Carla Lawrence and Professor Kurt Sickafus celebrated their retirements together at a party in July.
By Randall Brown. Photography by Yvette Gooden.
Carla Lawrence retired in July after 28 years of helping keep the MSE department running. She leaves UT proud of the connections and wealth of memories collected in her time with the college.
“MSE is a great department with wonderful faculty and staff,” she said. “I have made lifelong friends working at UT.”
Lawrence was hired in 1993 by then Department Head Joseph Spruiell and worked with six MSE department heads in total.
“All have been great to work for,” she said. “They bring different ideas and accomplishments to the department—all who I respect and I am very honored to have gotten to work for them. All have worked hard to make MSE a great department.”
Lawrence enjoyed watching the growth of the department over the years, especially the increase in both the graduate and undergraduate student numbers.
“Our students are doing great research,” she said. “I could go on and on about the MSE department, but I know I will miss something. It is an honor to see our students strive when they graduate.”
She and husband Robbie are retiring together, with their immediate plans involving quality time with their grandchildren.
“We will be keeping our eight-month-old granddaughter, Ryleigh,” said Lawrence. “And helping with our grandsons—Brayden, who is 10, and Eli, who is seven—running them to and from school. Hopefully we can travel some and get much-needed things done around the house. We look forward to spending more time on the lake with our family.”
Her grandsons used to think she worked at Neyland Stadium and told all their friends about it.
“Because we are so close [to the stadium], that took some time to convince them otherwise,” she said.
Lawrence has enjoyed some connections with UT sports, including encounters with Vol icons.
“Meeting Peyton Manning and Josh Dobbs while walking on campus—both made me proud to be a UT Vol,” she said. “I played softball with [former Lady Vols coach] Hollie Warlick, ran track and played basketball against her in the mid-1970s.”
Warlick once visited MSE with a potential player when the department’s offices were located in the Dougherty Engineering Building.
“We talked for a really long time,” said Lawrence. “I helped convince the player to come to UT, or I like to think I did.”
The memory speaks to her favorite part of working at UT—the students.
“Not just MSE students,” said Lawrence. “I tried to help any student who came into the office.”
Some of her memories speak to the good humor to be found among the serious business of managing administrative life. When Lawrence started working in the department, former administrative colleague Sandy Maples had her convinced that the Dougherty Engineering Building had a penthouse suite above the sixth floor.
“This went on for about six months until one day we got in the elevator and our maintenance man, Vaughn, put the key in to go to the sixth floor,” said Lawrence. “The elevator opened to reveal that the “penthouse” level only contains air conditioning machinery.”
Former department head Ray Buchanan even pranked Lawrence with a toy mouse under her desk, sending her running from her office.
“It was priceless,” she said. “The stories I have about our faculty are memories I will cherish.”