Edward D. Buckley was born November 19, 1919, in Charleston, South Carolina, to parents Mary J. Cherry and Edward D. Buckley. He was a graduate of the Bishop England High School class of 1936 and the College of Charleston class of 1940. He taught school and coached basketball at Moultrie High School for two years.
In 1942, he was inducted into the U.S. Army as a private and commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Infantry, at Ft. Benning Officer’s Candidate School on December 24, 1942. Buckley served with the 77th Infantry Division 307 Infantry Regiment through the invasions of Guam, Leyte and Okinawa and was wounded at Leyte and Okinawa. He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star with “V” with a cluster and the Purple Heart with a cluster. In 1945, he was transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve and retired in 1968 as Lieutenant Colonel. At the conclusion of World War II, he attended the University of Michigan Law School under the G.I. Bill and graduated in 1948.
Buckley returned to Charleston to practice law with the firm of Cosgrove and Bailey. In 1949, upon the death of John I. Cosgrove, Buckley and Frank H. Bailey formed the law firm of Bailey and Buckley, practicing for many years at The Pink House in downtown Charleston, where he remained a partner until his retirement in 1993.
Buckley was a member of the Charleston County Bar Association, South Carolina Bar, American Bar Association, South Carolina Trial Lawyers Association and the South Carolina Defense Trial Attorneys Association. He was a permanent member of the Fourth U.S. Court of Appeals Judicial Conference. He served as the first general counsel for the Charleston County Aviation Authority from 1970 to 1992 and was township counsel for the Town of Sullivan’s Island, where he was instrumental in assisting the citizens of Sullivan’s Island to attain independent township status.
He was past president of the Alumni Association of the College of Charleston; past president of the South Carolina Lung Association; past president of the Tuberculosis and Health Association of Coastal Carolina; former chairman of the board of trustees of the Charleston County Hospital; and former Exalted Ruler, trustee and past state president of the B.P.O.E. Elks Lodge 424. He was also a member of the Hibernian Society of Charleston, Lions Club, Navy League, College of Charleston Foundation and the Memory Hold the Door Committee of the South Carolina Bar.
Edward D. Buckley died on May 29, 2006. He is survived by his wife, Lee Walters Buckley, son Edward D. Buckley and two grandsons, Edward D. Buckley III and Justin W. Buckley.