Edward O. Welles, 85; veteran CIA officer led anti-gun organization

Edward O. Welles, 85, a former CIA officer who later became the first executive director of the anti-handgun organization now known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, died of brain cancer Oct. 11 at his home in Washington, D.C.

After serving in World War II with the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA, Welles joined the spy agency in 1950. He served in Greece before becoming the agency’s chief of station in Ethiopia, Nigeria and Morocco.

After retiring from the CIA in 1972, Welles had a career as a volunteer, lobbyist, entrepreneur and gun-control advocate. In 1974, he became the first executive director of the National Council to Control Handguns.

Welles helped raise money and recruited members and executives for the organization, now the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. He was known for his ability to talk with victims of gun violence and to draw them into the group’s mission.

Edward O’Malley Welles was born in Scranton, Pa., and was an ambulance driver in North Africa during World War II. In 1943, he volunteered for the British intelligence service and gathered intelligence behind enemy lines in Greece.

After the war, Welles graduated from Yale University.