High-school juniors and seniors are all about first impressions. They know in a nanosecond whether a cellphone makes it or is way less than cool. The look of a backpack or a pair of jeans can divide the known world. And at first blush, the gateway of a college campus can immediately put off any further discussion or begin an affair of the heart that lasts a lifetime.
Bristol Motor Speedway, the AT&T (Batman) Building in Nashville, the Knoxville Convention Center, and UT’s Neyland Stadium are familiar Volunteer State landmarks. As different as they are, the structures share at least one important common denominator—the entrepreneurial Jim Powell of tiny Limestone, Tennessee, whose company built these facilities.
This year as president of the UT Alumni Association, I’ve asked you to share with me your stories about how education transforms lives. Your stories are powerful reminders that education matters.
Tearing through the halls of Gatlinburg’s Mountain View Hotel, 10-year-old Ford Little relished the freedom afforded him by the UT Alumni Association.
In the 8 days before Dave Roberts came to work for the UT alumni office in 1966, he resigned his job in Nashville, got married, enjoyed a [brief] honeymoon, and moved to Knoxville. As he recalls the frenetic onset of his 42-year career, he dismisses any prescience that UT would occupy nearly all his working life.
Some of the most generous people in the world are friends of the University of Tennessee. The university, always grateful for donor support, has initiated a trio of awards that formally recognize people who have made giving an art form. The first awards were presented at last fall’s meeting of the UT Development Council in Knoxville.
Recently, UT came calling on Ron Turner. Only months earlier, the Ripley, Tennessee, native had retired from the positions of chairman, president, and CEO of Ceridian Corporation, an S&P 500 company formerly known as Control Data Corporation (CDC). Turns out, his alma mater was looking for new ideas and fresh perspectives from top business executives across the country, and Turner signed up for a 3-year term on UT’s Development Council.
In 1997 the Davidson County alumni chapter started an endowment in the chapter’s name to help a student from the Davidson County area attend the UT campus of his or her choice. The first recipient was Hillsboro High School graduate Lisa DeBusk. Now 10 years later, DeBusk appreciates the significance of her scholarship and is returning the favor to the alumni association chapter that helped her by serving as its treasurer.
Can you hear the cheers? It’s probably the Hamilton County UT alumni whooping it up again. This top-rated alumni group is always up to something.
As Debbie Ingram, UT Alumni Association president, travels to events, she solicits stories of how education has positively influenced the lives of UT alumni. Though their stories are different, Kayvon Sadrabadi and Paige Pettit credit education with altering their lives.
A prodigy in many respects, Clarence Leon Brown completed Knoxville High School in 1906 at the age of 15 and received special permission to enter UT. Four years later, he graduated with two degrees in engineering. He learned to fly during World War I and served as an instructor in the U.S. air corps. After he ran his own successful car dealership in the early 1920s, he talked his way into a job in what was then called moving pictures.
Clinical laboratory scientists—hospitals would be dead in the water without them. Patients would go undiagnosed and disease untreated if it weren’t for this profession. Medical technology has come a long way in the past 40 years, and UT Health Science Center professor emerita Brenta Davis was instrumental in making it happen.
We would all have to agree that, were it not for our UT education, our lives would be different. As Debbie Ingram, president of the UT Alumni Association, travels to alumni events throughout the country, she solicits stories about how the lives of UT alumni have been transformed by education. Tennessee Alumnus introduces you to some of the UT graduates who’ve shared their experiences.
A new softball stadium and basketball practice facility taking shape in Knoxville are changing the campus landscape and boosting UT’s reputation as a powerhouse of intercollegiate athletics. Three women made seven-figure gifts to help make these projects happen. Why? The reasons are as interesting as the women themselves.
One of Bob and Etta Davis’s first dates was to go to a high-school football game together. They attended games on the University of Chattanooga campus when legendary “Scrappy” Moore was coach, and their love of sports persisted over the years.
