In memory of Ed Melnick, POA Board Member

The RBLPOA Board of Directors mourns the loss of our friend and fellow Board Member, Ed Melnick. Ed passed away suddenly on June 11, 2022. He was 67 years old.

Ed joined the RBLPOA Board in 2019 and served for three years, almost all during the difficult years of the Covid pandemic. He was the Chairman of the Membership Committee, a fitting role for a person with a passion for creating communities. It was Ed who shepherded the reincarnation of the printed RBLPOA Newsletter this spring. He had many plans for his role on the Board: programs for children and young people and programs to raise awareness of the threat of invasive species and the lake’s ecological fragility. On the POA Board, as in the other parts of his life, Ed was kind and nonjudgmental, a voice of calm and reason, who brought people together and resolved differences. Ed believed in people, and he brought out the best in them. His optimism, enthusiasm, and playfulness were infectious. He loved RBL as a place and a community and he believed in its future.

Ed was an educator, a musician, an avid gardener, and a great cook. He and his husband Barry loved their historic mid-century home on the lake and took great pride in restoring and maintaining its architecture and artifacts over the 23 years they lived in it. The garden became more beautiful with each passing year. Like many of us, Ed had recently become more attuned to native plants and to the sense of place and the buzz of life that they brought to a garden. Indeed, it was Ed’s love of life, in all its forms, that we will miss the most.

The RBLPOA Board sends our deepest condolences to our friend and neighbor, Barry Grayson, the love of Ed’s life, his husband of 32 years, and to all Ed’s family.

Read Ed’s memorial here.