Edward Ichart, Navy veteran, East Meadow school monitor, dies at 91

If Edward Ichart could be described in one word, it would be "light," according to his family.

"Grandpa was light. Because what does light do? It fills up a room. It flows into every available space. It delivers its warmth and radiance to each and every person," said Ichart's grandson, Peter Cavallaro, of Westbury. "He was the light in every room he entered."

The East Meadow resident died Aug. 8 from pneumonia at the age of 91.

Edward Ichart was born Aug. 27, 1932, in Brooklyn, the fifth of nine children.

"He always had fond memories of his childhood, saying he never knew they were poor," said Ichart's daughter, Diane Cavallaro, of Westbury. "He planted a victory garden, played games outside and graduated from Food Trades Vocational High School."

In 1950, during the Korean War, Ichart served in the U.S. Navy, patrolling the Eastern Seaboard on the USS Markab. He then worked as a paper cutter at Rupaco Paper Corporation in Brooklyn, rising to factory floor supervisor.

While on vacation in Cuba, Ichart met Borghild Solaas, an immigrant from Norway. They were married from 1958 until her death in 2007. The couple moved from Brooklyn to East Meadow in 1971.

"He always came home with a smile on his face and an eager ear to listen to his family’s conversations," Diane Cavallaro said of her father.

Upon retiring from the factory, Ichart started a second career at Barnum Woods Elementary School in East Meadow, working there from 1997 to 2021.

"He was known as Mr. Eddie and assisted children in the lunchroom and on the playground, as well as monitored them during a morning and afternoon program," his daughter said. "He was well-loved by many generations of children and their families, and could not enter a diner or a store around town without encountering a star-struck child."

The school staff invited him to their Veterans Day salute each year and honored him at a yearly event highlighting a person who embodied his caring spirit and professionalism. The school even named a gate after him.

Although he didn't graduate from college, Ichart was "a genuine thinker, a curious soul and a lover of knowledge and teaching people," according to his grandson.

"We would have these conversations, he and I, about business, law, foreign policy, and then I realized that this man spent almost 50 years, six days a week, on a factory floor, operating a cutting machine, with a two-hour commute each way on the Belt Parkway, so that his children and grandchildren could do as they will," Peter Cavallaro said.

Ichart traveled extensively, including to Cuba, Italy, Las Vegas and Alaska, where he landed on the Harding Icefield by helicopter at the age of 84.

Ichart supported numerous charities and frequently sent cartons of desperately needed supplies to a parish in Papua New Guinea, his family said.

"He was a child of the Great Depression, and this upbringing in many ways shaped the defining feature of his personality: outrageous generosity," his grandson said. "His philosophy of life was much the same as his approach to the free napkins they give you at the diner: draw deeply, never too much, no regrets — and share magnanimously with the ones you love."

In addition to his daughter and grandson, Ichart is survived by his son, Edward, two other grandchildren, a niece and seven great-grandchildren. Funeral services were held Aug. 12. Ichart was buried with military honors at Long Island National Cemetery, Pinelawn.