James M. Elson was born in New York City and grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he attended the city's public schools and graduated from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. He also earned degrees from the Juilliard School in New York City and West Virginia University and studied in Germany as a Fulbright Scholar.
Dr. Elson taught at the college level for twenty-one years at Youngstown State University (Ohio), Winthrop University (South Carolina) and was Chairman of the Fine Arts Departments of Huntingdon College (Alabama) and High Point University (North Carolina).
Dr. Elson came to Lynchburg in 1984 as Executive Director of the Academy of Music, Inc., and continued in that position after ownership of the historic theatre was transferred to Liberty University. He is the author of Academy of Music, Lynchburg, Virginia: The Golden Age of Live Performance.
In 1988, Dr. Elson became the Executive Vice-President of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation at Red Hill near Brookneal, Virginia, and upon his retirement in 2000 was named Executive Vice-President Emeritus. During his tenure at Red Hill, he was editor and author of Patrick Henry Essays In Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation (1994) and Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson (1997). From 2000 through 2005, he was editor of Lynch’s Ferry: A Journal of Local History for which he has written twenty-three articles since 1989.
Having completed two years active and twenty-eight years reserve service, Dr. Elson is now a retired Colonel, United States Army Reserve. He has been listed in Who’s Who in America since 1996.
Dr. Elson may be contacted by email via