“It can be Dunn – it must be Dunn – it will be Dunn!”

That was the campaign slogan that won Winfield Dunn the office of governor of Tennessee, or so I’m told.

I was a small child at the time, so I don’t remember it, but he is the first person I can remember being Tennessee governor. I was a long way from voting age in 1970.

Flash forward to the more recent past, I had the honor and privilege of meeting Gov. Dunn for the first time in 2010. He was leading the charge, in his early 80s, for funding to renovate the Dunn Dental Building at the UT Health Science Center in Memphis, where he had graduated decades earlier. Yes, the building was named for him.

I got to travel with a group of colleagues, and Gov. Dunn–no kidding–to Nashville the day he made his successful pitch to a legislative committee for renovation funds for the UT College of Dentistry’s home base. It is responsible for training about 70 percent of dentists practicing in Tennessee, after all.

“Kindly” and “gracious” come to mind when I remember that first meeting with Gov. Dunn. Four years later, he was ever thus when I interviewed him by phone for Tennessee Alumnus, the magazine for alumni of all UT campuses, about his advocacy for the UT College of Dentistry and higher education, generally. I ran into him again in 2015, when he came to Knoxville to pay his respects at the funeral of Dr. Ed Boling, who became UT president the same year Gov. Dunn was elected.

A couple years later, I was working on a massive project commemorating the 100th anniversary of continuous publication of Tennessee Alumnus (the magazine has since undergone a name change but continued publishing uninterrupted). The commemoration included identifying the 100 most significant alumni of any UT campus. As you might expect, Gov. Dunn made cut.

Gracious as ever, he accepted the invitation to be photographed and interviewed for a profile in the magazine. My colleague, Adam Brimer, would take the photos in studio space we were renting in downtown Nashville. Gov. Dunn was no longer driving, so he asked if we might be able to pick him up and return him home.

Tough job, but I stepped up to do it so that Adam could stay back at the studio and get the lighting set up just right. Gov. Dunn’s home in Belle Meade was about 10 miles away.

With Nashville traffic, that meant at least a 30-minute trip each way. It was approaching evening rush hour on the return trip, so that drive was closer to 45 minutes. Plenty of time to ask him what he thought about a lot of things, and for him to share those thoughts. I will admit to being very conscious that I was chauffeuring a former governor in a UT van–I’ve never driven so cautiously in my life.

After delivering him, safe and sound, back to his home, he invited me in–“if you would like to come in and if you have a few extra minutes–to meet Ms. Betty.

That’s what I called her, not him, of course. He just said he’d like me to meet “Betty” while he also had something for me. I gave the only answer possible: yes sir, thank you.

I was chatting with Ms. Betty when Gov. Dunn reappeared with a hardback copy of his autobiography. I asked him if he was sure he could spare it. He joked about needing to make room in the closet. I asked if he would mind autographing it.

“Done,” said Gov. Dunn.

Word came out a week ago today that he had passed away at the age of 97.

I don’t know if he could count the number of people he met over his long and impactful life. I’m just glad I can be counted among them.

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In case you’re interested in reading it, here is the profile I wrote on Gov. Dunn as a member of the “Centennial Alumni” in 2017.

Winfield Dunn

And here, in case you’re curious–as I was–to hear it, is the original song written for Gov. Dunn’s 1970 election campaign.