KNOXVILLE – Dr. E. Grady Bogue, a retired University of Tennessee, Knoxville, professor and higher education administrator who served as interim chancellor at UT Chattanooga in the past year, passed away Wednesday morning as a result of complications from cancer. He was 77.
Dr. Bogue retired in July 2012 after serving as professor of educational leadership and policy studies at UT Knoxville since 1991. When Chancellor Roger Brown stepped down as chancellor at UTC in September 2012, UT System President Joe DiPietro appointed Dr. Bogue to serve as interim chancellor until a permanent successor was hired. Dr. Steve Angle became chancellor at UT Chattanooga on July 1, 2013.
Dr. Bogue was a highly-regarded mentor to higher education administrators, and a book he co-authored on higher education leadership, “Presidencies Derailed: Why University Leaders Fail and How to Prevent It,” was published in September 2013 and received national attention.
“Grady Bogue was a treasured member of the University of Tennessee family,” DiPietro said. “We are deeply indebted for his leadership and service to both the UT Chattanooga and UT Knoxville campuses. He was an excellent teacher; a skilled, compassionate administrator; and a wonderful friend. I will miss him greatly.”
On Oct. 25, Dr. Bogue was presented at his home with a resolution signed by DiPietro and UT Board of Trustees Vice-Chair Brian Ferguson and recognizing his service as interim chancellor at UTC, his overall contributions to the University and to higher education.
During his stint as interim chancellor at UTC, Dr. Bogue authored a guest column for the Chattanooga Times Free Press in April 2013 following a concert in honor of the retirement of a UTC professor of music. In it, he wrote, “Our public universities are investments in the power of ideas and the intellectual promise of our students, investments in the search for truth and the cultivation of mind. They are instruments of scientific, technical and economic development. Never tell me, however, that public universities are not guardians of human dignity/civility, guarantors of democracy and do not touch heart, soul, and spirit of their students and our communities. This musical evening was full testimony to the public university also as a curator of our artistic and noble impulses.”
Dr. Bogue served as chancellor of Louisiana State University in Shreveport from 1980 to 1991. He was interim chancellor for one year at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and he was named chancellor emeritus of LSU Shreveport by the LSU Board of Trustees in 1991.
Prior to his time in Louisiana, Dr. Bogue was associate director for academic affairs at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission from 1975 to 1980.
Dr. Bogue also held positions at then-Memphis State University, was a civilian instructor and division chairman for the Department of the Navy and served in the U.S. Air Force. He authored or co-authored more than 10 books and numerous journal articles, book chapters and papers on higher education and leadership.
Dr. Bogue earned the first doctoral degree granted by the University of Memphis (then Memphis State University), from which he also earned a master’s degree, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. He graduated from Millington Central High School in Millington, Tenn.
He was named a distinguished alumnus of the University of Memphis in 1986 and won the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in 1980 and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in 1990.
Dr. Bogue served as a consultant on planning and evaluation, assessment and accreditation, and leadership and governance to a wide range of colleges and universities, state level agencies, and corporations. Recently, he had been writing a bi-monthly column, “On Leadership,” for the Knoxville Business Journal.
In a May 6, 2013 column, Dr. Bogue wrote about having “failed retirement” by being named interim chancellor four weeks after retiring as a professor, and he reflected on differences in changes facing today’s higher education leaders versus those he faced as a university chancellor in Louisiana.
“I have been blessed to work with a university having a wonderful heritage of good teaching and program excellence, a caring and competent faculty and staff, an executive staff of magnificent talent and devotion who always seem to be one or two steps ahead of me when I place requests before them, and a city that embraces the university and builds cultural, economic and educational partnerships with it,” he wrote.
“Folks still respond to those same core leadership values of candor, civility, compassion and courage that served in previous years. Colleagues look then and now for their leaders to stand against arrogance, prejudice, duplicity and mediocrity.”
Dr. Bogue is survived by his wife, Linda, and five children: Karin, Michele, Barrett, Sara Love and Michael.
Funeral services will be held in Knoxville and Nashville.
The Knoxville visitation will be Saturday, Nov. 2, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Laurel Church of Christ, 3457 Kingston Pike. A funeral service will follow at 7 p.m. at the church.
The Nashville visitation will be Monday, Nov. 4, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hillsboro Church of Christ, 5800 Hillsboro Pike. A graveside service will follow at Woodlawn Cemetery.