Joe and the 7 Temples of Doom” with the movie tagline, “He didn’t like the first one, so they gave him seven more.”

Among the stories many classmates recalled on social media in the wake of Ed’s passing was the big party he held at his house in Richardson one weekend during junior year in which over 200 people showed up.

I didn’t go. I had better things to do like work instead of getting drunk that “lost weekend.” My alcoholic partying days didn’t start until after high school. Ed’s mother at the visitation service told former classmates' tales of partygoers playing spin the bottle and how she caught one classmate dancing around in a bedroom in just his underwear while everyone else through trash at him.

“Mrs. Schwille let us have it at the visitation,” said fellow alum Craig Vinci. “It was so funny…she remembered the whole thing!!! It was good to see her laugh!”

I only saw Ed a couple more times after we graduated in the 1990s which was at the Bookstop in Mesquite where he worked and at the Blockbuster Video on Northwest Highway in Garland where he and his parents were customers. After graduating from the University of Texas at Dallas, Ed worked as a programmer for a number of companies in Information Technology.

I didn’t catch up with Ed until March 2013 when he sent me a friend request on Facebook. I took note of him proudly displaying pictures of his children, Dorian and Rylan, and his cat and talking about how he attended bible classes at his church. At one point he was even considering joining the peace corps. The tagline he always used on social media when he wanted to get women’s attention following a raunchy comment was “Hey ladies.” I use that comment now on my page when I get my monthly Lex Luthor/Captain Picard haircut.

I found it hard for me not to get emotional at the service when the song, “Ave Maria”, was played as that is one of my favorites to hear at funerals, and it was sad to hear Ed’s mother at the reception tell everyone not to worry about Ed because she knows he is in a “better place”, but adding that she is not. Ed was her only son and there is nothing more tragic than having a parent outlive their child.

I’ve lost quite a few friends and former co-workers over the past fifteen years. I’ve attended a couple funerals, others I regrettably didn’t because I had too many of my own personal problems and was not ready to say goodbye to them.

Maybe it is true to quote what one character said in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008) that “We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away.”

©4/12/17