Ed Posh, ambassador for golf as longtime pro at Village Links, dies

Edward Posh was an ambassador for golf as the resident pro at Glen Ellyn’s municipal-owned Village Links for almost 30 years.

When Posh retired in 1995, a scholarship fund was created in his name that today has provided more than $1.1 million to 114 high school seniors for college or career training.

“The thing that was remarkable about Ed is that he was totally focused on people — people were more important to him than anything, and made everybody feel special,” said retired Village Links General Manager Matt Pekarek. “Technically, he was a golf pro, but really he was an ambassador.”

Posh, 94, died of natural causes on May 2 at his daughter’s home in West Chicago, said his daughter Melissa. He had lived in Glen Ellyn for 50 years.

Born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Posh developed a love of golf from his older brother, Jim, and at 13 became a caddy at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem. He later moved to New Jersey to work as the caddy master at a country club in Haddonfield.

In 1951, Posh joined the Army, building emergency runways for military aircraft in France and Germany, his family said.

After his discharge, he became a caddy master at Brookside Country Club near Bethlehem, and then began working in the winters in Miami, where he met a golf pro named Bill Davis.

Posh followed Davis to a country club in Fort Wayne, Indiana, taking a job as an assistant golf pro. He later worked at St. Charles Country Club and Glen Oak Country Club in Glen Ellyn before being hired as the first pro at the village of Glen Ellyn’s new 18-hole course, Village Links, which opened in 1967.

Under Posh’s leadership, the Village Links developed an extensive program of golf lessons for people of all ages and also hosted tournaments. For Posh, that sometimes entailed working seven days a week during golfing season. He developed the course’s programs for junior players, teaching many young people the fundamentals of golf.

Posh mentored numerous future golf professionals and course managers as well, colleagues said.

“He was a consummate golf pro, even though he was at a public course,” said retired DuPage County Judge Patrick Leston, a former Glen Ellyn resident who serves on the scholarship fund’s board. “He treated everyone as if you were at a private club — he knew everyone’s name and was gracious and was always willing to help.”

Posh retired from the Village Links in 1995, but he stayed active as a retired volunteer for the next quarter-century.

“Early on in his retirement, Ed would take a 7-iron and walk around the golf course and poke the weeds and look for golf balls here or there, and he’d get 10 or 15 balls here or there, and if they were decent, he’d see somebody he knew and leave the balls sitting on the next tee for them,” Pekarek said. “Eventually, people would start to catch on that Ed’s out there walking around. It’s a nothing thing, but it was a huge thing — everything was his way of trying to put a smile on people’s faces and connect with them.”

Posh also stayed involved with the scholarship fund that bears his name. When Posh retired, Leston said, friends and colleagues had wanted to celebrate Posh with a dinner, but he demurred. So then some friends and colleagues proposed a scholarship fund and an annual outing, and Posh agreed to it.

Friends and colleagues helped seed the fund, and each year, the fund has held various golf-oriented fundraising events, including shootouts and a 25th anniversary gala celebration.

“He was the spirit of the golf (course) over there,” said Hubert Buehler of Glen Ellyn, who was president of the fund for 10 years. “People came to play because of him — it was a real community golf course. And he was always concerned about making it affordable for people.”

Pekarek noted that the scholarship fund was a key part of Posh’s volunteer work.

“He’d work two, three, four months during the summer, 30 to 40 hours a week, all on a volunteer basis, organizing the (scholarship) tournament,” Pekarek said.

The fund typically awards scholarships to four high school seniors a year.

A marriage ended in divorce. In addition to his daughter, Posh is survived by five other daughters, Molly Molokie, Margaret, Mindy and Monica, and Meredith Horvath; three sons, Max, Matthew and Mitchell; two stepdaughters, Michelle Pond and Marea Pond; 21 grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and a sister, Mary Jane Pfeiffer.

Services were held.

Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.