Passages

Vanderbilt University Special Collections and Photo Archives Martin Katahn, a retired psychology professor and best-selling author who wrote The Rotation Diet and other books promoting healthy weight loss and lifestyle, died Sept. 17. He was 90. Katahn, who was known to his family and friends as Dick, was born in… Read More

Photo by John Russell Simon Mayfield “Dick” Dickerson of Franklin, Tennessee, died Sept. 20. He was 79. A graduate of East Nashville High School and George Peabody College for Teachers (now Vanderbilt Peabody College for education and human development), he was president of the student body and “Mr. Peabody.” A… Read More

Photo by John Russell A communications leader and champion for STEM research at Vanderbilt, Heidi Nieland Hall died Sept. 25 in Nashville from metastatic colorectal cancer. She was 49. Hall, an honored reporter and editor for decades, left The Tennessean to join the Vanderbilt School of Engineering communications team in… Read More

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

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

“Y.Y.” Clark at thebeginning of her groundbreaking career. Photo courtesy Society of Women Engineers Yvonne Young Clark, the first woman to earn a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering from Howard University, the first woman to earn a master’s degree in engineering management from the Vanderbilt University School… Read More

Photo by Daniel Dubois Barbara Tsakirgis, a noted scholar on ancient Greek domestic architecture as well as a strong community advocate for Nashville’s Parthenon, died Jan. 16. Tsakirgis, 64, had been diagnosed with ALS three years ago and died at her home. She was a professor of classical… Read More

Bradley in 1961. Photo by Joe Rudis/THE TENNESSEAN Harold Bradley, member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, famed guitarist, and cog in the family that led the ascent of country music in Nashville, died Jan. 31. He was 93. Bradley grew up in Nashville and took up… Read More

Everett H. Erlick, a distinguished veteran of the broadcast industry and longtime public servant, died March 8, 2019, at his home in Stuart, Florida. He was 97. As executive vice president, general counsel and director of the American Broadcasting Cos. Inc. for 25 years, his expansive portfolio… Read More

Photo by Neil Brake The Rev. Donald F. Beisswenger, a Vanderbilt Divinity School emeritus professor who lived out his faith as a dedicated community activist—serving six months in federal prison for a nonviolent protest—died Nov. 26, 2018. He was 88. As a professor of church and community, he… Read More

Photo courtesy of University of Mississippi Medical Center Dr. Blair E. Batson, the first chair of pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, died Nov. 26, 2018. He was 98. Dr. LouAnn Woodward, UMMC vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of… Read More

Elizabeth Lee “Betty” Klepper, a retired scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center in Pendleton, Oregon, died at her home Oct. 26, 2018. She was 82. Born in Memphis, Klepper attended school in Tennessee and graduated summa cum laude in chemistry as… Read More

Claudia Spence Jack, public defender for Tennessee’s 22nd Judicial District, died Nov. 9, 2018. She was 75. A native of Columbia, Tennessee, she graduated from Auburn University in 1965 with a bachelor of science degree in English education, then earned her master’s degree in education from Auburn… Read More

Ronald Hoffman, former director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and professor of history at William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., died Sept. 4. He was 77. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1969 and joined the history department at… Read More

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