NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ Wendell G. Holladay, who, as physics chairman,
college dean and provost, was a key figure in the establishment of
Vanderbilt University as a national research-oriented university, died
Dec. 9 from complications following a heart attack.
During his four decades as a faculty member and administrator, Holladay
assumed a variety of roles, but he considered himself foremost a
teacher. When he stepped down as provost in 1983, he returned for 10
more years to the physics faculty, which he first joined in 1954.
The funeral will be 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13, at Benton Chapel on the
Vanderbilt campus. The Rev. Thomas Laney Jr., senior minister at West
End United Methodist Church, and Dr. Carl R. Holladay, Wendell
Holladay’s nephew and the Charles Howard Candler Professor of New
Testament Studies at Emory University, will officiate. Visitation will
be 1-6 p.m. Dec. 12 at Woodlawn Funeral Home.
Born in Huntingdon, Tenn., in 1925, Holladay entered the Navy at the
age of 18 and was assigned to teach the intricacies of radar at
Treasure Island, San Francisco. He graduated from Vanderbilt, magna cum
laude, with a B.A. in physics in 1949 and with an M.A. in physics in
1950. In 1950-51 he was appointed Alumni Research Fellow at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison and a National Science Foundation
fellow from 1952 to 1954, at which time he received the Ph.D. degree in
nuclear physics.
In 1954, he returned to Vanderbilt as assistant professor of physics,
became associate professor in 1957 and full professor in 1962. He
was made chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 1966,
became dean of the College of Arts and Science in 1970 and provost in
1978.
As chairman of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, he helped
obtain a National Science Foundation grant of $4 million to help
construct and staff the Stevenson Science Center. As dean, he helped
stabilize the College of Arts and Science budget, augmented the process
of faculty promotion, helped revise the General Education Requirements,
and helped consolidate changes made in the expansion of the faculty in
the 1960s.
Upon his resignation as dean, Chancellor Alexander Heard stated that
Holladay "led the college in important innovations that have
increasingly adapted the college’s curricula and learning opportunities
to the changing needs and interests of students."
As provost, he participated in the Centennial Campaign, oversaw the
merger with Peabody College and helped acquire the Blair School of
Music. In 1968, he won the first Thomas Jefferson Award at Vanderbilt.
Although the prize was awarded for outstanding contributions in the
governance of the university, teaching was his first love. Upon
resigning from the deanship, he said being a faculty member is "the
best job in the university." He retired from Vanderbilt in 1993.
After retirement, he continued to study and write about physics and quantum mechanics.
He was a fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the
Tennessee Academy of Science and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He
co-authored a textbook, Introduction to Atomic and Nuclear Physics
(McGraw Hill, 1968), numerous scholarly articles and papers, and in
2000 edited and published To Quarks and Quasars: A History of Physics
and Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, written by Professor Robert T.
Lagemann. He was listed in Who’s Who in America and American Men of
Science.
He was a direct descendant of John Holladay from Bedford County, Va.,
who in the winter of 1776 explored Middle Tennessee with Thomas Sharpe
Spencer and others, and in late 1779 returned to the French Lick with
James Robertson and signed the Cumberland Compact ñ the first governing
document of Nashville. He had a deep interest in history and was a key
contributor to a 1983 volume, The Holladay Family, now in its third
printing.
He is survived by his wife, Virginia Mershon Holladay; two sons, Frank
Warren Holladay of Arcata, Calif., and Mark Wendell Holladay of San
Diego, Calif.; two daughters, Jane Mershon Holladay of Nashville and
Mary Joyce Doyle of Nashville; two sisters, Josie Maydene Asbury of
Brentwood and Sue Helen Hale of Clinton; six grandchildren and nearly
100 nieces, nephews, great nieces, great nephews and cousins.
Media contact: Elizabeth Latt, (615) 322-NEWS
elizabeth.p.latt@vanderbilt.edu