Edgar Marcel Smith

Marcel was a first-generation college student who attended Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL, before transferring to the University of Alabama, where he ultimately received his PhD. He became a tenured English professor of the University of Alabama, where he specialized in modern British literature, edited “Ezra Pound: The Legacy of Kulchur” (University of Alabama Press), and pushed himself and his students to write what he called “lucid prose.”

After retirement, he moved to Nashville, where he worked as an editor and writer for the Nashville Scene and St. George’s Episcopal Church. He also translated Venezuelan poet Ana Enriqueta Terán’s poems into English for a bilingual edition of her work, “The Poetess Counts to 100 and Bows Out” (Princeton University Press).

Marcel was a man of many words, both in quantity and quality, and a lifelong student and teacher. When an idea captured his imagination, this “serial zealot,” as his wife described him, pursued it with a singular passion. The subject and lifespan of his zeal ran the gamut from brief flirtations with chilled soups and the Hubble telescope, to long-term affairs with Shaker furniture and the number three. He was never boring.

Marcel is survived by his wife of nearly 37 years, Elizabeth Gunnells Smith, of Nashville, TN, and his three daughters: Minnette Smith Spencer, of Tuscaloosa, AL; Melissa Smith Bowers, of Mobile, AL; and Anna Elizabeth Smith, of Brooklyn, NY. He is also survived by a sister, Ann Clark, of Milton, FL, and three grandchildren, Rebekah Spencer Rice, Caleb Spencer, and Locke Bowers. Marcel is preceded in death by his son, Edgar Marcel Smith, Jr. (Marc).

Visitation will be held at 12:30 pm on May 3 at St. George’s Episcopal Church, Nashville, followed by a funeral service at 1:30 pm.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Abe’s Garden or to the music ministry of St. George’s Episcopal Church or of Covenant Presbyterian Church, all in Nashville.