Edwin D. Stoltz, 94, of Peoria, Arizona, passed away Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. Ed was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on Oct. 2, 1927, to Floyd and Edna Stoltz.
In 1932 they moved to the family farm at Zone, Ohio, where Edwin attended rural schools until he entered Bryan High School, graduating in 1945.
Following high school, Ed served as a crewmember on the SS Richard V. Lindabury, a Great Lakes freighter hauling iron ore from Minnesota to ports on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie.
He was drafted for military service in 1946 and served as a clerk with the Army Air Force at Eglin Field, Florida, until his discharge in 1947.
In 1949 Ed entered the Air Force pilot training program at Waco, Texas. He completed training in Arizona where he was commissioned a second lieutenant and awarded the silver wings of an Air Force pilot on March 29, 1950.
In the following years Ed had assignments flying jet fighters and as an aircraft maintenance manager at locations in the United States and overseas.
Foreign assignments included 100 jet combat missions in Korea during 1950-51, 80 combat sorties over Laos and Vietnam from Thailand in 1970, and serving as senior duty officer at the Air Force Command Post, Saigon, Vietnam, in 1971.
Ed also served in Germany, Greenland and Iran. While in Iran he was the USAF senior aircraft maintenance advisor to the Imperial Iranian Air Force.
Ed married Florence Ransburg in 1952. They had three children: Dianna, Barry and Gary. In 1973, Ed retired from the USAF and the family moved to their farm in Ohio. In 1990 Ed and Flo moved to Peoria, Arizona.
Ed was preceded in death by Flo (2015) and is survived by Dianna, Barry and Gary.