Jim Patterson

The only female member of the School of Engineering’s 1967 graduating class, Jo Ann Eddy Somers of Huntsville, Alabama, died July 11, 2018. She was struck by lightning while inspecting a seawall under construction in Huntsville’s Hampton Cove neighborhood and died two weeks later. Somers, 73, was a… Read More

James Sandlin, a former Sarratt Student Center director who worked tirelessly to expand cultural offerings on campus and to improve the quality of life in Middle Tennessee, died Sept. 19. Sandlin, 77, passed away at his home in Unionville, Tenn., after a brief illness. Sandlin, who earned… Read More

Virginia Maxwell George, professor of nursing, emerita, and an early champion of nurse practitioners, died of natural causes July 26 in Nashville. She was 94. George was founding director of Vanderbilt’s Family Nurse Practitioner program, one of the first in the Southeast. A 1947 VUSN graduate, she taught… Read More

Photo by Anne Rayner Colleen Conway-Welch, who during her 29 years as dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing transformed nursing education at Vanderbilt and nationally, died Oct. 12 following a battle with cancer. Linda D. Norman, current dean of the School of Nursing, knew Conway-Welch for… Read More

Seasonal Cycles mural by Polly Cook Come sun, rain or snow, one of the best places on Vanderbilt’s campus to find shelter is under Calhoun Hall’s stone portico, facing out toward the law and business schools. This refuge is also home to a mural of campus life, Seasonal Cycles,… Read More

Jon Parrish Peede Jon Parrish Peede, BS’91, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, has taken several paths in government service, all of them paved with words. “I discovered during my student days that what I loved were… Read More

Lauren Urquhart, photo by Steve Green For the second year in a row, Blair undergraduates won national honors competing against both undergraduate and graduate students at the 2017–18 Music Teachers National Association annual competition March 17–21 in Orlando, Florida. To compete at nationals, musicians have already won their state… Read More

Photo by Matt Murphy The Band’s Visit, a musical about an Egyptian orchestra stuck for a night in a remote Israeli town, swept the Tony Awards on June 10, winning 10 awards, including Best Musical. Katrina Lenk and Tony Shalhoub (above, seated) both won Tony Awards for their… Read More

Joshua Austin Forges The Vanderbilt University Department of Art awarded its prestigious Margaret Stonewall Wooldridge Hamblet Award for 2018 to Joshua Austin Forges, BA’18, from Davie, Florida. He received a $25,000 prize that provides for a year of art research and travel, culminating with a solo exhibition in Space… Read More

It was mid-May when Mimi Franke Marziani, president of the Texas Civil Rights Project, noticed a troubling trend along the Texas–Mexico border: Central American migrants seeking asylum were being separated from their children and subsequently charged with illegal entry into the country. “We sprang into action,” says Marziani,… Read More

Students pose with Mr. Commodore at this year’s Anchor Down Day prior to Giving Day. Photo by Susan Urmy More than 7,000 members of the Vanderbilt community came together to raise nearly $6 million for the university and its students on the third annual Vanderbilt Giving Day, setting a… Read More

Senior Class Fund Chair Claire Fogarty, BS’18, presents the Class of 2018’s record-breaking donation during Senior Day Activities May 10. Photo by Joe Howell Senior Class Fund Chair Claire Fogarty, BS’18, presented the Class of 2018’s gift to Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos as part of Senior Day activities before… Read More

Carr Payne Jr., Edwin Mims, Vanderbilt professor of English, and Carr Payne Sr. at the dedication of Payne Hall in 1953, with the painting of former Peabody president Bruce R. Payne behind them. Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt University Special Collections Maxwell Carr Payne Jr. of Franklin, Tenn., grandson… Read More

Rickman stands with an Aeronca Champ, the plane in which she learned to fly, training on a grass runway. The single-engine Champ is very similar to the trainer airplane the WASP first learned to fly. Photo courtesy of Sarah Byrn Evans Rickman During World War II the Women Airforce… Read More

From a 65-acre dairy farm in Cooraclare, Ireland, Dominic McCarthy is courting clover. He’s the newest player in the booming international market for Irish whiskey, helping to found the Chapel Gate Irish Whiskey Co. in 2015 with wife Louise McGuane, the company’s CEO, and a… Read More

An expert on new product development and strategic planning, Gary D. Scudder, James A. Speyer Professor of Production Management and professor of operations management, died June 13 in Nashville. He was 65 years old. Scudder came to Owen in 1990 from the Carlson School of Management… Read More

Thomas Floyd “Tommy” Howe Jr., who served as the scientific glassblower for Vanderbilt’s Department of Chemistry for 30 years, died June 29 in Nashville. He was 76. During his three decades at the university, Howe made major contributions to the chemistry department’s teaching and research programs as well… Read More

Camilla Dietz Bergeron, an emerita trustee whose passion for collecting jewelry led to her founding a noted estate jewelry firm, died May 20 after a long illness. She was 76. Bergeron was president of Camilla Dietz Bergeron Ltd., a New York–based purveyor of fine antique, period and estate… Read More

Renewed Energy: Insights for Clean Energy’s Future (2018, Kauffman Fellows) by John Weyant, Ernestine Fu and Justin Bowersock, BA’94 Renewed Energy sheds light on the recent history of clean energy between the 2009 recession and 2012, providing firsthand perspectives from the industry’s leading policy makers, technology investors and industry experts. Read More

Tom Wolfe by Everett Raymond Kinstler Successful portraiture is all about conveying the personality of the sitter. It sounds easy, but it’s not, because those character traits that make up a person’s true self have little to do with actual physical appearance. To successfully capture the sitter, portraiture requires… Read More