Successful cardiologist makes heartfelt gift to nursing program
Story by Bud Grimes | Photos by Arianne Boma and Dr. Marshall Priest
Throughout his journey to becoming a respected interventional cardiologist in Boise, Idaho, Dr. Marshall Priest III (’65) saw the importance of high-quality nursing care in patient outcomes. His appreciation for the nursing profession and desire to give back to his alma mater inspired him to establish the Priest Family Clinical Excellence Fund and Endowment in the UT Martin Department of Nursing. The Priest Family Clinical Excellence Lab will help UT Martin continue to offer future nurses the best educational experience possible and carry on Priest’s legacy of healing.
Priest was raised in nearby Carroll County, where his father worked with his grandfather in the family-owned Ford dealership in Huntingdon. His father, who earned a law degree from the University of Tennessee but never practiced as an attorney, later sold his portion of the business to become a teacher, but died prematurely after completing a master’s degree at the University of Memphis.
His mother, Eleanor Harris Priest, was also a UT Knoxville graduate who later moved to be near Marshall while he attended medical school in Memphis. She lived the final 10 years of her life in Knoxville, where his brother, Tim, still resides. Tim is an attorney who gained fame as a UT Volunteers football great and later as longtime color analyst for the Vol Network.
Priest considered attending a university farther away from West Tennessee after graduating from Huntingdon High School, but decided to stay closer to home and attend UT Martin.
“I actually went to summer school two summers, I liked it so much,” he said. “So, it was a good place for me to grow up to kind of light that academic fire that I needed lit. … I think it was a great first step for me.”
He made the most of his undergraduate years as a member of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, teaching biology labs for a year, and excelling in his coursework. He earned a degree in education administration and next attended UT Knoxville to pursue a doctorate in zoology with the intention of teaching.
However, Huntingdon physician Dr. Scott Portis convinced him to pursue medicine instead, so Priest completed a master’s degree, was accepted to the UT Health Science Center, studied internal medicine there for three years, and then studied cardiology for another three years at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Following graduation, he had a decision to make about where to practice, and some fellow medical students suggested he go west – way west.
“I had a couple of friends from medical school who went to Idaho, and they were people that I had skied with and backpacked with, and they kept after me to come out there to just look,” he recalled. “They said, ‘Before you sign a contract to go anywhere, you should come out here to Boise. You’d like this community. There’s a lot of outdoor activities available here.’”
An avid outdoorsman, Priest loved the recreational possibilities in Idaho, but he also discovered a location to grow professionally.
“There were two heart surgeons there who were nationally known in the hospital… where Cynthia (Priest’s wife whom he calls “Cy”) and I both worked,” he said. “It (the hospital) was excellent.”
He also liked the community, and a planned one-year trial run of living and working in The Gem State lasted for 45 years, a decision that he’s never regretted.
As a nurse, Cynthia understands and appreciates her husband’s accomplishments, explaining that “he brought a level of sophistication to the community from Tennessee” along with the academic preparation to make his mark in the medical community, where he was known as an outstanding clinical teacher.
“All of the medical staff really trust his level of assessment,” she said. “He had a very high standard. The nursing staff, the clinical staff – he really could teach topics that were hard maybe to understand, but he presented it in a way that really made sense with his critical thinking.
In addition to his medical knowledge and skills, Priest had the ability to relate to patients and their families and build relationships as he sought a path to healing. This personal quality, she said, endeared him to those he was trying to help.
“That’s part of this university (UT Martin), too, that you have that relationship with the students and with each other that really fosters relationships,” she said.“That’s part of this university (UT Martin), too, that you have that relationship with the students and with each other that really fosters relationships.”
Marshall added that listening is a critical skill for success in many professions, and it’s a skill he developed and relied on throughout his medical career.
“I’m able to sit and listen and let somebody express their ideas without me jumping in,” he said. “I think that’s why I had such a good relationship with my patients, because I would let them talk. I would try to understand where they are and how I could help them.
“So being a good listener is really important. I have a granddaughter in medical school right now, and that’s one of the first things I told her was, ‘Be a good listener.’”
Marshall’s professional legacy includes his many patients and a cardiology group he helped to establish. Despite the many challenges inherent in the medical field, Priest said he would practice medicine all over again.
“I’m glad I did what I did,” he said. “I don’t think that I could write a script that would be better for me.”
Today, Cynthia and Marshall are busy with travel and enjoying retirement, but the Priests aren’t finished giving back, and his respect for the nursing profession led to his interest helping the Department of Nursing.
“I mean, I’ve been sick. I’ve been in the hospital several times with major illnesses.” He said “I’m healthy right now, but there is nothing in this world like being sick and having a nurse hold your hand…
“The nurse sees you way more frequently when you’re in the hospital than your doctor does. … And without that kind of support in the practice that I did, I would never have been as successful as I was.”
Dr. Mary Radford, professor and department chair, said Priest’s gifts have already made a positive impact for the university’s nursing faculty and students.
“We were able to upgrade all of our beds in the labs to modern Stryker medical-surgical beds,” Radford wrote in an email. “We have been able to start back up our pediatric clinical experience at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.
“These are things that would not have been possible without the generosity of the Priest family.”
Listening skills and caring about patients contributed to Priest’s success as a physician. Thanks to his generosity, future generations of UT Martin nursing students will learn about Dr. Marshall Priest and follow his legacy of healing.
