Gary W. Rollins was given the Philanthropist of the Year Award.
Tom Griscom was given the Service Award.
Gary W. Rollins and Tom Griscom are 2019 winners of University of Tennessee President’s Council Awards, given annually by the system-wide UT president to recognize exceptional positive impact on the university system.
Rollins is a 1967 UTC graduate who made a $40 million gift to the university in 2018, the largest in school history and resulting in the naming of the Gary W. Rollins College of Business in his honor. He is the 2019 UT President’s Council Philanthropist of the Year.
He said his decision to make the unprecedented gift to UTC is the result of compelling, evident progress by his alma mater and the persistence of university leadership in making him aware of that progress.
“I am humbled and honored that the business college bears my name and am especially appreciative to receive the 2019 University of Tennessee Philanthropist of the Year Award,” he said.
Rollins is a native of Delaware who now makes his home in Atlanta with his wife, Kathleen Rollins.
Griscom, winner of the 2019 UT President’s Council Service Award for exceptional work and contribution to the advancement of the university toward excellence, is a 1971 UTC graduate. His career began as a Chattanooga News-Free Press reporter and eventually came back to the Chattanooga Times Free Press newspaper as editor and publisher after stints at the highest levels of government in Washington, D.C. In between. he served as press secretary for U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn., and later as communication director for President Ronald Reagan.
“ ‘Service above self’ is the slogan of Rotary International and being recognized by the University of Tennessee for giving back in ways that support access to higher education in our state is most rewarding,” Griscom said. “I try to be an example of Sen. Howard Baker’s approach of the ‘eloquent listener,’ who not only hears but also understands what people say.”
He has served as an advisor to officials with UT system administration, UTC and UT Martin, providing counsel and insight in multiple areas. In 2017, he was selected by fellow alumni as one of the most distinguished graduates of any UT campus in the previous 100 years, as the magazine Tennessee Alumnus celebrated its centennial year of continuous publication.
He is a Chattanooga native and resident along with his wife, Marion Griscom.
The three other 2019 honorees are Jim Haslam and his wife, Natalie Haslam, and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
The Haslams, both 1952 UT Knoxville graduates, are recipients of the first-ever Andy Holt Lifetime Achievement Award for transformational impact on the university. Haslam is the founder of Pilot Corp. and he and Natalie Haslam have made multiple gifts to UT Knoxville, including to the School of Music and for the naming of the James A. Haslam II College of Business.
Alexander, a former U.S. Secretary of Education, former Tennessee governor and UT president from 1988 to 1991, is recipient of the Jim and Natalie Haslam Presidential Medal, created in 2007 to recognize exemplary giving, leadership, service and willingness to advocate for private support of the university by others. As UT president, Alexander was instrumental in the creation of the Chairs of Excellence endowed professorships program which now exists at all UT campuses.
“It is a pleasure to award these deserving recipients for their commitment to this university,” Interim UT President Randy Boyd said. “Through the generous giving of their time, talents and resources, our campuses across the state are now national leaders in a multitude of areas. The future of our students and institutions would not succeed without these individuals.”
The awards were presented at a dinner for honorees in Franklin, Tennessee, on Friday.
