Edward Barles

Edward Barles, 97, passed away on Bainbridge Island on July 29, 2024. He was born in New York City on August 4, 1926, the son of immigrant parents from Russia. 

  Ed was preceded in passing by his wife of 72 years, Venera, who died only a few months earlier in December 2023; son David, daughter Carisa, sister Leona, and half-brother Daniel. He is survived by his daughter Gina, granddaughter Alexia (to whom he was always her “zayde,” Yiddish for grandfather), son-in-law William, and great-grandson Talon, all in southern California; and grandchildren Julian and Isabella, and son-in-law Pete, in Seattle.

 Born in Brooklyn, Ed left New York City to enlist in the Marine Corps in 1944, before he turned eighteen, and served at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina during the remainder of World War II. After moving to Los Angeles where his mother and brother had relocated, he took advantage of GI benefits and graduated from Los Angeles State College (which became Cal State LA) and eventually obtained a master’s degree in psychology. He was employed briefly as a high school teacher, then by the Red Cross in Pittsburgh, California, supporting troops during the Korean War. Subsequently, he became a parole officer for the California State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in Los Angeles. He rose to chief administrator in charge of a large team of psychiatrists and psychologists who evaluated inmates for parole consideration and supported their successful re-entry into society with individual counseling and group therapy. Dozens of colleagues came together to celebrate his three decades of distinguished service in 1988. 

  He first met Venera, the love of his life, in Los Angeles as a patient at the dentist’s office where she was then working as an assistant. He subsequently encountered her again at a movie theater where she was a ticket taker and usher, and the die was cast. Venera was the daughter of an Italian immigrant father born in Sicily, and an Italian mother born in New York, who had moved to LA. Her traditional Catholic Italian father did not approve of their 19-year-old daughter’s marriage to the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. So, the couple eloped to Las Vegas where they were married on Ed’s 25th birthday, on August 4, 1951. They remained married until Venera’s death over 72 years later.

 After raising their two lively girls, Gina and Carisa, in the Orange County California suburbs of Garden Grove and Buena Park, Ed, and Venera relocated in retirement to the Northwest in 1988, settling on Bainbridge Island, Washington. Both were active socially and often entertained friends and family in their Sunrise Drive home. With his jolly physique and full beard, Ed sometimes dressed as Santa for holiday celebrations at the local Senior Center. 

  Ed was an avid collector of many things--hats, leather coats, watches, some bronze Remington sculptures, dozens of stamp albums, etc.--but especially books. He collected thousands, using his walks during his lunch hour to find bargains in the second-hand bookstores, auctions, and pawn shops near his office on Spring Street in LA. He actually read many of the books he collected; a list of books he kept for several years shows he was reading three or four classic books a month. He also loved movies, especially Westerns. (Paradoxically for this peaceful man, his go-to in his final days was to watch TV reruns of “Walker, Texas Ranger” starring Chuck Norris.) Mostly a law-abiding man, in earlier days he did sometimes succumb to the temptation to enjoy multiple movies on a single ticket at the multiplex cinema near his home in Buena Park.

 Ed enjoyed traveling with his wife and taught his family the fine art of trout fishing. He and his family loved animals and had many pets, including three much loved wire-haired terriers, Toby I, Toby II, and Oliver; over a dozen cats, mostly strays who adopted him; canaries and a mynah bird; and at one time he maintained a garage full of aquariums with tropical fish. As the complement to his wife’s outgoing nature, he was a calm and quiet man, always congenial, well-liked, and respected by everyone he encountered. But he also had a mischievous sense of humor. He was a great raconteur, telling funny stories and jokes, and he liked to play practical jokes on his long-suffering wife Venera. At one point early in their marriage he briefly convinced her he was a secret agent for the CIA.

 Ed survived two bouts of Covid in recent years, but age finally got the best of him. In his final years, he was a much-loved resident of the Madrona House retirement community on Bainbridge, where he was well taken care of by the wonderful and loving staff before finally succumbing to old age. All will remember him fondly.

 Family members are holding a private remembrance for Ed. In lieu of flowers, friends of Ed are invited to make a donation to PAWS or have a tree planted in his honor.

 Arrangements are entrusted to Cook Family Funeral Home of Bainbridge Island, WA