Vet assisted effort to put GIs' letters on microfilm

8/11/2003

FINDLAY - Edwin J. Maurer, 83, who as personnel manager helped establish the Eastman Kodak Co. processing plant here, died of cancer Thursday in Blanchard Valley Regional Health Center in Findlay.

Mr. Maurer's parents lived in Washington, but he was born in Cochecton, N.Y., when his parents visited his grandmother and were snowed in with her.

Mr. Maurer was working for Eastman Kodak when World War II began. He joined the Navy right after the attack on Pearl Harbor and joined his father's work with V-mail before he could even have basic training. V-mail was a system of photographing sailors' and soldiers' letters and shrinking them down onto microfilm for transport. Once back in the United States, the microfilm was transferred back into letter-size sheets and mailed to family and friends. He attained the rank of first-class specialist.

After the war, he returned to work for Kodak and moved to Findlay in 1955 to help open the film-processing plant. He hired all the employees in the plant and retired in 1982.

Mr. Maurer's work with photography was part of his leisure time. He was married in 1940 and had the wedding filmed.

An avid golfer, Mr. Maurer and his family would play as often as every other day for a while. In 2000, they bought the Loudan Meadows Golf Course, even though back problems prevented him from playing.

Mr. Maurer enjoyed dancing, and he and his wife, Florence, were members of the Bal Saison Dance Club in Findlay.

Mr. Maurer was past president of the Hancock Cancer Society and the Northwest Ohio Blue Cross, and a member of the United Cancer Council, USA. He co-founded Junior Achievement in Findlay.

Surviving are his wife, Florence; son, Robert; sister, Sister Superior Ann Veronica, and a grandson.

There will be no visitation. A private memorial will be at the Routson Funeral Chapel. The family suggests tributes to St. Michael's Catholic Church in Findlay, the Blanchard Valley Health Foundation, or Findlay-Hancock County Public Library.