EDE · ERWIN’S DIVERSIFIED ENTERPRISES
WHY “DIVERSIFIED”?
I started using Erwin's Diversified Enterprises — EDE — in 1974. Communications, construction, fabrication, robotics, entertainment and design all ended up under the same name.
I've always had a habit of looking at something and thinking I could build it—or build it differently. Sometimes I needed something that wasn't available. Sometimes I simply wanted to see if an idea would work. Either way, the answer was usually the same: I built it.
I started using Erwin's Diversified Enterprises — EDE — in 1974. Communications, construction, fabrication, robotics, entertainment and design all ended up under the same name.
Some ABS robot bodies started life as sump-pump liners accidentally shipped to a Memphis hardware store. I bought about twenty. They weren't sump-pump liners anymore. They were robot bodies.
A side project from the 1970s. I designed and built the Bodi Lounger and later sold quite a few while working in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, during the 1980s.
I chopped 26 inches out of a 1992 Chevy Lumina APV and put it back together. Then I custom-built an enclosed trailer with a profile designed to match the van.
Personal Mobility Vehicle. Built from scratch with a custom steel chassis, reverse zero-turn drive, all-electric power, solar-panel charging, two-person seating and rear cargo space.
I didn't just mount equipment on trailers. I built trailers around what they needed to do.
Furniture and fixtures got the same treatment: figure out what the job required, then build around it.
Some projects were complete spaces or architectural ideas rather than individual objects.
Construction, lighting and landscaping sometimes became one project.
Four feet in diameter, with an octagonal roof, diamond-shaped windows—and, of course, air conditioning.
All-steel construction. Approximately 4 feet wide × 9 feet high × 14 feet long.
The same EDE approach carried into RV service work: if a specialized diagnostic tool would make the job better, I built the tool.
Music created problems. EDE built solutions.
After all those years of building things, fixing things, playing music, traveling, teaching, designing and collecting stories...
Turns out, I already did.
RICKERWIN · DIVERSIFIED · 2026
rickerwin@rickerwin.com