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Obituary

Dear ETSU Community,

With great appreciation for a life of service, I share the sad news of the passing of Ed Kelly, a longtime colleague and friend to many on our campus.

A native of Western New York, Ed called East Tennessee home, as he served for 22 years as the General Counsel at ETSU. From 1997 to 2019, Ed handled some of the most difficult and sensitive issues on our campus in his role as University Counsel. He mediated and resolved disputes involving employment matters, negotiated leases and contracts, and, drawing on his own background in law enforcement, worked closely with ETSU Public Safety almost daily.

No matter how complicated or potentially troublesome an issue was, Ed always approached solutions with calmness, with balance, and with an appreciation for the role of shared governance. Almost immediately upon his arrival, Ed worked with President Stanton in developing our first policy that would make ETSU a smoke-free campus. At the same time, he was a key figure in the creation of the ETSU Research Foundation, as well as the Enhanced-Use Lease Agreement, resulting in the university’s access to over 40 acres of property on the grounds of the Quillen Veterans Administration Medical Center at Mountain Home.

Ed was also a poet and a scholar. Very few people have earned two Fulbright Scholarship awards. Ed Kelly was one of those people. In 2003, he earned his first Fulbright, allowing him to teach courses and give workshops on negotiation, alternative dispute resolution, management, and constitutional law at universities in Ukraine and Belarus, parts of the world he also came to love. In 2015, he earned another Fulbright, this time in the Baltic Republics. He spent six months in Vilnius, Lithuania, lecturing on mediation and arbitration at Mykolas Romeris University, and worked with colleagues in Estonia and Latvia on collaborative alternative dispute resolution.

He was a wonderful individual and an outstanding colleague. The ETSU family joins the Kelly family in mourning the passing of this true man of the world, Ed Kelly. A service will be held in Buffalo, New York, on or around August 14. You can read his obituary here.

Sincerely,
Brian Noland
President

Publication Date

2-11-2026

In Memory of Mr. Ed Kelly

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