Vanderbilt Magazine

Ridley Wills II Ridley Wills II, BA’56, has lived most of his life in Nashville. Since retiring from a 25-year career with the National Life and Accident Insurance Co., he has spent much of his life researching and writing local history. Heritage, Highballs and Hijinks: Colorful Characters I Have Known… Read More

“I’d really like to go up into the Kirkland clock tower,” I said. It was last November, and I was having brunch with Charlie Taylor, a director of regional gifts in Vanderbilt’s Division of Development and Alumni Relations, in sunny southern California, where I live. Charlie makes periodic visits to… Read More

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Dr. Otis Rickman with the tools of his trade Prologue “Help me understand,” she said. My patient was the delightful silver-haired matriarch of a large family. I was seeing her in consultation for a pulmonary nodule in the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s Thoracic Oncology Clinic on a crisp afternoon in the… Read More

Morris Frank, ’29, once playfully recalled the time he got a free train ride. “The conductor told me he had watched me come down the platform, get on the train and take my seat, and he said that no blind man in the world could do that.” As proof, Frank… Read More

Scientists Virginia Shepherd and Charles Brau first met at a Vanderbilt basketball game. She has become a national figure in championing the role of academics in the lives of student athletes. In 1992, Virginia Shepherd was attending a conference where Bruce Alberts, then-future president of the National Academy of Sciences,… Read More

Neil Cargile (center) at a Florida club with Dorothy Koss (left) and Holly Armistead People saw Neil Cargile Jr. in a great many ways. For me, though, an enduring vision was the very first one. I was a junior or senior at Montgomery Bell Academy back then, and there he… Read More

Lawson Aschenbach, right, celebrates a Street Tuner championship in September with team co-driver David Thilenius at Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City. LAWSON ASCHENBACH, BS’06 “There’s no better feeling than crossing the finish line first,” says professional racecar driver Lawson Aschenbach. He started racing go-karts at age 8,… Read More

Thirty Vanderbilt alumnae from 13 states—and nearly all from the Class of 1982—gathered in May to celebrate their collective 50th birthdays with a “Women on Wheels” reunion and bicycle trip through California’s wine country. During the trip, which was organized by Liz Schwartz Hale, BSN’83, and her family’s Berkeley, Calif.,… Read More

MURRAY FISHER, BA’98 Murray Fisher, founder and program director of the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, has been interested since childhood in protecting the natural world and bringing back its former abundance and diversity. At his first job, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s environmental group Riverkeeper, Fisher shouldered… Read More

Dr. Melvyn Koby returns the watch he pilfered 50 years ago. DR. MELVYN KOBY, BA’60 Fifty years ago Vanderbilt senior Melvyn Koby made off with a little piece of Vanderbilt history: a pocket watch from the statue of Francis Furman that stands on the landing inside Furman Hall. “It… Read More

Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos goes crowd surfing with first-year students before the home football game against Northwestern University on Sept. 4. Northwestern squeaked by Vanderbilt 23–21 in the season opener. PHOTO BY JOHN RUSSELL… Read More

Cornelia Clark Sworn in as Tennessee Chief Justice The Hon. Cornelia A. Clark, BA’71, JD’79, became the second woman in the state’s history to serve as chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court when she was sworn into office Sept. 1. She took the oath at the historic Williamson County Courthouse in… Read More

Cathy Bender-Jackson, BS’82, and Karen Jefferson Morrison, BS’82, are leading the AVBA Scholarship fundraising effort. Members of the Association of Vanderbilt Black Alumni are taking a historic step in making the university accessible to all deserving students. AVBA supporters are working to establish an AVBA Scholarship that will be open… Read More

Keith Mumford during his Vanderbilt tennis days The Class of 1990 lost a good friend when Keith Mumford, BA’90, died June 28, 2009, following a heart transplant. Mumford lived in Richmond, Va., and was an investment banker with BB&T Capital Markets. At Vanderbilt he was a varsity tennis player and… Read More

The Class of 1985 The reviews are in, and Reunion 2010 was a resounding success. The weekend of friendship and fun is also one of the most important fundraising events in the life of the university. During halftime of the Homecoming game Oct. 23, Reunion General Chairs Ginny Place Myer,… Read More

The Vanderbilt Alumni Association e-newsletter, Alumni eXclusive, provides information exclusively for and about Vanderbilt alumni—and if you’re not currently receiving it, that means we don’t have your email address. To ensure you receive this quarterly publication, please update your email address at www.vuconnect.com. Read More

Incoming first-year students from the London area gather with alumni members of the London Vanderbilt Chapter for a Spring Tea in May at the home of Patti Early White, BA’76, and her husband, George. Gifts to the Sustaining Alumni program support events like this. As an alumnus of Vanderbilt, you… Read More

Alumni have the opportunity to be involved in Vanderbilt’s admissions process from beginning to end, thanks to a unique partnership between the Office of Alumni Relations and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions that encourages alumni volunteerism at each stage along the way. For many prospective students, the beginning stage of… Read More

The Vanderbilt Alumni Association has partnered with Abenity Inc. to offer alumni more than 60,000 local and national discounts at hotels, restaurants, movie theaters, retailers, florists, car dealers, theme parks, national attractions, and concerts and other events. To register, go to www.abenity.com/VanderbiltAlumni. Once you have registered, you will… Read More