_{*Quick Summary: The author adds a personal eulogy as a memorial to friend and former sponsor representative Edd Stonich.*}

Something made me wonder how my old friend Edd Stonich was doing, so I just did a web search. I haven’t talked to him in years, but for some reason I have missed him a lot lately. I am quite sad to discover he passed away recently.

Edd was the Marketing Manager for various DuPont products through the years. He was the absolute toughest guy in the world to work for. He was also the easiest. Once you got to understand how he wanted things done, life was a breeze. Until then – Whew!

Some quick Edd stories –

Edd once had the city of Wilmington, DE remove a curb, fix about a dozen potholes or low spots, and pave a nice stretch of road in a single night in 2001 because I thought it needed to be done. Seriously! It was all done the night before DuPont’s 200th Anniversary Celebration parade. We did a walk-through of the parade route, and I made suggestions on what I thought would make things run more smoothly. Never in my life have I felt more powerful than having an entire city work through the night to ensure the work I specified had been done. Early the next morning, we rode the course, and every single thing I mentioned to Edd had been completed. It was all ready for Jeff Gordon to drive a race car through the streets of Wilmington. Unreal. That was the quiet, graceful power of Edd Stonich.

Edd was super technical and precise with everything. Even his personal projects. He once had us figure the total amount of liquid it would take to cover his bicycle in Chromalusion color-changing paint, minus overspray, and after doing the calculations, Edd determined it would be too heavy to paint his bike. He didn’t think the extra ounces would be prudent given his strict weight tolerances. He just didn’t want to add the extra weight of the paint to the bike. Something most of us would never think of.

If you ever enjoyed the way a DuPont sponsored race car looked, you can thank Edd. That was his baby all the way. He was involved heavily in every step of the process. Nothing was left to chance. Nothing was ever overlooked. Perfection was his standard.

Edd was always very concerned with the quality of the showcars we sent to the photo shoots at the beginning of each year. He wanted the nicest car we had, detailed to perfection, and everything had to be perfect. In fact, I always rode along as these cars were delivered, so if there was an issue, it could be addressed immediately.

Due to various rear quarter panel shapes through the years, the decals in that area of the car would look a bit different from one year to the next. I would always send him photos of the car in the shop prior to loading it up to go to the photo studio, so he knew what to expect. One year, we had an exceptionally difficult rear quarter panel shape on our best looking car, and Edd felt the decal on one side wasn’t straight. He was right. It wasn’t exactly level to the eye. It wasn’t off badly, but it was off. Edd suggested we get a laser level like they use in construction, so we did. I then used that level to take a series of photos that frustrated Edd to no end.

Imagine if you will, that from the side of a race car, the rear quarter panel of the car is a compound curve. It is curved out and up for tire clearance, as well as being curved the other way for aerodynamics. Putting a large decal straight on such a surface requires more of a feeling and intuition than it does mathematics. It’s like decaling a basketball. Regardless, Edd was right, the decal was crooked, so the guys set up the laser level and I photographed the decal he had already seen. It proved him correct. Then we took two additional groups of photos. One with the decal level all the way across, and one where the decal looked level to the eye, but only the two ends touched the laser beam. Much to Edd’s confusion, laser-level-straight didn’t equate to looking straight. The photos I took of the decal level all the way across, made the decal look bowed down in the middle, while bowing the decal up to compensate for the aforementioned curves in the panel, made it appear straight. He was totally astounded by this, and even asked me if I was playing some sort of trick on him, to the point I eventually took a video to show him what it looked like. In the end, Edd gained a lot more knowledge of how difficult it was to get a decal straight to the eye/camera, and we gained more working knowledge on how to better work with Edd. We also earned a lot more of his trust in the process. Here are a few of those photos below:

I could go on with stories for hours, but I’ll leave it with this – Edd Stonich changed motorsports marketing forever, and I’m proud to say, that at least for a while, I was one of his favorite whipping boys until I became one of his favorite go-to guys. I will truly never forget the impact he had on my life. I am forever grateful. Thank you Edd.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/delawareonline/obituary.aspx?n=edward-g-stonich&pid=194654466