The first academic building for which the entire funding was the result of a donation ($4.6 million) came from the estate of alumnus Dr. William W. Burchfiel Jr. The building is named for his father, W. W. Burchfiel Sr., who earned the bachelor’s (1940) and the master’s (1941) degrees in geography at UT. He earned the doctorate in industrial geography and climatology from the University of Maryland in 1953.
Burchfiel Jr. died in 1995. His will provided that his first preference for the use of his estate was to fund the construction of a freestanding community college in Sevierville, responsible to the board of regents. If the board was unwilling to create a new school, UT was to receive the money, with the proviso that a new geography building be built, named after his father, and to be completed within three years of the university’s acceptance of the gift. If UT could not comply, the funds were to go to a church in Sevierville.
The board of regents proposed that constructing a branch of Walters State Community College in Sevierville would satisfy the terms of the will, and the Sevier County Court agreed. Burchfiel’s sister, Margaret Montgomery of Knoxville, appealed the decision, however, knowing of the enmity between Burchfiel and the then president of Walters State. The Court of Appeals, in an opinion critical of the Sevier County judge, agreed with Montgomery, and the funds were offered to UT.
In August 1997 the board of trustees accepted the gift and began construction of the building. Geography faculty moved into the building in the summer of 2000, and the building was officially dedicated in October 2000. The four-story brick structure contains 33,000 square feet. The building replaced Turner House.