Dr. Eaves received the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from the University of Oklahoma before joining the UT mathematics faculty in 1930. By 1933 the Great Depression seriously affected enrollment, and at the end of spring quarter 1933, Eaves was laid off, being the last faculty member employed. He had been working on his doctorate at the University of Texas and returned there to spend the required year in residence. (He was awarded the PhD in 1939.) Just before fall quarter 1934, UT invited Eaves back to take the place of a professor who was leaving, and his teaching career at UT spanned more than 53 years. When he reached the then-mandatory retirement age of 70, Eaves continued to teach well into his eighties—as a volunteer without pay.
While still on the payroll, Dr. Eaves won both the Phi Eta Sigma and National Alumni Association outstanding teacher awards. He served as president of the Tennessee Mathematics Teachers’ Association in 1956–57 and was the author of a popular text in freshman mathematics, which went through many editions. In 1977 he established the Dorothea and Edgar D. Eaves Summer Fellowships in the Mathematics Department, designed to encourage high school mathematics teachers to return to the university for graduate study. He also established the Dorothea and Edgar D. Eaves Teaching Awards to recognize outstanding teaching by graduate assistants.