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.
May Heads March of Dimes
Ken May ’94 of Dallas, president and CEO of FedEx Kinko’s, is chairman of the board of trustees of the national March of Dimes Foundation.
He holds a master’s degree from the UT College of Business Administration. He became active in the March of Dimes Foundation following the premature birth of his daughter. He has served on the foundation’s national board since 2004.
May joined FedEx Corp. in 1982 and became CEO of FedEx Kinko’s in 2006.
Manning Receives Communication Award
Peyton Manning ’97 received the 2007 Donald G. Hileman Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor an alumnus can receive from the College of Communication and Information.
“Peyton Manning is one of the greatest athletes of our time, but he is also an outstanding communicator and a role model for everyone with whom he comes into contact. We presented the Hileman Distinguished Alumni Award to Peyton in recognition of all that he has done off the football field to give back to society,” said Mike Wirth, dean of the College of Communication and Information.
Manning earned a bachelor’s degree in speech communication and was the top graduate in his major. He was a three-time Academic All-American. Following his senior season at UT, he won the Sullivan Award, which honors the top U.S. amateur athlete based on character, leadership, athletic ability, and the ideals of amateurism.
The Donald G. Hileman Award is named for the first permanent dean of the College of Communications, forerunner of the College of Communication and Information.
Pharmacy Honors Farr
Glen Farr received the UT College of Pharmacy Outstanding Alumni Award. Farr lives in Knoxville, where he is associate dean of the College of Pharmacy and professor of clinical pharmacy.
Farr is responsible for all UT pharmacy continuing education throughout the U.S. and the world. He also teaches pharmacy students at the Knoxville campus and nursing pharmacology courses in the UT Knoxville College of Nursing. He has been with the university 34 years.
“It is rare to be able to do what you want to do, where you want to do it,” Farr said of his UT career.
The Alcoa, Tenn., native is a former president of the Tennessee Pharmaceutical Association and was the 1983 Tennessee pharmacist of the year.
Farr attended UT Knoxville from 1967 to 1969 and received his pharmacy degree in 1973. His wife, Kathy (College of Education, Health and Human Sciences ’71), and the couple’s two sons are UT graduates.
Fitts Wins Jefferson Award
Mike Fitts ’71 of Nashville, a graduate of the College of Architecture and Design, has received the Thomas Jefferson Award of the American Institute of Architects.
Fitts has been Tennessee state architect for 35 years. In that position, he has overseen construction of more than $4 billion worth of public projects.
The Jefferson Award recognizes excellence in architectural advocacy and achievement. Fitts was one of only two winners of the national honor.
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Do You Have Yearbooks?
Do you have an extra copy of a University of Tennessee yearbook? The UT Development and Alumni Affairs Office is interested in yearbooks from any year. Their collection is missing 1902, 1903, 1917, 1918, 1923, 1935, 1984, 1998, 1999, and 2000.
Contact Phyllis Moore
(phyllis-moore@utk.edu)
or Anna Montgomery
(amontgomery@tennessee.edu).
Jeanne Barkley: Alumni Staffer
Tom Mattingly ’70, ‘77, former UT staff member, wrote this tribute for Torchbearer. He is the author of The Tennessee Football Vault: The Story of the Tennessee Volunteers, 1891-2006 and Tennessee Football: The Peyton Manning Years. You can contact Mattingly at tjmshm@comcast.net.
Alice Jeanne Barkley, who died July 31, may have been small in stature, but she cast a long shadow across the UT landscape for a long time.
During her 40-plus years in the Alumni Office, she was the epitome of the university to its grads, coordinating class reunions and other alumni functions. She was possessed with an exceptional sense of loyalty to the university. To call her “personable” would be an understatement.
“Jeanne probably knew more Tennessee alums than anybody,” said longtime friend and colleague John Smartt, who also noted that very few people spend more than 40 years with the same employer.
When alumni, young or old, gathered to plan a class reunion, they found Jeanne was excited to meet them and delighted that she could help them celebrate the memories of their UT years.
Each reunion, at one time numbering eight per year, was special to her. She was a perfect “fit” for her position.
Everything was always precisely organized, almost down to the minute; and everyone present had a good time. Everyone left with positive feelings about the university. And about Jeanne Barkley.
Even in 1985, when she told the class of 1970 reunion committee she was retiring, she had the same zeal, the same desire to serve she had exhibited so many times over the course of her career.
When she stood on the west sideline at halftime of Homecoming games through the years, she would always sing along when the band struck up Mary Fleming Meek’s University of Tennessee alma mater. Hearing Jeanne sing it would have made Mrs. Meek proud. More often than not there were soft tears on the cheeks of the alums standing around her. The tears arrived almost before people knew they were coming.
She possessed strong opinions and was not reluctant in the least to share them. She phoned me the day Don DeVoe was let go as head basketball coach and had a precise litany of the reasons he should have been retained. She was ever so adamant that the Athletic Department had “made a great mistake.”
She and I argued (politely, of course) about the closure of the Clinch Avenue viaduct near her home during and following the 1982 World’s Fair. Her arguments and influence eventually carried the day and the viaduct reopened, but she never held that over my head.
Jeanne Barkley was a true University of Tennessee treasure. She was “old school” in the best sense of the term.
The University of Tennessee is a better place for having had Jeanne Barkley in its employ. All of us who knew her are better for the experience. Every generation needs a Jeanne Barkley to light the way.
Godspeed, Jeanne Barkley.
Helon Brixey, Educator
One of UT’s oldest alumni, Helon Brixey of Knoxville, has died at age 106.
Brixey (Knoxville ’34, ’39) was a teacher and principal in Knoxville schools. She retired in 1971. Her death came June 15, 2007, in Knoxville.
She began her teaching career in Manchester, Tennessee, at the age of 17 and later came to Knoxville where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education.
Brixey’s sister Elizabeth and their mother, Florence Parker, were also UT graduates and teachers. Brixey was a longtime member of Church Street United Methodist Church in Knoxville.
Hastings: Alumni Association President
Jeannie Rummage Hastings ’70, president of the UT Alumni Association in 1995, died last August in Nashville. She was 64.
She and her husband, Jim (’71), were co-founders of Hastings Architecture Associates in Nashville. All three of their sons also are UT graduates. She was a former chair of the UT Women’s Council and served on the UT alumni Board of Governors. She chaired many boards and activities including the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, various symphony organizations, and Nashville’s Heart Gala and Italian Street Fair.
Hastings was a native of Lebanon, Tenn., and was buried in Milan, Tenn.
Got Egypt?
Do you have Egyptian-Revival style objects such as furniture, decorative items, or jewelry that you’d be willing to loan to UT’s McClung Museum for an exhibit? The museum will pay for packing and shipping.
A “Napoleon and Egyptomania in Tennessee” exhibit is scheduled for fall 2008. Curator Elaine Evans said only items from Tennessee will be included.
Egyptomania, also called the Egyptian-Revival style, was fashionable in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign and extensive study of ancient Egypt ignited the interest.
Egyptian-style motifs have a long tradition and have been found as early as the classical eras, Evans said. Through the ages Egyptian based motifs were used in buildings, furniture, decorative objects, writing tools, jewelry, paintings, sculpture, and a variety of ornamentations. Egyptian-style elements are also reflected in monuments in cemeteries, including pyramid and obelisk forms.
For more information about items for the exhibit, call Evans at (865) 974-2144 or email her at eaevans@utk.edu.