Issues

Lester G. “Ruff” Fant (Photo courtesy of the Fant Family) EDITOR’S NOTE: Fant, a prominent financier, lawyer and philanthropist in Washington, D.C., died May 19. His friend and classmate, the acclaimed author and humorist Roy Blount Jr., BA’63, penned this remembrance. Lester Glenn “Ruff” Fant III, my old friend and… Read More

Investigative journalist and New York Times best-selling author Elaine Shannon has spent decades reporting from the globe’s danger zones. Her latest book recounts the efforts to take down notorious criminal Paul LeRoux, whom she describes as “a twisted-genius entrepreneur and cold-blooded killer who brought revolutionary innovation to transnational crime.” Photo… Read More

Dee Margo (photo courtesy City of El Paso) EDITOR’S NOTE: As this issue of Vanderbilt Magazine was going to press, the world was just starting to hear about the tragic mass shooting that took place in El Paso on Aug. 3. Mayor Dee Margo wrote on Twitter in the immediate… Read More

On the wall of heart-rhythm specialist Jeffrey Williams’ medical office is his seventh-grade essay in which he writes that he wants to be a cardiologist. He doesn’t remember writing it, but his younger self accurately predicted the future. As co-director of the Heart Rhythm Center at Lakeland Regional Health in… Read More

The Blair Big Band, Photo by Susan Urmy The Blair Big Band is the undergraduate collegiate winner in the category Large Jazz Ensemble in DownBeat magazine’s 42nd annual Student Music Awards, announced April 23. This is the Blair School of Music’s first award from DownBeat, which is widely considered the… Read More

The Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Board of Directors announces seven new members, who began their three-year terms July 1. “Each of these new members sets a great example for all alumni through their philanthropy and volunteerism,” says Dan Lovinger, BA’87, president of the Alumni Association Board. “That passion for… Read More

Photo by Stephen Doster The story of Richard Armstrong is a shining example of how one person’s legacy can have a powerful ripple effect on others. A basic sciences professor of biochemistry and chemistry from 1995 until his 2015 death, Armstrong was known for his groundbreaking biochemical research. In his… Read More

The Vanderbilt Alumni Association Board of Directors is pleased to announce its 2019 alumni award recipients. They will be honored Oct. 17 at a special ceremony during Reunion and Homecoming weekend. “These honorees shine through their professional accomplishments and leadership service to their communities and Vanderbilt,” says Jodie Leeka… Read More

John Hindle The establishment of the Hindle Family Scholarship in 2014 was one more way for John Hindle, BA’68, PhD’81, and his wife, Joan Barr Hindle, to pay forward the lifelong success they have achieved, which John credits in large measure to his Vanderbilt education. At the time they created… Read More

Sarah Vaillancourt (Photo by Kevin Richtik/Caroline Photography) Sarah Vaillancourt’s mission—to help women get the care they need—far predated her nursing degree. “I knew I wanted to work in women’s health before I knew exactly what I wanted to do or how I wanted to do it,” says Vaillancourt, who earned… Read More

Dr. W. Bedford Waters (Photo by John Russell) Dr. W. Bedford Waters, president of the Vanderbilt Medical Alumni Association and the second African American to graduate from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, died May 25. He was 71. Waters completed his internship and one-year residency in general surgery at the… Read More

Ben Schulman (photo courtesy of Scripps MD Anderson) The vision and thoughtful generosity of Benjamin D. Schulman, who died June 2, helped Vanderbilt become a more nurturing and diverse community. Schulman, of Carlsbad, California, was 102 at the time of his death. He had returned to campus in January 2017… Read More

Bill Yoast (Photo by James A. Parcell) William “Bill” Yoast, the high school coach who helped unify a racially divided Alexandria, Virginia, during the 1971 football season, died May 23. He was 94 years old. The relationship between Yoast and coach Herman Boone is the crux of the 2000 film… Read More

As Provost Susan R. Wente assumes the role of Vanderbilt’s interim chancellor, she looks to further the university’s commitment to learning, discovery and creative expression with the same drive and optimism she’s cultivated as an academic leader, scholar and mentor. Read More

The Technology Fallacy: How People Are the Real Key to Digital Transformation (2019, MIT Press) by Gerald C. Kane, Anh Nguyen Phillips, Jonathan R. Copulsky and Garth R. Andrus, EdD’88 Digital technologies are disrupting organizations of every size and shape, leaving managers scrambling to find a technology fix that… Read More

It has been an honor to serve you during these past 11 years, and to devote more than three decades of my life to an institution so capable of driving enormous change. Read More

Following the news that Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos plans to step down in August, many Vanderbilt alumni, parents, and supporters of the university reached out with letters of gratitude and well wishes. Below are just a few of the numerous messages received in the weeks since the announcement was made. Read More

Bernie Ellis, BA’71, heard the helicopters before he saw them. Within minutes they converged, whirring, over his blueberry farm south of Nashville, as 10 federal agents drove up in four-wheelers. The moment he had always feared had arrived: He was being raided. Read More

David Williams II was remembered as a courageous vice chancellor, outstanding athletics director, brilliant law professor, and devoted husband and father during a celebration of life service Feb. 15. Read More

Gary H. Cheek, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, joined Vanderbilt in April to direct the newly created Bass Military Scholars Program, established in 2018 with a $25 million gift from the Lee and Ramona Bass Foundation. Read More