Cecil Edie became exactly what he wanted: a psychologist.
And he planned to continue counseling people without charge after retirement, which was to be in August.
But Edie died June 9 of a heart attack. He was 65.
Edie worked at Denver Health from 1972 until his death.
“He was a superb clinical psychologist, caring, straightforward, honest and someone who listened well. He was gifted at counseling,” said Jerry Carpenter, who recently retired as a clinical psychologist at Denver Health.
Edie intended to further his psychology work. He trained to be a Stephen Minister, an interdenominational ministry in which church members do pro-bono counseling. Many are lay people, but Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Lakewood, where Edie was a member, would have gotten a professional.
Edie knew from high school, when he read his first book on psychology, what career he wanted.
But on the way to college, he did something he hadn’t figured on. He joined the Air Force.
Military aptitude tests showed he had a faculty for languages, so the Air Force sent him to Syracuse University in New York in 1959 for several months of Polish language lessons.
Then he was sent to Ramstein Air Base in Germany. It was during the Cold War, and his job was to listen to radio transmissions by Soviet pilots (those speaking Polish) and translate what they were saying to each other.
His three years of work were strictly confidential, and even years later, he never talked about the information he translated, said his wife, Diane.
Edie never used his Polish skills again, but knowing the language saved him from taking a language later when he was working on his Ph.D., said Diane Edie.
Psychology doctoral candidates were required to have at least one foreign language, she said.
Cecil Allen Edie was born in Delta on Jan. 20, 1940, graduated from Delta High School and Western State College in Gunnison.
He met Diane Anderson of Delta at a bar, and they married Sept. 26, 1963.
After Cecil Edie graduated from Western State, they moved to Fort Collins, where he earned a master’s and doctorate in psychology at Colorado State University. He spent his career at Denver Health.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Michael and Erik Edie, both of Lakewood; four grandchildren; a sister, Pat Dotson, Clifton; and a brother, Jim Edie, Santa Ana, Calif.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-820-1223.
