Andrew D. Holt

Who was Andrew D. Holt?

Andrew David Holt, universally called Andy Holt, was an American educator who was the 16th president of the University of Tennessee, filling that position from 1959 to 1970.

Holt was born in Milan, Tennessee in 1904, the son of two schoolteachers. He graduated from Milan High School and Emory University. After his college graduation in 1927, he became a teacher in West Tennessee, first in Milan, where he taught grades five through eight, and then in Humboldt, where he taught high school. He also worked as a coach, a school principal, and a school superintendent. After less than 10 years of teaching, he joined the faculty of West Tennessee State Teachers College, where he served successively as principal of the Training School, director of teacher training, and professor of educational administration. While working in Memphis, he enrolled in a graduate program at Teachers College, Columbia University, which awarded him a Ph.D. degree in 1937. His doctoral dissertation at Columbia was about the continuing struggle for public support of education in Tennessee.

After receiving his Ph.D., Holt started a new job as executive secretary of the Tennessee Education Association.