PUBLIC RELATIONS
CONTACT: CAMERON JUDD
423.636.7304
e-mail: cjudd@tusculum.edu
J. Wiley Prugh honored with Tusculum College Distinguished Service Award
A well-known and highly respected member of the Greeneville-Greene County ministerial community was honored with Tusculum College’s Distinguished Service Award for the year 2001 on Saturday night at the college’s annual President’s Dinner.
The Rev. J. Wiley Prugh, retired executive presbyter of the Holston Presbytery, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was described by Tusculum College President Dolphus E. Henry as “a Christian gentleman in the most honored and elevated sense.”
Prugh, in accepting the honor, declared that the award left him at a loss for words. He said the award was a complete surprise, jokingly noting that, as a clergyman, he had always assumed his chief function for Tusculum College is to deliver prayers at college events.
Prugh, a long-time member of the college’s board of trustees, noted that he could best be distinguished from another Wiley on the same board – Wiley Milligan – as “the praying Wiley.”
The dinner, which annually honors the college’s major donors, was held in the Chalmer’s Conference Center of the Niswonger Commons building. This year’s presentation was the first opportunity for Dr. Henry to present the award, given each year to someone who has a long history of outstanding and multi-faceted support of Tusculum College.
The framed certificate bearing the text of the award, as well as the college’s official gold seal, was presented to Prugh at the close of the dinner.
Dr. Henry introduced the award by noting that the recipient of the award is a closely guarded secret each year, but that it is essential to let a few individuals in on the secret in order to gather biographical data and appropriate comments about the recipient.
“As we went through that process this year, the kinds of comments we received confirmed to us that this year’s honoree is a very deserving one,” Dr. Henry said. “Several words kept cropping up: ‘Kind. Compassionate. Faithful. Gentle. Devoted. Wise. Devout.’ Everyone who we let in on the secret told us that Tusculum College couldn’t have found a more deserving recipient.”
When Prugh was announced as the recipient, the crowd of about 120 people came to its feet in applause.
Prugh approached the podium and accepted the framed certificate, the words of which were read by Dr. Henry.
“’As a church and civic leader, a musician, scholar, and exemplary supporter of Tusculum College, the Rev. John Wiley Prugh has become a living treasure to his friends, family, fellow churchmen, and to his community at large. As a citizen, he in every way embodies the kind of virtuous life of service to God and man that Tusculum College seeks to promote,’” Dr. Henry read.
The text went on to note that Prugh first joined the Tusculum College Board of Trustees in 1979, serving until 1985. Later in that decade he assisted the college as a member of the presidential search committee.
Prugh returned to the Board of Trustees early in 1991 and has, the award certificate noted, “remained an active Trustee ever since, with positions of service including the External Relations Committee and the Subcommittee on Church Relations. Instrumental in the College’s efforts to strengthen and maintain the relationship between Tusculum College and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Wiley supported the formation on the Council on Church Relations and helped to recruit members in both the Holston and East Tennessee Presbyteries. He has remained a faithful and active member of the Council, rarely missing a meeting.”
Prugh also was one of two vice-chairmen in the mid-1990s of the highly successful Partners in Ministry Campaign among the churches in the Holston Presbytery, Tusculum College’s home presbytery. “That endowment campaign significantly exceeded its goal for scholarships and campus ministry and raised more than $300,000, including fourteen new named endowments,” the text of the certificate says.
In 1991, Wiley, who already held a Ph.D. in Church History from the University of Edinburg, was granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity Degree from Tusculum College.
The text concluded: “Wiley’s loyalty to the college is as well-known as his love of music, his faithfulness to his Lord and his church, and his devotion to the five children he and his beloved late wife, Winifred Watson Prugh, raised and loved.
"In recognition of all that he means to Tusculum College, we gratefully present to the Rev. J. Wiley Prugh the 2001 Distinguished Service Award on the occasion of the President’s Dinner, April 21, 2001.”
Prugh, born in 1920, graduated from Monmouth College in 1941 with a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics and music. He went on to earn a master’s degree in theology from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary before receiving the afore-mentioned Ph.D. in church history from the University of Edinburgh.
Prugh moved to East Tennessee when he became executive presybter of the Holston Presbytery of the former United Presbyterian Church, and was a notable leader among regional Presbyterians at the time the United Presbyterian Church merged with the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.
Prugh and his late wife raised a family of five: sons Richard Wiley Prugh and John Mason Prugh, and daughters Carolyn, Christine, and Janel.
Christine, now Christine Dinwiddie, and Janel were present Saturday night to see their father receive his award.
Prugh is organist at First Presbyterian Church of Greeneville, a church sharing the same historical roots with Tusculum College. He has been active in that congregation for many years.
His other civic and community activities have included serving as a trustee for Greene Valley Developmental Center and for Comcare, Inc., and as a member of the Exchange Club.
The Rev. Wiley Prugh, facing the camera, listens as Tusculum College President Dolph Henry reads the text of the Distinguished Service Award for the 2001 year. The award was presented to Prugh at the President's Dinner on the college campus on April 21.