Conference to focus on Tennessee and its Allies in World War II | Georgiana Vines

Allen Packwood, Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge director of the Winston Churchill Archives of the University of Cambridge and a well-respected speaker on England’s prime minister who served his country twice, will be the keynote speaker at a three-day conference on World War II July 8-10 at the East Tennessee History Center.

The conference, “Over There: Tennessee and Her Allies in World War Two,” commemorates the 80th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, 1944. The event will feature talks by East Tennessee historians and scholars on the war and its impact in the area. Another international speaker will be Richard Toye, also an authority on Churchill and a professor of history at the University of Exeter at the Exeter branch.

Packwood was a speaker twice on a recent cruise I took to the British Isles and Normandy, France. He was engaging as he discussed Churchill’s long support of his country’s relationship with the U.S. Packwood also sprinkled his comments with tidbits of the British leader’s preferences for Cuban cigars, “whiskey, maybe Scotch,” French food and “life-long association with champagne.”

Warren Dockter, president/CEO of the East Tennessee Historical Society, said the reason the conference was developed is that he wanted “to showcase the kind of history we do here while we also do history with the world’s leading experts. Allen Packwood and Richard Toye are old friends.”

(Dockter showed his own knowledge of Churchill in a phone interview by saying Churchill’s favorite Scotch was Johnny Walker Red and favorite champagne, Pol Roger.)

In addition, Tennessee and East Tennessee in particular have important history. “Oak Ridge (and its role in the development of the atom bomb) is here. I learned more about that when I was in Britain than I did here. Our history matters,” Dockter said. He is a native Tennessean who was a research fellow at Clare Hall at Cambridge and spent 12 years in England.

Middle Tennessee also had a role in D-Day, Dockter said. “We hosted maneuvers in Middle Tennessee which went into effect with the largest amphibious landing in the history of mankind,” he said.

The ETHC program begins at 1 p.m. July 8 with a welcome from Dockter followed by a talk at 1:30 p.m. by Jack Neely, executive director of the Knoxville History Project, on “Civilians at War: Knoxville the Homefront.” Neely plans to discuss how the Knoxville-Oak Ridge area became an industrial powerhouse for the war effort with locals working at the top-secret Clinton Engineer Works, “most of them unaware they were creating the most fearsome weapon in human history.”

At 2:45 p.m., Oak Ridge historian Ray Smith and Alan Lowe, director of the American Museum of Science & Energy, will have a session, “Stories from the Secret City,” with a multimedia presentation featuring the history of Oak Ridge from the Manhattan Project.

The final session on July 8 will be at 4 p.m. and is on “Veterans and Volunteers: Designing and Exhibiting the New Tennessee State Museum’s Military Branch.” Speaking on curating a new military museum for the state will be Tara Spada and Larry Dahl, both curators of military history at the Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. Their talk will mention Tennesseans who had a role in major American military operations as well as their plans to connect with veterans who served in various conflicts.

On July 9, Derek Frisby, associate professor of the Global Studies Program at Middle Tennessee State University, will speak at 9:30 a.m. on “Ready to do our Part” about the USS Tennessee in the Pacific. This will be followed at 10:45 a.m. with a presentation on the work of the Tennessee Holocaust Commission by Alison Vick, professor of history at Pellissippi State Community College. Vick’s presentation will include interviews with survivors from East Tennessee as well as leading Holocaust scholars Michael Berenbaum and Christopher Browning.

Packwood will give the keynote address at noon on Churchill’s D-Day, followed by Toye at 1:45 p.m. on the untold story of Churchill’s World War II speeches. Dockter will speak at 3 p.m. on Churchill’s love of military intelligence.

At 4:15 p.m., The East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association and the Center for the Study of Tennesseans and War at the University of Tennessee will be highlighted by John Romeiser, UT professor emeritus of history, and Chris Magra, professor of history and center director. Their discussion will be followed by a visit to the Veterans Monument in World’s Fair Park.

A dinner at 6:15 p.m. at the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs will feature a program, “Postprandial – MANEUVERS: War Games in the Heartland,” focusing on war games in Middle Tennessee, including the presence of Gen. George Patton in June 1941, presented by Kelly Magill, videographer, KGV Studios.

On July 10, the day’s program on German planning for D-Day will start at 9 a.m. with a presentation by Stephen Fritz, professor of European history at East Tennessee State University. At 10:15 p.m., stories of East Tennesseans who became recipients of the Medal of Honor will be told by Steven Thomas, director of operations of the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga.

The program ends with concluding thoughts with Dockter at 12:30 p.m. Among supporters of the conference are the Churchill Society of Tennessee, the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, the Center for the Study of Tennesseans and War, American Museum of Science and Energy Foundation and the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center.

Information on tickets to attend any or all events is available at https://www.easttnhistory.org/event/over-there-tennessee-and-her-allies-in-world-war-two/.

∎ UT TO AWARD TWO DOCTORATES: Lamar Alexander, a former U.S. senator and Tennessee governor who lives in Blount County, and Rita Geier, who led an effort for a successful class-action lawsuit in federal court to seek a unitary system of higher education in Tennessee, were approved to receive honorary degrees from the University of Tennessee by its Board of Trustees at its June meeting.

Alexander also is a former president of UT and served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Education 1991-93. He will be awarded an honorary doctor of educational leadership and policy degree from the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences “for his unwavering dedication to improving education at all levels,” UT said in a press release.

Alexander, a Republican, received an honorary doctorate of laws from Princeton University on May 28 for his decades of public service and willingness to work with Democratic colleagues.

Rita Sanders Geier is a former associate to the chancellor and senior fellow at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, as it was called then, from 2007-11. She is to be presented an honorary law degree. The press release said she “led efforts to achieve the university’s intercultural and diversity goals and to promote solutions to critical public policy issues.” She has had a storied career as a lawyer in government and the private sector after receiving her law degree from Vanderbilt University. UT previously recognized her with the naming of a dormitory.

∎ VOTING DEADLINES: Tuesday, July 2, is the final day to register to vote before the Aug. 1 state primaries and Knox County general election. The first day that early voting begins is Friday, July 12.

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: Conference about Tennessee and its Allies in WWII