1971 - 1979

Dr. Larry Thomas McGehee was born on May 18, 1936, in Paris, Tennessee, to George Eugene McGehee and Margaret Elizabeth Thomas. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Transylvania College in 1958 before later earning Bachelor of Divinity, Master of Arts and doctoral degrees from Yale University in 1963, 1964 and 1969 respectively.

He began a career in education in 1966 as director and assistant vice president of university relations at the University of Alabama. In two years, he rose to the position of executive assistant to the president, and finally to that of executive vice president, a position he held from 1969 to 1971. He was serving as academic vice chancellor at the University of Alabama when he left to become chancellor at UT Martin.

McGehee was chancellor for eight years before resigning to become special assistant to the president at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville in 1979. He left the University of Tennessee in 1982 to become the vice president of planning, marketing and evaluation at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, which he retained until his death. He died Oct. 25, 2008, at his home in Spartanburg. He was 72.