By Maddy Vitale
Ed Speitel loved Ocean City. He loved working at a pizzeria on the Boardwalk as a teen. He loved spending time on the beach with his teen sweetheart, who later became his beautiful bride, Diane, raising their two children, enjoying their four grandchildren. And he loved giving back to the community he called home because helping others to live a better life was his passion.
Speitel, an Ocean City Housing Authority commissioner, died on Sept. 11 at just 61. His legacy will live on with a new affordable housing project to be named in his honor. He will also be remembered for all the ways he has touched the lives of those around him from praise, to advice, to guidance, to a laugh.
“Ed was the most amazing husband, father, grandfather. He was just all in. It is hard because he is missed,” Diane Speitel, 59, said after a ceremony in her husband’s honor at City Hall on Wednesday. “He was a phenomenal guy. I was so very lucky. Ed made us all better people for knowing and loving him.”
Diane Speitel was joined at the ceremony by her mother-in-law, Rose, cousins and friends and officials including Mayor Jay Gillian, his wife, Michele Gillian, who is the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, Housing Authority Chairman Bob Barr, who is also a councilman, Scott Halliday, vice chairman of the authority, and Jacqueline Jones, executive director of the authority.
The mayor presented the Speitels with a proclamation for Ed Speitel’s work on the housing authority. The proclamation lauded Speitel for his tireless work for the agency.
Mayor Gillian’s voice cracked with emotion when he spoke of Speitel’s selfless dedication to the authority and to the entire community.
“Every now and then we are touched by a person. When someone asks who was Ed Speitel, he will be remembered for all of the good that he did,” Gillian said. “It was all about taking care of the people in his community.”
Speitel, a civil engineer with the firm Speitel & Speitel, which he and his wife founded in 1988, was chairman of the housing authority’s finance and redevelopment committees.
In recognition of his devotion to the housing authority, a new $4.2 million senior citizen complex opening in Ocean City in 2020 is being named in his memory.
And he was so much more.
“What he meant to the housing authority was everything. He was one of the kindest souls,” Barr said. “He wanted nothing more than giving people the best possible place to live in.”
Speitel helped keep the authority moving in the right direction and was always there to assist with expert advice, Barr said. He, Barr and the vice chairman, Halliday, put in a lot of hours to keep things running as smoothly as possible during challenges at the agency, Barr noted.
When Barr had a problem, he knew he could seek sound advice from his friend and colleague – Speitel.
“We spoke every day,” Barr said. “Ed was a brilliant guy. He was a bright guy. He had a passion for people. He had a passion for Ocean City.”
