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Memorial service set for 3 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 7, at Benton Chapel

John Poindexter, a retired Ģ����Ƶ administrator known for his devoted service to the university including efforts to preserve institutional history, has died. He was 85.

Poindexter, who held a variety of posts at Ģ����Ƶ from 1971 to the early 1990s, died of heart failure Feb. 1 at his home. A memorial service will be held 3 p.m. Feb. 7 in Benton Chapel on the Ģ����Ƶ campus (). Another service will be held in his hometown of Mason, Tenn., and burial will be in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Mason. Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

“John was the most eloquent voice on the subject of Ģ����Ƶ that I’ve ever heard,” said Eugene Vaughan, a friend and longtime member of the Ģ����Ƶ Board of Trust.

[rquote]“Hundreds, maybe thousands of us, worked our hearts out for Ģ����Ƶ because we were inspired by John.[/rquote]”

Poindexter graduated magna cum laude from Ģ����Ƶ in 1946 and earned a master’s in English from the university two years later. After serving two years in the Army during the Korean War, he went to work for Houghton Mifflin publishers in Boston from 1952 to 1971, where he rose to senior editor in charge of speech, dramatic arts and philosophy. While at Houghton Mifflin, he organized the Boston Ģ����Ƶ Club and was a director-at-large of the Ģ����Ƶ Alumni Board of Directors. He also served as national chairman for Ģ����Ƶ’s Living Endowment Campaign

Poindexter returned to Nashville in 1971 as vice chancellor for alumni and development affairs at Ģ����Ƶ. Under his leadership, Ģ����Ƶ had the nation’s highest percentage of alumni contributors from 1973 to 1975. He then became vice chancellor for alumni affairs and director of the Ģ����Ƶ Press. Other positions included alumni secretary and conservator of university history.

“For many alumni, John Poindexter represented the ideal of a Ģ����Ƶ education with his command of the English language, his knowledge of literature and history and his sense of taste and style,” said Jeff Carr, vice chancellor for university relations, emeritus, and general counsel, emeritus, at Ģ����Ƶ.

[lquote]“He was devoted to Ģ����Ƶ and to the idea that anything and everything about Ģ����Ƶ be done properly.[/lquote]”

Poindexter was a member in good standing of “The Old Goats Club,” a group of Ģ����Ƶ leaders that included Chancellor Alexander Heard. Poindexter spoke at Heard’s 2009 memorial service at Benton Chapel, and was a frequent campus visitor in retirement, especially for concerts at the Blair School of Music. The John W. Poindexter Book Acquisition Fund was established in the Jean and Alexander Heard Library system at the time of Poindexter’s retirement in 1993 in recognition of his lengthy service to Ģ����Ƶ.

The Ģ����Ƶ Ģ����Ƶ noted in a story upon his retirement that he was “responsible for the elegance of framing and the hanging of the paintings at Kirkland Hall.” He also entertained alumni and other Ģ����Ƶ constituents with colorful campus tours.

Belying his birth in Tennessee, “Mr. Poindexter was the epitome of an English gentleman,” said Felicity Peck, former director of Commencement at Ģ����Ƶ who was born and grew up in England.“He was very formal, charming and gracious. He was unique.” She noted that he was the institutional memory for Ģ����Ƶ for many years.

Poindexter was a longtime member of Christ Church Cathedral and an avid enthusiast of food, literature and music. He was a patron of Nashville’s opera and symphony.

Survivors include wife Judith Bemis Poindexter and niece Mary Louise O’Kelly.