Edward Averill Robertson III
Died July 7, 2006
A history major and holder of the Henry L. Moses Scholarship, Ed prepared for Yale at Hillsboro High School, Nashville, and Franklin High School in Franklin, TN.
In the class book and directory for our 25th reunion in 1990, he reported: “ [a]fter graduation from Yale, I worked for one year as a reporter for the Nashville Banner newspaper and then went to law school at Vanderbilt University. After law school, I entered a firm of three attorneys in Clarksville, TN and have been in Clarksville ever since. In 1983, I left the firm and became a sole practitioner.” By the time of our 40th reunion, Ed had retired from the practice of law.
In 2001 Ed was the victim of a bloody home invasion in which he shot and killed one of the intruders and very nearly lost his own life. The horrific incident was reported in a December 22 article in the Leaf Chronicle. “A 17-year-old boy was shot and killed by a local lawyer yesterday when the boy and another youth invaded the lawyer and his brother’s home, police said… (A)ttorney Edward Robertson and his brother, Charles Robertson, were in critical but stable condition last night at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Two young men entered the Robertsons’ home at 972 Ryes Chapel Road just after 5 a.m., Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ted Denny said. Charles Robertson was downstairs sleeping when attacked with a knife. Edward Robertson came downstairs with a gun and shot and killed the 17-year-old, Denny said. After the shooting, the other robber, Matthew Scott Purviance, 18, of Cumberland Furnace stabbed and cut the throat of Edward Robertson and then tried to flee, Denny said.”
Ed survived that nightmare and, after a brief bout with cancer, died on July 7, 2006.