Edwin Dumaguindin

January 9, 1924 - September 28, 2007

Born in the Philippines, Eddie volunteered for the Philippine Army at age 17 to fight the Japanese invasion. After four months of fighting, he was ordered to surrender and walked 65 miles in the Bataan Death March. A POW for five months, he was released due to severe malaria. In 1945, he joined the Recognized Guerilla Unit attached to the U.S. Army, serving as a reconnaissance scout and interpreter, and was praised for his gallantry and leadership. He joined the 108th Military Police Command and was honorably discharged as a sergeant in 1946. Eddie received a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Mapua Institute, Manila. In 1955, he attended the RCA Institute in New York, studying radio transmission and architectural acoustics. In 1958, he went to Cambodia on a U.S. operations mission where he designed loudspeakers for the government’s Ministry of Information in Phnom Penh. He moved to Los Angeles in 1963, and proudly became a U.S. citizen in 1968. He worked for many defense contractors including JPL, McDonnell Douglas, and Singer Librascope, where he designed testers for submarine equipment. Eddie moved to Albany in 2002 to be near his daughter, Iris. He lived at Alterra Villas and Wynwood. He was a fun-loving person who enjoyed martial arts, chess, computers, drawing, painting and bingo. Eddie loved all forms of dance, including ballroom, lambada, and country line dancing, and won several contests at LA nightclubs. He always had a song and a smile for everyone he met. He will be greatly missed for his positive attitude and his love of life. He is survived by sister Julia; children from his first marriage, Eddie, Layla, Sylvia, Ward and Gary; second wife Iris; their daughter, Iris, her husband, Bill, their sons Jonathan and Nicholas McCanless, of Corvallis; 13 other grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; and 15 nieces and nephews.