We’ve lived in the Chatterton, the condo building we shared with Ed O’Brien, for over 20 years. I got to know Ed early in our residency when we discovered we both were birders. Large old elm trees stand in front of the building. In spring and fall the trees are way stations for migrating birds. Early on, I’d call Ed, or he’d call me, with news of warbler sightings in our elms.
And I discovered that Ed was a remarkably funny man.
In 2013, Henry Griffin, then 13, started bird walks near his home in north Oak Park, at Thatcher Woods, Columbus Park and Miller Meadow. Ed was often unable to join those walks because of his work schedule. Eventually he got to go on a few of them. Ed appreciated Henry’s exceptional talent for birding.
When Henry went off to college, he asked me to take over administering the birding group, I needed capable leaders. Ed and our friend Lisa Spellman were obvious choices. When I recruited them, they graciously agreed to be our eyes and ears. In fact, early in Ed’s tenure as one of our leaders, he expressed to me how glad he was that our walks would get him exercise that he was not otherwise getting. He recently joined with a subgroup of our birding cabal and went on frequent expeditions all over the area with them, increasing his activity in ways that really energized him.
Ed was a great spotter and had a prodigious memory for bird markings and calls. The real fun in walking with Ed was his running commentary, which was always anywhere from droll to hilarious. His humor was often self-deprecating, but the social observations he wove into his ongoing narrative were often laugh-out-loud funny. Nothing was off-limits in his comic sense, including the LGBTQ community of which he was a part.
Ed McDevitt
River Forest