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.
June Montgomery, who served UTHSC for 37 years before retiring in 1973, passed away on February 25, 2007, at the age of 99. As director of the first UT alumni office in Memphis, he will be remembered for his style of stepping out from behind the desk and interacting with students.
The UT National Alumni Association gets alumni together for Homecoming, pep rallies, and chapter meetings—you knew that, right? Do you know what else we do? We do some pretty neat stuff, and we’re adding new services all the time.
I want to ask you to volunteer to work with our youth. As college graduates, we are the minority in our state. Many of today’s children are growing up without positive role models. We can make a difference in their lives.
Education changes lives. For Debbie Ingram, that’s not just a catchy slogan but a personal cause. With three degrees—two of them from UT—she believes it’s the responsibility of the educated to encourage, to mentor, to tutor, to do whatever it takes to help others discover the transformational experience that is education.
The time is right to talk about the last, and often the best, of our alumni 3 R’s: Recruiting, Reinvesting, and—RECONNECTING! Or you could call it reuniting, revisiting, remembering, reliving, or rekindling. There are so many possibilities—but no regrets in choosing any of them.
Time for me to focus on another of the “Alumni Three Rs” (remember “Reconnect, Reinvest, and Recruit”)? This issue I want to highlight recruiting, not for any athletic team, but for our academic teams at each campus.
President John Petersen is in his third year at the UT helm, and he’s making his mark on several fronts. He has made it a point to travel the state and listen to Tennesseans’ opinions. He has brought in fresh talent to fill vacancies on his immediate staff and overseen the writing of a detailed strategic plan for the future of the university.
In the last issue, I stressed my hope that UT alumni would “Recruit, Reconnect, and Reinvest” with and for our alma mater. At this time of year, it seems appropriate to underscore the advantages of reinvesting.
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