James Edgar "Jim" Stockdale's Obituary
JAMES EDGAR “Jim” STOCKDALE, long term administrator at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center in Memphis, died on December 8, 2020 at 2:46 AM as the result of COVID-19. He was born in Columbus, Ohio on July 11, 1930, but grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee. He graduated from Bearden High School in Knoxville, where he met his wife of 68 years, Dorothy Ashford. He received his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College in Oberlin OH, spent 2 years in the U.S. Army and received his graduate degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He was hired by the University of Tennessee Medical Units in Memphis in 1955 as Assistant Director of Student Welfare, which was the beginning of a career with the University that lasted 37 years. Jim shortly became the Director of Student Activities and had responsibility for the intramural athletic program, the management of the University Center, the student council, fraternity rushing, the logistics for commencement, the orientation of incoming students, the publication of a weekly campus newsletter, off-campus housing for students, jobs for students’ wives, the creation of the Medical Units yearbook called the Asklepieion, and just about anything that affected students outside the classroom. He and lifelong friend, the late Bill Robinson, were responsible for the design and construction of the Randolph Student-Alumni Center, completed in 1969.
Also, in 1969 he became the first Personnel Director of the UT Medical Units with responsibility for creating and designing the first personnel program on campus which included hiring, personnel records, orientation of new employees, wage and salary consistency, employee relations, training, and everything that related to non-academic employees, including the task of integrating the non-academic workforce. Jim was one of four people who wrote the personnel policies for the entire University of Tennessee system in the 1970’s. He was active in the College and University Personnel Association and served as its national president. Upon his retirement he was granted an Honorary Life Membership in the Association, an honor reserved for very few. Jim finished his career with the University as Assistant to the Vice Chancellor, retiring in 1992. He was active with the UT Retirees Association and served as its president.
A pioneer in women's basketball, Jim served as the coach of the UT College of Nursing basketball team for 26 years from 1955 through 1981. Jim was a volunteer in this endeavor for the University as he coached a team of students from the University of Tennessee College of Nursing that traveled throughout the Southeast and Midwest playing teams from other nursing schools. He was instrumental in starting the Cotton States Invitational Nurses Basketball Tournament which was played in Memphis from 1957 through 1985 and during its entirety involved hundreds of nursing student basketball players from a total of 37 schools from 10 different states. Upon his retirement as coach, Jim was inducted into the Memphis Amateur Sports Hall of Fame. In 2016 he received The Champion Within a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. He continued his love of women's basketball as he and Dorothy had season tickets to the Lady Vols in Knoxville beginning in 1993. They normally attended the annual SEC Women's Tournament and the NCAA Final Four when the Lady Vols qualified.
Jim was an avid fisherman who spent many hours on Mid-South lakes with family and friends, but his favorite was Bear Creek Lake in Arkansas where he and Dorothy have owned a cabin since 1991. He served the Bear Creek Lake Homeowners’ Association as president for eight years.
In addition he organized eleven wilderness fishing trips into northern Ontario, northern Manitoba, and the Northwest Territories, and was proud of the fact that they never used guides on any of these trips. Jim and Dorothy traveled extensively in their retirement with their favorite destination being Alaska, which they visited seven times, each trip lasting 5 to 8 weeks. They also traveled with Elderhostel, making a total of seventeen trips with that group to places all over the world.
Jim and Dorothy lived in Whitehaven from 1957 until 2017 when they moved to senior living at Germantown Plantation. They were members of Whitehaven Presbyterian Church from 1958 until the church closed in 2005. Jim served as both a Deacon and a Ruling Elder in the Whitehaven church. They are now members of Balmoral Presbyterian Church where he has also served as a Ruling Elder. Jim was very active with the Presbytery of Memphis (now Presbytery of the Mid-South) during the late 1960s and early 1970s serving as chairman of an ad hoc committee that changed the standing rules of the presbytery and as a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church US. He was also on the board of the Davis YMC in Whitehaven
Jim leaves his loving wife of 68 years, Dorothy; three daughters, Janice Stockdale Carney (Frank) of Germantown, Dr. Laura Stockdale of Knoxville, Elizabeth Stockdale Hott (Charles) of Horca, CO, a son, James Ashford Stockdale (Cindy) of Conway AR, ten grandchildren, Ashford Rosenberg (Paul) of New Orleans LA, Nelson Murray Carney (Amelia) of Memphis, Sarah Nagel (Todd) of Austin TX, Christina Howell (Trey) of Conway AR, Emily Boedeker (Kevin) of Conway AR, Rachel Latture (Seth) of Conway AR, Pfc. Joseph Hutzenbiler (USMC), James Stockdale Hutzenbiler of Knoxville, Carl Hott of Los Lunas NM, and Betsy Hott of Santa Fe NM. He also leaves 19 great grandchildren.
A virtual memorial service will be posted on the Balmoral Presbyterian YouTube Channel in January.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be sent to one of the following:
The Jim Stockdale Endowed Scholarship - created by his former players and friends, bestowed on a UTLV basketball player each year since 2016.
Tennessee Fund
P.O. Box 15016
Knoxville TN 37901
or call Andrea Piercy at the Tennessee Fund
865.974.5197
The Coach Jim Stockdale Endowed Nursing Scholarship
College of Nursing, University of Tennessee
62 South Dunlap
Memphis TN 38163
Friends of the St. Francis National Forest
895 Lee 304
Marianna AR 72360
Balmoral Presbyterian Church
P.O.Box 17309
Memphis TN 38187
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