Dedicated. Passionate. Enthusiastic. These are all words used to describe Lewis Elrod, also a father, husband, historian and gem collector.
Lewis passed away on June 2, 2016, at age 78, but not without leaving a legacy. More than just memories, he left a place in his community for people to enjoy his own collection of gems and to learn about Earth and its history.
“Lewis Elrod had the dream of starting a museum before some of us were even born. A rockhound and mineral collector for over 50 years, many of the display cases in the museum are filled from his collection,” said Alan Brown, co-founder of the Earth Experience Middle Tennessee Museum of Natural History.
As co-founder and president of the Middle Tennessee Museum of Natural History, Elrod’s gems have been on display at the Earth Experience for the community to see and enjoy for the last couple years. Alan Brown will continue to display the gems and run the museum without him, but not without a sense of loss.
“We lost one of the founders of the museum, a great man and a good friend,” Alan said. “He will be missed.”
Long before the museum was in works, Elrod founded the Middle Tennessee Gem and Mineral Society (MTGMS) in 1978 and it is now one of the biggest mineral clubs in the country. The club offers educational programs related to Earth science and jewelry making. According to the club’s current president, John Martin, 325 people are now members with 250 students and several volunteer educators.
“One of the reasons the club is such a success is all because of Lewis’ tenacity and pushing people to do things—and then making them think it was their idea,” Martin recalled with a chuckle. “Lewis was a force of nature. He slowly wore you down until you did what he wanted you to do. He had a way about him of believing that you could do anything, whether it was getting involved with the club, getting the museum started, or whatever it was he needed.”
“He apparently had a lot of patience because I never saw Lewis discouraged for more than a few seconds,” Martin continued.
MTGMS is planning to go on and continue growing. “He got it to the point where it could walk on its own and then stood back to watch it grow,” Martin said.
Elrod’s typical motivation was apparent in 2012 when his Gem, Mineral and Fossil museum at Middle Tennessee State University outgrew its space. Brown approached him about combining their collections and Elrod started searching for a place big enough to house the newly founded Middle Tennessee Museum of Natural History.
After opening the museum with Brown in 2014 at its current location, Elrod purchased an unassembled cast of a T-Rex dinosaur skeleton to go on display. He also donated many gems and minerals from his personal collection to go into the museum.
“There are 10 display cases in the Hall of Minerals. Easily seven or eight of the cases are from Lewis and that is just a small part of his collection,” Alan told the Pulse.
The Hall of Minerals at the Earth Experience is named after Lewis and Anna Elrod for their contributions and dedication. Martin recalls that Elrod didn’t want his name on the room. “He had a way of stepping back and not taking credit for the things he did. He was a quiet visionary,” Martin said.
Before Elrod’s vision of owning a museum came to fruition, he studied gems on a more personal level. He was interested in gems and minerals since his childhood. Brown recounts a story Elrod often told people of his first fossil encounter.
“When Lewis was 9 or 10 years old he found a crinoid stem, a common fossil known as Indian money. It was the first fossil he ever picked up and it is still in a coffee can somewhere with his others from childhood,” Brown said. “That’s how much he loved hunting for rocks.”
He then carried that love and passion into his life and marriage with Anna Elrod.
“All along Anna would go out collecting with him, go to club meetings and work at the annual rock show,” Brown said. “She was always involved.”
Anna was supportive of his endeavors throughout their marriage and she even used to help fill buckets up with sand when Lewis would visit geology classes at the elementary and middle schools.
“He was extremely big on anything to do with the education of kids,” Martin said. “And Anna was very, very involved in all of it.”
Lewis Elrod touched many lives during his time here and after all the years of serving his community, his friends and family say he left it a better place.
