Class Notes

Charles retired from the UT Austin Butler School of Music on December 31, 2019 after 40 years of service as Head Piano Technician. His husband, Steve Cannon (Strawberry Plains/UT Knoxville), & Charles now live in retirement in Austin, Texas, although he still freelances as a piano technician and works for arts organizations such as the Van Cliburn Foundation in Fort Worth, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Seattle Symphony, the Austin Symphony Orchestra, etc. Charles sang in the MC choir and took care of the pianos on campus until they moved to Texas in 1980.

Gaynell Harless Lawson was selected to receive the fourth annual Blount County Athena Leadership Award. ATHENA Leadership Award® Recipients are individuals who have achieved the highest level of professional excellence, contribute time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in the community, and actively assist others, particularly women, in realizing their full leadership potential.

Dr. Montgomery ’72 has compiled the Bibliography for Scotch-Irish (Scots-Irish) Studies. This bibliography lists 1600 books, articles, and other publications that in some fashion and over the past four centuries connect Ireland (usually Ulster) to either Scotland or North America. It seeks to bring together publications that all too often fall between the cracks (or stools) of existing bibliographies, especially ones of Irish Studies. Central to its focus are emigrants from Ulster from the early-18th century until about 1830 and their descendants until the present day. Within this focus is emphasized the extensive pre-Revolutionary stream of emigrants into the American interior, a region often referred to as the “backcountry.” More here: http://www.scotch-irishsocietyusa.org/research.php#abilb

#InspiringMCAlumni Michael Montgomery ’72 (1950 – 2019) would have been able to translate any of these Appalachian expressions to a traveler unfamiliar with the local vernacular: “frog-strangler,” “flusterate,” “ante-over,” “jackleg,” and “catawampus.” Published this year, The Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English is a revised and expanded edition of the Weatherford Award?winning Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English, published in 2005 and known in Appalachian studies circles as the most comprehensive reference work dedicated to Appalachian vernacular and linguistic practice. Editors Michael B. Montgomery and Jennifer K. N. Heinmiller document the variety of English used in parts of eight states, ranging from West Virginia to Georgia. Decades in the making, the Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English surpasses the original by thousands of entries. There is no work of this magnitude available that so completely illustrates the rich language of the Smoky Mountains and Southern Appalachia.

is now the Associate Pastor of Global & Local Partnerships at Fellowship Church in Knoxville.

signed a multi-book contract with HarperCollins, UK office for an adult fantasy series. The first book titled, Among Wolves, will be released in May 2015. Her second series of Readers’ Theater books, A Year of Holiday Scripts for Schools and Libraries will be released September 1, 2015. She currently has a total of 13 published children’s books including The Christmas Cats and Abby and the Book Bunch.