By Debbie Pfeiffer Trunnell
Staff writer.
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Ontario, CA.

While serving in the Air Force in Korea in 1975, Edwin Chamberlayne learned that the nuns at a nearby orphanage needed help caring for the abandoned babies that were housed there.

Upon his first visit, he was so distressed to see the children sleeping on thin rice mats clad only in diapers that he spent the rest of the year he was in Korea taking them food, clothing and bedding.

It was one of many occasions that Chamberlayne, who went on to become a deacon at St. Cathe­rine of Siena Church in Rialto, reached out to the less fortunate.

He was a quiet, unassuming, humble and dignified servant who helped many people, said Eric Vilchis, a longtime friend and fellow deacon at the church.

The man who hundreds in the Rialto community knew as Deacon Ed died Oct. 25 at St. Bernardino Medical Center. He was 76.

He was born Sept. 1, 1931, in Charlottesville, Va., to Georgia and DuBois Chamberlayne.

His mother died when he was a small boy and he and his other siblings were sent to live with other families while their dis­traught father went to work in another state.

From that point on it was not an easy childhood. The family he lived with had a farm and after school he worked long hours on the property.

Initially it was thought he would be a companion to the family's grandson, but he ended up having to work very hard in the fields on the farm, said his wife Pearline Chamberlayne of Rialto.

After graduating from S.C. Abrams High School in Virginia in 1948, he enlisted in the Air Force.

There wasn't anyone who could pay for him to go to college, so he went into the Air Force just like people do now to improve his quality of life and get an education," said his wife.

While stationed at an Air Force base in Chicago, he met his future wife Pearline Chamberlayne at a United Service Organi­zations center in the city.

I was volunteering there at the time and I noticed him when he walked in with a group of young men, she said. My girl­friend said I should go and talk to him so I did.

After their initial meeting, the couple started dating.

They were married in 1953 and spent the next few decades living on Air Force bases in the United States and overseas with their two children.

The only time they were apart after the wedding was when he was stationed on the Marshall Islands, during testing of the hydrogen bomb, and when he was in Korea.

It was while attending a Mass in Korea that the young airman, who was baptized in the Catholic Church soon after he and Pearline were married, learned from the priest about the local orphanage.

His wife believes he went on to spend so much time with the children because their plight touched something deep inside of him.

Chamberlayne was twice stationed at Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino and when he retired from the Air Force in 1976 after 26 years of service, the family settled in Rialto.

He went to work doing technical support at Teledyne Battery Products in Redlands and stayed there for the next 22 years.

During his time with the company he did trade shows at the huge annual air show held in Oshkosh, Wis.

He tried to retire after working several decades at Teledyne, but he knew the business so well that they kept asking him to come in. He finally retired for good in December 2004.

Chamberlayne and his wife were active in St. Catherine of Siena Church from the time they moved to Rialto and in 1988 he was ordained as a deacon in the Catholic Church.

He performed many duties in the role of deacon including baptizing thousands of babies and presiding at hundreds of funeral vigils. He always had a kind word for youth in the church and visited many elderly parishioners.

But he was best known for helping the sick or those who had lost a loved one to illness.

I often heard from people who were hospitalized that they would look up and there would be Deacon Ed, said Vilchis.

After his official retirement from Teledyne he became even more active in the church, promoting safe activities for youth, aiding the sick and elderly and encouraging parishioners to strengthen their faith and spiritu­ality.

He was this gentle, soft-spoken and endearing man who came from great hardship but went on to impact many families in Rialto, said his wife.

He is also survived by his son Edwin Powell Chamberlayne Jr. of Las Vegas, Nev., daughter Pastor Halene Marie Giddens and her husband Dr. Jesse Giddens of Apple Valley; brothers Francis Dubois Chamberlayne and wife Dorothy of Richmond, Va., and Nicholas Bruce Cham­berlayne of Atlantic City, N.J.; sisters Nadine Theresita Dorsey of Lahham, Md., and Judith Walton of Atlantic City, N.J.; and three grandchildren.

His funeral Mass was celebrated 2 Nov. 2007 at St. Catherine's.

In lieu of flowers send donations in Deacon Ed's name to LAIWO Catholic Charities At Risk 'q Youth program or St. Catherine of Siena REACH, the parish food pantry program.
   

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