When Dr. Mitchell Ede (A&S ’43, M ’45) passed away in October 2023 at the age of 101, he concluded a life that was remarkable not only for its longevity but for being exceptionally well lived. A dermatologist for more than 70 years, Ede’s Tulane education set him on a course that touched countless lives. 

Ede grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, milking the family goats and drinking Coca-Cola at the general store his parents ran. Both parents had emigrated from Lebanon, and the family’s passion for the transformative power of education was well-evident with several of the children ultimately taking advanced degrees. 

He was sent up to Walter Reed. Upon his arrival, he was informed that his specialization was in fact going to be in the then-emerging area of dermatology.

Entirely unruffled, Ede used his training as an internist to his advantage, often reflecting that to know what is going on with the skin, you need to know what is going on in the body. He would spend more than seven decades as a dermatologist.

His service at Walter Reed offered another advantage for Ede. It was there he met a lovely young nurse named Ruth Koch, with whom he would enjoy a 45-year marriage and welcome four children. 

“When he moved to Cincinnati, he went into a practice with a dermatologist that had had polio,” said Boyle. “Their office hours started about noon and went until about eight. My mother would have a hot meal for him at eight o’clock, even after she had made dinner for us. They certainly had an Ozzie and Harriet family.”

Ede led a thriving practice in the Cincinnati and Hillsboro, Ohio, communities and served as a professor in the dermatology department of the University of Cincinnati. 

With his soft voice and soothing manner, patients felt comfortable to fully explain their troubles.

Boyle laughed, “He was a very loving, caring dad. Family came first — as long as there weren’t patients who needed him.”

Though he lived in a quiet and leafy neighborhood of Cincinnati for most of his life, he never forgot his time at Tulane — or his experiences as a young man during Mardi Gras. 

His office had a king cake following Epiphany each year. And even as he recovered from a broken hip in his late 90s, he nevertheless donned Mardi Gras beads when Fat Tuesday came around. 

Tulane itself was also a cause for celebration for Ede. When neighbor Peter Hines (B ’23) received his acceptance, Ede was over the moon, delighted to see a talented young person about to embark upon the same journey he took … if, admittedly, just a few years later. 

And though Ede officially gave up seeing patients when the pandemic struck, he never, ever stopped being the ‘Dr. Ede’ he first became at Tulane. “He liked to be known as Dr. Mitchell Ede,” said Boyle who recalled her father offering a diagnosis on one of his last days. 

“He prescribed something and said to come back in a week.”