Throughout his journey to becoming a respected interventional cardiologist in Boise, Idaho, Dr. Marshall Priest III saw the importance of high-quality nursing care in patient outcomes. His appreciation for the nursing profession and desire to give back to the University of Tennessee at Martin inspired him to establish the Priest Family Clinical Excellence Fund and Endowment in the university’s department of nursing.
The university in turn honored Priest and his family Oct. 7 by naming a Gooch Hall nursing classroom the Priest Family Clinical Excellence Lab. The large lab space includes teaching equipment made possible by gifts from Priest and his wife, Cynthia, a registered nurse. Those attending the naming event included many of the current students already benefiting from the Priest gifts.
Priest was raised in Carroll County, graduated from Huntingdon High School and attended UT Martin, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in 1965. He then earned a master’s degree from UT Knoxville and his medical degree from the UT Health Science Center in Memphis.
Marshall is the brother of Tim Priest, a Knoxville attorney who gained fame as a UT Volunteers football great and later as longtime color analyst for the Vol Network.
Once his medical education was completed, Priest had to decide where to practice, and some fellow medical students suggested he go west to Idaho.
An avid outdoorsman, Priest loved the recreational possibilities in Idaho, but he also discovered a location to grow professionally. Decades later, Priest’s legacy includes his many patients and a cardiology group he helped to establish.
Before the plaque above the doorway was unveiled, UT Martin Chancellor Yancy Freeman thanked the Priests for the many ways in which their support is already impacting the nursing program.
“Their generosity has allowed nursing to implement a clinical rotation in Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital as well as upgrade our beds in the campus and simulation labs,” Freeman said. “His support allows faculty to provide our students with the highest-quality level of hands-on instruction, preparing them to achieve excellence in their clinical practice.”
Dr. Mary Radford, nursing department chair, acknowledged the 50-plus nursing students attending the event who will soon play a key role in patient care in the region and beyond.
“You’re looking at the future of nursing, and they may be at your bedside one day, and we want them to be excellent clinically,” Radford said. “I think that you all (the Priests) have established that for us, and we are so grateful.”
Priest was emotional at the outpouring of gratitude and reaffirmed his respect for the nursing profession and nurses’ roles in his own success as a physician.
“In my career as a cardiologist, working both in an office and in an intensive-care unit my whole career, what I was able to do in taking care of patients couldn’t have happened without a nurse,” Priest said to the nursing students gathered. “You guys are really the touchstone for medical care, because I would see a patient for maybe 10 or 15 minutes during the day, but you guys are seeing them all the time.”
Laney Rhodes, a 2022 Huntingdon High School graduate who is in her fifth semester as a UT Martin nursing student, was among those attending. She joins her classmates who are already benefiting from lab-equipment improvements made possible by the Priest family’s support, including modern Stryker medical-surgical beds that replaced the department’s outdated beds.
“So, with these newer beds, they are beautiful,” Rhodes said following the event. “The mechanics are beautiful. It helps the nursing program so much – so much.”
Listening skills and patient care contributed to Priest’s success as a physician. Thanks to his and his wife’s generosity, future generations of UT Martin nursing students will continue to build on Dr. Marshall Priest’s legacy of healing.
PHOTO: Dr. Marshall Priest III and his wife, Cynthia, pose among several UT Martin nursing students in the lab named for his family. Marshall Priest earned his bachelor’s degree at UT Martin and became a noted interventional cardiologist in Boise, Idaho.