Smernsky/Ed Temme Memorial

Thanks to the heads up posted here I was able to make the time to attend Ed's memorial. His church was in Lansdale, near downtown, and reminded me of the cathedral-like 'chapel' in Princeton where there was a memorial for Ernie Schwiebert several years ago. The church was traditional, with a high vaulting ceiling and very large stained glass windows.

I met Ed's wife and quite a few of his loving family, who put together collages of photos depicting his life and times. Needless to say, there were a lot of fish in the pictures. A fly rod was part of the group of mementos at the front of the church.

I'm not a hunter, so we had never talked hunting. I knew Ed and Diane had taken up trap shooting, but for some reason I thought this was an entirely new hobby and not a logical continuum of his hunting, which he did a lot of.

The weather was cool and sunny and generally beautiful, but I didn't begrudge not being on the water. The remembrances friends, colleagues and family members gave provided me with a lot of new and rich insights about Ed, whom I thought I had known pretty well.

When Ed was in Florida, prior to moving back to PA several years ago. We used to chat about the Tulpehocken, SE PA's only tailwater, which has some good years with caddis, big yellow mayflies, and Tricos. In the best years, the extremely high food content of the Tulpy enables the trout to grow an inch a month, and there are some hot running rainbows in there that will show you your backing. The Trikes are so dense that the carp learn to rise to them, and that's very challenging fishing.

Although we ffished several streams here in SE PA and Ed even came to a FishIn or 2 in the Catskills, he somehow never hit the Tulpy this time around.

Sorry I didn't take any photos of the ceremony, though I'm not sure it would have been in good taste. Ed was only in his 50's and too young to go so soon. Diane said he passed in his sleep, so that we can be thankful for that. One lesson I carried away was not to put off spending time, especially on the water, with friends and family.

tl
les

Appreciate it Les, very thoughtful.

lestrout -

Thank you for recounting for us Ed's memorial service and commenting further on how he passed. It is comforting to me to know that Ed died in his sleep.

John

Thank you Les, though i only made contact with Ed via board posts and a pm or two, i know he would have been a wonderful friend to have spent time with. His passion for the sport and for rod building was unsurpassed.

MontanaMoose

well, here's my tribute to ed...
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y46...s/PB060001.jpg
a 6ft 1wt bamboo rod w/ amboyna reelseat I'd purchased from him a few months back.

Thanks Les. Ed is missed.

Thanks for that moving memorial. Although I only knew Ed for a short time, we became good friends. Many a time he and I were the only ones in the chatroom, talking about all aspects of life, even got in a few lines about fishing on occasion. He was a true gentleman, and a great rod maker, even convinced me to try my hand at building, which I plan to do this winter. I miss him a lot, and your words brought a tear to my eye. Once again, thanks.

Mike :D