Edward Joseph Godec was born into the Slovenian community of Willard, WI on Sept. 20th,1932 to Joe and Gertrude "Gertie" Godec. Ed was the oldest of 4, with sisters Shirley, Elaine and brother John. Even as a child Ed was fascinated with airplanes and trains. Ed originally worked as a brakeman for the Milwaukee Road before joining the Air Force in 1954. After training he was stationed in Lincoln, Nebraska, and assigned copilot on the new B-47 bomber jets. While in Lincoln, Ed fell in love with Diane Zurheide, a Chicago-based nurse from Sheboygan. They married in 1958. After several years Ed moved to the AF Reserve and while there landed his career job as one of the first pilots hired at Air Wisconsin. Ed flew for Air Wisconsin for over 20 years, rising from line pilot to VP of Operations. Following his mandatory retirement at age 60, Ed and Diane moved to Madison from Neenah, and started The Bread Barn. They earned a "Best of Madison" award in 1994. Ed officially retired in 1997, then spent the next 20 years outside of Lodi building family memories with Diane at their 40 acre Hawk Hill home, prairie and orchard.

Ed and Diane had 5 children: David, Sue, Jeanine, Mary and Jenny. They were blessed with 13 grandchildren and have 4 great-grandchildren. Ed was a stickler for grammar. He would often "bring" $2.00 dollar bills to hand out and in exchange would "take" a firm handshake. He also loved spending time with his family, a long bicycle ride, a spectacular thunderstorm, berry picking and spending time in prayer. Above all he loved talking about flying. In his later years, Ed became a devoted member of the SSPX. He loved to share his devotion to Latin prayer and was a dedicated disciple of the St. Therese Chapel in Waunakee where he forged many close friendships.

A Requiem Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, July 14 at 10:00 am at St. Therese Chapel, 6039 Baltes Rd., Waunakee.  A visitation will be held from 9:00 am until the time of funeral mass.  Burial will be held at the St. Mary's of the Lake Cemetery, Westport Twshp.  A luncheon will follow at Rex's Innkeeper, Waunakee.

Ed's family would like to thank St. Therese Chapel, the staff of Columbia Health Care Center in Wyocena, WI and Heartland Hospice for their excellent, loving care of Dad.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the family to be directed towards St. Therese Chapel or Columbia Care Center.

Online condolences may be made at hooversonfuneralhomes.com