OVERTON SQUARE OVER AGAIN Midtown Center Owes Birth and Rebirth to Owl Visionaries
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THE MAGAZINE OF MEMPHIS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL | SUMMER 2015 Feasting on Memphis and Atlanta Food Scenes Campaigning for International Happiness Transporting History Through the Streets OVERTON SQUARE OVER AGAIN Midtown Center Owes Birth and Rebirth to Owl Visionaries Tom Hayes ’83 and Bob Loeb ’73 Mikell Hazlehurst ’04 rides through tea country in Sri Lanka. Read about his adventures in India and Southeast Asia on page 22. MUS TODAY – SUMMER 2015 1 TODAY MUS contents FEATURES: DEPARTMENTS: Student Lauds 39 Class News 48 26 Milestones 60 A Trio of Vanderbilt Honor Faculty News 68 Council Presidents Gifts in Memory and Honor 78 The Last Word 82 4 ON THE COVER: Bob Loeb ’73, right, and Tom Hayes ’83 lead a contingent of MUS alumni who have been renovating Overton Square. A generation earlier, four Owls Bring Overton Square friends from the Class of 1963 launched the first Overton Square. Read about these multigenerational efforts on page 4. Photo by Lance Murphey to Life, Then and Now Director of Advancement Director of Alumni and 30 Perry Dement Parent Programs [email protected] Ann Laughlin United Nations Advisor [email protected] Campaigns for Happiness Editor Managing Editor Liz Copeland Marci Woodmansee 12 [email protected] [email protected] Creative Director – LeeAnn Christopherson Journalists Capture Memphis and Atlanta Food Scenes Inside MUS and Social Media – Rebecca Greer Contributors Christopher Blank, News Director at WKNO-FM in Memphis and Freelance Arts Writer 32 Genevieve Bettendorf, MUS Communications Intern Lisa Buser, Freelance Photographer based in Memphis ‘MUS is Who We Are; Dr. John E. Harkins, MUS Archivist and Historian SLAM is What We Do’ Mikell Hazlehurst ’04, World Traveler Lance Murphey, Freelance Photographer based in Memphis Susan Puckett, Food Writer and Author based in Atlanta Gaye Swan, Freelance Writer based in Memphis 22 Norman Thompson, MUS Instructor in English World Traveler Studies in India, with Trips on the Side musowls.org/media © 2015 Memphis University School. All rights reserved. The name, seal, and logos of Memphis University School, as well as MUS Today, Inside MUS, 34 The MUSe, The Owl’s Hoot, The Owl, and Beg To Differ, are registered marks of Memphis University School and use in any manner is prohibited unless Moving Experience Saves prior written approval is obtained from Memphis University School. 2 MUS TODAY – SUMMER 2015 Historic Home Student Lauds 39 Class News 48 FROM the EDITOR Milestones 60 Faculty News 68 Gifts in Memory and Honor 78 The Last Word 82 You Can Get There From Here t has been several years since I arrived on the white- character. They harnessed the power of the MUS community, columned doorstep of Humphreys Hall, a refugee, enlisting a host of fellow Owls to renovate, repurpose, and of sorts, from the shrinking newspaper industry. rebuild a new Overton Square for a new millennium. Jayme Illien ’98 describes the convergence of two life stories of interest on this new beat, at the intersection II wondered, at the time, if I would find enough of Park Avenue and Ridgeway Road. I soon discovered as a human right through the United Nations-backed these 94 acres have cultivated a bountiful harvest for the Internationalinfluences that Day shaped of Happiness. his passion One to is promote his adoptive happiness mother, pages of MUS Today – stories of civic involvement, career accomplishment, family devotion, artistic expression, orphaned and abandoned children worldwide. The other is innovation, and adventure. This issue of the magazine is hisAnna alma Belle mater: Illien, “MUS who taughtfinds permanent, me the importance loving homes of ethics, for no exception. values, and academic excellence, and introduced me to some Author and journalist Hampton Sides ’80 says what of my best friends,” he says. he does “is at the intersection of English and history.” His Two journalists, John Klyce Minervini ’03 in Creative Director – LeeAnn Christopherson latest best-seller, In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Memphis and Evan Mah ’09 in Atlanta, have taken different Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, is a case in roads to discover the intersection of food and culture at the Inside MUS and Social Media – Rebecca Greer point. Remembering his MUS days, he talks about reading Southern table. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. “It’s a story about dark Walter Wills ’67 took his 180-year-old family home on adventure and hardship and extreme climate situations. the road – through the streets of East Memphis – to preserve Contributors Probably a lot of that book rubbed off on me.” This from the historic Kirby Farm House for his children and future Christopher Blank, News Director at WKNO-FM in Memphis and Freelance Arts Writer the author who brings to life American history adventures generations. Genevieve Bettendorf, MUS Communications Intern and hardships – often set in extreme climates. Some of his These are just a few of the stories in the summer 2015 Lisa Buser, Freelance Photographer based in Memphis teachers rubbed off on him as well, he says, mentioning issue of MUS Today, stories of well-rounded young men Dr. John E. Harkins, MUS Archivist and Historian titans of English Bill Hatchett and Ellis Haguewood (who who used what they learned at the intersection of Park and Mikell Hazlehurst ’04, World Traveler marks two decades as headmaster this year) and history Ridgeway to forge new paths with their lives. I am grateful Lance Murphey, Freelance Photographer based in Memphis teacher Mike Deaderick. to be along for the ride. Susan Puckett, Food Writer and Author based in Atlanta A concrete intersection – the juncture of Cooper and Gaye Swan, Freelance Writer based in Memphis Madison in Memphis – has been the focus of revitalization Norman Thompson, MUS Instructor in English efforts by Lou Loeb ’71 and Bob Loeb ’73. A quartet of their predecessors from the Class of 1963 zeroed in on – Liz Copeland that same Midtown intersection in the ’70s, developing the Director of Communications original Overton Square. Over the years the once-bustling [email protected] entertainment district had deteriorated, and in 2009 it faced being razed and turned into a retail center by out-of- towners. The Loeb brothers had other plans, for a theater district and town center that retained the neighborhood’s MUS TODAY – SUMMER 2015 3 HIP REPLACEMENT Overton Square Owes its Birth and Rebirth to Alumni Visionaries by Christopher Blank 4 MUS TODAY – SUMMER 2015 Every big city has a signature neighborhood street corner – the hip and happening place outside of downtown proper where the locals flock and the tourists visit if they know better. hat was Overton Square in the 1970s, conceived by a group The storefronts were bare. of young and ambitious businessmen. They transformed Out-of-town owners balked at the cost of renovation. Tthe quiet Midtown intersection of Cooper and Madison into Bulldozers would flatten the block. In its place would rise a Memphis’ premier destination for a good time. strip mall and a discount grocery store. Judging by recent Friday night crowds, one might imagine Fortunately, Overton Square was reclaimed by Memphians that the mojo never subsided – that the patios have always been a who wanted their good times back. swirling mix of theatergoers, bachelor parties, yoga students, It required a special group of people to build – and then rebuild and foodies. – the heart of Midtown Memphis. But then, Overton Square has But not only did Overton Square spend nearly two decades on always benefited from bold and progressive backers – many of life support, it nearly flatlined a few years ago. whom call Memphis University School their alma mater. MUS TODAY – SUMMER 2015 5 Today’s Overton Square bustles at twilight. Photos by Lance Murphey “It’s been very gratifying and energizing for my brother, Lou, and me, who are in our 60s, to work on projects that help attract and retain Millennials in the heart of Memphis. The best part of the Overton Square story is that we’re not alone in this momentum shift. Since we started this, there’s been Crosstown, the Tennessee Brewery, the Medical District. All of these projects have been very collaborative.” -Bob Loeb ’73, president of Loeb Properties 6 MUS TODAY – SUMMER 2015 The Gold Mine women to hang out in bars unaccompanied. Friday’s was ready for business. In the late 1960s, two intersections got Where the girls hung out, the boys “Charlie Hull drove up to Nashville together and made a love child called followed. So did the money. and got the license,” Robinson says. “The Overton Square. The first was the intersec- Doggrell had stumbled upon the liquor distributors (in Memphis) had their tion of Madison Avenue and Cooper Street, world’s first Friday’s (later TGI Friday’s), trucks loaded up, waiting for the license a small commercial zone that had sprung up a place that became regarded as the gold number. Within an hour of him getting back, around a long-gone trolley stop. The second standard of the 1970s singles bar – the the trucks were unloading the liquor. We was the intersection of changing fashions wood-clad interior, the stained-glass were in a position to sell drinks by about 4 and mores during the peak of the sexual lampshades, the eclectic décor and, of p.m. that afternoon. By 8 p.m. the line was revolution. course, the potted ferns. around the corner. The line stayed around At least, that’s how it felt for James Doggrell and Robinson saw an the corner for the next four years.” Robinson ’63, or Jimmy, as he was known opportunity. The first full-service singles bar in at the time.