Nashville Businessman Nelson Andrews, 1927-2009
Renowned Nashville businessman Nelson Andrews died on Saturday morning after a long battle with leukemia. He was 82.
The Tennesseean's Gail Kerr has a great tribute to Andrews, highlighting the odd jobs he worked to pay his way through Vanderbilt (including "playing guitar and banjo and singing harmony in a hillbilly band called the Tennessee Dew Drops"), his work at the forefront of promoting Nashville business (including the creation of Leadership Nashville, a kind of "It's Just Lunch!" meet-up for city leaders) and the principled common sense that marked his politics (even as a die-hard Republican, Andrews favored the adoption of an income tax in order to pay for quality public schools).
Kerr's only omission: Andrews involvement in Watauga, the secret society of Nashville businessman that served as de facto city advisers for two decades beginning in the late '60's.
As Scene's former editor Bruce Dobie wrote in a 2002 cover story, Andrews was one of the only 15-20 bank presidents, CEOs and city leaders to claim membership in the group, whose members had more to do with shaping Nashville in the last half-century than anyone else. With his passing, and the April death of Nashville Banner editor Eddie Jones, the city has lost yet another link to its not-so-distant past.
Update: Nashville Post's E. Thomas Wood has an impressive run-down of Andrews' life and a score of anecdotes and memories from some prominent Nashvillians.
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