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Edward J. Ashley, 1922-2010
posted June 29, 2010
 

Edward J. Ashley, who fell into the role of editorial cartoonist at the Toledo Blade in the early 1970s and kept the job for almost 15 years, died on June 26 in his north-central Ohio home. No cause of death was reported. Ashley was a student cartoonist and drew cartoons for the base publications in Clovis, New Mexico where he served in the Air Force in World War II, but instead of immediately falling into a career in cartooning first spent several years in illustration and related jobs. He initially worked for the Blade after the war in their advertising department, before heading to New York and Brooklyn's Pratt Institute for formal training. Ashley fell into the editorial cartoonist role when his presence at the paper happened to coincide with that position being filled by a variety of staff contributions. As a cartoonist in the 1970s, he got to draw most of the issues of that tumultuous period, from turmoil in the Middle East to trauma at the gas pump, at a time when the daily newspaper was still a massively profitable and very potent mirror of the world in most Midwestern homes.

He was preceded in death by his wife, and is survived by a sister.