Seymour Tribune - April 28, 2007 
Edward P. Elsner Jr.
Aug. 25, 1924 – April 27, 2007 

Edward P. Elsner Jr., 82, Seymour, died at 11:54 a.m. Friday, April 27, 2007, at Columbus Regional Hospital.
Mr. Elsner was a senior partner in the law firm of Montgomery, Elsner, and Pardieck. He was a graduate of Seymour High School, earning varsity letters in both football and basketball. He was also a graduate of Indiana School of Business and Indiana Law School-Bloomington. His college studies were interrupted by military service during World War II. He spent 20 months with the Corps of Engineers in the European theater of battle, receiving four battle stars. While at Indiana University, Mr. Elsner was chosen as a member of Sphinx Club and Falcon Club (both of which were honorary clubs for outstanding students), Phi Etta Sigma (scholastic honorary), SAE social fraternity, vice president of Union Board and Junior Prom chairman. Upon graduation from undergraduate school, he was chosen as one of the 10 outstanding seniors of the Class of 1947.
Mr. Elsner was always active in Democratic politics. During college, he and Henry Schricker Jr. (the then-governor’s son) reorganized the young Democrats at Indiana University. He was employed by the Democratic State Central Committee to reorganize the young Democrats in the 9th and 6th Congressional Districts.
Upon his graduation from law school in 1949, Mr. Elsner returned to Seymour and entered the practice of law with his father, Edward P. Elsner Sr. He continued to be active in politics, serving as president of the Young Democrats. He was elected state representative and served in the state legislature from 1957 to 1961. While in the General Assembly, Mr. Elsner served as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He also served as an assistant Speaker of the House for House Speaker Birch Bayh. During the era when the governor and U.S. senator were chosen at state conventions, Mr. Elsner was elected on numerous occasions as a delegate to the Democratic State Convention.
The law partnership of Elsner & Elsner continued until the death of Edward P. Elsner Sr. in 1951. Mr. Elsner then practiced on an individual basis until he formed a partnership with John M. Lewis. At the termination of this partnership, he again was a sole practitioner until becoming one of the founding partners of Montgomery, Elsner, and Pardieck in 1970. He belonged to the bar association of Jackson County, the Indiana State Bar and the American Bar Association. He was admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court.
He served as president of the Jackson County Bar Association and, in 1957, served as state chairman of the Young Lawyers Section of the Indiana Bar Association. He was chosen by the Indiana Supreme Court to serve on the Board of Law Examiners from 1965 to 1970. In 1957, he was elected to serve on the Board of Managers of the Indiana State Bar Association and served as state co-chairman of the American Bar Association in a statewide membership drive. In 1977, he was the first person from this area to be elected by his peers as a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, being inducted in San Diego. This body is limited to less than 1 percent of the lawyers in the United States.
He served as city attorney, county attorney and attorney for the Seymour Public Library. He was attorney for Seymour Community School for more than 40 years; director and attorney for the Jackson County Bank since 1951, serving as chairman of the board of directors from 1996 through 2005. He was co-founder, attorney and corporate secretary for Westerfield Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company in Cincinnati.
He was a member of the Seymour Country Club, serving on the board of directors and as president for two years. He was also a Past Exalted Ruler of Seymour Elks Lodge 462. He was an active Rotarian for 40 years, served on the Red Cross Board and the Jackson County Hospital Foundation Board and was a member of Seymour American Legion Post 89 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1925.
He was chosen by the Seymour Chamber of Commerce as the Outstanding Citizen for 1990. In 2000, he was inducted into the Seymour High School Wall of Fame. On May 22, 1999, Gov. Frank O’Bannon appointed Mr. Elsner as a Sagamore of the Wabash. To commemorate that honor, Seymour Mayor John S. Burkhart declared that day to be “Edward P. Elsner Jr. Day” in the city of Seymour, with a street to be named after him.
One of the highlights of his nonprofessional career was when he and three other local people, Dale Alexander, Bob Hoerty and Carleton Riddick, qualified for the final playoffs at the Vanderbilt National Bridge Tournament. By qualifying, they competed a full day against the national champions of the previous year, a team consisting of Oswald Jacoby, Jim Jacoby, B.J. Becher (who writes the bridge column for The Tribune) and Dorothy Haden, all of whom have written books on bridge. It was once published that “Ed Elsner is a people person, he is also a lawyer, an avid bridge player, a world traveler, a basketball and football enthusiast, a husband, father and grandfather.”
Born Aug. 25, 1924, in Seymour, he was the only son of Edward P. Elsner and Mayme Macdonald Elsner.
Survivors include his wife, Betty; his daughter, Elaine Mittleman, Falls Church, Va., and daughter Ann Elsner and husband Stephen Burns of Bloomington, and son Stephen Elsner and wife Mary of Carmel and daughter Peg Dunn and husband Brent of Fishers. Also surviving are grandchildren Carol Gardner and husband Trent of Newburgh, Stephanie Elsner of Covington, Ky., Amy Elsner of Carmel, Rebecca Burns of Bloomington and Katelyn, Michael and Connor Dunn of Fishers. Great-grandchildren are Taylor and Kelsey Gardner of Newburgh.
Three sisters preceded him in death, Mary (Dr. Joseph) Black, Mentoria (Louis Sr.) Abraham and Doloris Johnson Montgomery.
The Rev. Ralph Blomenberg, the Rev. Philip E. Bloch and the Rev. James Rodriguez will conduct funeral services at 11 a.m. Monday at Immanuel Lutheran Church. Burial will take place at Riverview Cemetery in Seymour.
Friends may call from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday at Voss Funeral Home, Seymour.