Podzimek, Edward Charles

Check neighborhood of Cedar Rapids. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1941 and joined the U.S. Marine Corps later that year. While in boot camp the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Edward finished his training while on a ship headed for Hawaii and served most of the next 49 months in the South Pacific surviving the Battle of Midway in 1942.

Upon the completion of his service, Edward moved to California to settle into civilian life. There he married Barbara Rogers, they divorced in 1988, but remained close until her passing in 1996. Edward was a longtime manager of Miratti's Liquor in Santa Barbara, or as often referred to by his nieces and nephews as the “liquorice store.” Throughout his life he loved all kinds of sports, especially following the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Chicago Cubs. In his senior years, he took up the sport of lawn bowling where he made many friends.

As his health declined, he returned home to Cedar Rapids and the care of his nephew, Tom. In October 2011, he participated with other veterans on an Honor Flight to visit the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.

Ed will be remembered as a special quiet hero, slow to anger, loving, kind and forgiving. He got along with almost everybody, with a love for life and a great sense of humor.

Please sign the online guest book and share a memory about Edward at .

Published in The Gazette April 29, 2012.