Maryville College legacy students: Thirty-three first-year Scots carry on a family tradition of MC enrollment
Aug. 29, 2023
For many of the legacy students who make up the Class of 2027 at Maryville College, one school towered over their other choices, and in the end, the decision to go “where Chilhowee’s lofty mountains pierce the southern blue” was the only one that made sense.
After all, as legacies — the latest in lines long and not-so-long of family members who earned their degrees at MC — their familiarity with Maryville College translates to a variety of positive thoughts and feelings, all of them rooted in the sense of allegiance their loved ones have for the school.
Some have been so active through the alumni endeavors of parents and grandparents that they know the Alma Mater by heart. Others made childhood memories on the grounds beneath these historic buildings. Still others spent so many Homecomings on campus with family members that it’s always felt like a second home.
For incoming first-year students, 33 of them have family ties to Maryville College, and their decisions to enroll as Scots invoked both nostalgia and familiarity over the past week. Here’s a look at some of this year’s legacy students:
Grace Ann Kelly
Grace Ann Kelly — the daughter of Allison Pryor Smith ’97 and Grant Kelly ’98, as well as the granddaughter of Marty Anderson Pryor ’68 and the late Jim Pryor ’66 — has literally been coming to the MC campus before she was even old enough to form memories.
As an infant, her parents had her baby pictures taken on campus, and every fall, she accompanied the family to Homecoming. While she was torn between MC and the University of Tennessee, the experiences of her brother, Jackson, pushed her toward the former.
“I’m a Political Science major, and because law is the direction I want to go in, I wanted to go to UT for a long time,” she said. “But seeing him start college, I realized I didn’t want that big school experience.”
Returning to campus as a first-year student is a reminder, she added, of just how connected she already feels to Maryville College.
“It just feels familiar. Homecomings were just part of our family traditions, and we would always eat in Pearsons and go to the Bookstore,” she said. “Everything just feels like home here.”
During the Aug. 17 Move-In Day and Family Welcome event, she added, her mom “saw more people and knew more people than I did,” but of all the Scots in her family, few were as ecstatic as Marty Pryor, who rates her allegiance to MC as an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10, she added.
“I learned about Maryville College when I was 8 years old. My father was a chaplain in the armed services, and he decided to come out of active duty and go into pastoring,” Pryor said. “He was best friends with the brother of Margaret (McClure) Cummings, so when my father decided to get back into pastoring, he decided to follow their father to a UMC church.”
Cummings first came to Maryville College in 1935, and after the death of her husband — the College’s director of personnel and a Bible teacher — she went to seminary and returned to MC in 1940 as an instructor in Bible and religious education. She taught at MC for the next 29 years, and because Bible was a required course at the time, every student passed through her class at some point, and she became affectionately known as “Ma Cummings.” Her legacy of faith, service and lifelong learning made her name a natural choice for the College’s annual Cummings Conversations, and Pryor remembers visiting the Cummings home in Maryville as a child. After high school, she applied, was accepted and met her future husband at MC. Her father married them in the old Wilson Chapel, she added.
“I lived in (the now-gone) Baldwin Hall, and Jim’s job was changing the Coke machines across campus,” she said. “We would talk some when he made his rounds, and we started dating after he’d graduated. We had a little summer wedding and a reception in the courtyard, and during it, this family had brought their son to tour campus and thought a wedding on it was cute, so they took pictures.
“When they got home, they were showing pictures of the wedding party to their friends, and they knew us! It turns out, their neighbors had been members of a church where my father was the pastor. What a small world.”
Those intimate connections and gossamer threads of fate have kept her closely connected to her alma mater, and she maintains a standing lunch date with Kathy Hinger Dorner ’67 and Ibby Shelley Davis ’68, two of her classmates at the time who remained in Maryville.
“There’s a lot of nostalgia, even though in some ways it’s so different now,” she said. “There’s a lot of hustle and bustle, and certainly more people coming and going, but whenever I’m there, I go back in my memory bank.”
Alex Yalove
As she walked toward Bartlett Hall, hand-in-hand with her grandfather following a family photo shoot in 2009, 5-year-old Alex Yalove could not have conceived of the much bigger steps she’d take on the Maryville College campus as a young adult.
Attending MC was not a foregone conclusion then as the granddaughter of retiring Maryville College President Dr. Gerald Gibson, but as the college search got underway during her high school years, no other school interested Alex as much as Maryville. She begins classes this week as a member of the Class of 2027.
“I love it here. I grew up here, and I’ve known a lot of the staff members since I was a young child,” she said of Maryville College. “And, it has a great pre-vet program, which is my intended major.”
The decision to become a Scot was just fine with her family, which includes aunt Laura Gibson ’97 and uncle and aunt Paul Gibson ’00 and Amanda Smeltzer Gibson ’01.
“It made complete sense,” Paul said of his niece’s choice of schools. “She’s a creature of logic. She knew it was a good decision.”
“I thought it was a great idea,” Holly Gibson Yalove said of her daughter’s decision. “I was very proud, so proud of her, and especially when she got a scholarship to attend.”
Holly, along with her siblings and mother Rachel Gibson, watch the beginning of Alex’s collegiate journey with excitement and confidence, but also with a twinge of sadness. Gerald Gibson, the College’s 10th president who led the College from 1993 until 2010, passed away in 2021 and didn’t live to see his granddaughter benefit from his 17 years of work.
Alex has heard from family members that her grandfather “poured his heart and soul” into Maryville College and believed deeply in its mission. She knows he raised money for endowments that are now funding scholarships and other financial aid that makes MC accessible to scores of classmates. She walks brick-lined sidewalks and enjoys the landscaping, knowing that he prioritized first impressions. She says she feels closest to him in the Clayton Center for the Arts, which opened months before his retirement and after years of planning, fundraising, and construction.
“I am very, very thankful to be the grandchild of Gerald Gibson,” Alex said. “He was an amazing man and an amazing grandfather, and to hear people say ‘Your grandfather’s work helped us so much’ makes me feel so happy. And I got to grow up with him.”
Alex, a Presidential Scholar and Scots Science Scholar (S3), began the S3 program’s Summer Bridge Program on Aug 2. Even before attending her first official class as a first-year student, she believes the S3 experiences have only confirmed the fitness of her college choice.
Visiting the Tennessee Aquarium, experiencing the Fort Loudon Lock and Dam in kayaks, and climbing the Alpine Tower with other S3 participants, Alex is making the transition from high school to college, making new friends and strengthening her STEM foundations.
“In the past couple of weeks, this College has gone above and beyond any expectations I ever could have set for how nice everyone is and all the resources they have,” Alex said. “They have clubs, peer mentors and so many different study groups. Everyone here wants you to succeed.”
As for those next big steps, Alex said she plans to get involved in some campus organizations, (Peer Mentors in particular and maybe the American Chemical Society like her aunt Amanda), and possibly live in Gibson Hall – the building named for her grandparents – as an upperclass student. She plans to walk across the MC graduation stage in 2027 and go on to earn a doctor of veterinary science degree.
It’s likely that her little sister, Maddie, will join her on campus in two years and also enjoy the fruits of the Gibson presidency. And in a few more years, Alex and Maddie may be advising cousin Annabelle about campus life at MC.
“We were talking about Alex going to Maryville at mom’s house one night, and on the way home, Annabelle asked ‘What class at Maryville College will I be?’” Laura said. “I was like, ‘I think it’s 2037,’ and she said ‘OK, yeah,’ because to her, it seemed so natural that she would come here, too. It was just so sweet. I think my dad would be so proud.”
“Maryville College is the home-away-from-home that we’ve always had,” Alex added.
Hudson Moore
Kelly Moore ’93 describes himself as a “Scot for life,” and for good reason: A football and baseball player during his time as an undergraduate, and in 2018 was inducted into the MC Wall of Fame for his accomplishments on the gridiron. He keeps up with the program today and returns to campus for Homecoming when he can, but when it came time for his son Hudson to choose a school, he took a step back, he said.
“Maryville is a college I promote to high school coaches in my community if I think there’s a boy or girl looking for a home, and I’ve tried to send some students Maryville’s way over the years, but I wanted Hudson and his brothers to find their own place,” he said. “I would mention Maryville College to each of them, but I also encouraged them to look at everything from larger universities to mid-sized schools to small colleges as well.”
Of the Moore triplets — Hudson and his brothers Brody and Cooper — two wound up at Division III schools, but Hudson’s own sense of familiarity with the place where he attended athletic camps and spent a few Homecoming celebrations tipped the scales, his parents said.
“Maryville College has been a significant life experience for me,” said his mother, Danielle BuShea Moore ’94. “My time there was integral to my personal growth and was a catalyst for lifelong meaningful relationships. My core group of friends are all relationships that began at MC. Our children have grown up together, and we have all returned as often as possible to reunite where it all began.
“His dad and I have always shared how wonderful our time was at MC, but when Hudson was considering colleges, he came to the decision on his own. Having spent so much time on campus as a child and then visiting again as a prospective student, he felt a connection that ultimately led to his decision. I’m thrilled he’s chosen MC for the next four years.”
He’s lined up to run track and play baseball, and while the Moores evaluated the programs at a number of schools, his father was elated when Hudson announced his decision.
“I was quietly hoping one of them would feel comfortable there, and now I can say, it’s awesome,” Kelly Moore said. “It’s pretty cool to have your son go to the same school you did.”
What’s more, Danielle added, Hudson will be joined by the son of her own MC roommate, Pam Russell Buecker ’94. Reeves Buecker, who will play with the MC Soccer team, is one of Hudson’s close friends “thanks to that OG relationship between their moms!,” Danielle said. Both she and Kelly were hit with wave after wave of nostalgia when they moved their son to campus, and for Kelly, it was almost as if he spent the afternoon reliving the start of his own MC journey through the experiences of his son.
“I remember walking in 30 years ago, and meeting my roommate for the first time, another kid from another state,” he said. “I think I relived the emotions of my parents saying goodbye and pulling away and of being on my own the first time, and at the same time I felt this resurgence of emotions that my son probably felt about us hugging his neck and turning him over to Maryville College.
“I’m just excited for him. I remember walking through the cafeteria for the first time, or going to the bookstore. I was imagining me and three or four of my football teammates walking across campus and sitting at one of the picnic tables, and I saw the library and thought about how many hours I spent in there. There were a lot of cool memories of friendships that were built there that have lasted a lifetime, and I spent a lot of time imagining the connections he’s going to make that he doesn’t even realize yet.”
The legacies of the Class of 2027
Other first-year students and their legacy connections to Maryville College include:
- Wiley Bell — Dr. Ken Bell (MC Board of Directors), William Bell ’99 and Jill Casey Bell ’01 (uncle and aunt)
- Jacob Brabson — Jonathan Brabson ’98 (father)
- Ryan Breeden — Eric Breeden ’22 (brother)
- Eden Carnes — Elithe Truett Carnes ’92 (mother)
- Katie Corley — Bob Corley ’88 (father)
- Emily Cox — Daren Cox ’00 (father)
- Wyatt Crider — Amanda McMaster Crider ’04 (mother)
- Charlotte Dickson — Aaron Dickson ’17 (father)
- Connor Dye — Jody Carpenter ’88 and Andrea Dye Carpenter ’88 (uncle and aunt)
- Gracie Dykes — the late Myrtle Wilkinson ’54 (great-grandmother)
- Will Gallaher — Jannette Judy-Morris ’92 (aunt)
- Marlee Giles — Robin Brown Cochran ’05 (aunt)
- Levi Helton — Katie Helton ’11 (sister)
- Leslie Lambdin — Teresa Heflin Lambdin ’94 (mother)
- Hannah Lee — Kristie Lee ’18 (mother)
- William Leeper — Tyler Kilday ’06 (uncle), Bryan Kilday ’05 and Arielle von Boettinger Kilday ’05 (uncle and aunt)
- Emma Lowery — Jeffery Lowery ’16 (father), Heather Lowery ’12 (mother)
- Lucy Mobley — Mark Mobley ’96 (father), Carrie Hooper Mobley ’95 (mother)
- Emma Mulligan — Valerie Brown Mulligan ’03 (mother)
- Jackson New — Jennifer Martin New ’04 (mother)
- Ashley Nolazco — Lesli Nolazco ’22 (sister)
- Mackenzie Pope — Bethany Hodson Pope ’98 (mother)
- Jenny Ribble — Nancy Ribble ’59 (grandmother), the late John Ribble ’58 (grandfather)
- EJ Smith — Elias Smith ’95 (father), Katrina Woods Smith ’98 (mother)
- Jaedyn Sudderth — Dara Peacock Smith ’06 (mother), Tracy Smith Downs ’96 (aunt)
- Lily Walker — Ariel Kaylor ’19 (sister)
- Jacqueline Ward — Matthew Ward ’11 (father)
- Braxton Whitehead — Dr. Courtney Whitehead ’00 (mother)
- Kalli Wilson — the late Derek Wilson (father)
