Fensington C. Lowry, a 1909 graduate of the university, was appointed Alumni Association general secretary and administrative secretary to the president on March 15, 1920. He replaced Nathan Dougherty as association secretary. He initiated the system of alumni chapters in 1920 by having current students organize chapters in each of Tennessee’s counties and organized the Alumni Association into a support group for the institution in his six years as secretary.
When the faculty voted, in 1922, to begin correspondence instruction, Lowry was placed in charge of those efforts and other extension efforts. In 1945 he was elected president of the National University Extension Association. He, W. Harold Read, and Julian Harriss served as the UT Publications Board until his retirement in 1956.
While a UT student, Lowry was editor of the Volunteer, a member of Phi Kappa Phi, a member of the Varsity German Club, a member of the Athletic Association, and played in the University Orchestra. He won the Allen Medal in Mathematics in 1907 and was commencement orator of the College of Liberal Arts. In addition to the UT bachelor’s degree, Lowry also attended Alfred Holbrook Normal University, received a law degree from the Chattanooga College of Law, and the master of arts degree from George Peabody College for Teachers. Before returning to UT, he had been a rural school teacher, a county school superintendent, a principal of schools in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, and head of the Mathematics Department at Tennessee Polytechnic Institute. He died in 1962.