The Reverend Edward Lee Roy Elson (December 23, 1906 – August 25, 1993) was a Presbyterian minister and Chaplain of the United States Senate.

Early on he was encouraged to study music and gave concerts in the Pittsburgh area on the cornet with his sister Hazel playing the piano.

After having been in the chaplain reserves for ten years, he resigned his position with the church and went on active duty with the Army in 1941, arriving in France in December 1944.

Not long after, General Frank Wilburn requested that Elson be his personal representative at the execution by firing squad of a soldier for desertion.

In September 1967, while he and his wife were still at their summer home in Cape Breton Island, he received a phone call from the White House asking him to be on a team to observe the upcoming elections in South Viet Nam.