William A. Edens

Tuesday, May 03 2005 @ 08:11 AM EDT

St Louis Today -- An Army lieutenant who grew up in south St. Louis County was among four soldiers killed last week by a roadside bomb in northern Iraq.

First Lt. William A. Edens, 29, of Columbia, Mo., and the others died when a roadside bomb struck their Stryker armored vehicle Thursday in Tal Afar, 90 miles east of the Syrian border, the Army said.

Edens was a 1993 graduate of Mehlville High School, where he was on the water polo and swimming teams. He graduated in May 2003 from the University of Missouri, where he had been enrolled in the Reserve Officers Training Corps, and was sent to Iraq in October, according to friends and Army spokesmen.

"He was a great guy who was proud to be in the Army and serve his country," said Chris Luppens, a Mehlville classmate who was best man in Edens' wedding in August 2003.

Luppens said Edens' wife, Christy, is from St. Louis. On Monday, Luppens spoke for their families.

Luppens said Edens worked for a few years in St. Louis after high school and then attended Moberly Area Community College, where he was student body president and active in theater. He then transferred to Missouri.

He graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Russian and a minor in military science. Stefani Engelstein, an assistant professor of German, said Edens "was a great person to have in class, a man with a fantastic sense of humor who always had the class in stitches. He was proud to be in the Army and thought it was important to serve his country."

Nicole Monnier, an assistant professor of Russian, said Edens included her on an e-mail several months ago about his service in Iraq. "He felt he was doing something important over there, what he was doing with the Iraqi people. He had a real sense of mission," she said.

Monnier also remembered his dimples. "He was a charming, nice-looking blond guy with a pair of dimples that could just about get him anything."

Edens was assigned to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis, Wash. The Stryker is an armed, eight-wheeled vehicle that has a crew of two and can carry nine soldiers.

Killed with him were Sgt. Eric W. Morris, 31, of Sparks, Nev., Spc. Ricky W. Rockholt Jr., 28, of Winston, Ore., and Pfc. Robert W. Murray Jr., 21, of Westfield, Ind., the army reported. Their identities were made public Monday.

Luppens said that funeral arrangements were pending and that burial would be in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.

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