Edmond H. Heisler '42
Deceased June 21, 2014
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50th Reunion book entry
In Memory
Ted Heisler died unexpectedly June 21, 2014, at his home in The Villages in Florida. He was 94 and our indefatigable and indispensable writer of class notes since 2007.
Ted came to Amherst from the Penn Charter School. At Amherst he joined Psi Upsilon and made his mark in athletics—squash, tennis and soccer teams, all four years. He was the goalie for the unbeaten soccer team of 1941.
In World War II, Ted served for 28 months in the Pacific as a radar officer in the Army Air Corps. Then, after getting an M.A. in history from Columbia and an L.L.B. from Penn, Ted returned to the military in 1951 as a judge advocate officer in the Air Force, with two tours of duty in Europe, four years at the Pentagon and one year in Vietnam. He retired in 1971 with 21 years of active service.
Between 1972 and 1986 he was an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, an instructor at Temple University and, finally, an instructor-tennis coach at Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. Ted always kept his skills alive in squash and tennis. He was the National 70-plus squash doubles champion in 1992 and 1993 and was nationally ranked in senior tennis since 1986. In 2011, at the age of 91, he competed in a tennis tournament in California.
His wife of 50 years, Elisabet Tornquist Heisler, died in 2001. Ted retired to The Villages, living with his sister, Mary Allison. He leaves three children and five grandchildren. Macular degeneration curtailed his tennis, but Ted kept on being his cheerful active self. He said, “It is what it is.” In June he had a fall while out in his neighborhood collecting cans for recycling. He sent in his last class notes shortly before his death.
Richard Ward ’42
