Edward H. Laird, Jr., was born in 1932 in Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, while his parents lived in quarters for the band at West Point Military Academy, where Ed would learn to play chess while in the elementary school there. He was on the chess team at the University of Maryland. As he grew older with a teaching career and a growing family, he enjoyed postal chess which allowed him ample time for playing the very best game that he could. He made frequent reference to his carefully selected books on chess. He liked nothing better than a well-played game by both sides.

Over the years he also participated in chess tournaments in the East and acquired an extensive collection of chess-on-stamps from around the world. He achieved the title of Senior Master of Postal Chess from the U.S. Chess Federation in November 1983. Although in poor health for a few years before his death in 2001 in Bel Air, MD, he continued to play and enjoy correspondence chess.