Death of NPC veteran member Ed Essertier

Edward P. Essertier, a newspaperman, government spokesman and a 39-year member of the NPC, died Sept. 11, in Culpeper, Va., at the age of 93.

Ed was born and raised in Hackensack, N.J., where his father was a prominent physician. He was a member of the Princeton University "Tigers" basketball team and graduated early to enlist as a private in the U.S. Army in 1942. He served in tank corps of Patton's Third Army and ended his hitch managing a hotel in Paris for U.S. service personnel. He was a member of the NPC's American Legion Post 20 and other service organizations.

He worked for a New Jersey newspaper after returning from Europe and moved to Pasadena, Calif., in 1948. Ed became editor of the Pasadena Independent Star-News in the 1960s and ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican. He then took a job in public affairs at the Department of Interior and moved to Oakton, Va.

An avid baseball fan, he worked for the commission that helped bring baseball back to Washington after the Senators departed in 1971. An accomplished musician, Ed played the harmonica, piano and accordion, and often wrote lyrics. In 2005 Ed and his wife, Shirley, moved to Culpeper, where he remained active in veterans, church and service organizations.