Andy Holt, who would become UT’s 16th president on June 18, 1959, joined the UT staff in 1950 as administrative assistant to then-president C. E. Brehm. His primary responsibility was to seek working arrangements with other elements of Tennessee public education—from the State Department of Education, through the state colleges and high schools, to the elementary level. Holt received the baccalaureate degree from Emory University and the master’s and PhD from Teachers College of Columbia University; served as an elementary school teacher, a high school teacher, a coach, a school principal, a college professor (West Tennessee State Teachers College, now the University of Memphis); interrupted a 13-year stint as executive director of the Tennessee Education Association for two years’ military service (ending with the rank of major); and served (1948) as first vice president of the National Education Association and as the association’s president in 1949–50. He was a prolific and charismatic speaker, whose wit and “folksy” idiom persuaded many opponents as he achieved a solid national reputation as an advocate for education.
At UT, Holt became vice president in charge of public administration in 1953 and then president in 1959, an office he held until 1970. He oversaw the greatest institutional expansion, initiated development efforts, and, through his magnetism, interested the entire state in the well-being of UT.
His acts of kindness were legendary. He gave so many students rides up the hill that his car became known as Holt’s Taxi Service. He did not escape criticism—for the Billy Graham Crusade on campus during final examinations, for appointing campus administrators without consultation with faculty when the UT system was created, for disassociation with the issues of the student protest movement of the 1960s. He was, though, known throughout the state as Andy and was liked and respected both on campus and off.
In 1975 Confederate Women, by Civil War historian Bell Irvin Wiley, was dedicated to Holt (and to the author’s grandmother). A series of lectures delivered at UT by Wiley in November 1971 in Holt’s honor formed the basis for Confederate Women.
In 1938 Holt married Martha Chase, a University of Mississippi graduate from Memphis (born in Lucy, Tennessee). He included her in his wit and served with her as a team in a variety of civic endeavors. She was an active civic leader, serving on the boards of the Girl Scout Tanasi Council and Salvation Army. In 1961 Beta Sigma Phi named her First Lady of Knoxville.
The Andy Holt Tower is named for Dr. Holt, as are Andy Holt Avenue and the prestigious Andy Holt Scholarships.