Impact Stories

In my role here at Carson-Newman I have the privilege to talk to so many people and hear incredible stories. How they found their way to Mossy Creek. What their time at Carson-Newman meant to them. I realized when I would relate my conversations with other members of our team their reactions usually were the same as mine. They too were fascinated by these tales that, often many years later, still brought a lilt to the voice of the narrator as he or she recalled that time.

It was then I decided some of these stories I had been blessed to hear were too good for me to keep to myself or within the confines of our department. I wanted to tell them to anyone who would listen. Not only because of the value of the tale, but with a hope it encourages others to tell us their stories.

More than 30 minutes had passed in the conversation with Dr. Boyd Burris and we had barely discussed anything about him. Sure, we had touched on his childhood in the Jefferson City suburb of Strawberry Plains. But the conversation, mainly, was about his late wife: Marcella Mays Burris. The way he talked expressed a love that was obvious, even eight years after her passing.

Listening to Dr. Burris discuss Marcella and reflecting on it later, it was fitting she was a 1951 graduate of Carson-Newman. Our centennial anniversary, 100 years after opening its doors on the banks Mossy Creek, Marcella Mays was a perfect example of the opportunity Carson-Newman provides students in our area of Appalachia – the reason the school was established.

“She wanted to go to Carson-Newman,” Dr. Burris said. “Her dad wanted her to go to Carson-Newman. But he didn’t have the money.”

Dads know how it is. What do we do, what sacrifices are made to try to provide our children with something we know will benefit them in the long run, possibly for the rest of their lives? Mr. Mays knew what he could do.

“He went to campus,” Burris recalled. “He went to see Dr. Harley Fite, the president of the school. He told him, ‘Dr. Fite, my daughter wants to come to Carson-Newman but I don’t have the money. I don’t have it now but I will. If you let my daughter come here for a year, I will sell enough cows between now and next year to pay her bill in full and whatever is owed.’ ”

It was bold really. Just a couple of years removed from a world war, money was not necessarily easy to come by. Especially in parts of East Tennessee Appalachia. But a father wanted a Christ-centered education for his daughter and made a commitment. If only the offer would be accepted.

“Dr. Fite said OK. He said Marcella could go to Carson-Newman.”

Of course, because Marcella is referred to earlier in this piece as a 1951 graduate of Carson-Newman, one can jump to the end of the story and know that Mr. Mays made good on his pledge. In a year’s time, he sold enough cows to pay Marcella’s bill.

But jumping to that point would be leaving out so much.

A graduate in voice, she served in the A Capella and Chapel Choirs, where she was as an officer. She was a member of the campus Calliopean Literary Society and held one officer position or another each of her four years. She served in Women’s Student Government (when there were separate ones for male and female students), Third Vice President of the Baptist Student Union, a member of the campus volunteer band and vice-president of the W. Powell Hale Players Dramatic Club.

On page 187 of the 1951 yearbook, it states: Each year, it is customary for the student body to choose from member of the Senior Class one girl and one boy who best typifies respectively the traits of Character, Intellectuality, Loyalty, Friendliness, Versatility and Personality.

Dr. Burris remembers Marcella’s selection in her senior voice recital. He recalls that her junior year, she was asked by the Southern Baptist Convention to travel to Southern California on break and teach bible school.

He did not attend Carson-Newman. But yet he spoke so thoughtfully of how fondly Marcella would talk of Carson-Newman and what it had meant to her. He wanted to do something to honor her. So, he started an endowed scholarship in her name to help students, like Marcella, studying vocal performance.

A commitment to help future Marcellas, who he may never know or even meet. Maybe one who wants to come to Carson-Newman and just might be trying to figure out how. A commitment similar to the one her dad made more than 70 years ago.

As we hung up with a promise to talk again soon, I was grateful. Grateful to serve God’s Kingdom at Carson-Newman. Grateful to talk with folks like Dr. Burris and learn about alums such as Marcella Mays Burris.

And I was grateful to Dr. Fite for giving her dad time to sell the cows.

And grateful he was able to sell them.

Without it, I would have never heard Marcella’s story or had the chance to tell it to you.

This is the first of what I hope will be many. I sincerely hope it touches you as it has us and offers a glimpse of how special this place is here on the banks of Mossy Creek.

David Ray Skinner probably was like a lot of college students in the early 1970s. Even on the campus of a Christian University, things such as the Vietnam War and Watergate created some interesting discussion topics.

David Skinner grew up putting one foot in front of the other. But the perspective one does not have as a child and teenager seems to develop as life moves and seasons change. With the help of a rear-view mirror and a life lived, what appeared as challenges or even crises at one point later become, well, meaningful.

“I would have to concede that while I was a student, I never thought of life after college,” Skinner said. “After all, my whole life had been based around ‘getting to the next grade or school level,’ i.e., in 6th grade at elementary school, I was thinking ahead to 7th grade and junior high; in 9th grade junior high, I was thinking ahead to being a high school upperclassman and as a high-school senior, I was looking ahead to college. That was where the train (of thought) stopped. I had no interest (nor the money) to take it any further. My whole reality was that of a student, not an adult in the real world.”

Skinner did not know it, but he was not alone then. And he likely is not alone now. Fifty years after David Skinner was walking a path not really thinking about where it led, some students today face those same questions.

A week or so after Skinner crossed the stage to receive his diploma, which at times did not seem guaranteed David admits, his dad asked him, “Now that you have a diploma, when are you going to get a job?”

Skinner, an art major, said he thought about the challenges along the way, the questions, even the advice he received NOT to attend Carson-Newman.

“I couldn’t help but reflect on the advice from my high school guidance counselor to stay away from Carson-Newman and go to Memphis Art Academy or some other ‘commercial art school.’ I wanted a school that provided a range of studies and experience, and…one that had a football team, because I thought that would help define ‘the college experience.’”

And it bore fruit.

“Against the odds, and much to the surprise of me and my father, I did get a job that Fall after my graduation, and it was directly related to my Carson-Newman experience,” Skinner said. Let’s let him take it from here.

“My work with the Orange & Blue (the former school newspaper) for all four years, the final two as editor-in-chief, gave me the experience and the equivalent of a minor in journalism, and I was hired as a reporter for the Sevier County Times. I had learned how to do newspaper layout in college, and I perfected that at the Times. That gave me the experience and knowledge to be hired as an Art Director of Around Nashville in 1976. The experience at Around Nashville gave me the portfolio to be hired as an assistant art director of Record World Magazine in NYC in 1977.

“In 1980, they promoted me to Art Director and some of my covers were used as props on the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati. Then, as art director of a major music trade magazine, I was hired to be the art director of Doubleday’s Literary Guild Magazine in 1982.”

Two years later, in 1984, Skinner took another step down life’s path; by this point, having a better idea of where we wanted to go and what might be next.

“Fast forward to 1984 when I started Indelible Inc., an Atlanta print and design agency with two partners,” Skinner said. “As VP and Creative Director, my job was to create solutions from client need. That was exactly what I learned as an art major from 1970-1974 as a student under Dr. (Earl) Cleveland.”

In the ensuing years, Skinner has been commissioned to do a painting for a Supreme Court Justice, created advertising artwork for some of the world’s biggest brands, played music with his own band and even co-written a song with John R. “Johnny” Cash. David jokes some of it did not pay much but there are “bragging rights.”

Indeed, our guess is the number of people who have co-written a song with the Man in Black AND had his artwork commissioned by a Supreme Court Justice is a very small club indeed. Maybe even a club of one.

Skinner, who also publishes an online magazine called the Southern Reader, is reflective of his time at Mossy Creek. He talks about his “brothers” the Philos, many of whom lived in a house where the Drama and Ted Russell Center now sits. A side note – when the site was being prepped for construction of the incredible new facility, the foundation for that old house was uncovered. Two bricks from that foundation now find their home on the side of the Drama and Ted Russell Center.

“Then there’s the Philo connection,” Skinner says. “Still today, my brothers from 50 years ago are among my best friends. And some of my brothers have achieved amazing things. Were we the prototype for ‘Animal House’ a half decade later? No, we were Baptist boys at heart, so I’d have to say we were more ‘Petting Zoo’ than ‘Animal House.’ These guys, my band, and Carson-Newman changed my life.”

And it almost did not happen.

Skinner served on the campus newspaper, the Orange & Blue, almost from the time he arrived at Mossy Creek. Influenced by friend and co-O&B staff member Tom Ficara, Skinner’s work on the paper was noticed, as was the publication itself. At the end of Skinner’ sophomore year, Ficara asked for a “comic book” for the final issue of Spring, 1972. When Skinner asked how much, Ficara said “four pages.” Skinner’s answer was to create the character and fictitious C-N student Owen Bee. Owen Bee. O&B. Get it?

That summer, however, in July, David’s mother passed away. His father was a foreman in a downtown Nashville printing plant, so his mother had taken a position in a local school to pay for David’s college. With her now gone, David returned to campus in fall of 1972, but without a clue as to how he was going to stay because he had less of a clue as to how he was going to pay.

In that era, the position of editor of the Orange & Blue was an elected position … and … brought with it some scholarship funds. However, the position of editor had been filled by election the previous semester. So that was not an option.

Or was it?

“The guy who was elected editor decided to (transfer). In a panic, the administration arranged to have a special election for editor. They noticed I was only three hours shy of having the required journalism hours, so they asked me to run with the stipulation that I would take the three hours that Fall.”

Much of the student body remembered the Owen Bee comic strip, and its author, and Skinner won the position.

“With the win, came the scholarship, so I was able to stay in school, Skinner said. “That’s when I had to figure out how to write and how to do layout, both of which I do to this very day.”

So, back to this day, 50 years later.

“My own personal mission statement is to make an eternal difference,” Skinner said. “And, I believe that my years at Carson-Newman—from my art classes, to my editorship, to the awakenings I experienced in Theology class (Ed. note: which are not part of the curriculum at the art schools he was encouraged to attend) prepared me for times such as these. I also think the Lord has blessed me and protected me through His Grace to work toward that end.”

David Skinner says God has been in it the entire path. Even when he did not know where the path led. Coming to Carson-Newman instead of a specialty school. The desire to get a well-rounded experience, not just academically but personally. The possibility upon the death of his mother of not being able to continue school. To have a solution suggested that could include a scholarship, but a position already filled – and then was not. A scholarship that would not have existed if supporters of Carson-Newman had not given of their resources. Friends made then that remain friends today. Life-changing circumstances.

And those things, all of them, are meaningful for David Ray Skinner.

Mark Isom’s goals seemed simple, but they were not.

He wanted to play football in college and then, hopefully, in the National Football League, however, there were steps that had to be taken to get there. One of the first steps for Mark was to decide where to play football in college. Well, really, before that was, where to go to college?

Having drawn attention to his skill on the field during his days at Carter High School, just a few miles down the road from Mossy Creek, Carson-Newman certainly was the closest and a very appealing option.

“To become a student at Carson-Newman, I don’t know how I got in,” Isom said, stating some of his test scores were not all that great, but people believed in him, believed not only in the student-athlete he could be, but the man he could become.

“I came here to Carson-Newman as a student-athlete and had ambitions of playing professional football,” Isom said. “And hoping I could be the first in my family to graduate from a prestigious school like Carson-Newman.”

God has a purpose for us all and it often is not the one we think. Isom’s time on the field at Carson-Newman was impactful and played a key role in the tremendous success of the Eagle football program in the 1980’s. He did not, however, make it to the NFL, injuries ended that possibility.

Adversity builds character and strength. It teaches us things, like, while we may not be able to control what happens to us, we can control how we respond.

Isom did not leave Carson-Newman with a path to the NFL. He left with four years’ worth of time, close friendships, effort, life lessons, adversity and success, and a degree in business management. That was his path. That was his purpose.

In the summer of 1984, Mark started working with a local janitorial service company as a janitor. Today, he is the owner of a janitorial service and building maintenance company – Premiere Building Maintenance Corporation located near the downtown area of Knoxville, TN.

“My staff doesn’t like to hear me say this, but I am a janitor,” Isom said. He has been a janitor for 40 years now and has owned his own company, Premiere, for 28 of those years. He has built his company from just a few staff members to more than 500 employees company wide with clients in different states including  Tennessee, South Carolina, Indiana and Georgia.

They are part of who he is; what he is. They are part of his purpose.

As owner of Premiere, the employees are His Team. “No one,” he said. “Sees me changing light bulbs or mowing grass or emptying trash cans.”  “That”, he says, “is because of the work that those 500 folks do every single day.”

In 2004, Mark was named the “Tennessee Small Business Person of the Year”. In 2018, Premiere earned a national award for a business of its size from the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

“I came to Carson-Newman as an athlete and I came here to play football,” Mark said. “I left here a student, a graduate of this University. Not everybody has that opportunity. And some who do, don’t make it.”

That is one reason Isom remains so involved in his alma mater. Knowing what students learn at Carson-Newman, from his own personal experience, Mark has hired more than 40 students through the years to work in his company.

“I never thought I could go to college and be a student,” he said. “I thought maybe I had a chance to go to college and be an athlete. … Having avenues for those students, finding ways for them to get in and finding paths for them, this is how we can be successful for those students.”

Team always has been a big part of his life. As an athlete, a student and now a business owner.

When he was at Carson-Newman Mark was a leader on the Eagle football team. Today he continues to host reunions of those same teammates, classmates and lifelong friends each year during the fall season. The bond is obvious. Some of these men, many who have not seen each other in more than 30 years, cry tears of joy when they see each other again at these gatherings.

It is the same with his staff, the employees of Premiere, are a team.

“I am the head of the company, so I get the accolades,” he said. “I get the complaints too, but I get the pats on the back. But whatever we accomplish, we accomplish as a team. All of the folks around me and all of the opportunities God has given us, that is the whole part. I am just a piece.”

A piece, with a purpose.

How do we respond?

Pick any saying. “When the rubber meets the road.” “When the going gets tough.” “When push comes to shove.”

They are the same really. Different ways to say the same thing. They challenge how one responds when things get challenging. How do we respond? Do we step up or step back?

Three years ago, Carson-Newman President Charles A. Fowler and the University executive team created a group; a society. The purpose? To honor those who, when the rubber met the road, stepped up.

The Robert Reedy Bryan Society was formed to honor those who have honored the University by their service.

Bryan was one of the founders of the institution, one of the driving forces pushing for an institution of higher learning rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was one of the first three officers called to serve the school when it opened in September 1851, along with first President William Rogers and financial agent C.C. Tipton.

When Rogers passed away from complications of typhoid fever less than three months after the opening of the school, Bryan, the lead classroom instructor and designer of the curriculum, was also asked to serve as interim president. He did so.

In 1852, he oversaw construction of the Seminary’s first building, located on the banks of Mossy Creek. The following year, he returned to teaching, specializing in natural sciences, a role he fulfilled for the next 13 years. Like many places, the College suffered in the years during and following the Civil War. In 1866, Bryan once again answered the call to serve as president. Now closed due to the war’s aftereffects, his second term required extensive fundraising and bold leadership to position the school for a future of possibilities waiting on the horizon. He stands as an example of one who devoted so much to the health and well-being of the College, regardless of the role and weight of the responsibility in which he was challenged.

Emblematic of the characteristics and example set by Bryan in his willingness to “stand in the gap” and invest his career in the service to and advancement of what is now Carson-Newman University, the Robert Reedy Bryan Society has been created. Each year, starting with this illustrious group, Carson-Newman will induct into the society retired faculty, staff and others whose dedicated and selfless service to Carson-Newman is exceptional, inspirational and meritorious. It is designed to honor those who have honored this University by answering the call to go above and beyond and through their actions and attitudes have raised the bar for us all.

Through the past three years, in a special ceremony during spring commencement, 14 individuals who met these criteria with their service, their willingness to step up and stand in the gap when called, have been honored with induction into the Robert Reedy Bryan Society.

Among this group are seven former faculty members with more than 250 years of combined service to Carson-Newman, alumni, board members, staff; each one dedicating themselves to the mission of the school and the students it serves.

Mary Phipps mended clothes for female students far from home. Her sister Gladys Clay was a strict but beloved counselor for many student-athletes who looked at her as a second mother. Frank Pinkerton led the chemistry department and coached the women’s tennis team for severalyears. Vickie Butler, an alum herself, served as alumni director and impactful fundraiser for the institution.

Ann Jones and Jim Baumgarder taught music and history, respectively, with a passion that is often fondly remembered by former students and colleagues. Eddie Carter played basketball at Carson-Newman and then served in various roles in the athletic department for decades, mentoring student-athletes like he had been.

T. Max Bahner, who as a son of a former professor grew up at Mossy Creek, and Jeanette Blazier, a former cheerleader and proud alum are two of the longest-serving members of the Board of Trustees. Carey Herring (math) and Jim Coppock (business) not only taught for a combined 80-plus years, but served as chair, dean and director of multiple committees, programs and departments.

Becky Boatright came to Carson-Newman at the suggestion of a friend and faithfully served for 36 years in every role she was asked to fill. In his decades at Mossy Creek, Mark Heinrich held more than 10 titles, including dean and men’s tennis coach; and Joe Bill Sloan, a modern-day Robert Reedy Bryan himself, an alum and professor of more than 40 years, stepped in when asked to serve as interim president of the University for several months in 2007 and 2008.

Their more detailed stories can be read here: Robert Reedy Bryan Society

So, back to the original question. How do we respond when we are asked?

And how do we respond to those, when asked, stepped up.

As the Scripture passage from Matthew 25 states, when being faithful with a few things, one often gets put in charge of many things.

For those, the ones who stepped up when the rubber met the road? Well, from our standpoint, the response is full appreciation.

Character. It can mean various things; a word that can be used in different ways.

“She has a lot of character.”

“He sure is a character.”

“He is such a good actor; people remember his characters more than his real name.”

“Winnie-the-Pooh is my favorite cartoon character.” (Just threw that one in there.)

I appreciate people with character, on whose word you can rely. I appreciate characters. I appreciate Pooh.

That is one of the things we hear often about Carson-Newman, the actual grounds, the 200-plus acres that make up this campus on the banks of Mossy Creek. That it has character.

True enough. Character is part of our mission. We have had our share of characters. But at Carson-Newman, sometimes the “character” is not a person, but a place. Anyone out there remember “The Barn?” Students actually wrote an obituary in the campus newspaper when that building was razed.

Like a great novel or a cast from a movie, those characters permeate Mossy Creek, both young and old alike. In a history that spans more than 170 years, our campus has buildings that span nearly 70 percent of that life cycle.

Construction on Sarah Swann Hall began 120 years ago and the first female students moved in the following fall. Over the years and decades, it has become more than a building. It is a living part of this University. Built by Colonel A.R. Swann and named in honor of his mother, it remains one of the most popular facilities on our campus.

Throughout the past century, thousands of students have called Sarah Swann home. It has seen more than its share of meetings, functions and even a few weddings – a couple on the morning(s) of commencement.

When opened a little more than 100 years ago, Butler-Blanc Gymnasium was a state-of-the-art attraction throughout the entire Southeast. Housing facilities for basketball and swimming and including a suspended track in the upper level (do not put too much arch on a jump shot from the corner!)

Our beautiful campus is home to buildings, structures – characters – from nearly every decade, serving their purpose and standing in the gap as new areas are built.

Baker, now home to, among other things, our award-winning ROTC program, The Store and more. Through the years, it has hosted Family and Consumer Sciences, the offices of the Orange & Blue (former campus paper) and The Appalachian (yearbook) and the student activities center (before the Maddox Center) and the cafeteria (prior to Stokely).

Burnett Hall, first, was the home of former president Jesse McGarity Burnett. An alum of Carson College, before the merger of the men’s and women’s institutions, Burnett was a professor of foreign languages and philosophy and later became chairman of the faculty before being named president of the institution 1912-1917. When first used, it housed 24 female students. After renovations and remodeling twice, the original structure and some other buildings were removed to make way for the current building in the early 1960s. More than 15,000 female students have made Burnett home through the years.

Alumni Hall has been a men’s residence life facility, then a women’s facility and then back to men’s.

Warren Hall (1939) has been home to the sciences, chemistry, biology, physics and mathematics and even once housed the school’s Office for Alumni Relations. For decades now, it has been home to the Carson-Newman Art Department.

When enrollment grew and space was at its maximum, new facilities have been built.

In the last 25 years, Appalachian Commons apartments, Blye-Poteat Hall (the new home to Family and Consumer Science) and Ted Rusell Hall.

In the last two years, the Drama and Ted Rusell Center, the new home to our health sciences programs, has opened (August 2023), West Campus Commons, a 524-bed residence life facility is opening soon. There are needs and plans for new buildings for Chemistry, Biology, the Social Sciences and our award-winning Education program.

There are memories here, pouring out of the walls. A common refrain when friends return to Mossy Creek and gather together, the conversations are contagious. They do more than simply talk, they reminisce.

Stories, memories, one after one, flow, usually beginning with the phrase “do you remember?”

Those memories are part of the character, the history. The DNA.

There is an obvious appreciation. As years pass and times change, there is an appreciation for the good times; and as we gain life perspective, maybe an appreciation for the challenges as well. We are reassured multiple times in Scripture of God’s promises over overcoming hardships and that He already has won the battle.

And there is an appreciation on our part for others. For the nearly 26,000 alumni living and serving in all 50 states and 61 countries; an appreciation for those who came before us to lead – whose names are on the buildings mentioned above; an appreciation for those who helped build the buildings, and pay the bills and support the school, some known, some anonymous.

And an appreciation for the vision more than 170 years ago of those who gathered, talked and prayed for a way to build and open an institution of higher learning rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

An appreciation for Carson-Newman and what it has meant in the lives of so many.

Transformational.

That is the way William “Bill” Hild describes the impact Carson-Newman has had on his life.

Carson-Newman was not on his radar in high school. He was from Florida and a Christian school in the mountains of East Tennessee was not at the top of his list. In fact, it was not even on his list. He did not even know where it was.

But our plans are not always God’s plans and to East Tennessee Bill did head. Landing at McGhee Tyson Airport, Bill collected his bags and moved to the curb outside the terminal, with absolutely no idea where Jefferson City was or how he was going to get there.

“There was a limousine parked out front and I must have looked as lost as I felt because a guy there asked me where I was going,” Hild said. “I told him I was trying to get to Jefferson City, to Carson-Newman, but had no idea where it was or how I was going to get there.” Bill surely did not have enough money for a cab.

The owner of the limo has his driver bring Bill to Mossy Creek. He was blown away by the gesture. Humbled and maybe even a little overwhelmed, to this day, Hild is not sure who provided his transportation to the school – other than it was a God thing.

Four years later, in 1978, Hild earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion. He answered the call to ministry, spending 45 years serving at just three churches before retiring in 2020. Twenty-four of those years were spent serving as senior pastor for First Baptist Church of Sarasota, Florida. He is now pastor emeritus of the church. He is married to Beverly.

Not content with merely residing in Sarasota, Hild is an active member within his community. He co-founded the Sarasota Ministerial Association in 2001 and was the leader and emcee at the Fifteenth Anniversary of 911 at Sarasota National Cemetery. Hild also hosted five of the annual Thanksgiving Wednesday luncheons for those experiencing homelessness. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Hild led his church in recovery and support efforts, with his congregation donating more than $140,000 to help storm victims while delivering food and personal hygiene kits to those in the gulf coast regions. Not limited to boundaries, Hild’s compassion for others led him to ministry opportunities in more than 60 countries.

Because of his heart for service, Sarasota Ministerial Foundation presented him with the 2019 “Good and Faithful Servant Award.

Despite his career taking him around the world, geography was never a barrier with Hild staying connected to alma mater. He served as a member of Carson-Newman’s Board of Trustees. In 2021 he was awarded the Carson-Newman Triumph Award in Religion by the University.

His passion for archeology has taken him on multiple archeological digs. It is through these experiences of helping uncover secrets of the past that allows Hild to share his passion with others. This was evidenced in 2016 when he established The William Hild Collection of Biblical Antiquities as part of the Lynn and Lyndsey Denton Gallery at Carson-Newman.

Now serving as adjunct professor in the School of Biblical and Theological Studies, Hild is helping launch the University’s new archeology minor. In doing so, this past summer he led a group of five Carson-Newman students on an initial groundbreaking excavation in the Judean Desert of Herod the Great’s desert fortress. The experience, which made international headlines, was the result of an effort by Carson-Newman University, in support of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archeology and in collaboration with the American Veterans Archeological Recovery (AVAR).

Last fall, October 2023, Bill was presented with the University’s Founders’ Medallion. His presentation to the gathering was powerful enough to us to decide to include it here.

We hope you appreciate the testimony and experience of transformation that Bill went through himself and tells of others who experienced the same.

There are dozens, hundreds, of books and, according to at least one web site, around 700 movies, set in the future. That includes at least three Back to the Future storylines.

The Twilight Zone made a habit of telling stories of the future.

Yes, the future is a broad topic. Yes, only the Lord knows what it holds.

Scripture is full of guidance and encouragement regarding the future and our responsibilities in following paths in obedience to Jesus’ plan for each of us, Jeremiah 29:11being one of the most familiar: For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

It is there in 1 Peter, 1 Thessalonians and 2 Corinthians. It is there in Romans and James, Psalms and Proverbs.

It is not directing us to do nothing. But to do what we do within God’s guidance.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, it says in Proverbs 19:21, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.

As the five-year strategic plan for Carson-Newman University was being developed the name had to exemplify the mission. Acorns to Oaks is a fitting title.

Legend has it that some of the founders of our University stood under an oak tree to discuss the need for a Christian institution of higher learning. We never will know all those details. But what we do know is an acorn, a one-inch wide by one-inch tall nut, a product of oak trees, can create more oak trees. From this tiny form can grow a tree 40 to 80 feet tall with a 60 to 100-foot spread on average.

That is why Acorns to Oaks was such an appropriate call to the strategic plan. Taking ideas, plans and goals – proverbial acorns – and working to turn them into oaks. Not by our work but by God’s guidance. That is why the second part of the plan’s name is as important as the symbolism of the first half.

Acorns to Oaks: Pursuing God’s Preferred Future.

Like the earlier passage from Proverbs, not what is in our hearts, but what is the Lord’s purpose.

For more than 170 years, God’s provision has blessed our beloved University. And through those provisions, the table has been set for the future. The opportunity to follow the path comes on the shoulders of those who have come before us. The ability to reach those goals and dreams, to follow God’s preferred future, shall broaden the shoulders on which those in the future may stand.

Much has happened on the banks of Mossy Creek in the last five years.

The Drama and Ted Russell Center, a 48,000 square-foot home to nursing, exercise science and future health sciences initiatives, opened in August 2023.

West Campus Commons, the first large-scale residence life facility in nearly 60 years is taking shape on Bishop Avenue, to the west of Blye-Poteat and Ted Russell Halls. At 110,000 square feet, more than 520 students will call it home.

After 70 years as a program and more than 20 years in its previous location of the old Jefferson City Hospital, the Child Development Lab is getting a new home on the far west side of campus off Overlook Avenue.

A new center for Campus Ministry and Missions and named in honor of alums Bill and Linda Viel. An office for Church Relations and Campus Ministries opened. A beautiful amphitheater overlooking Mossy Creek and dedicated in the names of former president and first lady Randall and Kay O’Brien provides an incredibly peaceful setting near the original site of our school. Oh, and a championship disc golf course now calls the banks of Mossy Creek home as well.

The Eagle Athletics tradition is stellar and the goal is to not only keep it that way but raise the bar. We have not only had Eagle student-athletes named national “player-of-the-week” in their respective areas but national player-of-the-year. To take those standards to another level, upgrades have been made.

In the last three years new playing surfaces have been installed for basketball, football, soccer and softball and a new beach volleyball facility has been developed as well as new weight room facilities.

New academic programs including archeology, a Master of Divinity, the Moser Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the College of Professional Studies have been created. Neweducations centers in Knoxville on Middlebrook Pike and Nashville, in partnership with Mt. Juliet First Baptist Church, opened.

But there is more to be done, planning embraced in prayer, to prepare for the future.

A new sciences complex with separate buildings for chemistry and biology is planned at the corner of Branner Avenue, directly across from Dougherty, and College Street in front of the new health sciences building.

Plans exist as well for a new academic home to the social sciences: History, Political Science, Psychology and Sociology and to move the award-winning Education Department out of the basement of Stokley and into its own space as well.

This is the future. Based on our past. Our heritage. The vision statement of Carson-Newman University and its leadership is to be the Christian liberal-arts University of choice in the Southeastern United States.

A foundation for this time was laid more than 170 years ago and reinforced and supported multiple times through the last 17 decades.

With prayer to follow God’s path, that is the future. His preferred future for our University,

That is why the future is now.

Legacy.

One word. Just six letters. But it carries such a powerful meaning. It permeates the depth of years, even generations.

In fact, that is its meaning. Something given, passed on, from an ancestor or previous generation. It could be many things. A tradition, a culture, a recipe, a way of life, finances for that way of life.

In a college setting, children of alumni often are referred to as legacy students.

Founders of companies hand down a legacy of management style and philosophy to future leaders. Parents leave a legacy to their children, often much deeper than just in a name.

Multiple times in Scripture we are given instruction on leaving a legacy, paying it forward so to speak – especially as it pertains to declaring God’s sovereignty.

Very clearly in chapter six of Deuteronomy it states: 5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 And you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. 8 You shall also tie them as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead. 9 You shall also write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Later in the Old Testament, specifically Psalm 78, we are told to hear, grasp and then tell: 1 Listen, my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will tell riddles of old, 3 Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. 4 We will not conceal them from their children, But we will tell the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His power and His wondrous works that He has done.

In 2 Timothy, Paul encourages Timothy. Paul leads him, providing advice and insight and then challenges Timothy to take what Paul has left and carry it on – a legacy.

Through more than 170 years, many legacies have shaped what started as Mossy Creek Baptist Seminary and now stands as Carson-Newman University. Some of those legacies not only have shaped the institution as it has molded tens of thousands of graduates from more than 60 countries but has literally helped it survive.

Faculty, staff, leaders, administration, presidents. All have played a role in the history of our beloved institution. We have had members of the faculty lead students for three, four, even into five decades. We still award scholarships today that were started 50 or even 60 years ago, giving students a chance to attend a school they otherwise may not have been able.

Those of us today blessed to serve at Carson-Newman are able to do what we do because of those who came before us. Our president, Dr. Charles A. Fowler, has said many times we stand on the shoulders of those folks.

It can be true, as years pass, that some moments in time stand to become simply dates on a calendar relegated to a footnote in history’s memory. But some, a few indeed, have been the difference between Carson-Newman moving forward or being forced to stop moving at all.

We strive to follow the path God lays before us. It is easy to imagine, when thinking of these circumstances, those faculty, staff, leaders, administrators and presidents standing at a virtual crossroads with a choice of which way to go and, fortunately for those of us today, choosing the one that allowed us to continue on that path.

Not one, but two smallpox epidemics. Not once, but two times the administration building burned to the ground. Losing much of our male enrollment to World War II and speculating how we would stay open.

Or losing the property altogether to another war, a domestic war that was far from civil, and wondering how we would reopen.

All of those are circumstances our University has faced in its history.

One of those individuals on whose shoulders we stand is Jesse Baker. A pastor at heart and in practice more than a college president, Baker is a bellwether in what is the Carson-Newman story. It is not an exaggeration to say had it not been for Baker and the horse on whose back he rode, we, more than 150 years ago, would have lost shoulders on which to stand.

Following the Civil War, a battle of which was fought at Mossy Creek, the school was in debt and in its buildings in shambles. In 1869, Dr. Baker, an alum of the school, was chosen by the Board of Trustees as president of the institution. The school had reopened the previous year but was around $6,000 in debt. Put in perspective, $6,000 of held wealth in 1869 is estimated to be equivalent to more than $2.3 million today.

But 6000 or 2.3 million is irrelevant, the school had neither.

With the help of his friend William T. Russell, then a faculty member and later president of Newman College, Baker set out on horseback. His goal? To promote the mission, vision and values of the school and the need, just as when it opened in 1851, for an institution of higher learning grounded in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And the need for funds to get it back on the proper path.

History records that Russell “operated the college” while Baker rode more than 3,000 miles around East Tennessee. Creditors had insisted on payment within a year. Otherwise the property would be up for auction.

Well, one does not have to flip to the end of the book and read the last chapter. We are here today so the funds were raised and chapters in our history continue to be written, Jesse Baker’s included.

Once the school was out of debt the next year, Baker, president for barely two years, resigned and went back to the pulpit and ministry full-time (something he had not stopped doing while serving as president). He stayed involved; continuing to teach classes and even serving as a member of the Board of Trustees, the same group who entrusted him to help save the school. More could be written here, but it is preferrable to let Baker’s friend and colleague, W.T. Russell take over.

Jesse Baker passed away May 29, 1902. A memorial service was held by the school’s Board of Trustees and alumni and Russell was tasked with honoring his late friend. Following is a transcript of some of his words.

“The college had just come out of the war a wreck, with a debt of $6,000 – the only assets being an unfenced campus and three dilapidated brick buildings, destitute of floors, windows and doors. Dr. Baker had been elected President. I had been elected, a mere boy, to a place in the faculty. We went to look over the grounds and talk over the work, August 7, 1869, the day of the total eclipse of the sun.   As we looked over the wrecked buildings and grounds, it seemed fitting to have the light of the sun shut out.   Dr. Baker was distressed because the property was in ruins and the people discouraged, the college about to be sold under debt, and its history about to end in dishonor.   As we turned to leave the cheerless spot he said, “let us undertake it.”  That was heroic faith.”

The legacy of Jesse Baker not only affects Carson-Newman to this day, but the lives of many who sat under his preaching.

“Dr. Baker then took up his work in this college. He was also pastor of the church, which held its meetings in one of the college buildings. It was during these years that some memorable revivals were held by him in the college. He taught during the day and preached at night.  In one of those great meetings 100 souls were saved, and this occasion became an epoch in the history of the church and the college.”

In the ensuing 16 years as pastor of a local church, Baker baptized an estimated 500 individuals.

A few years ago, as Jefferson City’s growth moved south on Highway 92 a couple of miles from campus, the developer of a new neighborhood found a structure on his property. It was a house, covered in aluminum siding with sections and pieces that had been added through the years.

But looking deeper, under the siding and even under the house itself, it was discovered the original core structure was a log cabin. That log cabin dated back more than 150 years. It was, we found out, Jesse Baker’s cabin. His home. It was a gift to him for his service to the school and the Kingdom. A place that would remain his, a document read, as long as he continued to preach the Word.

As things often do in life, coming full circle, the cabin was gifted back to the school. It has been rebuilt on campus, directly behind the Fite Administration Building, between it and Henderson, two other buildings named for past presidents on whose shoulders we stand.

It is up to us to honor those who have served well. To be good stewards of the legacy we have been left and leave it in even better shape for coming generations.

Our own archive department here at Carson-Newman pulls its mission from Scripture, Psalm 22 to be precise, and the legacy we are to leave.

30 A posterity will serve Him; It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation.

And so another chapter in the story is being written. We will dedicate the cabin and honor the man who called it home in August. A man whose work, whose legacy, plays a huge role in the fact students every year still get to call Carson-Newman home. Students who arrive to receive a rigorous education rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

A legacy of which we are humbled to be a small part, and has us asking, what legacy will we leave for others.