Lipscomb dedicates amphitheater to past president Steve Flatt
Janel Shoun |
Flatt, who served as Lipscomb president for eight years prior to current President L. Randolph Lowry’s arrival in 2005, said he and his wife Patsi were “humbled beyond expression at this tribute to our time here.”
Flatt said that after he was told about the honor he came down to the Bennett Campus Center to see the outdoor amphitheater that sits just off Bison Square. “I thought, as university presidents always do, why didn’t I think of that?” he joked.
During the Friday afternoon dedication ceremony, the Lipscomb Jazz Ensemble, including Flatt’s son Lee performed “When the Saints Go Marching In,” and various Lipscomb board members and alumni shared memories of the Flatts and their selfless service to Lipscomb and the community.
Lowry praised Flatt’s tireless efforts to ensure that Tennessee Hope scholarships, created during his tenure at Lipscomb, would be available not only for Lipscomb students but for all private university students as well as public university students. This year Lipscomb has 622 students on campus who have benefited from the Hope scholarships.
These same students have benefited from the amphitheater, which has “quickly become a center of attention and a center of activity on campus,” said Joe Ivey, Lipscomb’s senior vice president of advancement during the ceremony.