A Beloved
Carmel Legend
The Stor y of Ed Haber and Quail Lodge
B Y M I C H A E L C H AT F I E L D
S
ome biographers take an aloof, dispassionate stance in approaching a subject. Clearly, this
was not the case with Gary Koeppel when he penned his newly published "The Legend of
Quail Lodge," because he was writing the life story of a man who was quite dear to his
heart: the founder of that beloved Carmel Valley institution, Ed Haber.
"I had expected to produce a two-dimensional portrait of a man," Koeppel says, "but it became
a three-dimensional sculpture."
Not surprising. Edgar Haber—known to all as "Ed"—was a multi-dimensional character, a man
who wore enough hats in his lifetime to stock a good-sized haberdashery. A native San Franciscan
born in 1912, he kicked around doing odd jobs until joining the Army the day after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor. After mustering out, he first indulged his entrepreneurial spirit through a
business manufacturing monoculars, made using leftover military hardware. He sold that successful
Haber adored dogs. He told a friend: "A dog will never turn on
you, even if you forget his birthday."
C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 4 123
Photo:
Courtesy
of
Quail
Lodge
