Aide to two Democratic Wash. state governors dies at 55

Man, this sucks. I knew Ed really well while I was in college, working at the Daily at the University of Washington, and he was down in Olympia with the P-I. He was a great guy, really cool, a blast to be around, smart, funny, liberal. I used to joke that I was the only woman I knew who never dated him. :D

Damn, I didn't even know he'd been sick, and he died way too young. Here's to you, Ed. You were one of the good guys, and I won't forget you and I'll always remember your encouragement and all of the kind words. So, wherever you are, man... :toast: :cry:

OLYMPIA — Ed Penhale, a former Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter and aide to two Democratic governors, died in his sleep Friday morning after three years of battling a rare form of cancer.
He would have been 55 today.

"It was like he was just hanging on to get to his birthday, or just stubborn, or just a strong heart," said his close friend Ian MacGowan.

Mr. Penhale could come across as surly and hard-bitten. He was like a film noir character. He smoked and drank; he walked slowly with his shoulders slumped; grumbled and cursed; and is said to have had as much luck with the ladies as Frank Sinatra.

The Seattle Weekly once described him as a modern-day beatnik.

"He was this funny, little, hunched over cigarette-chain-smoking, sports-car-driving, lady killer," said Mark Matassa, an editor at the Post-Intelligencer and a former Seattle Times reporter who competed against Mr. Penhale on the state Capitol beat.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002888201_penhale25m.html