Edgar J. Perdue

passed away at his home in Bremerton, Washington on Sunday, July 1, 2007. He was 74 years of age.He was a loving husband and father, longtime Kitsap County newspaperman, avid golfer and youth baseball and basketball coach. He lived his life without regrets and was surrounded with love from family and friends to the end.Edgar Joseph Perdue was born March 8, 1933, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Olympia, Wash., to Elizabeth Jean (Graham) and Edgar Alvin Perdue, a newspaperman. He was especially fond of his grandparents, Joseph W. and Lena Jean Graham of Shelton.He lived in Olympia, Juneau, Tacoma and Seattle before the family moved to Shelton in 1937, then to Spokane in 1945. He graduated from Spokane's North Central High School in 1951. Ed attended Washington State College in Pullman for one year before enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1953. During the Korean War, he was a medium-speed radio operator, serving with the 44th Infantry Division and the 6th Army Special Troops while stationed at Fort Lewis. In 1955, he was shipped to Frankfurt, Germany, where he served in the 4th Division. He was honorably discharged in January 1956. Then he worked in Shelton as a card dealer and also worked in Christmas trees and on the green chain at Shelton's lumber mill.In 1957, he returned to WSC, where he majored in journalism and was sports editor of the Daily Evergreen. In 1959, he married Mona G. Schmalbeck. They purchased a Seattle weekly newspaper, the Beacon Hill News, and operated it for a year before moving to Bellingham, where Ed was a reporter for the Bellingham Herald. In 1963, they moved to Oregon City, where Ed was sports editor for the daily Courier Enterprise, then to Bremerton, where Ed was a reporter and later became sports editor for the Bremerton Sun. He spent a year as a sportswriter for the Tacoma News Tribune before returning to the Sun for five years. Ed became editor of the Central Kitsap Journal in Silverdale in 1976, then took over as editor of the Port Orchard Independent in 1981. He worked at the Independent for 18 years before retiring in 1998. Ed especially enjoyed covering youth sports and could be spotted prowling the sidelines of ballgames throughout Kitsap County with his camera and notepad. Once when asked when he was going to retire, Ed took a drag on his pipe, thought about it for a minute, then replied, "If I retired, I'd go to ballgames and play golf. I'm doing that now and getting paid for it, so why retire?"In the 1960s and '70s, he coached Pee Wee baseball and basketball in Bremerton for 11 years. He was one of the founders of Bremerton Babe Ruth and coached nine years in the '70s and '80s, including four years as the 13-year-old All-Star team coach. He was a founder of the Bremerton Athletic Roundtable. Ed was a member of Kitsap Golf & Country Club for 17 years, then was a fixture at Gold Mountain Golf Course for 26 years, where he usually could be found in the middle of the fairway and always right around the cup. He scored four aces during his life, his first at Downriver Golf Course in Spokane and three at Gold Mountain (one on the third and two on the seventh).His love for golf and his goal to play all the courses where The Open Championship was staged took him on several treks to Europe. He played the great courses of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales, including St. Andrews, Ballybunion, Carnoustie, Prestwick and Muirfield. His favorite course was Royal County Down in Northern Ireland. One golfing vacation took him to Portugal. In 2004, he and his sons played in the Mizuno World Pro-Am at Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and The Links at Spanish Bay in California.Ed was an avid fan of the Seattle Pilots, Mariners, Sonics and Seahawks. He enjoyed attending games with his sons and following the teams on TV and radio. Of course, he always rooted enthusiastically for the WSU Cougars.Regardless of the challenges life presented to him, he endured them with quiet grace, unending kindness and gentle humor.He is survived by Mona, his devoted wife of 48 years; son Joseph Lee Perdue, a golf professional in Menominee, Mich.; son Andrew Graham Perdue, a newspaperman in Richland, Wash., and his wife, Melissa; sister Maribeth Hopper of Lake Shastina, Calif.; and sister Colleen Campbell of Clovis, Calif. He was awaiting the arrival this fall of his first granddaughter, Niranjana, from Chennai, India.At Ed's request, there will be no service. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to www.hospiceofkitsapcounty.org in Silverdale.Arrangements by Cook Family Funeral Home.