Edward Temple McKenney was born on January 16, 1932 in Seattle, Washington to Walter and Dorothy (Butt). He was followed in 1939 by his only sibling, brother, Donald.

Ed grew up on Bainbridge Island, Washington. He learned hard work very young helping his mother raise chickens for egg production for a local market, assisting his father clear full-sized trees from their property for firewood to heat their house. His dad was an electrical contractor wiring many of the old homes on the island and Ed became his lone assistant. Ed graduated early from Bainbridge High School in December 1949 at age 17, accumulating three varsity letters in football along the way.

Ed went to the University of Washington earning a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in December 1953. He funded his education by hauling hod for a bricklayer, cutting firewood, digging a basement under an existing house, and, in the end, working for Albers Milling Co as a student engineer. While attending UW, he enrolled in Air Force ROTC.

Ed married Alice Fassett on his 22nd birthday, (January 16, 1954). He was accepted into the Naval Officer Candidate School that April. He trained as a hard-hat salvage diver., That October, Ed reported for duty on an ocean-going tugboat, the ATF100 Chowonowoc. In 1956, Ed boarded the destroyer tender AD-15, the Prairie, as personnel officer and hard-hat diver, and was on board for its 1956-7 around-the-world cruise. To fill those long cruise days on board ship, he built a large vacuum-tube based hi-fi. He left the Navy on August 5, 1957 as a Lieutenant, Junior Grade.

Ed and Alice moved to the Puget Sound area, where he worked with boilers at Crown Zellerbach and, later, wind tunnels at Boeing. In 1958, their son Paul joined the family. They moved to Woodburn, Oregon, where Ed worked at Birdseye as a Plant Engineer during a major expansion of this food-processing plant. Once this project was complete, Ed realized that he preferred building machinery to maintaining it, so he moved on to Sowa and Sons, a foundry and metalworking shop in Woodburn.

In 1962 their daughter, Rose, joined the family, In 1963 they moved to Silverton, where they soon bought 14+ acres of bare land adjacent to the small rental where they lived. Ed started accumulating classic Packard automobiles to be restored. He enjoyed woodworking as well and built some of their furniture for their small home.

Ed moved from Sowa to Flo Processing in Portland, in 1969, Ed, along with his good friend and mentor, George Everts, founded GEM Equipment of Oregon. G E M is a compilation of their names. GEM produced a wide range of custom-built industrial food-processing machinery, eventually focusing on the French fry potato industry, GEM Equipment spearheaded a number of important innovations, perhaps most notably the use of triangular tubing, Stellite drive chains, and the application of computational fluid dynamics to potato fryers, this last resulting in fryers on six of the seven continents.

In 1972, the family began work on building their dream house on the banks of Silvercreek. It was a whole-family effort. They moved in in 1975. The demands of building a business and building a house scuttled Ed’s dreams of restoring those Packards, but a 1948 Packard Sedan did serve as the family car for many years.

After 38 years together, Ed and Alice amicably divorced.

In 1994, Ed married Judith Rotrock, who brought much joy and happiness into his life. They enjoyed road trips and some river rafting/float trips, and developed the home property for Judith to realize her lifelong dream of having horses.

Ed remained CEO at GEM into his 80s, with Steve Ross and later Chris Imdieke taking the reins. Ed stepped down to CFO, cutting back to four workdays a week, or as he put it, "I work two days a week, but it takes me four days to get the work done." He only retired in August 2023 at age 91, as GEM was sold to Food Process Solutions, a firm in British Columbia, Canada. FPS is continuing GEM's long-standing tradition of technical and business excellence. Ed was soon reconnected with the company he loved in doing some specialized auditing at home which continued until just weeks before his death.

Ed liked to be physically active and enjoyed Oregon’s great outdoors. He took his young family on many four-wheel-drive adventures in the mountains. Later in life, he enjoyed white-water rafting with his pontoon-based raft mainly on the McKenzie River. He liked aiming the raft into the waves intentionally splashing the front-seat passengers! He ran 3 miles 3 times a week for years regardless of the weather switching to morning swims and evening weight training after his knees gave out. Even into his 90s, he did weekly weightlifting workouts and swam a nautical mile each Friday.

Ed loved classical music, opera, ballet, music of the 1890s, and musical theater, especially Rodgers and Hammerstein. He accumulated an extensive collection of vinyl records and thousands of CDs. He was a voracious reader and collected a large library containing a wide variety of books.

Ed also gave much to the community, serving on the Portland, Woodburn, and Mt. Angel Chambers of Commerce, as a business representative to the Marion County Public Safety Coordinating Council, and on the Silverton Health Foundation Board. He received the Silverton Health Foundation's Spirit Award in 2013 and the Mt. Angel Chamber of Commerce President's Award in 2016.

Ed took his second retirement in June 2026 at age 94 and passed away in a local hospital early in the morning of August 2, 2026. He did not suffer a lingering illness. Judith was with him at the end, and it was to her that he addressed his final words: "Thank you”.

Ed was buried with military honors at Calvary Cemetery at Mount Angel, Oregon on August 13, 2026. Ed’s nephew, Jeff Dehart , chauffeured the flag-draped casket in Ed’s cherished 2001 Ford F350 pickup truck in which Ed had logged 448 thousand miles doing business for GEM. Reverend Philip Waibel, who became acquainted with Ed and admired for his participation in community projects, officiated at the interment.

Ed was predeceased by his younger brother Donald, who passed away during the COVID crises. He is survived by his wife Judith, his children Paul McKenney (Gloria Wyffels) and Rose McKenney (Jay Douglas); his grandchildren Melissa Broussard (Nate), Sarah McKenney, and Aaron McKenney; and his nieces and nephews Barbara Rasaie (Amir), Connie Yenne (Bruce Williams), Eric Dehart (Millie), Gregg Dehart (Lori), Jeff Dehart (Theresa), Kara Dehart, Kimberley Sadozai (Joe), Linda Pendleton, Rue Beyette (Vince), Stephanie Apgar, and Stefano Fremonti (Gwen).

There will be a Celebration of Life on September 24, 2026 at the Festhalle in Mt. Angel. Doors open at 6:00 with a buffet dinner at 6:30. We encourage those who knew Ed to come to tell us your stories. PLEASE RSVP TO: Judith McKenney via email: RSVP: judith_mckenney@yahoo.com.