Evaldas Jonas Gydas (Ed)

Evaldas (Ed) Jonas Gydas, 78, of Missoula died on 8/20/13 at St. Patrick Hospital of complications from pneumonia. Ed is now in heaven where he will be met later by his family.
Ed was born on August 2nd, 1935 in Lithuania to Adolf and Marta Gydas. He lived with his family in Lithuania until the Russian's invaded. At that time Ed's family escaped Lithuania, and the Russians, by bribing their way onto the last time train out. The only place to go was Germany, where Ed and his family spent World War Two in rural Germany in a farming area. Ed told stories about herding cattle and food being plentiful in the area he was in. Ed also told stories about living in post war Germany, where there was a lot of ammunition and assorted military ordinance lying around. Ed and his friends put exploding bullets in potatoes and threw them against walls to get them to explode. They also threw grenades they found.
Seven years after the war ended Ed and his family were able to immigrate to the United States in 1952, he was 16 years old at that time. Ed's family went to Chicago where his father opened a grocery store, which included a meat counter. Ed's father wanted him to be a meat cutter, which he did not want to do after he cut off the end of his thumb. As soon as Ed could, he joined the U.S. Army on April 1st, 1956. Ed met his future wife, Colleen, while they were both in the army. They married on October 24, 1959, while still in the army. Ed was deployed to Korea very shortly after their marriage, where he was stationed for a year. Ed was proud of his service in the army and proud to be an American citizen. While he was fairly young, he lived under the rule of two different totalitarian regimes, he remembers some of the evils committed by those regimes.
After Ed returned from Korea, Colleen had their first child, Evaldas Robert. They were still in the army stationed in New Jersey at that time. In 1962 both having been honorably discharged from the army, Ed and Colleen moved to Missoula, Montana, fairly near where Colleen's family lived in Ronan. Ed had been trained as a medical lab technician in the army and he began his career as a civilian medical lab technician which became his life long career. In Missoula Ed and Colleen had two more children, Bonnie then Cathy. Ed continued his education as a medical lab technician taking every class he could. Ed, after studying on his own, became state board certified, which is the equivalent of a four year college degree. Ed worked very hard and even after "retirement" Ed continued to be a phlebotomist traveling to retirement homes to draw blood up until the day he became sick and entered the hospital.
Ed took after his father, in that he was good at household maintenance and construction projects. Ed never stopped his projects until just before his death at 78 years of age.
After living in Montana for quite a few years Ed started hunting and fishing. While Ed was not a diehard hunter, he was a very avid fisherman. Ed brought his family camping and boating for many years.
Ed had one brother, Johnny and two sisters, Trudi and Anna. Ed had six grandchildren, Dan, Matt, Paul, Brittney, Chris and Elizabeth. Ed loved his grandchildren very much and lit up each time he was asked about them. Ed enjoyed teaching his various grandchildren about his assorted hobbies and interests. Ed was preceded in death by his brother and parents. Ed is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.
There will be a private funeral service on Wednesday 8/23 at Sunset Memorial Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers donations can be made in Ed's name to the American Heart Association. The American Heart Association has offices in Missoula at 700 South Ave. W., and at 201 N. Pattee.
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Read Evaldas (Ed) Gydas's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.