"Derryberry was a football player at the University of Tennessee, lettering in 1925 and 1927. He was the first person in that school's history to earn a perfect 4.0 grade point average. He served as the head football coach at the University of Tennessee Junior College at Martin (now known as UT Martin) from 1934 to 1936.
Before and after his coaching career, he earned two degrees from Oxford University in Oxford, England while studying as a Rhodes Scholar.
Derryberry was the president of Tennessee Technological University from 1940 to 1974."
Reference: (
visit link)
"An alumnus with a perfect academic record who also played on the football and tennis teams and served as director of the University Glee Club, William Everett Derryberry became the university’s fourth Rhodes Scholar in 1928. During the 1930s, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature at the University of Oxford and captained a tennis team. After teaching at Burritt College, Derryberry became a department head and football coach at UT Junior College at Martin, and then he was appointed to a similar position at Murray State University. Derryberry eventually rose to serve as president of Tennessee Polytechnic Institute (later Tennessee Tech) from 1940 to 1974, overseeing its largest period of growth to that time."
Reference: (
visit link)
"During Dr. Wm. Everett Derryberry's tenure as president of Tennessee Polytechnic Institure, now Tennessee Technological University, enrollment increased, it became a university, and state fundings was secured to operate the Seventh Street School as a training ground for teachers. Later the school's name was changed to TTC. Under Dr. Derryberry's guidance, the school offered master's degrees in engineering and education. New dorms
and classrooms were built to accommodate the increased enrollment.
Gov. Prentiss Cooper chose William Everett Derryberry as president of TPI in 1940. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Tennessee, and he earned a second Bachelors Degree and a M. A. from Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. Everett married Joan PittRew of Devonshire, England, who came to Tech with him. Derryberry served as TPI's president until 1974, the longest serving chief executive of the institution. During his administration, Tech built most of the campus structures, added the master's and doctorate programs, became Tennessee Technological University, and increased student enrollment to almost 6,400.
President Derryberry's avocation was architecture, and building the campus was his delight. He used the quadrangle design that he had observed in Oxford, constructing buildings around open quads. He continued the use of the Georgian and neoclassical styles of the older campus buildings. Classroom buildings, dormitories, athletic facilities, and administration building, a library, a basketball coliseum, a university center, and a new president's home were all constructed during his presidency.
President Derryberry was interested in developing the academic program at Tech. He achieved accreditation for the individual programs as well as reaccreditation for the school; he established the master's degree program in several disciplines and the Rh.D. program in engineering; and he worked with the Tennessee general Assembly to change the school's name to Tennessee Technological University."
Reference: (
visit link)