About Us
Dr. Iris A. Pearce
Dr. Pearce attended Rhodes College in the 1940s, when it was named Southwestern at Memphis, before graduating from Vanderbilt University. During World War II, she joined the women’s corps of the U.S. Naval Reserve (WAVES). As a medical student, she followed a long-established path in her family—where four generations of physicians preceded her. Yet she was also breaking new ground as a woman: she was one of only two female students in her University of Tennessee class; she served as the first female internal medicine resident at John Gaston Hospital (the Med); and she eventually became the director of the City of Memphis Hospitals while serving as a professor at UT. Her bequest generously continues to support her lifelong enthusiasm for Shakespeare.
The late professor of Shakespeare studies at Rhodes, Dr. Cynthia Marshall, was instrumental in establishing preliminary planning for this bequest.
Advisory Council
For the 2009–2010 Academic Year:
- Jennifer Brady, Professor and Chair, Department of English
- Jeffrey Jackson, Associate Professor of History and Chair, Environmental Studies Program
- David Jilg, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Theatre
- Michael Leslie, Professor of English and Dean of British Studies at Oxford
- Scott L. Newstok, Assistant Professor, Department of English
