Visions Magazine
Story Highlights
Three Generations of Golden Eagles find “home” at Tennessee Tech
The stories the Wilmore family can tell about life at Tennessee Tech University span generations and the distances Tech degrees have taken them go from accounting services for the U.S. Army, to leadership at one of the country’s largest vehicle manufacturers, to nursing and medical school and even into space.
Eugene Wilmore earned a degree in industrial management with a minor in accounting in 1958, when the university was known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute. His fondest memories of the university then were of attending every basketball game and building homecoming floats. He was even at the pep rally in 1952 when three students who famously stole a metal golden eagle from the front of a hotel in Monteagle, Tennessee presented their find to the student body – a story that became legendary at the university and is at the origin of the iconic eagle that sits atop Derryberry Hall today.
But Eugene is quick to say his proudest Tennessee Tech moments now involve the generations
of students that followed him.
“Both my sons of course went to Tech, my daughters-in-law and two of my grandchildren – one is a nurse and one is doctor, both in the medical field,” Eugene boasts. “We never told them where to go to college, but we were very pleased for them to go to Tech.”
Jack Wilmore was Eugene and Faye Wilmore’s first son to choose Tech, earning what was then known as a degree in industrial technology in 1984.
“My dad had gone there,” Jack said. “My goal was not to go to Tennessee Tech because my dad went there, but I went to Tech and it felt like home. Everything about it felt like home.”
Jack quickly connected with the other students on campus, working as a resident assistant in the residence halls and finding his place both socially among friends and academically.
It wasn’t long before Jack’s younger brother Barry “Butch” Wilmore, came to Tech as well. The two called the fifth floor of Maddox Hall home during what was Jack’s sophomore year and Barry’s freshman year.
“We wanted each other to win,” Jack recalls. “We bonded even closer there. We even had some cousins who were at Tech at that time too, adding even more to that feeling of home.
“The thing that really stands out to me is that I met my wife there,” Jack said. “We got engaged there in a park on campus. Overall, the education was fantastic.”
Jack and Selena Wilmore, who earned her own Tech degree in human ecology in 1985, were married and started a family as Jack began his career in the automotive industry.
Barry prospered at Tech as well, playing as a walk-on in the Golden Eagle football team’s 1982 season and earning a name for himself on the field, all while earning an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in 1985 and then a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Tech.
After his Tech career, Barry became a naval officer and pilot and was selected by NASA to enter its astronaut program in 2000. After piloting an 11-day mission to the International Space Station in 2009 and taking a second space flight to the ISS in 2014, Barry is now working on the Boeing Crew Flight Test, the inaugural crewed flight of the CST-100 Starliner to the ISS.
Barry’s wife Deanna is also a Tech graduate, although Barry says the two knew each other during their time at Tech, but their relationship didn’t blossom until later and they ultimately married and started their own family. Currently, Barry also serves on the university’s Board of Trustees, remaining connected to the university and often bringing his dad, Eugene, back to visit campus.
Another generation of Wilmores to make their way to Tech were siblings as well: Jack and Selena’s son Lucas and daughter Beth Ann.
Lucas initially took a baseball scholarship to play at another university, but when his sister Beth Ann decided to go to Tech, his path started to shift toward Tech as well. Much like her father though, Beth Ann wasn’t immediately sure she wanted to go to Tech, thinking she might rather find new experiences than her other family members.
“At first I didn’t want to go to Tech, but we went to visit and the moment I walked on campus, I was in love,” she said. “It just felt like I was at home.”
She made fast friends with people in her residence hall, classes and the campus ministry she joined. Although she admits the faculty in the nursing program kept the course work rigorous, the relationships she built with both her fellow students and her professors helped build her into the nurse she is today, she said.
“I still have some of the friendships that I formed in nursing school. They are still my friends now and my colleagues,” Beth Ann said.
But it didn’t take long into her time at Tech before Lucas had joined her as a Tech student as well.
“When I went to Tech a lot of my brother’s friends were also at Tech. We all became friends through a college ministry we were all a part of. We all went on a trip that summer before school was starting up and we were jokingly saying ‘You should transfer to Tech, Lucas.’”
It was an easy choice, Lucas says, as he had made the decision to ultimately go to medical school and become a physician, something he knew Tech could prepare him well for.
“I came to Tennessee Tech knowing that it was going to set me up better in terms of applying to medical school,” Lucas said, but he also remembers fondly fun times exploring local outdoor spots near Cookeville and taking an English literature class with his sister.
Beth Ann, who earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Tech in 2012, worked as a nurse for several years before deciding to take her education a step further and return to Tech for a master’s in nursing education in 2020.
“I love teaching or educating our patients and other nurses,” she said. “I already had such great relationship with the nursing faculty at Tech, and I just knew that was the right next step for me.”
Today, she works for a non-profit healthcare center in Franklin, Tennessee as director of nursing and Lucas is a practicing family physician in Middle Tennessee.
While their dad shares stories of freshman antics around rivalries with Middle Tennessee State University, Beth Ann and Lucas recall a snowy winter in Cookeville when they built a giant snowman in the back of a truck and drove it around campus. The family’s memories of Tech span the story of a university that has grown to meet the needs of generations of students.
Tech’s campus is much different today than when Eugene Wilmore hitchhiked between his home in Carthage, Tennessee and his studies in Cookeville each week. Afterall, most college students didn’t have a car in the 1950s, let alone a truck bed for parading a snowman around campus. But the university’s reputation hasn’t changed, they say.
“I was drafted into the U.S. Army,” Eugene recalls of the time shortly after he graduated from Tech and married his wife in 1959. “After basic (training) they sent me to Fort Benjamin Harris, Indiana, to the finance school, and that’s where they kept me. I believe it was because of my degree, that I was a college graduate of Tennessee Tech, that they kept me there. I worked there at the Army Finance School the remainder of my Army career.”
Eugene enjoyed a long career in finance and is happy to see others in his family enjoy success as well.
“I’ve worked with a lot of Tennessee Tech graduates,” said Jack, who recently retired from a leadership role with Nissan. “I would hire a Tennessee Tech graduate. It’s more than just the education. People know Tennessee Tech outside those walls.”
It’s a sentiment that his daughter shares, often hiring nurses with Tech degrees, knowing the level of training they have.
Much like his parents never told him he had to go to Tennessee Tech, Lucas says he won’t pressure his own daughters, of which he now has three, to go to Tech, but he says he would be just as proud as his father and grandfather have been to see another generation of Golden Eagles find their future at Tech. Whether that be in finance, engineering, medicine or space exploration. After all, Tech is home for the Wilmores.
Building a Campus for the Student Experience
Q & A with President Oldham on Campus Progress:
1. How has the university sought to create a sense of community and foster student engagement through its campus development plans?
Everything we do at Tech is about and for the benefit of students. Certainly, a big part of that student experience is the look and functionality of the physical campus. We are blessed to have a beautiful and welcoming campus, but we are constantly looking at ways to make it even better for the overall student experience. This requires actively listening to students both collectively and individually, in formal and informal settings to explore new opportunities for improvements.
2. Could you share some examples of how student feedback and input have influenced the decision-making process regarding campus development?
The new Burnett Student Recreation and Fitness Center that we currently enjoy started out 10 years ago as an informal conversation with a group of student leaders. Their passion for leadership for what they saw as the most significant student need at that time grew in scope and level of support culminating years later into The Burn we now enjoy.
3. How has the university leveraged technology and innovation to enhance the student
experience within the campus environment?
On-line classroom management and digital course materials is a significant example of technological enhancements. We also continue to expand the use of various digital platforms, i.e. video monitors, phone apps, etc. to keep everyone informed about important campus news. We are currently exploring the implementation of smart outdoor kiosks to provide any more interactive real-time information assistance to students and campus visitors.
4. Looking ahead, what are the future plans and visions for further enhancing the student experience on campus?
We are aggressively implementing plans to make the campus more pedestrian friendly with enhanced outdoor activity spaces. We plan to build much needed student activity space with the addition of a new Student Event Center. We continue to improve the campus shuttle system while also looking to add one or more parking garages as soon as possible.
A new student residence hall is in development and improvements to campus dining options are on-going.
5. What are some of the campus development initiatives that you are most proud to see the results of?
Although proud of all the work done with campus improvement to date, I am particularly proud of the new Burnett Student Rec and Fitness Center, the Laboratory Science Commons, and the soon to open Ashraf Islam Engineering Building. These new facilities not only continue the architectural tradition of the Tech campus but even more importantly set a new expectation and standard for a 21st century Tennessee Tech that visibly demonstrates the character of Tech students- Bold, Fearless, Confident, and Kind.
Where student interests meet industry needs: a look at Tech’s newest degree programs
The U.S. economy is projected to add more than eight million new jobs by 2031 – and leaders at Tennessee Tech University are acting to ensure future Golden Eagle alumni are equipped to step into those roles.
With over 200 fields of study spread across more than 2,700 individual course offerings
this past fall alone, Tech has long been a training ground for an educated, career-ready
workforce that is ready to meet the demands of a changing labor market and tackle
real-world challenges. In fact, Tech graduates have the highest starting career salary
of any public university graduates in the state, according to SmartAsset. But in recent
years, Tech’s degree programs have charted new territory – adding majors and concentrations
at the intersection of student interest and industry needs.
“We’re always updating, always enhancing all of our academic programs. Our main goal is to ensure that our academic programs are relevant to today’s society and workplace,” said Tech Provost Lori Mann Bruce. “We want to ensure that each and every student graduating from Tennessee Tech leaves with the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in their chosen profession.
“To do that, sometimes we introduce entirely new academic programs and sometimes we do significant modifications or overhauls of our existing programs,” Bruce explained. “For example, just this past year alone, we developed five new certificate programs, we created 20 new or totally revised concentrations, five new minors, four significantly revised degree programs, and introduced three brand new programs.”
Among the new course offerings in the fall of 2023 was a much anticipated bachelor of science in music with a degree option focusing on live audio. The curriculum is designed specifically to train students for future careers in the live performance industry as audio engineers – mixing sound for live events which might include concerts for touring musicians, theatrical productions or even services for large houses of worship.
“We had students who wanted to be involved with music but didn't really fit the traditional models of someone wanting to be a K-12 educator or wanting to be a professional performing musician,” said Colin Hill, director of Tech’s School of Music. “This degree will allow students to prepare for careers in the commercial music industry.”
Hill says that industry research shows there are nine jobs in live audio for every one job in the recording studio industry.
