Edgar A. “Ed” Groelle, age 83, passed away on Saturday, July 14, 2018; at Aurora Medical Center Kenosha, after a long battle with cancer.

He was born on April 11, 1935 in Manitowoc, WI, and was the fourth son born to the late Delvin & Linda (Genz) Groelle.

Ed graduated from Lincoln High School, Manitowoc in 1952; DeVry Technical Institute, Chicago in 1954; and US Army Signal School at Ft. Monmouth, NJ in 1955.

He is a Korean War Era veteran and served in the US Army Signal Corps for three years from 1955 to 1958. 

After being honorably discharged from the service, he was employed in 1958 and 1959 by Western Electric as a Lead Electronic Radician and Station Chief at a Dewline station on Baffin Island in the Canadian Northwest Territories.

Ed was united in marriage to Charlene Metten of Kenosha on October 26, 1963 at St. Mary’s Lutheran Church.

He was employed as an IBM Customer Engineer for thirty years, retiring in 1990. After retiring from IBM, he was employed for 10 years by St. Catherine's Hospital as a Microsystems Analyst, retiring again in April, 2000.

Beginning in 1988, Ed became active in the old St. Catherine's Hospital Auxiliary, serving on the executive board as vice-president, treasurer, and co-chairman of the hospital’s annual Love Light project. For 10 years, he had been very active as a volunteer escort driver for KAFASI.  He was an adequate sheepshead player, an avid bicyclist, and enjoyed helping hundreds of PC users with problems. He also indulged in his life-long interest of exploring foreign countries.

After retiring permanently in 2000, he worked for a year as a security guard on third shift in the empty St. Catherine’s Hospital complex where he enjoyed searching for and antagonizing ghosts. In 2000, he began writing and became a very popular columnist for the Kenosha News publishing over forty articles.  He has also published two books, Voices on a Sunday Morning, a collection of his and others’ articles and In a Moment, the biography of a blind friend.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Charlene Groelle of Kenosha; two daughters, Laura (Noah) Brushel of Wauwatosa and Melissa Groelle of Kenosha; two brothers, Eugene Groelle of New Paltz, NY; and Harlan (Jackie) Groelle of Grayslake, IL; as well as nieces and nephews.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by two brothers: Milton Groelle and Lloyd Groelle.

The family wishes to express their heartfelt gratitude to Ed’s Aurora doctors: Dr. Prakash D. Shah, MD, Dr. Scott R. Feldy, DO and Dr. Thomas G. Matkov, MD, the Aurora at Home^Ò Hospice Care Team (our angels--Lisa, Candice, Nicole and Kirsten) and the Med Surg 5 nurses: Lauren and Merrilyn for the compassionate care they provided.

Service Info

Funeral services honoring Ed’s life will be held on Friday, July 20, 2018 at 12:00 noon at the Piasecki-Althaus Funeral Home, 3720 39th Avenue. Interment will follow in Sunset Ridge Memorial Park.