Ed Steele

Ed Steele

Charles Edward Steele (legally) was known to the many who loved him as Ed Steele. He was the son of William Lacy Steele and Ruth Lee Hager, born on September 1, 1945, in Bluefield, West Virginia. When he was very young, he, his mother, and older brother Bill moved to northern Virginia. After his father returned from World War II, the family moved to Burke, Virginia where Ed grew up on a truck farm. His father worked nights for the U.S. Post Office and retired as Superintendent of Mails in Washington D.C.

Ed attended Woodward Prep in Washington, D.C. on a baseball scholarship. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Concord College, West Virginia. He left college after a year to enlist in the United States Navy where he served as a ship serviceman from1964-66 and worked on the Sealab project, a Cold War experiment involving undersea human habitation. He was also assigned to drive admirals around Vietnam.

After his Navy service, Ed enrolled at Lynchburg College, where he starred in many productions -- most notably as one of the gangsters in 'Guys and Dolls' -- and graduated with a bachelor's degree in theater and Best Actor Awards. He played the title role in 'Volpone' as part of the annual Southeastern Theatre Conference Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, then went to work at the Lynchburg Fine Arts Center, where he coordinated concerts.

At the invitation of University of Virginia Drama Department Chair and Scenic Designer David Weiss, Ed moved to Charlottesville to get his master's in theater. There he and his future wife Anne Gartlan met in a production of 'Cabaret' that he directed at the Albemarle Playhouse.

Ed left UVA to head up the Children's Theater of Charlotte, North Carolina. It was there that an uninsured driver ran into Ed's motorcycle and crushed his right leg. Despite three years of hospitalization and treatment at a VA hospital, Ed required an urgent below-the-knee amputation.

His oldest friend from Methodist Youth Fellowship in Virginia, Karen Ann Shafer, invited him to join her on the production team at the Chelsea Theater Center in New York City, an act of deep kindness that rescued Ed from the shock of losing part of his leg. They produced plays such as 'Strider', which later appeared on Broadway in Fall 1979.

Ed returned to UVA to continue his graduate work in theater, but upon receiving an attractive job offer, he left an almost-completed MFA to become managing director of the Wayside Theater in Middletown, Virginia where he worked for nearly a decade. The theater enjoyed many successful seasons, and Ed recruited his theater friends to work there. Lean times also came, when Ed occasionally declined his salary and contributed revenue from his one-man touring shows as 'Mark Twain' and 'Teddy Roosevelt' to help the theater survive. While performing the shows, Ed was joined onstage by Pete, a dog he had rescued from a bad situation, who laid still, in rapt and loving attention.

In the mid-1980s, Ed reconnected with fellow UVA alum Anne Gartlan, who was with family staying at the Wayside Inn for a family wedding. After co-starring at The Wayside in a successful run of 'The Little Foxes' in 1986, Ed and Anne moved to New York City. Ed was soon cast in the national tour of 'Driving Miss Daisy', starring Julie Harris and Brock Peters. Ed and Anne were married in March 1988.

In 1992, Ed and Anne welcomed their daughter Olivia Frances Steele into their lives. Both parents were juggling acting careers, and the 'baby hand-off ' on a Grand Central train platform became a constant for them. Ed was also working with the Abingdon Theater Company where he produced, built sets, and played a Civil War veteran with a peg-leg. Abingdon successfully produced a play Ed wrote, 'Cedar Creek'.

At 58, Ed went back to school to complete a Master of Education degree and subsequently joined the faculty of Fox Lane High School in Bedford, New York. There he taught world mythology, public speaking, and theater tech, and served as director of the theater department. In this role, he produced plays like Aristophanes' 'The Birds', 'The Laramie Project', and 'Judgment at Nuremburg'. His musicals introduced many students to Cole Porter. For his first musical, a production of 'The Hot Mikado', he won the award for Best Director in the Tri-State Area. His production of 'Peter Pan' was such a big hit that the run was extended, and the gate receipts funded the department for several seasons. To the students in the Drama Club, Ed was like a 'Dutch uncle' — with tough love, kicking them out of the theater if they'd neglected to learn their lines. They nicknamed him Captain Steele.

Ed retired from teaching in 2015 at age 70. Four years later, he began a six-year battle with cancer.

Lakota Ozuyé Lacy Steele, born on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota on December 11, 2022, burst into the lives of Olivia, his new mother, and Ed and Anne, his new grandparents, in August 2023. Ed immediately determined to achieve the age of 80, which he did, on September 1, 2025. Kota and Pop-Paw were inseparable.

Ed is predeceased by his mother and father, his father-in-law Senator Joseph V. Gartlan and mother-in-law Fredona Manderfield Gartlan, and his sister, Ruth Lee Rogers of Austin, TX. He is survived by his wife, Anne Gartlan-Steele, daughter Olivia Frances Steele, and grandson "Kota" Steele, all of Yonkers, New York; brothers William (Alicia) Steele and James Steele, his brother-in-law Ralph Rogers; sister-in-law Joan Gartlan, brothers-in law Michael Gartlan (Ellen), Peter (Janet) Gartlan, Paul (Gilda) Gartlan, Joseph Gartlan III; and many beloved nieces and nephews.

A party celebrating Ed's life will be held at a future date.
Consider contributions to the American Cancer Society, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the American Indian Law Center, or the Lakota People's Law Project.