Christian & Small mourns the loss of our dear friend and partner, Edgar M. Elliott, III, who passed away on February 27, 2012. Ed was truly a lawyer’s lawyer. The law was both Ed’s vocation and his avocation. He was a strong and effective advocate for his clients and an outstanding and skilled trial lawyer. In this regard, Ed was elected to fellowship in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation. He served the profession throughout his career serving as President of the Birmingham Bar Association and the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association. 
Ed was a true and steadfast mentor to younger lawyers – both those within our firm and those practicing within other firms. His commitment to the diversity of our profession was recognized with the presentation to Ed in 2008 of the Nina Miglionico Paving the Way Award, an award presented by the Birmingham Bar Association to an excellent lawyer who has assisted women lawyers through mentoring, who has inspired women lawyers by providing a professional role model, and who has provided opportunities that paved the way for the advancement of the status of women lawyers. Ed’s devotion to and love for our profession was exemplified in the closing quote he used in his first President’s Message in the Birmingham Bar Association Bulletin in 1995: “I hold every man a debtor to his profession.” The Elements of the Common Law – Francis Bacon. Each of us is a better lawyer for having known and practiced with Ed; it is we who are indebted to him for affording us that privilege.
Ed was a lifelong resident of Birmingham. He graduated from Ramsay High School in 1948 and Birmingham Southern College in 1951, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history and was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. In 1953, he graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law where he was Editor in Chief of the Alabama Law Review. Following law school, Ed served in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Army, and upon being honorably discharged returned to Birmingham to begin a career of over forty five years with Christian & Small, and its predecessor firm, Rives & Peterson. At the end of his active career at the firm, Ed served as General Counsel of Litigation for Liberty National Life Insurance Company.
Ed was a longtime member of the Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church where he taught the Covenant Class for more than forty years. He also served as Chairman of the Administrative Board of the church, and on the Building and Finance Committees. Ed is preceded in death by his first wife, Margaret Johnston Elliott and his step daughter, Mary Margaret Macoy McWhorter. He is survived by his wife, Betty Margaret Macoy Elliott; sons Edgar M. Elliott, IV (Lisa), Stephen Johnston Elliott, and David Alan Elliott (Martha); step-sons Cecil H. Macoy, Jr. (Adrienne) and Mark W. Macoy (Raleigh); grandchildren of whom he was very proud, Stephanie Elliott, Maggie Elliott, David Elliott, Sam Elliott, Jason Elliott, Owen Elliott, Mac Macoy, Hollis Macoy, Virginia Macoy, Olivia Macoy, Boyd McWhorter, Mills McWhorter, Chandler Smyer, Laine Burg, and Schuyler Burg; and by his sister Nan Elliott Connell (Bill).
A memorial service will be held on Thursday, March 1 at 1:00 pm at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church, followed by a visitation in Tyson Hall at the church.