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Edwards Biography

Charles Wesley Edwards, Sr., Biography

Charles Wesley Edwards, long-time registrar for Auburn University, was born on November 5, 1900, in Dale County, Alabama, and was raised in Enterprise. He was the second oldest of ten children born to Dovie Adele Pridgen Edwards and Cincinnatus Fernando Edwards, a mercantile store owner who was mayor of Enterprise from 1908-1916.

After graduating at age 15 from Coffee County High School, Charles Edwards entered Auburn University, then Alabama Polytechnic Institute, in 1916. He was employed as an assistant in the history department there from 1919-1920. After receiving a B.S. in 1920, he taught English and Latin at Georgia Military College, where he was also an assistant football and baseball coach. In 1921, he entered Harvard University, and he received an M.A. in 1924. From 1925 to 1926 he taught history, emphasizing its local aspects, at the University of North Carolina. The following year he was a research assistant in county government at the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences there. He also taught in the summer sessions at API in 1925, 1926, and 1928. In 1927, he returned to Auburn for good, filling the position of assistant registrar. In 1930, he became associate registrar and in 1938 was elevated to registrar, a position he held until his retirement in 1966.

Charles Edwards married Addie Orlean Randle on October 3, 1929. Their union endured until her death on April 25, 1955. The couple had 5 children: Patricia Ellen Edwards Gillis; Charles Wesley Edwards, Jr., a banker; Robert Randle Edwards, a Columbia University professor of law; David Milton Edwards, who died in infancy; and Richard Everett Edwards, a Methodist minister. There are numerous grandchildren.

After a brief marriage to Louise Hinton Lakeman, which lasted from July 14, 1956, until their divorce in June 1959, Charles Edwards married Clercie Jane Small on October 9, 1959. She was a 1927 graduate of Huntingdon College and had served on the staff there and as president of the Huntingdon College Alumni Chapter. She was assistant registrar for Auburn University for 21 years, and first worked in the registrar’s office in 1937. She retired with her husband in 1966. She was involved in many civic activities, including the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Perry Garden Club, National Association for Retired Persons, and Pilot Club International. She died on June 20, 1986.

Charles Edwards had a variety of interests and was involved in many activities. During his long tenure in the registrar’s office, he was especially interested in matters concerning Auburn University. He served as chairman of the centennial committee in 1956 and wrote a book on that celebration. He also did research on the booklet Lengthening Shadows, a collection of biographical sketches of people for whom Auburn buildings and streets are named. He was also an early advocate of renaming the Alabama Polytechnic Institute Auburn University. Religious life at Auburn was a chief interest of Mr. Edwards, who was himself a lifelong member of the Methodist church.

Mr. Edwards had a keen interest in politics. As a liberal, he favored such reforms as repeal of the poll tax, reapportionment of the legislature, and civil rights. He served a term on the State Democratic Executive Committee and organized the Alabama Policy Committee, which developed ideas for reforms in Alabama in particular and the South in general. He was also chosen as a Democratic Presidential elector for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and 1940.

After his retirement from the university, Mr. Edwards was involved in affairs concerning the elderly. He was a member of the American Association of Retired Persons and served on its board of directors from 1982 to 1986. He was on the board of directors of the National Retired Teachers Association from 1980 to 1982, having served that organization as Area IV Vice President from 1974 to 1978, and as State Director – Alabama in 1979. He also served on the Lee County Board of the Alabama Department of Pensions and Security from 1971 to 1987. He was also active in the Lee County Historical Society and the Auburn Heritage Association.

Charles Edwards passed away on February 15, 1993, at the age of 92. Funeral services were held on February 19, 1993, with the interment in Pine Hill Cemetery in Auburn, Alabama.