Obituary for Eduardo Ivan Lopez
Eduardo Ivan Lopez was a self-made Renaissance man. Born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and transplanted to New York City at the age of 9, Ed dreamed his new home in the states would be more like Riverdale with Archie and Veronica instead of the Williamsburg tenement where he, along with his mother and 2 sisters, ended up.
He battled his way through high school and decided to escape Brooklyn by enlisting in the Marine Corps just as the conflict in Vietnam was heating up. Following his tour of duty overseas, he married Carol Galbraith, a fellow Marine, and together they had four children - David, Sherry, Larry and Scott.
Honorably discharged, 22 year old Eduardo decided to start his own construction company. With no experience, he took a book out of the library and taught himself how to build a house; and within a year he had a thriving business with 12 employees, a new home in the suburbs and two cars in the driveway.
But it wasn’t the American Dream he dreamed of. Something was missing and he decided to start over. The marriage ended, Ed signed everything over to his wife and applied to college. Two years in community college were followed by a full scholarship to Boston College where he discovered the wonders of theater.
He continued his education - the first in his family to receive a masters degree - at Tufts University where he studied theater history and playwriting. Teaching part-time at Boston University, his career as a playwright and director took off. He penned more than two dozen plays plus documentaries for the Discovery Channel. Among his best known early works, (most of them produced Off-Broadway,) are “Spanish Eyes”, “A Silent Thunder”, “Lady With A View”, and “The Laureate”, a film which won Best Screenplay at the Hamptons Film Festival.
“
Numerous awards followed. One artistic director called him “the Arthur Miller of his generation". But as a writer of Hispanic descent, he struggled to get a foothold in mainstream theater companies. He wrote eloquently about it in the New York Times.
In 1991 Ed married the longtime love of his life, former NY1 anchor Roma Torre, and they had two children together, Alejandro and Alegra. The family eventually moved to Montclair, NJ where Ed finally found his Riverdale.
In 1999 Ed was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but through it all, he continued to write, producing “Fireflies”, “A Natural Life” “Ribbon Creek” and “Barth's Dilemma". It was later determined that the Parkinson’s was caused by contaminated water at Camp Lejeune where Ed trained in the Marine Corps. But he never complained and was determined to keep on writing even as the disease ravaged his body and mind. He leaves behind five children (Sherry tragically died in 2018), 8 grandchildren and his two sisters, Grace and Celeste.
To honor his memory, the family wishes, in lieu of flowers, to make donations to:
Parkinson's Research Donations
- Entering Parkinson's PPMI Research
- both people with and without Parkinson's
Vietnam Veterans of America
- What They Do:
veteran services, outreach programs, government relations
* Donations
He battled his way through high school and decided to escape Brooklyn by enlisting in the Marine Corps just as the conflict in Vietnam was heating up. Following his tour of duty overseas, he married Carol Galbraith, a fellow Marine, and together they had four children - David, Sherry, Larry and Scott.
Honorably discharged, 22 year old Eduardo decided to start his own construction company. With no experience, he took a book out of the library and taught himself how to build a house; and within a year he had a thriving business with 12 employees, a new home in the suburbs and two cars in the driveway.
But it wasn’t the American Dream he dreamed of. Something was missing and he decided to start over. The marriage ended, Ed signed everything over to his wife and applied to college. Two years in community college were followed by a full scholarship to Boston College where he discovered the wonders of theater.
He continued his education - the first in his family to receive a masters degree - at Tufts University where he studied theater history and playwriting. Teaching part-time at Boston University, his career as a playwright and director took off. He penned more than two dozen plays plus documentaries for the Discovery Channel. Among his best known early works, (most of them produced Off-Broadway,) are “Spanish Eyes”, “A Silent Thunder”, “Lady With A View”, and “The Laureate”, a film which won Best Screenplay at the Hamptons Film Festival.
“
Numerous awards followed. One artistic director called him “the Arthur Miller of his generation". But as a writer of Hispanic descent, he struggled to get a foothold in mainstream theater companies. He wrote eloquently about it in the New York Times.
In 1991 Ed married the longtime love of his life, former NY1 anchor Roma Torre, and they had two children together, Alejandro and Alegra. The family eventually moved to Montclair, NJ where Ed finally found his Riverdale.
In 1999 Ed was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease but through it all, he continued to write, producing “Fireflies”, “A Natural Life” “Ribbon Creek” and “Barth's Dilemma". It was later determined that the Parkinson’s was caused by contaminated water at Camp Lejeune where Ed trained in the Marine Corps. But he never complained and was determined to keep on writing even as the disease ravaged his body and mind. He leaves behind five children (Sherry tragically died in 2018), 8 grandchildren and his two sisters, Grace and Celeste.
To honor his memory, the family wishes, in lieu of flowers, to make donations to:
Parkinson's Research Donations
- Entering Parkinson's PPMI Research
- both people with and without Parkinson's
Vietnam Veterans of America
- What They Do:
veteran services, outreach programs, government relations
* Donations