MARTIN, Tenn. – A special church service Sunday, Oct. 1, and a cornerstone
re-enactment ceremony Monday, Oct. 2, open a week of Centennial Celebration
and Homecoming 2000 activities at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
The university is observing 100 years of higher education on the UT Martin
campus during the year 2000. The week of Oct. 1-8 will combine major
Centennial Celebration activities and the university’s annual homecoming
events.
The Centennial Church Service is set for 3 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 1, at Martin
First Baptist Church. The program includes a welcome by Dr. Nick Dunagan,
UT Martin interim chancellor; a performance of the Hall-Moody Song
presented by the University Singers; a presentation of the Hall Moody
history by Virginia Vaughan of Martin; and the first-ever public
performance of Forever UT Martin, a song written for the Centennial
Celebration by UT Martin faculty members Dr. Dwight Gatwood and Dr. Roy
Neil Graves.
The service, which is open to the university community and the public, also
will include inspirational remarks by Dr. H.C. “Sandy” Ellis. Ellis, who
now lives in Waverly, Tenn., attended UT Junior College in 1937-38 and
retired in 1984 as the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in
Charlottesville, Va.
The following afternoon at 3:15 p.m., a cornerstone re-enactment ceremony
commemorating the construction of Hall-Moody Institute, the predecessor
institution to UT Martin, will be held in the university’s quadrangle near
the Business Administration Building. The original cornerstone ceremony was
held at the same hour on Oct. 2, 1900.
“The original cornerstone ceremony was conducted while the Beulah Baptist
Association was meeting, and the order of the service was recorded in their
minutes,” said Dr. Donna Cooper Graves, assistant professor of history.
“As a result, our ceremony next week will deliberately mirror the original
one, with some additional music to celebrate the event.”
Graves said a piano-and-violin duet will be performed in recognition that
both instruments were taught from the earliest years on the campus. The
bell that was in the bell tower of the original Hall-Moody building will
also be brought back to campus and used in the ceremony, she said.
“It (the bell) has not been on campus since early in the century,” Graves
said. “It has been bolted to a cement block beside the First Baptist
Church. The bell will be brought to the quadrangle, and it will ring to
open and close the re-enactment ceremony.”
Besides special music, the ceremony will include remarks by Dr. Nick
Dunagan; Dr. Roger S. Oldham, pastor of Martin First Baptist Church; and
Robert L. Carroll, author of The University of Tennessee at Martin: The
First One Hundred Years.
“Anyone is welcome to attend these special Centennial Celebration events,”
said Jacky Gullett, UT Martin director of alumni affairs. “Many people
have worked hard in planning Centennial Celebration activities, and we want
everyone to experience these special moments in the university’s history.”
Other centennial activities during the week of Oct. 1-8 include:
*Oct. 5 – Book Signing, The University of Tennessee at Martin: The First
One Hundred Years. Author Robert Carroll will sign copies of the new book,
11 a.m.-2 p.m., UT Martin Bookstore.
*Oct. 5 – Centennial Lecture featuring Dr. Choong S. Kim, UT Martin
professor of sociology and anthropology, 7 p.m., Watkins Auditorium, Boling
University Center.
*Oct. 6-8 – Homecoming Weekend, featuring the Alumni Awards Banquet and
reunions for all except those who attended UT Junior College. (A UT Junior
College reunion was held this past summer.)
Complete information about the UT Martin Centennial Celebration is
available on the World Wide Web at www.utm.edu or by calling the Office of
Alumni Affairs at 901-587-7610.