Former resident of Charlottesville
Photographer, WWII Veteran, Environmental Health Specialist in Virginia and Hawaii, Classic Car aficionado,
philatelist, and member of numerous service organizations including the Elks, Shriners, Masons, American Legion, and
others, Edwin Roseberry passed away peacefully on October 13, 2022, in San Jose, California at the age of ninety-
seven. He is survived by his younger brother Bill and wife Grace, son Ed and wife Michele, son David, stepdaughter
Leigh Boger, grandchildren Craig, Kendra, Patrick Edwin, Shannon and Brianna, nieces Laura Schoonover, Susan
Heartwell, and Dawn Roseberry, nephews Michael Roseberry and Mike Cady, and many great nephews and nieces. He
is predeceased by his brother Bob, sister Caroline, son Kevin, grandson Scott, nephew Bob, and other family members
not cited, but certainly not forgotten.
Ed (aka Flash) developed his love of photography after his father gave him the family camera as he headed out to
serve in Hawaii during WWII. Following his service, he re-entered the University of Virginia in 1946 and obtained a
Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce in the class of 1949. It was during his studies that he met Mary Louise
Sprengel. They married at the University of Virginia Chapel on September 2, 1949, and later had three boys, Ed Jr.,
David, and Kevin. Ed lost Mary Lou, to breast cancer in 1978 and in her memory commissioned a stained-glass
window that is on display at the University of Virginia Chapel.
In 1980 Ed married Alice Boger. They moved to Hawaii in 1985 to retire. After their divorce, Ed moved back to
Charlottesville in 2001 where he lived until October 2020 when he moved to California to live with Ed Jr. and wife
Michele, for his final years.
In 1952 Ed won his first significant photo award at the 17th Annual Virginia Photographic Salon. Over the next forty-
years he won thirty-four, first, second, third, and honorable mention awards. In 1986 the University of Virginia Alumni
Association and Virginia Commission for the Arts published The Inward Eye a book containing a selection of 1950’s,
60’s and 70’s student social events at the University of Virginia. From 2010 to 2020, Ed and Steve Trumball
collaborated on and published several books using Ed’s photos, most notably, Flash. Published in 2016, it portrays
Charlottesville and the University of Virginia during the mid-part of the 20th century. Steve and Ed also presented
slideshows of Ed’s works to audiences at various Charlottesville venues from 2010 to 2020. In 2013 Ed donated
approximately one hundred fifty thousand negatives and prints spanning the years from 1949 to 2013 as well as
camera equipment to Special Collections at the University of Virginia’s Alderman Library. In 2014 the University of
Virginia Alumni Association hosted the first comprehensive exhibit of Ed’s entire body of work, curated by local
historian and author Coy Barefoot, an installation of over one hundred photos that was on display for well over a year,