Ed Stout served as Executive Director of the Crime Victim Advocacy Center for more than 20
years before succumbing to brain cancer in February, 2005. The victim advocacy field
throughout Missouri and nationally greatly miss his contributions and deep dedication to victims
of all crime. His legacy continues at CVAC in the Stout Scholarship Fund. Donations to this
fund will be used to providescholarship funding for victim advocates to attend the Victim
Services Academy either in Missouri, or if not taking place in Missouri, at the National
Academy.
A tribute from the Office of Victims of Crime:
Ed Stout was a pioneer whose long-term commitment to our field came not because he had become a
victim of crime, but because he devoted his life to uplifting the powerless. After spending 10 years
preparing for the priesthood, Ed decided to become a community organizer in low-income neighborhoods
in St. Louis, Missouri, in the 1970s. He joined the Board of Directors of Aid to Victims of Crime (now the
Crime Victim Advocacy Center ), the nation's first victim assistance program for all types of crime victims,
which was founded in 1972. Stout became the Executive Director of AVC in 1982.
He said he often felt like a "Lone Ranger" in the political community—that the crime victims' rights
movement was neither well viewed nor well accepted. Under Stout's leadership, however, AVC
experienced success in 1986 with the passage of the Missouri Victims' Bill of Rights. Stout credits that
success with the realization that his agency could not do it alone, and so AVC helped build a state
network to pursue shared political goals. This statewide coalition, the Missouri Victim Assistance Network
(MOVA), was the first statewide victim services network in the country.
Ed Stout received several awards, including the Parents of Murdered Children Victim Advocate of the
Year award (1992) and the Outstanding Service to Victims of Crime Award (2002) from the Office for
Victims of Crime. He passed away from brain cancer on February 24, 2005, at age 62.
—Based on newspaper accounts and a Tribute Article by Anne Seymour, a Senior Advisor to Justice Solutions
in Washington, D.C., and a Contributing Editor to the Crime Victims' Report, and Janice Harris Lord.
In Memory of Ed Stout
Former CVAC Executive Director and pioneer in Victim Services
Former CVAC Executive Director and pioneer in Victim Services
