What a great loss.
My father dragged all of us kids to OKC in 1969 for his first corporate flying job. The flight department had a new (at that time) Merlin 2B and an Excalibur converted Queen Air. My father had a great respect for Ed.
I wonder what they did with all of the queen air and twin bonanza airframes that gave up their center sections and wings for the Merlin 2 airframes. I can still remember the smell of that new 2B. I had the opertunity to work on that same airplane in the early 90s in Balto.