We are all saddened by the untimely loss of Ed Dilginis, one of our key members. He was a founding member of this museum, our first president and in the following years an ambitious director of our operations. He passed away at the age of 68 on November 5th, 2011 after being admitted to the hospital for a pulmonary embolism shortly after a hip replacement. He will be greatly missed.

Ed was born August 28th, 1943 in Hazelton, PA and grew up in Stroudsburg in northeastern Pennsylvania. He was the son of William J. Dilginis manager for the A & P Market Stores and Ann Rusackas Dilginis. Ed attended Pennsylvania State University and East Stroudsburg University where obtained a degree in Geography. While attending college he worked for Roadway Trucking and got a taste of trucking first hand. He later moved to Canton, Ohio after a promotion with Roadway. He had interrupted his college years to join the Army where he attained the rank of SPF. During his tour of duty in Korea he worked in the motor pool and was also working on and driving all of the military vehicles.

While in Ohio, he met and married his first wife, Myra, and attended the University of Akron where he obtained a Masters Degree in Planning. He then worked as a planner in Stark County Ohio. Not enjoying the Ohio climate, he did research to locate the ideal place to live and work and decided on San Diego which he grew to love. His first planning job in California involved work on a high-speed rail system among other projects, before deciding to go out on his own. It was here he started a planning and permit business called New Horizons Planning Consultants, Inc. He primarily worked for the sand mining industries, a very specialized line of work. During this time he divorced Myra and married Joan Harvey.

In addition to his wife Joan Harvey Dilginis, and step sons Todd and Greg Harvey of Menifee, CA. he is survived by his sister, Patricia (Pat) Reinert and her husband, Daniel, of Stroudsburg, PA, a niece Dr. Kristy Reinert, MD, of Philadelphia, PA, a nephew Captain Chad Reinert, USAF, and his wife Jamie of Shreveport LA.

Ed was a generous and well-liked friend to all. What people seemed to like and enjoy most about Ed was his interest in helping people. He was totally dedicated to the museum's mission of preservation, and operation of our vehicle collection. He researched and worked on many of the vehicles and regularly volunteered on Saturdays, working with our docent and other members greeting and introducing the public to our museum. Well studied in the history of trucks, he was instrumental in the creation of narrative signs for the museum's collection.

A well-prepared man, who led by example, Ed was always looking for the next task to be accomplished, vehicles to be moved, improvements to our site and organization of our plan. He was instrumental in identifying and designating our core vehicle collection and could often be found scraping the grease off a vehicle to find its hidden serial number. Additionally, Ed was instrumental in spearheading our engineering site plans, land acquisition, topographic and, facility layouts and most recently our landscape plans for the future. He possessed a great foresight and problem solving ability and a great skill in representing the museum and interacting with governmental agencies.

He possessed a special interest for the history and collection of Diamond T, Federal and International trucks and acquired many in his large 70-plus truck collection. It was these trucks he cut his teeth on in early years working as a truck driver while in college and in the service during in Korea. His interest and collection of these trucks was sought-after by many who knew him through his affiliation with the national Antique Truck Historical Society. This also inspired him to publish 40 issues of The Transport Pioneer, a magazine issued through the Motor Transport Museum with the visual and documented histories of various truck manufactures. He was frequently called upon to act as a judge at truck shows and events.

Ed's spirit will be a lasting presence around the museum and among the volunteers that knew and worked with him for as long as there is a Motor Transport Museum. He was the best.

By Carl Calvert