Edmund A. Flexman, age 84, of Hockessin, Delaware, formerly of Wilmington, died peacefully after a short illness on January 7, 2025 in his residence at Cokesbury Village with his family in attendance. Services will be at Cokesbury Village on Saturday, April 19, 2025 at 11:00 a.m.
Ed was born in 1940 in Liberia, where his father was serving as a Lutheran medical missionary. The family moved back to Chicago in 1942 as his father joined the U.S. Army. Following the death of Ed’s mother, his father moved the family to Milledgeville, Illinois, to start a medical practice. Ed attended the local grade and high school, where he participated in football and track.
Ed was motivated throughout his life by a voracious intellectual curiosity. During grade school, his father gave him a book from a set of encyclopedias for children. Ed won the rest of the encyclopedia set in a bet with his father about the origin of the Northern Lights. In fact, he chose chemistry as his college major because he had read about the field and later did actual experiments. Although he followed directions for the lab experiments in high school, he sometimes repeated them at home in his basement and made changes so he could see what might happen. As a result of one such experiment at home gone awry, he was happy to find that his singed eyebrows grew back quickly. Safety then became a much higher priority.
Ed then went on to graduate from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, with a B.S. in chemistry. He met Ruth Rasmussen there, who became his wife in 1964. They moved to Bloomington, Indiana, where Ed earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Indiana University.
After completing his Ph.D., Ed began his life work for DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware. He retired as a DuPont Fellow at age 67 with credit for 35 U.S. patents and top DuPont awards in his research field including the prestigious Lavoisier Medal for Technical Achievement. He always said he especially enjoyed working with his technicians and fellow researchers. Ed found that having contacts with world-wide DuPont chemists and attending meetings in other countries greatly enriched his career.
On the home front, Ed thoroughly enjoyed working with (more likely, playing with while educating) his own children and those of others. He was a devoted father to his two children, Greg and Carolyn. As they grew, he served as a Cub Scout Troop Leader and a Girl Scout Troop Leader as well as participating in YMCA programs with them. In addition, he mentored groups of boys through Hilltop Lutheran Neighborhood House. All the children joyously romped over the years on the play equipment he had built in the yard and in the trees.
Ed combined love of family and of travel by vacationing with his children and, later, the grandchildren at the Delaware beach and in national parks in the West, especially the Grand Canyon. Depending on the destination, one might find Ed skiing, wind surfing or looking at a trail map. He also loved sharing interesting background “factoids” (as he called them) about the geology or history of the area. As a couple, Ed and Ruth traveled in all 50 states and 16 European countries plus Japan, China, Kenya, Canada, and Mexico. On trips to England, Ed visited sites of ancestors he had traced back to the 1500s through his lifelong genealogy research.
Upon retirement, Ed who epitomized being a lifelong learner- dove into taking and teaching classes at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Delaware. His favorite teaching subjects included, history (starting with the Big Bang), geology, and national parks. Those who signed up for the classes could expect Powerpoint presentations that were thoroughly researched and liberally sprinkled with humor.
Ed was preceded in death by his parents, Dr. Edmund Flexman and Eleanor (Schroeder) and stepmother Lucille (Bragg). Survivors include his wife, Ruth, sister Joan (Grygel), son Greg and his wife Merritt (Raum) and their children Sarah and Nathan, and daughter Carolyn (Gregg) and children Megan and Cameron.
Services will be held at Cokesbury Village on Saturday, April 19, 2025 at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Ruth and Edmund Flexman Endowment to support the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Delaware mailed to “Gifts Processing, 83 E. Main St, 3rd Floor, Newark, DE 19716.” Make checks payable to ‘University of Delaware’ and include on the memo line “in memory of Ed Flexman”. Donations may also be given online at the secure website, www.udel.edu/makeagift, listing “in memory of Ed Flexman” in the special instructions section.
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