Dr. Edward James Wilkens, Jr., Ed to his friends, age 82, passed away peacefully in Salem, MA, on Saturday, December 16, 2023, with his children by his side.

An only child, Ed was born in Brooklyn, NY, to parents Frances (née Priante) Wilkens and Edward Wilkens, Sr., on September 5, 1941. They moved to Staten Island, where he met his future wife, Winifred Ann Leahy, who was one day his junior, at age 12. They lived on the same street and grew up together, eventually dating. He attended Regis High School in Manhattan, a Jesuit school, on a full scholarship, graduating in 1959.

Edward attended the Jesuit college Manhattan College and received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1963. He maintained close ties to both Regis and Manhattan College throughout his life and appreciated and supported the Jesuits as great educators.

Ed and Winnie married on August 31, 1963, at Our Lady Star of the Sea in Staten Island and moved to New Jersey to raise a family. Ed had gotten a job with Bell Labs, working on digital telephone switching systems, and helping to create several patents. While at Bell Labs, he earned his Masters of Electrical Engineering from NYU, followed by one of the first-ever Ph.D.s in Computer Science from UPenn in 1970.

Despite the combined pressures of education, career, and a growing family, Ed and Winnie always found time to give to those in need, whether it was through charitable church groups, demonstrating with farm workers, or protesting the war.

Ed's work at Bell Labs led him to the newly developing computer industry. He became a professor of Computer Science at Rutgers University in 1974, where he developed a great love for teaching. He pivoted in 1978 to the rapidly developing private sector in New Jersey, with the company Interdata (later Perkin-Elmer and Concurrent Computer Corporation). A director of hardware and software development, he led the development of some of the fastest Fortran compilers available on their "mini" computers. During this period, he also served on the Department of Commerce Technical Advisory Committee on computer technology.

In 1988, Ed and Winnie moved to the Boston area to be part of what was then the Eastern Silicon Valley at such companies as Prime Computer, Computervision, Sequoia, and the cutting-edge Thinking Machines, which made the world's fastest supercomputer in the late '90s.

Finally, in 1997, Ed and Win moved to their beloved Salem, MA, where he had obtained the position of professor, and then chair, of the Computer Science department at Salem State. He was elated to return to teaching and was a tireless advocate for all his students. Under Ed's leadership, Salem State's Computer Science major received its accreditation.

Ed and Win fell in love with Salem. They thrived on their historic cobbled street, Bott's Court, in a darling 1781 house that had housed the Parker Brothers game makers, where historic guided walking tours would regularly stop and talk to them as they relaxed on their porch. They made many close friends in Salem, stayed socially active, and took classes together. They were genuinely happy to live out the remainder of their lives there.

Win passed away five years before Ed, cancer overtaking her suddenly, and Ed was never again the happy-go-lucky soul he had always been. They had 55 married years together and had been each other's companions for most of their lives. However, he still managed to make new friends and enjoyed company and talking, even after a stroke made talking more difficult.

Ed is survived by his son James Wilkens and wife Lisa who are residents of Marblehead, MA, son Eric Wilkens of Fort Collins, CO, daughter Jill Wilkens Atkins and husband Stephen of Westford, MA, and daughter Lynn Schwarz and husband Jeffrey, of San Francisco, CA. His grandkids, Gemma, Paul, and Leo Wilkens, and Sierra and Owen Atkins, will never forget their doting grandfather. His sisters-in-law, Patricia Accardo, Mary Thomson, and Ginger Sheeran, have lost a dear brother.

Ed was a respected man, generous, temperate, and unassuming, active in social justice causes and in his church. He was both a learner and a teacher throughout his life. He dug into every discussion, on any topic, with zeal and an open mind.

The visitation will be held at Murphy's Funeral Home in Salem on January 13, 2024, from 9 to 10:30 AM, followed by a funeral mass at 11 AM at St. Pius V in Lynn. Following the funeral, his children will host a memorial reception at Hamilton Hall in Salem at 12:30 PM.