In early November 2024, I received an email from an NYU journalism student named Olivia Green. While walking in Forest Park in central Queens, she had come across a wind phone dedicated to Eddie Schneller, a former student of mine who passed away in 2020. In her research she had come across this post I had written on his passing. She wanted to interview me to learn more about Eddie and to find out if I had any information as to who might have set up this wind phone. I consented to the interview. The audio file of that interview is included below. I invite you to give it a listen.

Eddie’s wind phone is one of only three in NYC. One is located on Staten Island. The other one is located in The Ramble in Central Park. This web site will give you more information about wind phones, and includes a map of all the known windphones worldwide. Olivia never did discover who set up Eddie’s windphone, so if, after reading this post or listening to this audio story, you might provide us with any further information concerning the windphone, please let me know. My email is on my bio page. If you happen to decide to visit it, I would appreciate a picture of it to accompany this post. If you should need to make use of it, I’m sure Eddie would be honored. Thanks so much.

UPDATE 2/21/25. Added photos of Eddie’s windphone discovered at mywindphone.com.

A map highlights the location of the Wind Phone in Forest Park, Queens, NY, with a dedication to Eddie Schneller and a link to more information.A vintage rotary phone is placed inside a blue box mounted on a tree, labeled Wind Phone, Queens, New York.A vintage rotary phone is mounted inside a blue box on a tree trunk in Queens, New York, labeled Wind Phone.

Transcript