THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 1994 TAG: 9411180157
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
Edward R. Huselton Jr.'s ashes were cast upon the water near the Cypress Point Golf and Country Club's 17th hole last Tuesday.
The club had become the 39-year-old's life the past four years, although golf was never his game. His first love was the kitchen, and he could be found there seemingly at any hour.
He had worked his way up to become executive chef at Cypress Point, a dream come true for Huselton, who's life was cut short unexpectedly Nov. 5 due to complications from a genetic disease.
More important than his culinary skills, though, were the friends he had earned among the club's members and staff.
``He was a rare individual,'' said Lou Hildreth, restaurant manager of the club. ``He'd come in on his day off to take inventory or do his ordering. On his regular work days, he'd be there 12 or 14 hours. I've never seen anything like it in my 20 years in the restaurant business.''
His mother, with whom Huselton lived, said her son had always enjoyed cooking. ``That was his ambition,'' Barbara Huselton said. ``He got it from his father, who loved to cook.''
On Halloween, Eddie Huselton carved two large jack-o'-lanterns, and joked and kidded with the ghoulies and ghosties who came to his door for candy. But he didn't feel quite right; he thought he was coming down with a cold.
He reported to work as usual the next day, not knowing it would be his last one there.
Wednesday morning he awoke and asked his mother, who is widowed, to get him to the hospital. He had vomited blood during the night.
The medical staff, however, couldn't halt the internal bleeding. They discovered that Huselton had neurofibromytosis, the same genetic disease that afflicted the Elephant Man. Sometimes, his mother recounts, it manifests itself on the outside of the body; sometimes on the inside. Her son's spleen was the size of a grapefruit and his liver as large as a football.
Despite his condition, on Wednesday night he wanted to call Hildreth, his manager, to discuss an upcoming wedding reception he was in the midst of preparing.
By Thursday, Nov. 3, Eddie was on a respirator. By midnight Friday, his family knew they were losing him. But they left him on the respirator until 4 a.m., hoping against hope. At 6 a.m., he quietly passed away. His mother was still holding him.
It was Saturday, the day of the wedding that Huselton had been so concerned about. It came off without a hitch.
``He didn't have a girlfriend or a social life,'' said Hildreth. ``He lived for his job and the club and, when he wasn't working, he took care of his mother.''
Huselton came with his parents to Hampton Roads in 1981 from Pittsburgh, where he worked in an Italian restaurant after serving four years in the Navy as a radioman.
Once here, he started working at the Norfolk Omni Hotel as a waiter. Over the next several years, he worked a number of different food service jobs, including owning a hot dog shop in Virginia Beach. In 1987, he went to work at the Broad Bay Country Club and a year later graduated from Johnson and Wales College, an Ivy League school for chefs. He joined the Cypress Point Country Club in 1990 after a management change at Broad Bay but had to work his way up from line cook into his new job.
After his father passed away, he took it on himself to look after his mother, who is diabetic. She recalls him working up to three weeks at a stretch without taking a day off.
His hard work didn't go unnoticed. He was promoted to sous chef and, this past July, to executive chef.
Donna Boudreau is a bartender at Cypress Point and its most senior employee. She's been there since 1988.
``I met Eddie six years ago at Broad Bay,'' she said. ``I used to play bingo with his mom. He was one of the greatest guys, like a brother. He never talked bad about anybody.''
In early October, the club's owners held their annual members party, and Huselton pulled out all the stops. The party was a hit, Huselton's cuisine superb.
``I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and got to sample all of the wonderful items provided by Executive Chef Eddie Huselton and his staff,'' Hildreth wrote in the club's newsletter.
Hildreth remembers that after Huselton saw the newsletter, he came up to him and thanked him, saying ``You know, that was the only time anybody ever printed my name to say `thank you.' '' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Edward R. Huselton Jr., 39, was executive chef at Cypress Point Golf
and Country Club for four years.
by CNB