This story was originally written by Dick Reed and first appeared in the Aug. 13, 1975 issue of the Brown County Democrat.
Eddie Edwards, as everyone knew him, lives on Town Hill, is a 67-year-old, Hoosier-born self-styled Grover Cleveland Democrat who is retired from an illustrious career as full time professor of finance at Indiana University.
Among his peers he’s considered a “very rare bird,” according to Eddie because he attained that status without having a doctor’s degree.
His “Who’s Who in America” listings over the years can only touch upon his varied and interesting career of public service at state and national levels, before and after he settled in Brown County in 1959.
Eddie was born July 15, 1908, at Bloomfield, Indiana to grocery and general store owner Lewin Baker Edwards and Alta Ether Terrell Edwards. Lewis died in 1924. Alta is 95 and lives at Westminster Village, Greenwood, Indiana.
During his early years Eddie worked for his dad in the store, for Public Service Company of Indiana, and for the Concrete Silo Company in Bloomfield, Indiana.
He also played in a theater orchestra and in a dance band.
He was clarinet soloist with the IU Marching Hundred and during his senior year at the university (Class of 28) worked in IU’s bureau of business research.
Although Eddie was offered fellowships in graduate work at several universities, he dropped his schooling for the next four years and took a job in Chicago. He needed the money.
When he returned to IU in 1932 his graduate studies were complicated by special services, he was asked to perform for Herman B. Wells, then completing a project as head of a governor’s study commission for financial institutions.
Shortly, both men were required to be full time in the Hoosier Capital and neither returned to Bloomington for several years.
In 1935 Eddie was appointed State director of the new National Youth Administration. He was about the youngest NYA director in the USA. Lyndon Banes Johnson, who was his counterpart in Texas, was two months younger than Eddie.
By the time Eddie had been married for about two years to Louise Robinson, a Grayville, Ill., girl who worked as a secretary at Western Electric in Chicago when Eddie was a statistician there. They met in church, not at the plant.
The couple has two children. Robert is trust officer at Indiana National Bank and Margaret Louise (Margie) is systems engineering manager for IBM, also at Indianapolis.
Wells bought his protégé back to IU at Bloomington in 1936 as a member of the faculty and Eddie’s first major assignment was to set up the job placement bureau in IU’s school of business.
Beloved “Hermy” Wells became president of the university in 1937. The following year he drafted Eddie as presidential assistant. Eddie retained faculty status and still taught some classes.
He volunteered for the military service during World War II and served 44 months in the army.
His service years included two tours at Washington D.C. as a budget officer for the army service forces and attending officer finance school at Fort Benjamin Harrison. Eddie was discharged a Lieutenant-colonel at Camp Atterbury in February of 1948 after an overseas period in the Philippines.
To be continued.
Submitted by Pauline Hoover. Brown County Historical Society
