Edgar Howard Elam, Jr.'s Obituary
Edgar Howard Elam, Jr.
Beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother and retired U.S. Census Bureau Statistician/Demographer, died peacefully at his home on Monday evening, August 17, 2009 in Leesburg, VA, surrounded by family and pets. He was 85 years old.
Born in Crossville, Tennessee, Edgar was raised a Methodist. He was the son of E. Howard Elam, an educator and Gertrude Shipman Elam. Edgar graduated from Birmingham-Southern.
During WWII Edgar served in the Atlantic and Pacific with the Merchant Marines. After his discharge he attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill where he met and married his wife Alix. He later completed his MS at Cornell University.
Edgar and bride moved to Washington DC to work for the US Census Bureau and Aid for International Development (AID), where he spent his career assisting countries’ governments in developing agricultural and population censuses.
Truly a citizen of the world, his travels and service around the world marked him and his family with a unique world view. They had extended tours in Honduras, the Philippines and Nepal. Edgar also had short assignments in Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, Morocco and Vietnam.
Ed and Alix subsequently returned to Washington and Edgar traveled extensively both abroad and in the USA. He was active in the Toastermasters club at the Census Bureau. He enjoyed many local activities such as singing in the church choir, helping rebuild a skipjack boat for the Calvert County MD Maritime museum and being involved in the Chesapeake Kennel Club. He was also an avid photographer throughout his life.
In 1989 Alix moved to Germany as an Army social worker. Ed joined her there a year later when he retired from the bureau. During his time in Germany he traveled extensively in Europe, documenting his travels with his photography. On returning to the USA they moved from MD to Virginia.
In Virginia he enjoyed the Lovettesville-Waterford Ruritan Club, exercising and swimming at the local Ida Lee recreation facility, participating in monthly book club discussions, and monthly meetings with the Prostate cancer support group, as well as Mondays at the Senior Center.
Indeed a man of his generation, Edgar was equally at ease in intellectual pursuit, music, culture or technical study and labor. But above all he was a family man who was unflagging in his service first to his wife and family. Active, productive and caring, he expertly undertook every form of fatherly duty as well as any conceivable wood working, construction and maintenance projects around the home.
Edgar will be long remembered for his intelligent and accepting nature; as a loving father and a man of character and integrity devoted to his family and friends – as well as his country and the world. He will be missed by many, but Ed and his deeds will live long in the hearts of those lucky enough to have known and loved him.
Ed is survived by his wife of 59 years, Alix, sons Christopher and wife Sandy of Durham, NC, Jefferson and wife Mirna, of Hamilton, VA, Peter and Anne DeSantis of Silver Spring, MD, and daughter Erica Simms and husband Bruce of Broadlands, VA; grandchildren Carrie and Aaron Plumb, Kristen & Max Mironenko, Courtney Elam, Brian Simms, Lindsey Blair Elam, Jourdan Elam Simms, Mandy Elam, Jillian Simms and Cole Elam, great-grandchildren Sophie Plumb and Emma Mironenko, and canine and feline children, Bex, Sky and Rascal. Ed is also survived by his two younger sisters, Emma Jo and husband Robert Yount of Gaithersburg, MD, and Frances and deceased husband Richard Neidhardt of Sherman, TX and several nieces, nephews, grandnieces and nephews.
Services will be held on Saturday, August 29, 2009. The interment will be held at the EcoEternity-Forest at Camp Highroad near Leesburg, VA, at 11:00 a.m., followed by an informal memorial gathering at the home of Alix & Edgar in Leesburg, VA at 2:00 p.m.
18611 Gibbon Court
Potomac Station
Leesburg, VA 20176
What’s your fondest memory of Edgar Howard?
What’s a lesson you learned from Edgar Howard?
Share a story where Edgar Howard's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Edgar Howard you’ll never forget.
How did Edgar Howard make you smile?