Brother and Dr. Allen G. Edwards, Clemson ’71, honored by Pellissippi State Community College with the naming of the student lounge in his honor for his long service to the college.
Former President Allen G. Edwards spent forty years advancing the mission of community colleges in Texas, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. He served as president of Pellissippi State Community College from 1993-2011. He continued in the role of president emeritus until 2018.
At Pellissippi State, Edwards was the driving force of the construction the Blount County Campus and the Bagwell Center for Media and Art, the acquisition of the Strawberry Plains Campus, the creation of a nursing program in Knox and Blount counties, the launching of the annual Pellissippi State Hot Air Balloon Festival and the founding of the Tennessee Consortium for International Studies.
Edwards brought worldwide recognition to Pellissippi State through his participation and interest in national and international organizations. He was chairman of the American Association of Community Colleges’ Presidents Academy and co-founder and president of the International Association of Community and Further Education Colleges, an organization for community and technical colleges that has hosted conferences around the world on technical education issues. He also studied administrative processes in the United Kingdom at the City of Bath College, Bath, England, as a Fulbright Exchange Scholar.
Edwards earned his doctorate in educational administration from the University of Texas at Austin and was named a Distinguished Graduate of the Community College Leadership Program there in 1992. He earned his master’s from the University of South Carolina and his bachelor’s from Clemson University.
In Knoxville, Edwards was an active member of the community. He was a member and former chair of the Knox County Great Schools Partnership, a public educational foundation serving Knox County Schools. He served on the boards of Knoxville Project GRAD, Tennessee Technology Corridor Development Authority, the Great Smoky Mountain Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and the Downtown Rotary Club of Knoxville. Edwards and wife, Dr. Susan Bunney, currently reside in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Within Phi Delta Theta, Brother Edwards served as a province president in the east Tennessee for several years and ads president of the Alumni Club of the Great Smoky Mountains.
