Donors

Julie Ann (Goff) Brown (1971-2006) was a native of Putnam County, Tennessee. She graduated from Upperman High School in 1989. After a brief stint as a clerk with a local accounting firm, Julie entered the banking industry serving in cash management, collections/recovery, and teller positions. While with the bank, she completed her general banking diploma. With the desire to continue her education and unsatisfied with the direction her career was taking, she decided to enroll part-time at Tennessee Tech University as an accounting major in the fall of 1995.

With the successful completion of her first six credit hours with a 4.0 GPA, Julie made the decision to end her banking career and go to school full-time beginning in the spring of 1996. She served as the office manager for the local Service Merchandise store during much of her undergraduate work. Julie completed her accounting degree in the fall of 1999 with a 3.364 GPA while staying on the dean’s list most of her undergraduate terms. Graduate school would be next.

Julie was admitted into the Masters of Business Administration program in the spring of 2000 where she would focus on management information systems. It was during this time that she would make her next career move and begin to expand her accounting and management skills. In January 2000, Julie joined Premier Diagnostic Imaging serving as the controller for Premier and its three sister companies. It would be this job in which her full potential would be realized not only through the management of the day-to-day financial tasks, but through the development of new accounting practices that would serve the company for years to come. Julie would finish her graduate work earning her MBA in 2002.

In 2003, Julie reached her greatest height and her deepest valley. Isaiah Doyle Brown, her first and only son, was born on April 24, 2003. This would be a day for which she had waited a lifetime; she would take her greatest job yet – a mother. After continued complications following her pregnancy, she returned to her doctor for further testing. On June 24, 2003, two months after giving birth to Isaiah, Julie would be diagnosed with stage-4 colon cancer beginning a new phase of her life, a phase she would meet with the same determination she demonstrated during her college career.

With an initial estimate of six months to live, Julie would live another three and a half years. During this time, in spite of chemotherapy, radiation, trial drugs, and four major surgeries, she took great joy in being a full-time mother to Isaiah. She would also turn her attention to a new, more compatible, career of volunteerism. She would go onto become a volunteer with the American Cancer Society assisting in office automation projects and online fundraising for the Putnam County Relay for Life. Julie would also play a key role in the rebuilding of the Baxter, Tennessee (Tennessee Central Railroad) Depot and Museum as part of her community service project for Leadership Putnam Class of 2005.

Julie died in her home on September 10, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. This endowment was created from her estate in honor of her service, professionally and privately.