Edward Relt Eckenrode III was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania on March 12, 1945. He move to the Dayton, Ohio area in 1963 to attend the Dayton Art Institute, which was then part of the University of Dayton. At DAI, his teachers included New York abstract expressionists Jay Milder (painting) and Anne Tabachnick (drawing), and Dayton artist Ray Must (print-making).

In the mid-60s, he left college and moved to New York City, where he stretched canvasses for Roy Lichtenstein, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko; worked as an assistant to sculptor Louise Nevelson; maintained a studio across the street from abstract expressionist Adoolph Gottlieb; and painted artist Lester Johnson’s apartment in a trade for one of his works. Some of Eckenrode’s other New York artist friends and acquaintances included the late Bob Thompson, artists Red Grooms and Mimi Gross, Bill Barrell, and Christopher Lane.

After returning to Ohio and settling in Yellow Springs, he was well-known as a Xenia Avenue shopkeeper from the early 70s until his death. In 1996, he and his second wife started their own business, "Sam & Eddies Open Books," which featured a book, card and gift shop on the first floor and an art gallery and small performance space upstairs, where together they hosted over 100 public events.

Edward Relt Eckenrode, died at home in Yellow Springs, Ohio, on May 25th, 2010.

His obituary can be read at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/dayton/obituary.aspx?n=edward-relt-eckenrode&pid=145973569