Edward L. Blank

Age 81, of Mt. Lebanon, originally of Shadyside, on Wednesday, January 22, 2025.

Son of the late Albert Edwin Blank Sr. and the late Gertrude Patricia Sullivan Blank.

Brother of the late Catherine M. Haynes of Yuba City CA, the late Albert E. Blank Jr. (the late Bette) of Mt. Laurel NJ, the late Lois B. (Peter) O’Connor of Penn Hills PA and John J. (Suzanne) Blank of Buckingham PA; uncle of 25 nieces and nephews and dozens of great/grand nieces and nephews.

Ed was an alumnus of Sacred Heart Elementary School, South Hills Catholic (Seton-LaSalle) High School and Duquesne University and a proud officer-veteran of the U.S. Army Signal Corps (1965-67), including a year in Vietnam.

In his 25 years at The Pittsburgh Press, he was a reporter for the city desk, a copy editor and TV-radio editor before moving into his dream job as drama editor, a critic-columnist-interviewer-reporter covering Broadway and local theater, movies and home video.

After The Press succumbed to a labor strike in December 1992, Ed joined The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in January 1993 as film, home video and local and Broadway critic-columnist-interviewer. He resigned in 2007.

For several years in retirement, Ed taught Film Classics in the University of Pittsburgh’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and conducted Saturday workshops at St. Paul of the Cross Retreat Center.

Throughout his newspaper years and afterward, he spoke to countless groups about his career, great films, celebrities he had interviewed and local theaters and drive-ins that no longer exist.

At Resurrection Parish, he was a greeter, a lector, a Eucharistic minister, an usher, collection counter and men's club member. At St. Clair Hospital, he was a Eucharistic minister.

Ed was an active member of Vietnam Veterans Inc. (“We went as strangers. We came home as brothers”), Veterans Breakfast Club, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion Post 725 (Carrick / Brentwood), Italian American War Veterans Post 30, Military Officers Association of America (Pittsburgh chapter), Disabled American Veterans Chapter 76, Vietnam Veterans of America Post 862, Veterans Administration, Senior Men's Club of Sewickley, Northmont Brotherhood Club, Western Pennsylvania Police Benevolent Foundation, Ex-(Pittsburgh)-Pressers, Media Folks, Keystone Chorus, Ken Folle’s Retired State Troopers, the Algonquin Roundtablers, St. John Capistran Men's Fellowship Group, Resurrection Parish and numerous breakfast, lunch and dinner groups.

Friends will be received from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Sunday, January 26, 2025, William Slater II Funeral Service, 1650 Greentree Rd., Scott Twp., 412-563-2800. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Monday, January 27, 2025, St. Thomas More Church, Resurrection Parish, 126 Fort Couch Road, corner of Oxford Drive, Bethel Park. Entombment at Queen of Heaven Cemetery Mausoleum, Peters Twp.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Little Sisters of the Poor, 1028 Benton Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15212, or the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, 1900 Pioneer Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15226.

www.slaterfuneral.com

You can view Edward's funeral mass at the following link, https://youtube.com/live/C8lDhGmLY60?feature=share.