THE LEGACY OF
Larry Wallace Over the summer, the University revealed its newest outdoor campus venue, Wallace Square, in honor of Dr. Larry Wallace, Sr., for his monumental contributions to TWU and beyond. As a sixth-generation native of McMinn County, Dr. Wallace grew up steps away from campus and began his career as a police officer in Athens. He moved to Nashville and spent most of his working life in law enforcement. Notably, Dr. Wallace is the only person in the state’s history to serve as both Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and Colonel of the Tennessee Highway Patrol. After retiring from a 40-year law enforcement career, he came home and began a new chapter at Tennessee Wesleyan. Dr. Wallace founded the University’s Criminal Justice program and was ultimately named Senior Vice President before retiring after a decade of service. Presently, he serves as a member of the TWU Board of Trustees.
“I worked in law enforcement my entire adult life, and I’ve seen things that I don’t wish on anybody. I’ve seen evil and I’ve seen carnage,” Dr. Wallace said. “Being asked to come to work at Tennessee Wesleyan and start the Criminal Justice program was a major thing to me. Having the privilege of doing that and the opportunity to see so many young men and women who were trying to make a difference in their lives and the goodness still out there with people showed me a side of life that I hadn’t seen too much of in 40 years. It was a very meaningful and major transition for me. I loved every minute of it.” In 2004, Dr. Wallace devised a fourpart plan to make campus safer, which included: closing Coach Farmer Drive’s connection to Green Street, adding fencing around the campus along Green Street, installing a cross walk across Green Street, and closing College Street from Trinity United Methodist Church to Long Street. All these recommendations ultimately came to fruition which has improved the safety and landscape of campus. SPRING 2021 | 21
