The Derryberrys

Of all the portraits of past Tennessee Tech presidents displayed in Derryberry Hall, the largest are those of Everett Derryberry and his wife, Joan. As president and first lady of Tennessee Tech for 34 years, their oversize portraits befit their legend.

	Joan Derryberry			Everett Derryberry

A Columbia, Tenn., native, Everett Derryberry was a Rhodes Scholar and a four-year letterman in football at the University of Tennessee, where he graduated with a 4.0 GPA. In 1940, at the age of 34, he was appointed president of Tennessee Tech. He and Joan, whom he'd met during his years at Oxford, England, came to a school many thought shouldn't exist with only 700 students, 31 faculty members and just a few buildings. By the time he retired in 1974, the Derryberrys had seen Tennessee Tech grow to a comprehensive university with 276 faculty members and 7,000 students on a campus of 225 acres.

President Derryberry was a man of detail, a planner and a builder, attributes that helped shape Tennessee Tech. He found ways for the university to distinguish itself. He pushed to make sure that while Tennessee Tech might not do everything, what it did would always be the best.

Just as he designed a path for the university's success, he designed the details of its buildings and grounds. The influence of his time at Oxford convinced him that all our campus buildings would share the same architecture, a modified Georgian, reflecting the true look of a college. He also wanted as many buildings as possible to be placed in quads. No detail was too trivial for the president -- from the way window blinds were hung to the mowing of the grass. He was determined that Tennessee Tech excel academically, athletically and aesthetically.

More than once it has been said that "Tennessee Tech is an extension of his shadow." But it would be Joan's shadow that most touched both the campus and the community, bringing them together through her civic involvement, her talents and, most of all, her graciousness. For the most spoken words about Joan are, "She is truly a lady."Joan had a vision, too -- not of great design, but of simply making her community and her university a better, richer place for those who lived here.

Joan Derryberry did more for the arts and culture at Tennessee Tech and in Cookeville than any other individual in history. As a painter and a musician she equally enriched the lives of students and town leaders. She helped our music and art programs grow into what they are today. Her paintings hang in campus buildings and Cookeville homes, and our art gallery is named in her honor. She wrote our school anthem, "The Tech Hymn," and she arranged for the Derryberry Hall carillon that plays the clock tower bells. As her husband pushed the university forward as a great institution for engineering and the sciences, she softened those precise, detailed edges with her passion for the arts, her generosity and her caring.

Both Derryberrys are gone now. Everett died in 1991, and Joan passed away in 1998. But their memory lives on through their legacy to the university and the traditions they inspired: the tower of the building that bears their name, the golden eagle perched there and the melody of the carillon bells.