Ed O’Leary was born and raised in Massachusetts, receiving his B.S. in Forestry from UMASS Amherst and a M.A.T. in Earth Science from Bridgewater State College. Ed worked as a Conservation Officer for the Town of Duxbury Department of Lands and Natural Resources for three years before getting married and moving to Vermont in 1981. After close to thirty years, Ed recently retired from the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. He continues to teach natural resources related courses on an adjunct basis for the Community College of Vermont and Johnson State College, which he has also done for thirty years.

Ed took up hiking in college, having done much summer and winter backpacking in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. He and his wife Dale have hiked the Grand Canyon twice and Ed has rafted the Colorado River as well as rivers in Maine. He is currently a member of GMC’s Northeast Kingdom Section and serves on the GMC Camps Committee. Ed resides in the village of South Albany in the Northeast Kingdom where he serves on the Town of Albany’s Planning Commission and is the town’s representative to the regional planning commission.