Honoring Teachers
Peabody Demonstration School was an important part of Scott Sudduth's youth. He grew up on the college's "faculty row," just two doors down from Miss McMullan. She liked to turn to young Scotty to help entertain her nieces and nephews whenever they came to visit.
The Sudduths first came to Peabody College when Scott's father was working toward his Ph.D., then moved to Alabama after Scott finished nursery school. When they returned to Nashville, he was in fifth grade. He graduated from PDS in 1954.
A graduate of Princeton and Johns Hopkins, Scott practiced obstetrics and gynecology after his residency training at Boston Lying-in (now Brigham and Women's). For more than four decades he had a private practice "in lovely Exeter, New Hampshire" and "enjoyed all of the above immensely."
Now, approaching the sixtieth anniversary of his PDS graduation, he remembers the teachers there who inspired him.
"At Peabody I was drawn toward math and science, and that was the way it was in college as well. Hazel Lundberg and Dr. Beauchamp were two of the teachers I remember most. They were just excellent teachers." Dr. Beauchamp encouraged him to go into medicine, something that was in the back of Scott's mind anyway, as his mother's father was a physician.
Though Scott recalls his teachers as being seasoned veterans of twenty years or more on the faculty, one young man who was there only a short time remains vivid in his mind. "One person who was very good was Gilbert Wilson, our eighth grade teacher. He was very down to earth. He let you express your knowledge and explore multiple answers to questions. He encouraged people to think freely."
Deciding to make a gift to USN to honor the school and its great teachers was an easy part of his estate planning. "It came about as I was setting up a revocable trust, and it was to be distributed upon my death" along with other similar bequests.
"It's an unrestricted gift, and I would hope it would go toward furthering the excellences at the school and toward recognizing the quality of teachers that we have."
Scott adds, "It's a place that is very special, and we all benefited from our excellent education there. It's time to give back," he says to his fellow alumni. "It should be high on your list of ways to give back."