Obituary of Ed Kautz

Schenectady - Jerry Edward Kautz (Ed) was born in Rangely, Colorado on March 7,1948 to Alice Clara Nystrom and Morris Edward Lang. After his father died in 1957, his mother remarried to Harry P. Kautz and the family moved to Broomfield, Colorado where Ed completed his childhood and graduated from high school in 1966. He got a B.S. degree in wildlife biology from Colorado State University and subsequent Master's and PhD degrees from Vancouver, British Columbia and Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He worked for the Colorado Division of Wildlife and then more than 20 years for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in Albany as a senior biologist. He died at home in Schenectady, New York on November 5, 2022. Ed Kautz no longer walks this beautiful earth that he loved so much and spent so much time and energy enjoying and striving to protect. His battle with cancer ended in the arms of his loving wife Nancy Peterson. Ed's lifelong passion for the environment and for peace and human justice was seen in his daily life, his career and recreational choices and in the many hours he dedicated to volunteer projects in aid of those values. He was always happy to share his vast knowledge and love of nature with children and adults. Ed was kind, witty, extraordinarily talented and skilled in so many things, always willing to lend a hand to anyone. He could ski, bicycle, climb and dance complicated Swedish dances with the best of them. And to hear him yodel was pure joy and fun. Any simple walk in the woods was sheer pleasure in his company. Ed enriched the lives of so many people and inspired so many with his ways. His was a life well lived and he was dearly loved. May he rest in peace. Ed is survived by his wife, Nancy Peterson of Schenectady, NY; a brother, Don Kautz and sister-in-law Carol Ziel of Winston-Salem, N. Carolina, a sister Eva Chapko of Rome, Italy; a step-daughter Julia Rubin and her husband Lenny Rubin of Hamilton, MA; a brother-in-law Ron Peterson of Randolph, NY; nieces Heather Strachan, Jennifer Chapko, Amy Chapko, and Lilly Kautz: nephews Jason Chapko, Daniel Chapko, Robert Kautz, and Mike Kautz and three grandnephews and one grandniece. All of the above thought the world of him. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, December 10, 2022 at 1:30 P.M., at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady, 1221 Wendell Avenue, Schenectady, NY 12308. Masks required. A Zoom link will be available for those unable to attend in person. In lieu of flowers, sympathy may be expressed by donating to ECOS: the Environmental Clearing House, Box 9118, Niskayuna, NY 12309.