Correction

Torchbearer regrets erroneously reporting in its last print issue the death of William L. Boyd ’57. He holds the Batschetlet Chair of Educational Leadership at Penn State University and is editor of the American Journal of Education.

His brother-in-law, Walter Shields Remine ’56, who was a writer, critic, and editor of the Ballet Review, died Oct. 28, 2006.

Legal Clinic Turns 60

In honor of the UT Legal Clinic’s 60th anniversary, the College of Law is hosting a celebration and symposium entitled “Looking Forward to the Next 60 Years of Clinical Legal Education” Sept. 14-15.

The event will explore the future of clinical legal education. Included will be a writing workshop for clinical professors, scholarly presentations, and an anniversary dinner where Associate Dean Douglas Blaze will be thanked and acknowledged for his contributions as director of the Legal Clinic.

Professor Bryan Stevenson will be the keynote speaker for a Saturday luncheon. Other presenters include Professors Brenda Bratton-Blom, Kate Kruse, Tamar Meekins, Pamela Metzger, Michael Pinard, Stephen Rosenbaum, and Jane Wettach.

Check the College of Law Web site for registration and other details or call the Legal Clinic at 865-974-2331.

The UT Legal Clinic, founded in 1947 by the late Charles H. Miller, is the oldest continuingly operating clinic in the United States.

Alumnus Cements
Wilson Connection

Genealogy is a popular pastime, but seldom does one “strike it rich” as Kent Woodrow (’72) did.

Woodrow had heard for years that his family was related to former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. Now he has confirmed that his great-great grandfather was the brother of President Wilson’s mother.

Woodrow and his wife, Molly Flook Woodrow (’70), attended the first-ever Wilson and Woodrow family reunion in Staunton, Va., last year. The gathering commemorated President Wilson’s 150th birthday. While there, Kent Woodrow confirmed the familial connection.

He told the News Virginian that his famous second cousin twice removed was “like an urban legend” and that he was proud to be officially entered into the family tree.

Kent and Molly Woodrow live in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are retired high school educators now working for Xavier University in Cincinnati.

Madden Publishes New Books

David Madden ’57 has re-issued A Primer of the Novel: For Readers and Writers with Charles Bane and Sean Flory. This handbook, published by Scarecrow Press, presents the history of the novel as a literary form and identifies terms and artistic techniques. Madden is the Donald and Velvia Crumbley Professor of Creative Writing at LSU. He is the author of nine novels, including two Pulitzer Prize nominees, two books of short stories, and many critical works. Madden’s new Touching the Web of Southern Novelists describes how the works of noted authors such as Faulkner, Wolfe, and Agee have influenced his writing. Also recently published is an analysis of Madden’s life’s work, David Madden: A Writer for All Genres, co-edited by Randy Hendricks and James A. Perkins. Both are available from the University of Tennessee Press.

Thornton Moves Up at the
White House

In some jobs, you spend your first day of work reading the benefits manual and locating the office coffee pot. Not so for Dori Thornton. She helped host a dinner for Queen Elizabeth.
The Chattanooga native began her job as deputy social secretary at the White House May 7—the day of the state dinner in honor of the queen. One of the youngest women ever to hold the position, Thornton (’03 communications) says she can’t believe she has such a plum job.

“I’m still in disbelief. I never thought I would get this job,” she says. But her qualifications were quite good. She was a veteran of two White House event planning jobs—one in the Office of Legislative Affairs and the other in the Visitors Office. She also worked on President George W. Bush’s inaugural.

The daughter of former UT trustee John Thornton (pictured above with Dori) and Sally Lockett and a graduate of GPS in Chattanooga, Thornton was active at UT as social chair of Chi Omega, chairman of Senior Gift, a UT ambassador, and recruitment chair of Dance Marathon.

She says her new job has kept her hopping. Among the events she worked on during her first few weeks: a military spouses day, an Asian-American celebration, a luncheon hosted by the first lady, a Memorial Day reception, and a visit from Prime Minister Tony Blair. Her favorite, though, was the motorcycle-riding leaders of the Rolling Thunder, a veterans’ advocacy organization, who roared onto the White House grounds in bandannas and leather to be welcomed in the Oval Office by an impeccably suited-and-tied President Bush.

Thornton says the most gratifying aspect of her new position is to see how people, regardless of their political leanings, are “so appreciative and touched” to be guests of the president and first lady at the White House.

Although the social staff workload will be less hectic when the Bushes are traveling later this summer, Thornton says the staff’s work is already cut out for them.

“In August when the president and Mrs. Bush are away, we’ll be making plans for Christmas events. There’s never a day off at the White House during the holidays!” she says.

Ultimately Thornton hopes to move “back South” to Nashville or Atlanta and have her own event planning business, coordinating “everything from weddings to political fundraisers.”

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UT National Alumni Association
Outstanding Teacher Nomination

Please nominate a UT faculty member for the UTNAA Outstanding Teacher - 2008. A committee of faculty, alumni, and students reviews nominations to select four winners. Selection is based on the nominations plus supporting materials submitted by the candidates and their deans and classroom observations.

To be considered, nominations must include each of the following:

• Nominee's name
• Nominee's department
• Nominee's college
• Reason for nomination
• Your name
• Your graduation year

Deadline: October 31, 2007
Note: Incomplete nominations will not be considered.

E-mail nominations to Mary Holtman-Reed at mholtman@utk.edu.

Boyd Takes National
Professor Honors

Being national professor of the year is a momentous honor. But for Donna Boyd (’81, ’84, ’88), the award has even more significance: Boyd studied under a UT anthropology professor who won the honor in 1985.

“This is the same award that was won by UT’s famous Dr. William Bass in 1985,” the Radford University professor says. “This represents the first time that this national award has been won by a professor and then, a generation later, his student. Dr. Bass was not my major professor, but I was a student of his and his teaching assistant.”

Boyd is a native of Johnson City, Tenn. Her husband, Cliff Boyd, is a UT anthropology graduate (’82, ’86) as well and also is on the Radford faculty.

Donna Boyd recalls UT anthropology professors Gerald Schroedl and Richard Jantz as some of her faculty favorites, as well as Dr. Fred Smith, who has since left UT.

The professor of the year award is given by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Boyd has been at Radford for 17 years. Her specialty is physical anthropology, which focuses on human remains. She has been lauded for her personal touch with students and for hands-on experience she gives students, such as involving them in criminal investigations. She and her husband have done research on Native American and post-Civil War bones.

She assists with investigations of homicide cases when skeletal remains are involved. She is an adjunct member of the Virginia State Medical Examiner’s Office, a voluntary position, and recently completed training through the Department of Homeland Security that will allow her to lend her forensic expertise following national disasters.

Boyd also recently received a Virginia Outstanding Professor Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the state’s highest accolade given to college and university professors.