Edward Samuel Harris, 88, of Chicago, died Friday, March 30, 2018. 
 
The son of Rochelle (neé Shapiro) and Leo Harris, Edward began working at Leo's Dancewear, the legacy company founded by his father, after school at age 10. He attended the University of Chicago at age 16. Edward was the first in his family to go to college, where his love of learning lead him to law school and an MBA at DePaul University in Chicago. He served eight years in the U.S. National Guard. He retired from Leo's, as the Chief Financial Officer, at age 78. 

As a lawyer, Edward was committed to fairness in labor relations, contract agreements, and immigrant rights. He lead Leo's Dancewear in weathering the storms of both the Reagan and Bush-era recessions, all the while fighting the rising tide of outsourcing and job cuts. 

Edward raised two daughters as a single father, with unflinching dedication, love, responsibility, and integrity. He carried his three grandchildren into the 21st century with humor, poetry, and support, as he lived for 10 years with Alzheimer's disease at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Sara Harris and Jesse Lerner, in Los Angeles. Edward then brought the joy of his daily presence to the Urbana, IL, home of his younger daughter, Amanda Harris, where he lived out the last wondrous year of his journey through the complications of the disease, singing, punning, and making people laugh every day. 

Edward was a poet, a scholar, a composer, a fair and prosperous businessman, and first and foremost, a giant spirit wrapped in a small package of generosity and grace.