Edwards
Professor Edwards E. Edwards story originally written by Dick Reed first appeared in the Wednesday, Aug. 5, 1975, issue of the Brown County Democrat.
Part two of Professor Edward E. Edwards’ story picks up in February 1946, when Eddie was discharged from the military as a Lieutenant-colonel after an overseas period in the Philippines.
It was back to Indianapolis as a full time professor of finance until he retired at age 65 in the summer of ‘73. Eddie and Louise lived in Bloomington until October 1959, when they bought their present home on Town Hill from William and Naomi Smith. Eddie is a member of the Nashville United Methodist and the Bloomington Country Club.
He remembers his first visit to Nashville, with a boy scout troop from Bloomington, in the summer of 1920. The boys got off a train at Helmsburg, hiked into Nashville and camped on Salt Creek just below where the Edwards home is now.
At IU, where he is a Professor Emeritus of Finance, Eddie occupied the Fred T. Greene Chair of finance, an almost hallowed spot that has not been filled since Eddie left it, the summer of 1973.
Professor Edwards, for the record, has served as consultant to the White House, Secretaries of Defense, and the Army, the Federal Reserve Board, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Home Loan Bank, Bureau of the Census, and the Presidential Commission on Financial Structure and Regulation.
At Indianapolis he has been supervisor of research and statistics for the State Department of Financial Institutions and a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank. For years he was a regular contributor of articles to, and consultant for, the US Savings and Loan League.
For 25 years he was senior Vice-President and a director of business and Real Estate Trends, Inc., and wrote a quarterly letter distributed nationwide by major banks, savings and loan associations, mortgage companies and real estate brokers.
Between 1949 and 1973 he was the author of countless articles and monographs on banking and savings and loan problems, topics ranging from prevention of bank failures and variable rate mortgages to consumer credit agencies and how college professors can increase their pay.
Eddie says he’s basically retired except for writing, editing and an occasional board meeting. He’s fond of writing special articles for the US senate and house committees, gratuitously and was working on such an article on the day of this interview.
As an honorary member of a voluntary organization of Savings and Loan managers. Eddie has enjoyed yearly get-togethers in such interesting places as Honolulu, Colorado Springs, Jamaica and Nassau.
Beginning in 1946 he started and ran the graduate school of Savings and Loan at IU, which attracted executives in that field from all over the USA.
The Edwards have traveled widely by car throughout Europe and one of Eddie’s favorite watering holes is the Glen Eagles Hotel in Scotland (nearest city Perth). But he notes that traveling “in style” in Europe is becoming prohibitive. In their travel-trailer, Professor Edwards and Louise have traveled through every continental state except Alaska.
They love Brown County because they can live their own lifestyle in beautiful, pleasant surroundings, among interesting people, and can be as active as they desire. Eddie has a fetish that as many government decisions as possible should be made on a local level, but, he admits, “We’re getting farther and farther away from that.”
He would like to see such places as Town Hill, Cloud Crest and Orchard Hill annexed by Nashville. “I feel a part of Nashville in every way,” except politically. I can’t participate.
To be continued.
Submitted by Pauline Hoover, Brown County Historical Society
