We mourn the passing of Ed Hauser, a generational citizen activist who near single handedly saved Whiskey Island as a green space where the river meets the lake. Ed was an immovable force and an inspiration to watch at public meetings—he followed his calls for accountability with action, requesting county government open its books and share with the public how it was spending tax payer money on the Lakefront, the Innerbelt, the preservation of our history (he fought tirelessly to save giant Hulett ore unloaders). He will be greatly missed.

A bunch of moving accounts and memories of Ed have been posted on RealNeo. I think Norm puts it nicely here:

I certainly learned activism from Ed, and so am a better citizen as a result, and I am not alone in that... but there are no other people capable of doing what Ed was doing - he was the region's environmental engineer. It was the mind of Ed that mattered, and that is gone. What we may take forward in all our work, as activists for all our causes, are the many lessons we learned from observing Ed in action, knowing him as a friend, for those so fortunate, and working with him to make this a better world.

For a refresher and as a guide for future generations, there should be annual screenings of Citizen Hauser in his honor.

His archives must be preserved and may be needed for analysis and action in the future, so arrangements must be considered, for that. Should these go to the Western Reserve Historical Society?

His REALNEO account will be preserved, and we certainly dedicate this effort to Ed, who was very important to our founding and development!

As we mourn Ed's loss, we must renew our commitments to the causes we have been fighting for together - Ed worked on many fronts and at many levels and 100s of people worked with Ed on these causes... we know who we are and what we must continue to do!

On with the citizen's revolution.