Great leader.   Great person.   He was so good at keeping his cool in tough situations. You never had to worry about how he was going to handle a situation, you knew he would be rock solid.    I was with Eddie six months ago and recalled a tough conversation we had had with Airbus 10+ years ago.    He remembered it as clearly as it had happened yesterday and could quote the exact phrase he had calmly uttered that had changed the whole meeting around.    

I reached out to him from time to time about specific advice on how to handle a problem or decision.   He was generous with his time and counsel.  

He will be missed.   

Other than the business association, Eddie was a good friend, mentor and a great human being all around. I was privileged to travel to different parts of the world with him. One funny travel story that perhaps he shared with you that comes to mind: we attended two receptions back to back in Paris during the Le Bourget Air Show and both receptions were great for customer/industry connectivity and relationship building. However, we were so tied up in conversations that we did not eat any of the hors d’oeuvres at either event, so we were starved and too tired to go to a restaurant. So I talked Eddie into having Shawarma sandwiches and since it was raining, we ended up picnicking in the car together with our driver…as we arrived back at the hotel during the wee hours, we realized that our shirts and neckties had as much of the Shawarma sauces and juices as we did (we had 2 sandwiches each) and the concierge at the Ritz sprung into action to help with the severe stains that were also on our neckties, attracting more attention in the chic hotel lobby that we wanted & we double-timed it back to the elevator… a classic “visual, had to be there” Inspector Clouseau moment that I’m glad no one captured on video. But also a testimonial of his fun-loving and easy going spirit.

Ray Kelly (one of Eddie’s first supervisors) was giving Eddie his performance review and asked Eddie the typical appraisal question “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  Eddie’s response was “President of Honeywell.”  And he accomplished that less than 20 years later!!

But Eddie had a fun side too.  When Eddie started at Honeywell in Clearwater there was an annual Engineering Banquet.  One year Eddie decided to ride to the banquet with Jim Miletich.  As was typical of newly hired, young engineers, Eddie enjoyed the open bar quite a bit.  On the way home, Eddie gave Jim very detailed instructions on how to get to the apartment complex where he was living (get in this lane, turn here, etc.).  The funny thing was, Jim lived in the same apartment complex that Eddie did and they frequently car pooled to work together!!

But the story doesn’t end there.  When Eddie got home that night, he decided it would be a good idea to call his girlfriend who was living in Atlanta at the time.  This was prior to cell phones so instead of his girl friend answering the phone, it was her father who answered.  Undeterred, Eddie had a chatty conversation with him instead!!

And last but not least, there was a group of engineers who would get together after work on Thursday nights to have a few beers.  The idea was to get away from work so a “no work talk” rule was established.  Anyone who broke that rule had to put a dollar in the pot.  Needless to say, Eddie put in more money than everyone else combined!!

Although we did not see Eddie as often once his career at Honeywell began to take off, we thought about him often and kept track of his career.  He was truly a special person – very sharp, very ambitious and very personable.  We will all miss him very much.

Otto Coldiron (one of the managers who interviewed Eddie for a job at Honeywell) said that when he finished interviewing Eddie he immediately went to his boss and said “You have to hire this guy.  Some day we will all be working for him.”  And we all did work for him one day.

When Eddie first came to work at Honeywell in Clearwater, FL, he shared a cubicle with two other new hires plus Jim Miletich who had been at Honeywell for 10 years.  Jim has always bragged that his claim to fame is that he was the one who showed Eddie where the bathrooms were located!!

For Eddie’s first project he was assigned as a system engineer for a small inertial navigation system to support a torpedo project.  Jim was familiar with the navigation system that was going to be used and explained it to Eddie.  When Jim went into the lab a few days later, Eddie he had written all the algorithms that went with the inertial navigation system and the torpedo on this huge 6’ x 12’ piece of paper and put it up on the wall.  When Jim saw the amount of detail Eddie had gone into he realized that Eddie was not only extremely smart, he was someone special who would go far at Honeywell.  From that point on, Eddie continually proved Jim right.  Smart, fast, and detailed was his mode for the rest of his career.

To describe how fast Eddie was, his nickname soon became Megahertz Wheeler.  For those of you who aren’t engineers, when you have systems you have real time interrupts that define how fast an algorithm can run in real time on a computer.  A normal real time interrupt is around 1000-2000 hertz (1-2 kilohertz).  Megahertz Wheeler meant that Eddie ran at over 1,000,000 hertz (1 megahertz).

Ed was an awesome person, very compassionate and kind.  A great guy. I remember we use to have many dinners/wine together after work discussing the trials and tribulations of Honeywell management, the business etc. Also, I remember when Ed and Jenny surprised me about their relationship at the Deer Valley Airport.  It was hilarious. He had a vibrant smile and he would laugh so hard you couldn't see his eyes.  There was a period of time when I knew him very, very  well -  2002 - 2004.  I feel badly that we didn't stay in touch over past few years. Nevertheless,  what a huge loss.