Passages

Bill Ivey, a guitar-playing folklorist who founded and was the first director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt, as well as former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts and longtime director of the Country Music Foundation, died Nov. 7, 2025, at his home in Nashville. He was 81. Read More

George Eric Core, scholar, editor and writer, died Oct. 14, 2023. He was 84. Read More

Annette Schaffer Eskind, a civic leader and philanthropist who, with her late husband, Irwin Eskind, MD’48, made transformational contributions to Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and throughout the city of Nashville, died July 13, 2025. She was 97. Read More

Roy Kramer, who was athletic director at Vanderbilt from 1978 to 1990 and then turned the Southeastern Conference into a lucrative national power as commissioner, died Dec. 4, 2025, in Maryville, Tenn. He was 96. Read More

Vanderbilt Magazine celebrates the lives and mourns the loss last spring of three Vanderbilt alumni who led with passion and generosity during times of transition and change: James Stephen “Steve” Turner, BA’69; Sylvia Sanders Kelley, BA'54; and H. Rodes Hart, BA'54. Read More

Jacob Alexander Schroeder, BA’22, of Boise, Idaho, died Dec. 6, 2024. He was 25 years old. He attended Vanderbilt as a Curb Scholar in Creative Enterprise and Public Leadership, was a Buchanan Library Fellow, chaired the American Enterprise Institute’s Executive Council at Vanderbilt, was a student government senator and a recipient of the Ainslie World Travel Fellowship. Read More

Shirley Marie Watts of Nashville, a musician and a longtime librarian for the Blair School’s Anne Potter Wilson Music Library, died Oct. 21, 2024. She was 89. Read More

David Boaz, a foundational figure of modern libertarian thought who brought libertarian ideas into the mainstream, died June 7, 2024, at his home in Arlington, Virginia. He was 70. Read More

Lynn Fuchs Lynn Fuchs, Dunn Family Professor of Psychoeducational Assessment, Emerita, passed away on May 7, 2025. She was 75 years old. Throughout her career, Fuchs was recognized as one of the top scholars in special education and psychological sciences as well as a leading scholar in mathematical and… Read More

H. Rodes Hart, BA’54, who had an insatiable appetite for learning and education and contributed to Vanderbilt’s growth through his philanthropy and more than 30 years of leadership on the university’s Board of Trust, died March 30. He was 93. Read More

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. Read More

Craig A. Smith, associate professor of psychology and human development at Peabody College, died on Dec. 25, 2024, in Maine. He was 66.  Read More

Stewart, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities and professor of religious studies, emeritus, died on Oct. 6, 2024, in Nashville. He was 70. Read More

Wiesmeyer, associate professor of molecular biology, emeritus, died on Oct. 4, 2024, in Nashville. He was 92. Read More

Charlotte Froese Fischer, a pioneer in the field of atomic structure calculations and an emerita research professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University, died Feb. 8, 2024. Read More

James R. Sasser, BA’58, JD’61, was a three-term U.S. senator from Tennessee and ambassador to China. (Ann Rayner/Vanderbilt) James R. Sasser, BA’58, JD’61, a former three-term U.S. senator from Tennessee and ambassador to China, died Sept. 10 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was a statesman who loved Tennessee… Read More

K.C. Potter, JD’64, dean emeritus of residential and judicial affairs, died Aug. 26. Potter had an indelible impact on the life of the university and its students over more than three decades of service; he was 85 years old. Read More

Helen Iola McClellan Manoogian, nursing missionary to the Middle East and founder of a nursing school in Lebanon, died March 16, 2024, in Richmond, Virginia. She was 102. Read More

John Lachs, professor emeritus of philosophy and Centennial Professor Emeritus, died November 14, 2023, in Nashville. He was 89. Read More

The Honorable Richard H. Dinkins, JD'77, who served on the Tennessee Court of Appeals from 2008 until his retirement in 2022, died October 1, 2023, in Nashville. He was 71. Read More