Mike Griffin, Alumni Board President; Bill Landry, 2015 Distinguished Alumnus; Kim White, 2015 Outstanding Service Award recipient; UTC Chancellor Steve Angle
Bill Landry, host/narrator and co-producer of “The Heartland Series,” was named the 2015 Distinguished Alumnus of The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Kim White, River City Co. president and chief executive officer, was selected as UTC Outstanding Service Award.
They were honored during the Legends and Leaders banquet at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club.
Now in its 30th year, “The Heartland Series” airs on WBIR-TV in Knoxville. The series was created to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Since the show began in 1984, more than 1,900 short features have been shot about the people and land of Southern Appalachia as well as 150 half-hour specials.
Landry received two Emmy Awards for directing episodes of “The Heartland Series” and also the Education in Appalachia Award from Carson Newman College.
The one-man play Landry wrote and produced, “Einstein the Man,” has been performed more than 1,000 times in 38 states and two Canadian provinces. The Department of Education distributed the script in Tennessee as well as Landry’s production of “The George Washington Carver Project.”
Landry’s “William Bartram An Unlikely Explorer” was produced for the 75th anniversary of the founding of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
From left: Former winners of the awards with the Chancellor and 2015 recipients. L to r: Dr. Steve Angle, Tom Griscom, Dr. Fred Obear, Max Fuller, Bill Landry, Kim White, Dr. Bill Stacy, Ruth Obear, Charles Pierce, and Don Lepard.
Landry has served on the boards of the Princess Theater Foundation in Harriman, Tennessee, and Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, Tennessee. He’s a member of the Tennessee Historical Commission.
Kim White is the former president and chief executive officer of The Corker Group and of Luken Holdings.
White is a member of the UTC Chancellor’s Roundtable, real estate chairman for the UC Foundation and past president of the UTC Alumni Board.
She is a board member of the Enterprise Center and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. She is a member of the Chattanooga Rotary Club, she co-chaired the Mayor’s Downtown Task Force for Chattanooga Forward and Siskin Children’s Institute’s StarNight. She is a past board member of Erlanger Hospital Authority
She has been inducted into the Hixson High School Hall of Fame, named a Woman of Distinction by the American Lung Association and honored by her sorority, Chi Omega, for community service leadership.
