Jerry Askew's latest role is staff member to Episcopal bishop | Georgiana Vines

When Jerry Askew, who has been in higher education, health care and nonprofit work as well as being a community and civic volunteer, leaves one area of responsibility, he doesn’t get more sleep at night.

He gets another job.

With a three-page resume listing most of what he’s done in small type, he makes light of his situation.

“Looks like I can’t keep a job,” he laughs.

The Rev. Dr. Jerry Askew also is an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church and serves at St. John’s Cathedral downtown. In 2020, he was appointed archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, which means he works with 16 active deacons throughout the diocese’s 43 churches.

And on Dec. 1, he took on duties as interim canon to the ordinary, or a staff member to Bishop Brian Cole.

Askew says he’s helped countless individuals through his paid and volunteer roles, and will continue to, but he feels working on systemic issues best helps the most people.

A year ago he was replaced by Mayor Indya Kincannon as a member of the Knoxville Utilities Board when he would have been eligible to serve another seven-year term. He was board chairman. But Kincannon had agreed in 2020 not to appoint current KUB members to consecutive terms as part of a compromise plan with environment and economics activists who wanted to change KUB’s charter through referendum.

Askew is fine with this decision but adds he’s most proud of a major decision made by KUB during his time as chair, which was to establish a fiber division to provide broadband services. The decision had to be approved by Knoxville City Council but wasn’t done without some opposition from what Askew calls the “for-profit” internet providers. KUB has started implementing the program.

“It was the most important project I’ve ever worked on for those underserved,” Askew said. His comments were made in an interview Dec. 11 at the diocesan offices at 814 Episcopal School Way off Lovell Road in West Knoxville.

Askew, who will be 70 in February, was born and grew up in Ahoskie, N.C. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976 with a major in recreation therapy and the intention of working with preschoolers who were intellectually disabled. Then he got interested in college work and went to the University of Memphis to study student personnel in the College of Education, and received a master of science. In 1982, he received a Ph.D. from Ohio State University with a triple major in areas of college development.

“My hope was to become a college president,” he said.

He became a student personnel assistant in the office of the vice president for student services at Ohio State before going to the University of Miami in Florida to be an assistant to the vice president for student affairs and divisional ombudsman in 1982-85. In 1985, he came to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville as dean of students and eventually served as assistant/associate vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs in 1993-98.

He was a candidate to be UT president twice. Askew said he and his wife, Robyn, a lawyer, made a decision early in living in Knoxville to stay here rather than move away and take college administrative positions elsewhere that might lead to becoming president at UT. They thought Knoxville was the place to raise their two children, Taylor and Avery.

When the presidency position went to others is when Askew made career moves.

In 1998-2001, he was president of the East Tennessee Foundation, a regional community foundation with assets exceeding $60 million and serving 24 counties.

In 2001-17, he was senior vice president/vice president at Tennova Health Care, responsible for government, community and media relations, among other duties, for a system with seven hospitals and related medical facilities.

In 2017, when Volunteer East Tennessee merged with the local United Way, another merger was made with the Alliance for Better Nonprofits, of which Askew became president and CEO. He said at the time, “More of the philanthropic dollar gets to go to the people we're serving, and less to the administrative overhead."

He became the interim CEO of the Knox Education Foundation in 2022 and left in January.

He also serves as chair, president or vice chair of five boards or organizations. The one he says he is most hopeful of creating systemic changes is the statewide Families First Community Advisory Board, of which he serves as vice chair. The board’s mission is to transform the way Tennessee delivers supportive services to families in need. He was appointed to the board by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally of Oak Ridge.

Seven pilot projects are underway in the Families First program and, if successful, they “will reimagine social welfare in Tennessee,” he said.

Whether working for the Episcopal diocese or as a volunteer, Askew is trying to be a deacon, which he describes as “a prophetic voice for the poor and to the church and the world.”

When Bishop Cole announced Askew’s appointment as interim canon to the ordinary, Cole said Askew is “a trusted face and voice and presence in our diocese. … (The interim appointment) will give us a chance to have a smooth transition.” Askew succeeds the Rev. Michelle Warriner Bolt, who has stepped aside for some rest.

∎ REMEMBERING RANDY POPE: Randall Ray “Randy” Pope, superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park when support group Friends of the Smokies was founded in 1993, died Dec. 19. Pope, 91, was superintendent January 1987-December 1993, and lived in Gatlinburg after he retired.

“Randy was a visionary leader who left a priceless legacy in the creation of the Friends of the Smokies, which has raised more than $90 million to support Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” said Dana Soehn, Friends president/CEO.

Cassius Cash, present GSMNP superintendent, said Friday that Pope and his late wife, Kathy, visited him shortly after he came to the park in 2015. Cash said Pope “wanted to make sure” he knew about Friends of the Smokies and those who contributed to its formation. Former state Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade of Sevierville was its first chairman.

Friends started when maintenance money for the park was limited. The organization's first project was the repair of the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower, which offers a panoramic view of the Smokies. Friends’ support has grown to fund many other projects, including trail maintenance, Cash said.

“Randy Pope was a quiet individual but his actions were very loud,” Cash said.

He also said that Friends began as a grassroots effort just like the support and formation of the park itself did. “It took luck and courage (to start a support organization) because you don’t know if it’s going work,” Cash said.

Pope grew up in Kansas, served four years in the Naval Air Force during the Korean War and eventually received a bachelor's degree in landscape architecture from Kansas State University.

During his 36 years with the National Park Service, he also had assignments in the Omaha Regional Office and Grand Teton National Park and was superintendent of the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Ozark National Scenic Riverways.

Randy Pope died at LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville after being taken there from his home. His ashes will be scattered in the Smokies at a later date.

∎ RIP: Dorothy R. Jordan, wife of senior U.S. District Court Judge Leon Jordan, died Dec. 12 at the age of 91 in Maryville. Mrs. Jordan was a graduate of Maryville High School and had a bachelor's degree from Tennessee Tech University and a master's degree from East Tennessee State University. She was a medical technologist and was retired from the VA Hospital in Mountain Home and Blount Memorial Hospital. She was a member of Maryville Church of Christ.

Georgiana Vines is retired News Sentinel associate editor. She may be reached at gvpolitics@hotmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Georgiana Vines: Jerry Askew's latest role is staff member to bishop