Dear Editor and students,

Dr. Joey Barnett, class of 1981, is one of our most successful and engaged alums. He is Professor of Pharmacology, Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University. He also is a Director on the USI Foundation Board.

About eleven o’clock on Thursday morning, September 15 – the 51st anniversary of the founding of the University – Dr. Barnett was caught by a rainstorm without an umbrella and was walking from the Wright Administration building to University Center.

Seemingly, from nowhere a current student carrying a large umbrella stepped up bedside Dr. Barnett and said, “It seems you could use part of my umbrella?” He proceeded to walk Dr. Barnett up to University Center. Once under cover the student was gone!

Later, at the Foundation Board meeting, Dr. Barnett asked me to see if I could learn the name of the young man who was so “polite, kind and thoughtful . . . He was gone so quickly I had no time to express my thanks.”

If you are reading this letter to the editor and are that student, would you please let me know your identity so I can inform Dr. Barnett? He wants you to know how proud he is as an alumnus to have a current student take the initiative to go out of his way to help a campus visitor. The occurrence on our 51st anniversary made it even better.

Sincerely,

David A. Bower

President, USI Foundation