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<p><em>Ed Walter Hendren</em> was born in Chicasha, OK to an Army family in 1938 and fit a lot into a busy life, red-lining it all the way. He had no “off” switch. He became captain of the Army Gymnastics Team, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1962 in the top five percent of his class and was handed his degree by President John F. Kennedy. He qualified as an Army Ranger and, as a captain, served as a company commander in Vietnam, where he briefly overlapped with his father, Colonel Ed V. Hendren (he would have been named after his father, but his father didn’t think anyone should have to suffer the middle name “Vardo” again). Ed survived several near misses, including missing a flight out of Vietnam and then watching the plane crash into a U.S. Army helicopter. </p>
<p>He was decorated with the Soldier’s Medal, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Medal and Army Commendation Medal. He returned to West Point to teach social psychology and coach gymnastics in 1972 to 1973 and was named “Outstanding Teacher of the Year.” </p>
<p>After Ed left the Army (as a major), he moved to Palo Alto, CA with three kids and graduated from Stanford Law School, became a pilot, motorcycled across the U.S. and Europe, appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, remarried Madeline Grace McDonald in 1979 and had another three children, and mentored Tor Crow Nilsson, the child of his second wife by her third marriage. He quipped that he believed in marriage, which is why he married briefly for a third time, ultimately surviving all his wives. </p>
<p>His ever-changing series of hobbies included deer hunting with a bow, pheasant hunting with a shotgun and curating about 30 fish tanks in racks in his office and his family living room, where a 100-gallon tank rested in a cabinet he’d custom built for salt water tropical fish. He loved speed, becoming an aficionado of BMW motorcycles, traveling on one cross-country to meet his brother, Jerry, who was in the final days of a battle with cancer. After Ed left the Army in his thirties and moved his wife and three sons to Palo Alto, he’d break from his studies at Stanford Law School to restore classic Porsches. While younger students burned the midnight oil in the university library, he was in the carport, pairing an engine from here and a chassis from there until it was ready for body work and paint. When he finished the first, a 1960s 356C, he gave it to his eldest son, Matt. A second one, from 1964, went to David. His third son, John, is still waiting for his. Later he had a motor from Rocket Engines installed in his second plane, a Mooney 231, to shorten his trip to a family cabin in Jackson Hole, WY. His sole daughter, Elizabeth Ann, recalls him piloting adventurously and fearlessly, even with his children in the four-seater Mooney. Ed once flew under a power line to land in low visibility in Truckee, CA. Flying to Club Med in Oaxaca, Mexico with his three younger children and not fluent in Spanish, he relied on Elizabeth Ann, then 12, to communicate with air traffic control and negotiate the landing. On another occasion, also with the three youngest children aboard enroute to Jackson Hole, he said he felt light-headed, asked Ed “Shawn” Jr. to land the plane, then recovered and set it down on the runway himself without further incident. </p>
<p>Ed had several favorite sayings. Whenever someone complained about life, he’d say, “Well, it’s better than the alternative.” When his kids would complain they were thirsty he’d say, “If we had some ice, we could have some ice cold beer…if we had some beer.” On a more somber note, he’d say, “If all were known, all would be forgiven.” </p>
<p>After a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Ed died of cancer. All his living children—David, John, Shawn, Elizabeth Ann and Will—were with him in Menlo Park shortly before his death. His eldest son, Matthew, died in 2021. Ed died on December 17, 2023 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was 85. </p>
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