William S. Shields came to Knoxville in 1888. He was a founder of the City National Bank, one of Knoxville’s three largest banks, and became its president in 1892. (In 1930, City National Bank was absorbed into East Tennessee National Bank, which was reorganized after the Depression as the Park National Bank, then became First … Continued
During World War II, Liberty Ships were launched by the US Maritime Commission for use by the merchant marines. At least seven of the 2751 ships launched under this program were named for individuals with UT affiliations. Two were named for charter trustees—the USS John Sevier and the USS William Blount; one was named for … Continued
Dr. Shirley joined the faculty of the university’s Chemistry Department in 1953, and served as head of the department from 1962 to 1979. He retired from the faculty in 1979. He was a specialist in organic chemistry. Among his monographs are Preparation of Organic Intermediates (1951) and Modern Chemical Technology (1970). He was the author … Continued
Brigadier General Austin Shofner graduated in the class of 1937 with a bachelor’s in commerce. He lettered in wrestling and football at UT and continued as a player and coach with the San Diego Marines in the late 1930s. He engineered the first and only successful American-team escape from a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, bringing the … Continued
Dr. John W. Shumaker was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, where he majored in ancient Greek. He then received the master’s and doctoral degrees in classical studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty of Ohio State University in 1969 and became associate dean of the College of … Continued
Charles Fishman, a Washington, DC, lawyer who had known John Shumaker for some years and with whom Shumaker had jointly incorporated a business designed to allow universities to establish profitable international operations, was approached in 2002 by the China Electronics Corporation about building a joint American-Chinese high school in Beijing. He contacted Shumaker and arranged … Continued
On October 1, 2002, a noncompetitive contract was devised with Dr. Charles Gervase, whom Shumaker had known since his days as president of Central Connecticut State College where Gervase was dean of the College of Education. Gervase had helped to develop an international program in Siracusa, Sicily. Shumaker had been able, with Gervase’s help, to … Continued
In September 2002 President Shumaker sent a campus-wide email to announce the hiring of Educational Marketing Group of Aurora, Colorado, to assist in improving the academic image of UT. Shumaker had hired the firm to create a marketing campaign for the University of Louisville in 1995, during the time he was president of the institution. … Continued
John Shumaker was the first UT system president to maintain an office in Nashville. UT had previously maintained a small legislative relations office in Nashville (at an annual cost of $14,000) but gave that up and rented 3,500 square feet of new office space near the Capitol Building, including a private office for Shumaker. The … Continued
When John Shumaker assumed the presidency of UT, the President’s Suite on the eighth floor of the Andy Holt Tower was carpeted in orange carpet. In April 2003 Shumaker ordered new carpet. Instead of orange, or a neutral color, he ordered $40,000 worth of “crimson flow” carpet—the color of arch-rival Alabama, as well as of … Continued