Ed started his life in Tokyo, Japan. Born on October 9, 1952, he was the first of four children of Edward Charles Dilgarde Jr. and Marinell Larson Dilgarde. After his father and mother finished being part of the Korean conflict, they returned to Casper Wyoming where Ed III grew up around family and friends that encouraged art to be a part of life's expression. An early voice in his art was playing the clarinet in school band which he stuck with until drawing and painting became more important. The family moved to the foothills west of Denver in 1969. Ed was introduced to ceramics at Evergreen High school and that stayed with him until the last. Ed was in Casper college when he married a longtime friend Nikki Perkins, a relationship that could not last forever.

Ed's work life had a few deviations. He worked at McGraw Hill, he worked for a taxidermist, a gold mining magazine. He sold fine office furniture and he sold door to door. He sold over the phone before telemarketing was a thing. During those lines of his achievements, he encountered people that he worked with that remained close friends forever.

Ed kept journals with ideas and drawings his whole life and was constantly sculpting the human figure. He was a mainstay at Tom Ware's studio in Evergreen Co. where he worked in both two and three dimensions, at what is known as the 'Warehouse'.

He finally met Noelle Djongoue, and on August 13, 2004, they were married, after Noelle's 5 year old daughter, Audrey, came to live with them from Cameroon. They now have a daughter Imani, 3.  They traveled to Cameroon in 2018. It was his deep desire to return there, to live someday. Maybe because of his origins in Japan he enjoyed travel. He went to school in Regensburg, Germany. He traveled to India twice. Ed helped build and float a raft down the Mississippi river from St. Louis to New Orleans with rotating crews and visitors. Ed would have gone most anywhere at the drop of a hat.

Ed's health in his 60's slowed him down a little but not his imagination. He continued to push his figurative work to the unique levels he developed. He pursued his art and his friends and family until his passing on September 4, 2020.

Private celebration will be held.