Edgar Wallace Rynerson

January 24, 1923 – March 2, 2023

Edgar Wallace Rynerson died at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon on March 2, 2023. He was 100 years old. Emanuel was where he met his wife Janet Aileen Otto, a registered nurse who was caring for his father. It was also where their four children were born.

Ed was born at the Portland Sanitarium to Clarence and Margaret (Whetzel) Rynerson on January 24, 1923. His early childhood in suburban East Multnomah County was shared with his parents and younger brother, Robert Warren Rynerson (who died in 2018).  Ed attended Lynch School through fourth grade. When the family moved to the Irvington neighborhood, he entered Irvington Elementary School during the first year that the new building was open. He sold newspapers at the streetcar transfer point at nearby 15th & Broadway.  He was a proud 1941 graduate of Benson Polytechnic High School, where he studied the printing trade, took part in radio dramas and edited the Tech Pep newspaper. Although he was a gifted writer and knew many Runyonesque characters, the big city action of newspaper circulation work appealed to him. He was in that field for the Oregonian before and after service in the US Army Air Corps in 1943.  A hobby interest in transportation gradually developed into an asset in news distribution.  As he later observed, he never saw a place with good transportation that “did not have a lot of people buying papers.”

On January 23, 1946, he married Janet Otto and began family life in the housing-short post-war years in rented rooms, then in Vanport, and finally in an Irvington home. In the years following World War II, it became obvious that public and private policies were ignoring the continuing role of rail and bus transportation and that costly infrastructure that would be needed later was being scrapped.  He became a founding member of the Pacific Northwest Electric Railway Association (PNERA) and served as the advocacy group’s president. Efforts by PNERA evolved over the years into support for Portland’s early adoption of Light Rail Transit.

In 1949 he left the Oregonian and took on a part-time job as Country District Manager for Seattle Times circulation in Oregon and Southwestern Washington.  He combined this with wholesale distribution of the Times and later many other out-of-state newspapers. In the 1960s he added specialized American, British and Canadian publications. After retiring from the Seattle Times in 1989, he continued to work part-time in newspaper distribution, driving to Salem to ensure that the Willamette Week was available at the Capitol until he was well into his 90s.

Ed was widowed three times. His wife Janet was killed in Seattle as a pedestrian by a drunk driver on March 12, 1984. On November 10, 1990, he married Marie Carter Webb. She died on October 24, 2003. On July 6, 2011, he married Virginia Newton. She died April 8, 2022.

He is survived by his sons Robert of Denver, David (Maria Pertik) of Seattle, Charles (Karolyn Lee) and daughter Diane (Glendon Pullen) of Portland. His surviving grandchildren are Stephen, Eric, Vienna, Annabelle and Samuel Rynerson, Melody Palmer, Margaret Ngai and Geoffrey Pullen.  His granddaughter Emily Cosci died in 2010. He is also survived by nine great-grandchildren: Lily Cosci, Simon, Max, Catherine and Evelyn Rynerson, William and Hannah Ngai, and Claire and Zoe Palmer.

A celebration of life will be held at Westminster Presbyterian Church, where he had been an active member since 1934, on Sunday, April 2 at 2:00 pm. Arrangements are by Omega Funeral and Cremation Services.