This 6,361-square-foot house was built by Professor George Mellen in 1895 for his residence as part of the university’s agreement that faculty could build houses on campus, with the university subsequently purchasing them. (Three houses were built: one by President Dabney, one by Professor Charles Wait, and one by Professor Mellen.) Professor Mellen lived in … Continued

In summer 1997, led by Knox Heritage Director Kim Trent, local preservationists questioned the university’s decision to raze Turner House for the construction of the Burchfiel Geography Building. Chancellor Bill Snyder explained that the new facility needed to be in the Hill area in proximity to the cluster of science and engineering buildings and with … Continued

Charles Willard Turner joined the faculty of the College of Law in 1892. He received the BA (1861) and MA (1892) degrees from Amherst. At Amherst, he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was admitted to the bar in Boston in 1867 and practiced in Boston from 1867 to 1891. He came to … Continued

Helen Turner, the daughter of Charles Willard Turner, law professor and dean, was hired to assist Eliza Lucy Ogden in the Law Library in 1922. She took classes at UT but did not earn a degree. She continued to work in the Law Library until 1948 and lived in Turner House.

Country music/gospel singer and songwriter James Louis Turner studied industrial management and music at UT and earned the bachelor’s degree in industrial management in 1969. During college he played with the group The Gentlemen in the summers at the Riverside Motor Lodge (the hotel converted a large room into a club called The Cabaret). Following … Continued

Ronald Turner earned the bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from UT in 1968, one of the first three graduates of the program. In his sophomore year, he received an Air Force ROTC scholarship and became UT AFROTC’s Detachment 800’s wing commander. He served in the US Air Force from 1968 to 1973, working in the … Continued

Merlin Tuttle attended UT from fall 1959 to spring 1961 as an undergraduate.  He graduated from Andrews College in Michigan in 1964. Following his sophomore year, he went on the American Museum of Natural History’s Uruguayan Expedition, through which he worked in the field with Dr. Karl Koopman, one of the most respected bat taxonomists … Continued

Planning for UT’s second major national development campaign (the first was the Tennessee Tomorrow campaign) began in 1991, and the campaign was formally kicked off in 1994. The original goal of $250 million, announced in 1994, was subsequently raised to $308 million. When the campaign closed on October 23, 1998, $432 million in gifts and … Continued

In 1978 “Tooty Two Head,” a two-headed black rat snake (Elaphe obsoleta), came to the Psychology Department for study by herpetologist Dr. Gordon Burghhardt as a gift of Chuck Hahs, a junior in mechanical engineering, who caught the snake in Oak Ridge. (Hahs’s neighbor’s children named the snake; it was renamed “Im” upon arrival at … Continued

Artist Hugh Claverly Tyler was the twin brother of Laura Tyler Agee [Wright] and uncle of James Rufus Agee. The Tylers moved to Knoxville from Kalamazoo, Michigan, to be closer to the source of the marble used in the manufacturing of marble columns by Ty-Sa-Man Machine Company. Tyler received the BS from UT in 1905 … Continued