Obituary of Edward F. Dougherty
Dougherty
Edward F.
Beloved husband of the late Patricia Smith Dougherty, died early Thursday, January 17, 2019 at Passavant Hospital. He is survived by their three children, Karen Dougherty Residorf (Tom), Carol Dougherty, and Kevin Dougherty (Hope); their grandchildren TJ (Robin), Michael, and Brendan Reisdorf, Krista Reisdorf Berns (Eric), and Anna, Hattie, Lane, and Quinn Dougherty; and their great-grandchildren Faith, Peyton, Evan, Hadley, and Harper Reisdorf, and William and Nora Berns. He was predeceased by his brother Paul Dougherty and his sister Peggy Dougherty.
Edward, also known as Ed, Eddie, Doc, Pop-Pop, Granddad, and Harpo (a nickname he got in college when the Marx brothers were popular, because he didn’t talk much, like Harpo Marx), was born in Millvale, New Jersey. Although he took great pleasure in MLB player Mike Trout also hailing from Millville, Doc came to Pittsburgh to attend Duquesne University and never left. It was a homecoming of sorts, as his mother, Anna Fagan Dougherty, lived much of her youth on the South Side of Pittsburgh on S. 11th Street, and her father/his grandfather was at one time a minstrel on one of the local riverboats.
He met his wife, Pat, while a student at Duquesne, and she, at least, was not impressed. Their first meeting took place during a double date, and he was quite preoccupied with his own date with little time for polite conversation. That summer he made a list of the girls he thought he might date the next year, and Pat was the first one on the list. He never made it to the second one on the list, and they were married less than a year after he graduated Duquesne with a degree in accounting.
Doc worked at accounting from that first job until shortly before his death. Over the years he worked at Callery Chemical, General Nutrition, Carnegie Mellon University, and Pittsburgh Parking Authority, with a one-year stint at Arvin Industries in Columbus, Indiana. Once he retired from the Parking Authority, he continued his private tax practice, and still worked with a number of individual clients right up to his last illness.
Inspired by his father’s example, Doc was always involved in service of some kind. Even as a youngster during WWII, he ran errands for the local civilian war groups, which were very active due to their proximity to the Atlantic Coast and several military bases. When he was first married, he coached Little League, and at St. Teresa’s Church in Perrysville he was in the men’s choir, served on the Parish Council, and was active in the Athletic Association, acting as its President for one term.
He also ran for Ross Township commissioner in the late 1970s, and beat out the incumbent the old-fashioned way – going door-to-door and talking with people. During his one term he was both dedicated and a thorn in the side of several groups. He chose not to run for re-election because of the time it took from his family, though when a developer wanted to put multi-unit housing in his neighborhood, he joined with other families to create a neighborhood association to prevent it. Instead, the land was used for a single-family home, which works well with the community and its traffic patterns.
He maintained close ties with Duquesne University, organizing a monthly lunch for members of his fraternity, Kappa Sigma Phi. He would invite coaches or the Athletic Director to join them every so often, and for several years was scorekeeper for the Duquesne Dukes basketball games.
When his wife, Pat, began to show signs of Alzheimer’s, Doc took care of her at home for a number of years. He refused to put her in a nursing home until she was no longer able to walk, and then he went to Vincentian Home every day, three times a day, to feed her, as she could no longer feed herself. Even after she died, he continued to volunteer at Vincentian as a Eucharistic Minister, and helping people in wheelchairs get back and forth to Mass.
In the later summer of 2017, he became one of Panera’s first delivery drivers at McCandless Crossing. He gave it up in December of 2018, figuring he’d be too busy to keep on with the upcoming tax season.
He was a man who watched reruns of Blue Bloods so many times, he could say their lines before they did. He also loved NCIS and JAG, and the novels of David Baldacci. Although he became a Pittsburgher to the core, he was deeply proud of Millville, NJ and their famed baseball player, Mike Trout. He loved the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates, although his first love was the New York Yankees.
He loved sharing his stories with his children and grandchildren and spent many a happy week at Deer Valley YMCA Camp. He was a devoted husband, and wonderful friend, and a very loving father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and he will be missed by many.
Friends received at McCabe Bros., Inc. Funeral Home, 6214 Walnut Street, Shadyside on Tuesday, 2-4 and 6-8 pm. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held in St. Teresa of Avila Parish on Wednesday at 10 am. THOSE WISHING TO ATTEND PLEASE GATHER AT THE CHURCH. In lieu of flowers the family suggests donations to Deer Valley Family Camp, P.O Box 1424, McMurray PA 15317 or Vincentian Charitable Foundation, 8250 Babcock Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15237, https://vcs.org/donate-now/