Most UT fans don’t have a strong sense of camaraderie with the Nebraska, Minnesota, or Nashville football teams. Nebraska leads the all-time Tennessee vs. Nebraska football series 2-1, with losses in the Orange and Fiesta Bowl. With only one matchup between Minnesota and Tennessee, we claim the series 1-0. Of all schools, though, Nashville’s Vanderbilt causes the most consternation with fans. Although UT leads the series 79-32, the resounding loss to Vanderbilt last November is a sore spot that only a winning season and a resounding win can cure.
Our feature today is on Stuart Anderson, who can claim a home base in all four locations: he was born in Nebraska, moved to Minnesota, then to Brentwood in Nashville, and finally to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, making his long-term home in Knoxville.
Anderson’s mother was primarily a housewife, while his dad was a computer programmer; first for the Air Force, then for Target Corporation. He has five brothers and one sister.
After graduating from Brentwood High School in Nashville, Anderson attended and graduated from UTK, where he met his future spouse, Beth, marrying in 1991.
Stuart joined George Armour Ewart Architects in 1998 and was made a partner on Jan 1 of this year! His firm is one of the largest and most respected in Knoxville. He tells me that much of his design work has been with medical and dental offices. In fact, the next time that you go by the Tennessee Cancer Specialist offices at Sherill Blvd and in Powell, they are 100% Stuart’s work.
Beth was a flight attendant based in Cincinnati for Delta Airlines, but more recently, she earned a teaching degree from UTK and has been an elementary school teacher at ESK, Belle Morris, Ball Camp, and Tate’s School of Discovery.
Stuart and Beth have two sons, ages 29 and 28.
As part of the Bearden Rotary Club’s “Know Your Rotarian” segment, fellow member Dick Hinton shared four facts about Jyoti—three truths and one lie:
Three Truths and a LIE
- One of Stuart’s early influences for drawing came from his mother; in the early 1960’s, she designed illustrations for ads in the local yellow pages.
- His Dad’s family (Anderson) was Swedish, immigrating to Minnesota and bringing some of their culture with them. Many years ago, his paternal grandmother won an award at the Minnesota State Fair for her lutefisk, a dried whitefish soaked in lye.
- Stuart has always been an entrepreneur. He started a lucrative business in high school that was easy, high volume, and profitable: writing notes for his classmates so they could get out of school. Making $5 per note was a good side hustle for him……until he got caught.
- High School was pretty enjoyable for Stuart. He’s musical. He once played guitar, drums, and keyboard in a band. After an afternoon of inspiring practice, the band decided on a name for themselves: Patchy Dense Fog.
One of Stuart’s earliest influences in drawing came from his mother, who created illustrations for advertisements in the local Yellow Pages during the early 1960s. Stuart also showed an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. While in high school, he earned extra money by writing excuse notes for classmates trying to get out of school, charging $5 per note until the scheme eventually caught up with him. High school was a fun time for him musically, as he played guitar, drums, and keyboard in a band that eventually settled on the memorable name Patchy Dense Fog.
Although his father’s side of the family was Swedish, the Andersons immigrated from Sweden to Minnesota, but there was no family story of an award-winning lutefisk recipe at the Minnesota State Fair.
The Rotary Club of Bearden meets every Friday, 12:15 p.m. for a luncheon meeting/program at Bearden Banquet Hall, 5806 Kingston Pike, 37919. All guests are welcome. Contact Joseph Pace with membership questions: here.
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