The country, history, and the U.S. Grant Homestead Association has lost a great man, veteran, historian, and friend. He came to Georgetown Ohio ten years to support the USGA and teach and entertain a crowd of eager history lovers. We will miss him! Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!
Ed was born in Billings, Montana, the elder son of Omar and Virginia Bearss. He grew up on the rugged family cattle ranch, the "E bar S", near Sarpy, Montana. His father, a WWI Marine, read accounts of military campaigns to young Ed and his brother. Ed's budding interest in military history was jump-started by a biography of the dashing J.E.B. Stuart that he read for school. Ed named many of the ranch animals after famous generals and battles; his favorite milk cow was Antietam. Ed graduated from Hardin High School in May 1941 and hitchhiked around the United States, visiting his first Civil War battlefields. He enlisted in the Marine Corps on April 28, 1942, and by July was on a troop transport to the Pacific War. He was with the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion in the invasion of Guadalcanal and the Russell Islands and 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, in New Britain.
On January 2, 1944, Ed was severely wounded at "Suicide Creek" (Cape Gloucester, New Britain) by Japanese machine gun fire. He spent 26 months recovering in various hospitals. He has used the experience as a tool to teach future generations the value of service and sacrifice. He was honorably discharged from the Marines as a corporal on March 15, 1946, and returned home to Montana. Ed used the G.I. Bill to finance his education at Georgetown University, from which he obtained a B.S. degree in Foreign Service studies in 1949. He received his M.A. in history from Indiana University in 1955, writing his thesis on Confederate General Patrick Cleburne. As part of his research, he visited the Western Theater battlefields on which Cleburne fought, telling friends, "You can't describe a battlefield unless you walk it”.
On the battlefield of Shiloh in 1954, he made a career decision inspired by the park historian he met, Charles E. (Pete) Shedd: interpretation of battles in the field was far more interesting than the academic study of history in an office. He soon took work as an historian at Vicksburg National Military Park, At Vicksburg, Ed did the research leading him and two friends to the long-lost Union gunboat U.S.S. Cairo. Which they raised from its muddy tomb in the Yazoo River and placed it on display at the Vicksburg Park. He also located several forgotten forts, was enlisted to develop a variety of new parks, and led efforts at hundreds of historic sites around the country including the Eisenhower Farm at Gettysburg and the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska. In 1966, Ed was transferred to Washington, D.C. On November 1, 1981, he was named Chief Historian of the National Park Service, a position he held until 1994. From 1994 to 1995 he served as special assistant to the director. After his retirement in 1995, he received the title Chief Historian Emeritus, which he holds to this day.
Retirement was loosely defined in Ed’s vocabulary; He travelled to lecture or lead tours 200 days of the year.
