Webb School of Knoxville’s Alumni Achievement Awards are presented annually to those alumni who have distinguished themselves in their respective careers and have achieved outstanding success in their chosen professions while upholding the mission of Webb School.
THIRTEEN SPARTAN ALUMNI, NOMINATED BY THEIR CLASSMATES AND REPRESENTING THIS YEAR’S REUNION CLASSES, ARE BEING HONORED FOR 2024
WE ARE PLEASED TO CELEBRATE THE FOLLOWING ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS FOR 2024:
ROBIN LINE ’64
J. TUCKER MONTGOMERY ’64
RON EMERY ’69
DENNIS RAGSDALE ’ 74
TRACY BRENNAN ’ 79
MAURIE MCINNIS ’ 84
KENNY NEEDHAM ’89
CARLEE ALM-L ABAR ’ 94
BREWTON BROWNLOW COUCH ’ 99
HUNTER BADDOUR ’04
SAM ABIDI ’09
TODD KELLY JR. ’14
SAM HANGGI ’19
Robin Line ’64
Dr. Robin Line has dedicated his life to the practice and teaching of family medicine, with a particular focus on supporting underserved communities.
Line’s professional career as a family medicine physician is marked by a commitment to healthcare access and education, both at home and abroad, including his work in Christchurch, New Zealand and American Samoa where he provided critical medical services and shared his expertise with medical students and residents. Line was also an associate professor in the Department of Family Practice at
the Morehouse School of Medicine and an assistant professor in family practice and community medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.
He helped spearhead Central Presbyterian Church’s homeless programs in Atlanta, Georgia, and leveraged his various leadership roles in the Medical Association of Atlanta (MAA) to advocate for the homeless. In 1992, he was presented with MAA’s annual Aven Cup Award, which recognizes physicians who play a significant role in civic affairs.
Line earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Tennessee. He went on to complete his family practice residency training at the Medical University of South Carolina. Shortly thereafter, Line served with the National Health Service Corps in Sparta, North Carolina, working with populations experiencing poverty in Allegheny County.
A respected voice in family medicine, Line is the recipient of the 1991 Georgia Academy of Family Physicians’ (GAFP) Georgia Family Physician of the Year award. The GAFP also recognized Line with Family Medicine Educator of the Year honors. He was also named Webb School’s Distinguished Alumni Award winner for 1992.
In addition to his clinical and teaching achievements, Line has made significant contributions to the medical field through presentations and publications on topics ranging from cholesterol management to screening tests in family practice, and from homelessness to crises in primary care. He has also been an active member of several professional and civic organizations.
As a student at Webb School, Line joined the Upper School honor committee and was president of student council. He was also an editor for the Spartan Spirit student newspaper and competed in basketball and track & field, serving as captain of the boys’ track & field squad his senior year.
J. Tucker Montgomery ’64
J. Tucker Montgomery has forged a distinguished career in both medicine and law, a rare achievement that sets him apart in both fields.
Montgomery completed his Bachelor of Science degree in history and chemistry from the University of Tennessee, where he laid the foundation for his diverse lifework. In 1972, he earned his medical degree from the University of Tennessee Medical Units in Memphis. Shortly after, his academic ambition led him back to Knoxville, where he graduated with a J.D. degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law.
Montgomery began his career in medicine, completing his family practice residency training at what is now the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. He went on to practice full-time emergency medicine in Chattanooga and Knoxville hospitals. His medical prowess eventually brought him to a unique crossroad, where he applied his deep understanding of healthcare to the legal field, particularly in the complex area of medical malpractice.
In 1982, Montgomery transitioned to law full-time, bringing his dual expertise to the courtroom as a defense attorney for healthcare providers. Over the next decade, he defended over 450 healthcare professionals. By 1992, he shifted focus to representing plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases. Throughout his legal career, Montgomery has reviewed thousands of medical malpractice claims and represented approximately 350 clients, always combining his legal acumen with his medical insight.
As the founder of Montgomery Law Firm in Knoxville, Montgomery has built a prominent practice specializing in healthcare liability. He utilizes his qualifications as both a doctor and a lawyer to offer clients unparalleled service, from analyzing medical negligence claims to navigating complex legal systems. His work has resulted in substantial verdicts and settlements across the Southeastern United States, benefiting countless patients and sparking improvements in healthcare practices.
Montgomery was recognized as a Top Plaintiff Medical Malpractice Attorney in 2014 and 2015 by Cityview Magazine and is a fellow of both the American College of Legal Medicine and the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute. He has also contributed to the field through his editorial work with the ED (Emergency Department) Legal Letter.
Over the course of his professional life, Montgomery has remained active in the medical community through volunteer work. He says that his enduring commitment to healthcare and justice reflects the values instilled in him during his time at Webb School.
Ron Emery ’69
Ron Emery is owner of Emery’s 5 & 10 at The Island in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Emery is the third-generation family owner, having succeeded his father, who was president of the family business, and his grandfather, E.L Emery, who opened his first Emery’s 5 & 10 in Knoxville in 1927, and later built a chain of 50 stores across the Southeast, including Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
As competition increased and the retail climate changed, Emery’s 5 & 10 liquidated the chain in 1983. However, Ron Emery kept the family business alive with his store on Chapman Highway. He also created a new concept for his business, providing unusual stocking stuffers and gifts, which still serves him well since moving his store in 2015 to Pigeon Forge.
After graduating from Webb School, Emery enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and was deployed to Vietnam in April 1970. Two months later, he and his Marine CAP unit of 13 riflemen were engaged in a devastating ambush. Emery and three others were seriously injured. He was taken to the Army hospital where a neurosurgeon used a new brain surgery technique to save his life. Emery was in a coma for four days and initially had amnesia. He could not walk, talk, or focus his eyes due to his paralysis. He related that despite the doctor’s prognosis that he may never speak or see again, or be able to walk or use his right side, “God had a different idea,” said Emery, who regained both his speech and eyesight and is able to walk with partial movement on his right side. For his bravery and sacrifice, Emery was awarded the Purple Heart medal for the injuries he sustained in the line of duty.
Following the Marine Corps, Emery moved to Hawaii and then returned to Knoxville to attend the University of Tennessee. He later joined the family business, which is celebrating its 97th anniversary this year. Emery’s 5 & 10 is the oldest, family-owned 5 & 10 in the South and second oldest family-owned 5 & 10 in the U.S.
Over the course of his career, Emery has been active in his community, serving on the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and the Knoxville Facilities Board, as well as the Governor’s Disability Council.
Emery entered Webb School as a freshman and was a member of the Spartan football team. As a senior player, he contributed to the Spartans’ first undefeated season. Along with the many football memories, Emery says he values the lifelong relationships that began for him at Webb. He added that he feels “very privileged to have been at Webb School when Bob Webb was president,” he noted. “Mr. Webb had high levels of expectation in terms of character, integrity, and honesty.”
Emery alluded to a photo featured in his senior year Princeps yearbook that shows him sneaking a cigarette in between classes in his car, which was parked in front of the office of Upper School headmaster Jim Snodgrass. He jokingly remarked, “Well, I had good character most of the time.”
Dennis Ragsdale ’74
Dennis Ragsdale is a founding shareholder of the Knoxville firm Long, Ragsdale & Waters, P.C., where he specializes in commercial real estate development, finance, and commercial law. He represents financial institutions, small businesses, and developers, and has closed transactions in over 30 states. Most recently, he has represented the developers of the multipurpose stadium and related private developments currently under construction in downtown Knoxville.
Ragsdale has been selected multiple times as one of Knoxville’s Best Lawyers in the practice areas of project finance and real estate. In 2023, Ragsdale and his two original partners, David Long and John Waters, were the honorees of the annual Commercial Real Estate Industry Awards program for their impact on the local real estate industry.
Ragsdale has also been recognized as a top lawyer by Business Tennessee.
For more than 20 years, Ragsdale served as an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law. He and Waters designed and led a seminar to teach third-year students the fundamentals of real estate acquisition and development.
As a result of his interest in German studies while attending high school at Webb, Ragsdale majored in German literature at Duke University and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1978. He later returned to Knoxville to complete his law degree at the University of Tennessee, garnering Order of the Coif honors.
Ragsdale is a longtime and devoted volunteer with East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH), working in various capacities. He was a member of the hospital’s board of directors for 14 years, including six as board chair. In 2013, Ragsdale received a Meritorious Service Award from the Tennessee Hospital Association for his decades of work with ETCH.
While his children AnDe ’09 and Jack ’14 were attending Webb School, Ragsdale was asked to join the school’s board of trustees, and went on to serve six years on the board, including four as secretary. He was also active in several related school committees. Following his tenure, Ragsdale was honored with Webb’s Robert Webb Service Award for outstanding service and leadership to the Webb community. This past summer, he returned to Webb to celebrate with Spartan teammates the 50th anniversary of the school’s first baseball team.
Ragsdale is currently completing his third three-year term as an elder at First Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, and has been on the church’s finance committee for more than 30 years.
Ragsdale says that he considers his six years at Webb School invaluable to his development as a student and as a person. “Looking back, I believe that the school’s Honor Code not only instilled personal values, but it also created a belief that we can trust and have confidence in others,” Ragsdale noted. That approach, he added, encouraged him and his children to stretch themselves in every phase of life.
Tracy Brennan ’79
Tracy Brennan has dedicated her working life to teaching English at levels ranging from middle school through college. She advises younger teachers whom she mentors to focus on creating a positive rapport with students first, teaching the subject second, and giving helpful feedback third. She encourages her students to write well and to read challenging material to help them grow as people, citizens, and leaders. Brennan began school in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and attended Webb School her sophomore through senior years. She graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and a minor in religion. As an undergraduate, Brennan spent a year abroad studying Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare, as well as biblical studies, at Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.
Brennan began her professional career as a middle school teacher at the Sacred Heart Parish School in Coronado, California. As part of her adventures, she and her husband, Rick, lived on a 41-foot racing sailboat at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado for the first five years of their married life. Brennan went on to earn her master’s degree in English literature from University of San Diego. The next few years included the birth of her sons Colin, Ian, and Conor, and a number of moves to Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, and finally, Colorado. During that time, Brennan expanded her career to not only include teaching high school and college English, but also serving as a sailing instructor in California and Maine and a skiing instructor in Colorado. Now living in Boulder, where she teaches high school AP and IB literature, Brennan has been a board member for the Colorado Language Arts Society and has presented at state and national conferences.
Trained in teaching mindfulness to other educators, Brennan has also brought mindfulness to her own classes and was honored with the Boettcher Foundation Teacher Recognition Award, presented annually to teachers for their exemplary influence in educating some of Colorado’s top students. Brennan was nominated by one of her senior students who won the prestigious Boettcher Scholarship. Outside the classroom, Brennan has continued to pursue new adventures, including earning her pilot’s license and flying across the country in an experimental plane she owns with her husband.
Brennan notes that some of her most treasured memories of Webb School include the lessons she received from her outstanding teachers, especially English teachers Warren Heiser, Ruth Graf, and Mary Jo Potts. “I remember the connection I felt to them as they taught me how to read and analyze literature and write in a compelling way,” she recalls. Brennan added that she also threw herself into sports at Webb as well as academics. “I have amazing memories of my Webb cross-country and track buddies,” she remarked, “including Carol Tucker Pattison, Laura Adams Johnson, Melissa Preston Vaughn, Elisabeth Hargrove, and Allison Burdette, who all ran with me on those long eight-mile training runs.” Brennan added that her time at Webb helped her become an insightful teacher, a dedicated athlete, and a world citizen with a wider view.
Maurie McInnis ’84
Maurie McInnis is the 24th president of Yale University – the first woman to be named permanent president of the Ivy League school. She is also a professor in the university’s Department of the History of Art.
President McInnis has spent three decades in higher education, holding a range of teaching, research, and leadership positions at several iconic universities. Previously, she served as the sixth president of Stony Brook University, an internationally recognized public research institution and a flagship university in the State of New York. As chief executive, she also oversaw
Stony Brook Medicine, Long Island’s premier academic medical center, which encompasses five health sciences schools, four hospitals, and 200 communitybased healthcare settings. McInnis was a key player in furthering economic development on Long Island and in Stony Brook’s role as part of the management team of nearby Brookhaven National Laboratory, a United States Department of Energy facility. She is also the inaugural chair of the Board of the New York Climate Exchange. Her leadership at Stony Brook was transformative, marked by a $500 million gift from the Simons Foundation – the largest-ever unrestricted endowment gift made to a U.S. institution of higher education.
McInnis earned her bachelor’s degree in art history with highest distinction from the University of Virginia (UVA) and her master’s and doctorate in art history from Yale University, later specializing as a cultural historian in the politics of art and slavery in the American South. After completing her graduate studies, McInnis was a faculty member at James Madison University where she developed a deep understanding of student needs. She then returned to UVA, holding various leadership roles and strengthening academic connections. McInnis went on to become provost and executive vice president of the University of Texas at Austin, and led strategic planning for the university’s academic mission while focusing on expanding access to higher education.
McInnis has made significant contributions to the field of art history. Author of five books, including the award-winning titles The Politics of Taste in Antebellum Charleston and Slaves Waiting for Sale: Abolitionist Art and the American Slave Trade, she also led the creation of a digital history project at UVA to tell the history of enslavement at the institution.
In addition to her academic and administrative roles, McInnis has served on various boards and commissions, including the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ Commission on Economic and Community Engagement and the Association of American Universities.
“What I remember most about Webb School,” McInnis recalls, “is how great of an impact the teachers had on me. The faculty provided an extraordinary education.” She credited her AP Art History teacher, Shirley Dumont, with introducing her to a field that would become the focus of her research, scholarship, and teaching. “And my AP Biology teacher, Sheila Jacobstein,” she added, “also mentored me when I was in student government, and that experience taught me skills that have served me well ever since.”
Kenny Needham ’89
Kenny Needham has made a substantial impact in the highly competitive food industry and within the Webb community. After attending the University of Tennessee, Needham joined Magnolia Provision Company in 1994, a leading meat and seafood supplier. His dedication and leadership quickly became evident, and by 2002, he had taken over operations, becoming the company’s president.
In 2005, Needham founded Magnolia Jerky Company, which
became a prominent player in the meat snack industry. Two years later, he expanded his business ventures by acquiring Crockett Creek Beef Jerky. Today, under his guidance, these companies boast several nationally distributed brands of beef jerky and snack sticks, solidifying his reputation as a successful entrepreneur in the food production sector.
Needham’s connection to Webb School runs deep. A student-athlete at Webb, Needham as an eighth-grader was a member of the 1985 state championship baseball team. He also participated in wrestling, golf, and football. A leg injury sidelined Needham for his senior gridiron season, but his spirit and camaraderie left a lasting impact on his teammates. During his college years, Needham generously donated his time in giving back to Spartan athletics, coaching the school’s Pilot football teams for multiple seasons.
Needham says he fondly recalls his time at Webb School and cherishes the strong relationships he built with both coaches and faculty. He noted that Webb provides a family environment, a place where he felt deeply connected and supported. “This sense of belonging influenced my decision to send both of my children, McKenzie ’16 and Stokes ’18, to Webb,” he remarked, “allowing them to share in the same experiences I treasured.”
Carlee Alm-LaBar ’94
Carlee Alm-LaBar’s career, to date, has been marked by public service, primarily in her adopted hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana, where she lives with her husband, Will, and their dog, Jozy. Alm-LaBar is Chief of Staff for Strong Towns, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to building financially strong and resilient cities.
After graduating magna cum laude from Northwestern University, Alm-LaBar moved to South Louisiana through Teach for America. There, she fell in love with Cajun and Creole culture, and built a life in the region, working and pursuing her master’s degree in public administration from Louisiana State University.
Her interest in public service has led to a winding career path in a variety of nonprofit, philanthropic, and government roles. In government, Alm-LaBar has served as a mayor’s assistant, chief development officer, and planning director overseeing Lafayette’s first comprehensive planning effort. In nonprofits, she has held several titles, including president/CEO of the United Way of Acadiana, where she helped lead the organization’s COVID-19 response efforts, ranging from food relief to vaccine outreach. In 2022, she transitioned to philanthropy as executive director of the William C. Schumacher Family Foundation.
Alm-LaBar has always maintained a healthy volunteer schedule in addition to fulfilling her professional duties – a practice she credits with deepening her professional networks and community life. Highlights include board chair for Leadership Institute of Acadiana; founding board member of Lafayette’s new Community Development Financial Institution (upLFT Capital Access); longtime volunteer for Junior League of Lafayette; president of a successful political action committee that supported a change to Lafayette’s local government structure; and board member for Lafayette’s nonprofit, independent news outlet, The Current, which in 2024 hosted the first-ever Big Towns conference for small and midsized cities across the country. Alm-LaBar also ran as an independent candidate for mayor-president in 2019, coming in second, and still serves the Knoxville community as a longtime board member of Siddiqi Charitable Foundation.
She has won several community awards, primarily based in Louisiana and the Acadiana region, including Leadership Lafayette’s Distinguished Alumna Award for civic involvement and servant leadership. She is also a Next City Vanguard, a fellowship program that recognizes urban leaders across the country.
When thinking about how her time at Webb School has informed her current life, Alm-LaBar says it’s easy to draw lessons. “Webb provided me a platform to be involved – the more I put into school life and culture, the more I got out of it,” she noted. “Webb gave me the confidence and skills to realize that communities work much the same way, and that has helped me make an impact.” She added that one cannot think about Webb School without remembering “the amazing examples of excellence in education like Mrs. J., Mrs. Colbert, and Mr. Heiser,” she remarked, “and so many more brilliant and kind educators who pushed me and taught me how to think.”
Brewton Brownlow Couch ’99
Brewton Brownlow Couch is Chief of Staff and Assistant Dean of Finance, Operations, and Administration at the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs on the University of Tennessee campus. The Baker School’s mission is to educate skilled problem solvers and prepare them to take public leadership roles and help the country solve the biggest challenges of our time. Grounded in the legacy of Sen. Howard Baker, it is the first and only institution of its kind in the State of Tennessee. The Baker School admitted its first class of undergraduate students this fall and will continue to grow in the coming years.
Working closely with the Baker School’s dean, Couch is overseeing the institute’s operational transition from a policy center to a school, including budgeting, process creation, and facility management. She also manages the day-to-day operations, events, finances, and administration, and advises the dean on long-term goals and building for the future.
Previously, Couch was Chief Strategy Officer at United Way of Greater Knoxville, where she led the organization’s marketing, fundraising, and volunteer engagement efforts. During her tenure, Couch was a key player in driving the organization’s long-term strategy and vision, and managed a team responsible for generating approximately $10 million in annual fundraising revenue. She worked closely with the CEO to navigate several periods of significant change, which included the uncertainties of COVID, tripling the staff size, diversifying revenue streams, and implementing a new messaging strategy that repositioned United Way as a dynamic thought leader in the Knoxville community.
Couch first joined United Way as Vice President of Branding and Messaging. She successfully modernized the nonprofit’s marketing efforts, including a website redesign, video series, targeted marketing, compelling events, and leveraging her team to set strategies beyond marketing.
Couch completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Davidson College and went on to earn her law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law. She later served as Assistant General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, leading a task force to uncover and prosecute fraud among state contractors. Couch was instrumental in providing evidence of historic petroleum leaks, leading to a multi-million-dollar settlement for the state. She also led education efforts to help local employees manage their own environmental practices.
Couch’s professional resumé also includes head of marketing at TouchPlan.io, a construction industry technology startup, where she managed marketing strategies and campaigns.
When asked about what she valued from her Webb School experience, Couch replied, “Webb equipped me with both the work ethic and the resiliency I needed to succeed in my career.”
Hunter Baddour ’04
Hunter Baddour is co-founder/president of Spyre Sports Group, LLC, a sports marketing and media agency located in Knoxville. Spyre has over 30 years of marketing experience along with having represented hundreds of professional athletes in various professional sports. It creates NIL (name, image, and likeness) opportunities for student-athletes, digital marketing strategies for brands, and memorable experiences for businesses.
Spyre was ranked the most ambitious NIL collective in the country by college sports news outlet On3. On3 also named Baddour as the third most influential figure in NIL. In addition, Spyre was recognized as a “Power Player” by Sports Business Journal and received the Knoxville Chamber’s 2024 Pinnacle Business Award in the Innovator category.
Baddour earned both a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and an MBA from the University of Tennessee. He went on to complete his Master of Science degree in sports studies at UT and later served as an adjunct professor at UT, teaching a course on the legal aspects of sports. Baddour was also a sports marketing agent and director of golf operations for Allegiant Athletic Agency.
When asked about his favorite Webb School memories, Baddour harkens back to playing Middle School basketball for Coach Elliott Stroupe. “I was a rising fifth-grader and a camper at Knoxville Christian Basketball Camp,” Baddour recounts. “Coach Stroupe was one of the counselors and carried somewhat of a ‘legend’ status. When it came time to rotate to his station, I made sure I was ready. It was a simple passing drill station and I put my best foot forward to nail the drill. I remember Coach speaking to me and asking, ‘Where are you going to school next year?’ I proudly told him ‘Webb’ and from that moment on, Coach would be an instrumental part of my life.”
As a sixth-grader on the Middle School A basketball team, Baddour said he didn’t see much playing time. “I learned about the concept of paying your dues that year,” he noted, “and that if you want to play for Coach Stroupe, he would expect hustle, discipline, and teamwork above all else.” In seventh grade, Baddour remarked that he learned the most valuable lesson of all – patience. Having previously been on the team, he assumed he would see increased time on the court, but “I wasn’t ready. I needed to get better,” he explained. “And it was clear going into eighth grade and my final season with Coach that nothing would be given to me,” Baddour added. “I worked hard in the offseason, practiced every day, and joined a fitness training program to work on my skills, strength, and agility.” The work paid off and he started every game. “We only had four losses that season,” he continued, “and beat our rival Sacred Heart three times, including the championship game.”
As an Upper Schooler, Baddour would visit with Stroupe. “I missed playing for him,” he said. “Coach was always there to listen and offer advice and certainly some ‘tough love’ at times. I carry the lessons I learned from Coach Stroupe on and off the court to this very day.”
Sam Abidi ’09
Sam Abidi is President of Apex Advisors, where he works with robotics and automation companies across the industrial sector to define and execute their commercialization strategies. In this role, Abidi has been responsible for launching new business units, developing robots for the logistics industry, negotiating drone delivery contracts with Fortune 500 companies, and supporting venture capital fundraising for multiple startups.
Previously, Abidi was the Chief Commercial Officer at Monarch Tractor, a developer of electric and autonomous tractors for farmers. As CCO, he was responsible for forming partnerships with traditional tractor OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and large farms, in addition to supporting fundraising efforts.
Abidi graduated from Virginia Tech with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering, and then earned his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He began his professional career as a management consultant with Deloitte Consulting in both Chicago and Washington, D.C., where he worked with logistics and defense clients to identify, deploy, and scale innovative technologies surrounding automation, computer vision, and data analytics. Abidi went on to serve as CCO of Embark Trucks, a San Francisco-based developer of self-driving trucks. He directed the business development, marketing, and public relations teams, and was responsible for forming numerous partnerships with logistics industry leaders such as DHL, Cummins, Anheuser-Busch, and others. Additionally, Abidi was a key member of the management team responsible for taking Embark public on the NASDAQ in 2021.
Abidi currently lives in San Francisco with his wife, Danielle, and they are awaiting the arrival of their first child.
Asked about his memories of Webb School, Abidi recalled his time in AP Physics with Mr. Childers and specifically the Rube Goldberg assignment that required students to team up and create a complex mechanical contraption the size of a small refrigerator. “I still remember being in the machine shop with my classmate late the night before,” he said, “cutting wood and preparing our contraption, as well as the next morning when students could be seen unloading their Rube Goldberg projects from their cars and wheeling them into the Science Building.
“Experiences like that, as well as my time on the Webb robotics team with Brother Dave, were great examples of how the Webb faculty regularly went above and beyond to frame learning opportunities in new and creative ways that kept students engaged. I believe this did a great deal to stoke my interest in science and technology at a young age.”
Todd Kelly Jr. ’14
Todd Kelly Jr. is a wealth management advisor with Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in Knoxville. A graduate of the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry and cellular and molecular biology, Kelly was also a starter for the UT Vols football team. He earned 2014 Freshman All-SEC Team kudos with 33 tackles on the season and led all freshmen in the SEC with three interceptions. He is also a 2015 SEC Academic Honor Roll selection and went on to lead his Vols in interceptions and tackles his junior year, picking up 2016 CoSIDA Academic All-District 3 honors along the way. Additionally, Kelly is the recipient of the Phillip Fulmer Award for Excellence Scholarship and the Mack Dove Athletic Scholarship, and was inducted into the Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society.
As a player at UT, Kelly was also active in serving the local community. His service efforts included volunteering at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital, mentoring local fourth-graders at Lonsdale Elementary, and working with students via the Emerald Youth Foundation and Read Across America. He was nominated for the Wuerffel Trophy, known as college football’s premier award for community service.
Before signing with Tennessee, Kelly was a four-star prospect at Webb School. He is a two-time Tennessee Titans DII-A Mr. Football Back Award winner and a multiple All-State selection. He helped lead his Spartans to back-to-back Division II-A state championship titles in 2012 and 2013. Kelly was also named Tennessee Gatorade State Player of the Year his senior season and was selected to play in the 2014 U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Following a career-ending knee injury at UT, Kelly says he turned his focus to Merrill Lynch “because I knew that I could help people who were driven to succeed,” he noted. “The same drive, passion, and intensity that I put into the game of football I now put into my profession as a wealth management advisor for my clients.” Kelly also applies those qualities to his work as founder of the Zaevion Dobson Memorial Foundation Camp 24 and the TKJ Foundation, both established to empower youth in the Knoxville community through sports.
Looking back on when he was a student at Webb School, Kelly recounts a memory from his senior year that for him captures the Webb experience.
“I will never forget wearing eye black and shoulder pads, and having my helmet in hand, standing on the 50-yard line as a senior captain,” he recalls. “I was mentally preparing to play our chief rival on Faust Field; meanwhile, I was simultaneously lined up to sing the National Anthem with my fellow Chamber Singer comrades.”
Being able to take part in a game that he loved while also being involved with the choir “is something that I will never take for granted,” Kelly said. “Webb was and continues to be unique in enabling each student to chase different interests and activities without limiting them from doing what they enjoy as a student.”
Sam Hanggi ’19
Sam Hanggi has taken an inspiring and unconventional career path. Combining his passion for fishing and the outdoors with a strong academic background, Hanggi is both a professional bass fisherman and associate editor at Wired2fish, one of the leading online voices in freshwater fishing and fishing education.
Hanggi’s journey into competitive bass fishing began early, fueled by his family’s love for the outdoors. While completing his pre-law degree at Auburn University, Hanggi competed on Auburn’s bass fishing team all four years, earning multiple top-ten and top-five finishes and contributing to the Tigers’ national reputation in collegiate fishing.
Even before graduating from Auburn, Hanggi capitalized on his love of fishing while using his writing skills to build a unique line of work. As the only Spartan graduate to pursue a career as a professional fisherman, he has also leveraged his ability to communicate effectively – honed through both his Webb education and pre-law studies – to skillfully attain and fulfill his role at Wired2fish, where he shares insights on fishing techniques, gear, and more.
Hanggi notes that his Webb School education has played a key role in his career journey. He credits his English teachers, particularly David “Doc” Haines and Elli Shellist, with sharpening his writing abilities – an asset he says has been invaluable in meeting the demands of his post at Wired2fish.
While Hanggi says he would eventually like to become a full-time professional angler, participating in Bassmaster Open events with the goal of qualifying for the Bassmaster Elite Series, his joining Wired2fish represents a dream opportunity for him. “It’s my belief that you will do your best work and go farthest in life if you have a passion for what you do and where you work,” he noted in a 2023 Wired2fish announcement, “and fishing is what I truly enjoy.”
ALUMNI
AS SOCI AT IO N
THE PURPOSE OF WEBB SCHOOL OF KNOXVILLE’S ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IS TO PROMOTE UNITY AND FELLOWSHIP AMONG THE SCHOOL’S ALUMNI, TO LEARN OF AND CONSIDER THE PROGRAMS AND NEEDS OF THE SCHOOL, AND TO ENGAGE IN SUCH ACTIVITIES THAT WILL ENABLE WEBB SCHOOL TO GROW AND PROSPER.
