Herman Spivey was appointed vice president of academic affairs in 1960, a post he held until 1968. He earned the AB, AM, and PhD in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and taught at the University of Florida and the University of Kentucky, where he became dean of the Graduate School in 1950. During his tenure as vice president, the undergraduate student body was integrated, and Spivey personally worked with restaurant and business owners in the vicinity of UT to integrate numbers of those as well.
He established a Department of Religious Studies that ended the Tennessee School of Religion, ended the university practice of campus-wide religious convocations, and secured funding for Oak Ridge scientists to teach at the Knoxville campus. He established the Computer Center, published the first Faculty Handbook, and spearheaded the successful effort to establish a UT chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
Upon leaving the vice presidency in 1968, he became a professor in the English Department, where his special interests were in American Literature. His most notable classes focused on the works of William Faulkner and on T. S. Eliot. He was the author of six books and numerous articles. He served as an officer in the navy during World War II, serving in both Atlantic and Pacific operations, and was a captain in the naval reserve at the time of his appointment to the UT vice presidency.
His papers and scrapbooks have been donated to the UT Libraries’ Special Collections.