Alumnus, trustee emeritus and Nashville real estate visionary James Stephen “Steve” Turner, a prominent university benefactor whose gifts included funding for commissioned works for Blair School of Music signature ensembles, died Feb. 11. He was 77.
The founder of Nashville real estate investment and development company Market Street Enterprises, Turner was a visionary who led the transformation of a largely neglected neighborhood between downtown and Music Row into the vibrant mixed-use district that became known as The Gulch. Turner, a member of the founding family of Dollar General Corp., also was chairman and president of FNB Financial Corp. and served as chair of the board of trustees for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.
At Vanderbilt, Turner studied philosophy and religion, earning his bachelor’s in 1969. Turner, along with his siblings Cal Turner Jr., BA’62, and Laura Jo Turner Dugas and their families, has been a longtime supporter of Vanderbilt University. He supported initiatives that include Opportunity Vanderbilt, College Halls at Kissam (the transformation of Kissam Quadrangle into residential colleges), the Center for Nashville Studies, Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt Athletics and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, where he served as board chair. Turner was chair for his 2009 Vanderbilt Reunion.
“Steve Turner’s distinguished career and unwavering dedication to his community, including his service as a Vanderbilt trustee, have left an indelible mark on Nashville and reflect a life well lived,” Chancellor Daniel Diermeier said. “We are especially grateful for his philanthropic contributions to the Blair School, which ensure that his love for music will endure as a lasting legacy.”
The Gulch is best-known as a shopping, dining and entertainment destination. But, perhaps more importantly, The Gulch’s incorporation of high-rise housing targeted at young professionals drove much-needed growth in central Nashville’s residential base. Market Street’s first residential project opened in 2002 with 32 units, and now there are more than 2,200 residences in The Gulch with another 1,200 in development.
Nashville Business Journal dubbed Turner “godfather of The Gulch.”
“Without any training or experience, he dove into real estate—and wound up creating the vibrant urban neighborhood that has buoyed Nashville’s emergence on the national stage,” NBJ wrote of Turner when he was named to its 2017 “Power 100” list. “Today, The Gulch teems with 1,800 condos and apartments, some 50 bars, restaurants, shops and entertainment venues, a pair of office buildings and a swanky hotel. The Gulch delivers one concentrated dose of metropolitan luxury, a magnet for tourists that also helps project modern-city bona fides that can attract workers.”
A COMMITMENT TO THE ARTS
Turner and his wife, Judy, supported the Blair School of Music in many ways over the years, including as members of the Blair KeyBoard, as co-chairs of the Blair 2000 committee and by establishing and contributing to the Laura Kemp Goad Scholarship. After Turner and his wife gave a gift in 1998 to support an expansion of the Blair School building, the original recital hall was renamed for them, and the Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall debuted for the 1999–2000 Blair concert season. In 2021 they made an additional gift for renovations and technical upgrades to the recital hall.
“Steve Turner was a pragmatic visionary—passionately dedicated to the good of the community, insightful in understanding people and their aspirations, and gifted in forging shared goals among disparate groups,” Blair School Dean Emeritus Mark Wait said. “His support of the Blair School of Music was critical and essential to our success. Steve was a wise, generous and inspiring friend.”
In 2006, through the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation, a grant was made to fund commissions by major contemporary composers for each of the Blair signature ensembles—the Blair String Quartet, the Blair Woodwind Quintet and the Blakemore Trio— and for featured faculty solo performers. Ultimately, works by Michael Hersch, Susan Botti, Peter Schickele and Lowell Liebermann were given premieres by Blair faculty, first in a major American city and then at Blair, with attendant seminars and master classes on the creative process with the composer and performers. Dean Mark Wait commented at the time that it was an opportunity to “perform exciting new works for national audiences as official ambassadors of Vanderbilt.”
A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN NASHVILLE AND VANDERBILT
Turner also helped launch the Center for Nashville Studies at Vanderbilt to explore issues and opinions shaping Nashville’s growth as a major urban center, growth that his business acumen helped facilitate. He served on the center’s advisory board at its inception. For nearly a decade, the center facilitated discussions around education equity, homelessness, GIS mapping technology, urban culture and other areas where Vanderbilt faculty and staff could provide expertise on community-identified issues and needs and provide recommendations on policy-level solutions and actions through research, university-community partnerships, and conversations and collaborations.
Turner served on Vanderbilt University’s Board of Trust from 2013 to 2017 and was elected as an emeritus trustee in 2017. In addition to the Turner Recital Hall, Turner’s many gifts to Vanderbilt University included the endowing of multiple faculty chairs. In 2015 the James Stephen Turner Family Foundation endowed the John L. Seigenthaler Chair in American History to honor and build upon the late Seigenthaler’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement. In 2021, Steve and Judy Turner endowed the Judith Payne Turner Chair in Neurology in the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Turner was preceded in death by his wife of 55 years, Judith Payne Turner, ’71; his daughter, Laura Anne Turner; and his sister Laura Jo Turner Dugas. Turner is survived by his son Jay Turner, BA’92, JD’99; daughter-in-law Christi Whalley Turner, BS’91; brother Cal Turner Jr., BA’62; and two grandchildren, James Stephen Turner III and Katherine Turner, BE’20.
