Ed Birkett

Ed was born in Glen Cove New York, a small town on the North Shore of Long Island. Although the family moved to other areas of the country, they considered Long Island as their home.  His mother raised show dogs, either Boxers or Dobermans and he and his younger brother would spend the day with the dogs and their trainers at dog shows. Ed followed his love of the outdoors and spent happy hours with friends, fishing off the docks in Northport and from his uncle’s boat.

He attended High School in Northport   and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Forestry.  Like most other college students, he had no money, so he joined Air Force ROTC which paid a small stipend. After graduation and another summer of work, he became a member of the Air Force and went off to Air Traffic Control training and then off to his first assignment in Minot, North Dakota.

By this time, he was a newlywed officer. He arrived in Minot where the temperature was minus 35 degrees with a wind chill that made it even colder.

A series of assignments took him to Northern Maine, Alaska twice, Southern Illinois twice, Utah and Georgia. He left Georgia with his wife and small toddler bound for five years in Germany.  While he was in Germany, he attended many NATO conferences in Brussels and walked over 1,000 kilometers in the German countryside. His last assignment before he retired was in Berlin. The Berlin Wall had fallen the previous year; Germany was in the middle of reunification and Berlin and its airspace had been divided for decades. Ed and his French, British and Russian counterparts were tasked with returning airspace and air traffic control operations from the Allies to a unified Germany. After his Air Force retirement, he returned to the things he had enjoyed growing up: the ocean, the trees and spending his time outside.

He spent the next 20 years working at Fred Meyer, eventually managing the garden center where he was fondly referred to by his workmates as “Garden Ed.” His daughter is continuing the third generation of family military service by currently serving in the Air Force. Ed was always energetic, and enthusiastic; he never met a dog he didn’t like or that didn’t like him.

Ed made many friends at the Skagit Adult Day Program; he would be delighted for any memorials to go to support this non-profit program which helps so many families.