5 Vanderbilt Trailblazer portraits unveiled throughout Reunion Weekend | Vanderbilt Information

Interim Chancellor and Provost Susan R. Wente unveiled 5 new Vanderbilt Trailblazer portraits to a crowd gathered Oct. 18 within the Mary McClure Taylor Foyer of Kirkland Corridor. The 5 portraits honored Kate Lupton, David Williams II, Okay.C. Potter, Dorothy J. Wingfield Phillips and Muhammad Yunus.

“These Vanderbilt Trailblazers formed the roadmap via which we are able to all proceed to discover, search enhancements and drive constructive change on the earth,” Wente mentioned. “By means of their braveness and conviction, they opened doorways for others to observe, and, in doing so, they made us a stronger and higher college.”

Each Phillips and Potter attended the occasion, as did their mates and households and people of Lupton, Williams and Yunus.

The Vanderbilt Trailblazers initiative acknowledges people within the Vanderbilt group who’ve damaged obstacles and made a constructive affect each on the college and in society at massive. Established in 2018, the portrait sequence seeks to increase the visible narrative of Vanderbilt’s historical past and create welcoming, inclusive and accessible areas with artwork that acknowledges, displays and celebrates the range throughout the Vanderbilt group.

2019 Vanderbilt Trailblazers embrace:

• Kate Lupton (painted by John Woodrow Kelley), the primary girl to graduate from Vanderbilt College. Although Lupton was the primary girl to obtain a diploma from the college, she was not included in Graduation workout routines, and her father, a Vanderbilt professor, introduced her together with her diploma in personal. She went on to develop into a professor of chemistry and physics at Virginia State Regular College. She died in 1897 on the age of 37.
• David Williams II (painted by Simmie Knox), Vanderbilt College’s first African American vice chancellor and the primary African American athletics director within the Southeastern Convention. He additionally served as basic counsel and secretary of the college. Below Williams’ management, the Commodores gained 4 NCAA nationwide championships. He additionally emphasised the necessity to acknowledge Vanderbilt’s historical past in the course of the civil rights motion, serving to the college to reconcile with the primary African American basketball gamers at Vanderbilt. Williams died on Feb. 8, 2019, at age 71.
• Okay.C. Potter (painted by Jared Small), Vanderbilt dean of residential and judicial affairs, emeritus. Potter served in key administrative capacities on the college till his retirement in 1998, mediating many troublesome conditions because the campus moved via a number of transformative many years. In 2008, Euclid Home on West Aspect Row, dwelling of the Workplace of Lesbian, Homosexual, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Life, was named in honor of Potter, who supported the LGBTQI group and helped to foster a extra inclusive and affirming atmosphere on campus.
• Dorothy J. Wingfield Phillips (painted by Donna L. Woodley), the primary African American girl to obtain an undergraduate diploma from Vanderbilt. Phillips graduated from Vanderbilt in 1967 with a bachelor’s diploma in chemistry, adopted by a doctorate in biochemistry from the College of Cincinnati in 1974. She went on to a extremely esteemed profession at Dow Chemical Firm and the Waters Company, the place she grew to become a worldwide director. A member of the American Chemical Society since 1973, she was elected to its board of administrators in 2013 and continues to function a director-at-large.
• Muhammad Yunus (painted by Sedrick Huckaby), Vanderbilt’s first Nobel Peace Prize winner. Yunus obtained his doctorate in economics in 1971 from Vanderbilt, the place he studied after receiving a Fulbright scholarship. In 1976, he launched Grameen Financial institution, which has develop into an internationally acknowledged mannequin for combatting poverty via microlending. The financial institution has elevated many out of poverty and, on account of his efforts, Yunus was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal.

Final yr, Vanderbilt honored Bishop Joseph Johnson, the Rev. James Lawson, the Rev. Walter R. Murray and Perry Wallace with portraits by famend portrait artist Simmie Knox. This yr’s portraits depict people from varied eras of the college’s historical past and have been painted by a various group of artists, together with Jared Small, Donna L. Woodley, John Woodrow Kelley, Sedrick Huckaby and Knox.

The Vanderbilt Trailblazers Committee, which incorporates college students, college and employees, oversees the initiative, determines honorees and decides the place the depictions of Trailblazers shall be completely housed on the college.

Go to the Vanderbilt Trailblazers web site to study extra concerning the initiative.