Edward Michael Schlein

Dr. Edward Schlein, husband, father and grandfather; former Leesburg City Commissioner, and head of the Emergency Department at Leesburg Regional Medical Center for decades, passed away peacefully at his home last Friday. He was 80. As Ed liked to say, he was born in the South - South Bronx - in 1939. As a teenager, his family moved to Florida and his love of the Florida Gators was born. He attended The University of Florida from 1958 to 1962, earning his MD in 1965. In the 1960s, he was drafted and served on what he called the "Robert McNamara Foreign Study Program," on a tour of duty as a flight surgeon in Vietnam. He returned home to practice medicine in Texas, Louisiana and Florida. He served on the Board of Directors at UF's Shands Teaching Hospital and was universally well regarded as a great emergency room physician and leader. He raised five children, Michael, Mark, Matt, Mandi and Michelle, who are all proud Gator fans. He was proudly contrarian, stubborn and didn't suffer fools well. He was also kind, generous and bitingly funny with sarcastic wit. He wore mutton chop sideburns through most of the 70s and 80s and was as comfortable among his friends at the fish camp as he was with his colleagues in the medical profession. He loved dancing, Bill Haley and the Comets, The Florida Gators, bass fishing and tournaments, Heinekens, and above all else his wife Kay, his children and grandkids, who all adored him. He was often at his happiest when his family would meet at his spot in the Bull Gator parking lot before home games at The Swamp. Ed is survived by his wife Kay and his children, Michael, Mark, Matt, Mandi and Michelle. There will be a memorial service at Good News Church in Leesburg on Saturday, 11/2 at 2 PM. His family asks that in lieu of flowers that donations be made in his name to Good News Church in Leesburg, FL or to Combat Veterans To Careers, which they can do in his name, www.combatveteranstocareers.org, or by sending a check to 400 E Gulf Atlantic Hwy, Wildwood, FL 34785. Online condolences may be left at www.beyersfuneralhome.com. Arrangements entrusted to Beyers Funeral Home and Crematory, Leesburg, FL.

Edward Michael Schlein

July 23, 1939 - October 25, 2019