An MTSU education professor for more than half a century, Bob Womack had not officially retired when he died Saturday of heart failure. He was 86.
Womack, a noted Civil War and Tennessee walking horse historian, started teaching at MTSU in 1957 and planned to retire in May. He was a member of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Hall of Fame and was the state’s only higher education professor to be inducted into the Tennessee Teacher Hall of Fame.
Womack had been battling congestive heart failure and kidney failure and had been undergoing dialysis for at least five years before he died Saturday. Friends and family remembered him Sunday for his dedication to family and the university.
“The main thing, he was a great father to me,” said his son, former state Sen. Andy Womack of Murfreesboro. “What I will miss is his counsel and example as a father.”
The elder Womack was a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at MTSU, which was recently renamed the Womack Family Department of Educational Leadership. He had been serving as a guest lecturer and would have celebrated his 53rd year at the university in July. He loved MTSU, as displayed by the fact that five of the six children in his family, his own four children and three grandchildren earned degrees there.
“He made the ultimate commitment to MTSU with his family,” Andy said. “The thing he valued most in life was a good education.”
The former senator described his father as an “open-minded” person who challenged his four children to seek out information before forming opinions.
“Dr. Bob,” as he was affectionately called by friends, incorporated the same philosophy into his classroom teaching, his son said, encouraging students “to develop views based on facts and research and not just opinions of others.”
A native of Flat Creek in Bedford County, he was the son of David Andrew and Georgia Price Womack. Womack graduated from Shelbyville Central High School and enrolled at MTSU before being drafted during World War II and serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy as part of the Pacific campaign. When the war was over, he returned to MTSU and finished his degree before he began teaching at Shelbyville and Lebanon while earning his master’s and doctorate from Peabody Teachers College in Nashville.
He returned to MTSU in 1957.
“He was a good man,” said Martin McCullough, who taught with Womack in the education department at MTSU. “He was a renaissance man.”
McCullough became familiar with Womack when he taught Andy in the eighth grade, and they later became good friends, sharing lunch four or five times a week, after McCullough began teaching at MTSU in the 1980s.
A regular at City Cafe for more than 20 years, Womack could often be found leading a discussion about a variety of topics.
“He was a fun and interesting conversationalist,” McCullough recalled. “He always enjoyed the give and take of ideas.”
Womack was the author of “The Echo of Hoofbeats,” “Call Forth the Mighty Men,” “A History of Tennessee” and many other books.
“He had an abiding interest in Civil War history, and he was the definitive historian of the walking horse lineage,” McCullough said. “I remember him taking me out to these obscure farms where some of the walking horse champions had come from.”
Bob Bullen, a Rutherford County commissioner, retired MTSU professor and longtime friend to Womack, remembered him as a mentor and a “man of all seasons.”
“He set a high standard for intellectual activity for his classes, demanded (students) learn critical thinking skills and to learn to appreciate, and challenge, ideas,” Bullen said.
Bullen said that Womack was a gifted singer and a talented pianist, who also was generous, kind, and a true family man.
“He did everything for his family,” Bullen said.
Bullen called Womack “a walking university.”
“He could have easily taught and flourished in other departments, including English, math, agriculture, one of the sciences, history, and philosophy, as well as his own,” he said.
But one thing Bullen really appreciated about his friend of more than 40 years was that he had a wonderful sense of humor and loved a good joke, no matter how many times he had heard it.
“Sometimes you could just mention a joke and he would start laughing,” Bullen said. “And he had a hard time telling a joke, because as he got closer to the punch line he would start cracking up and would have a hard time getting to the end.”
With a son in the state Senate, Womack kept an eye on politics, too.
“The Rutherford County Democratic Party lost a faithful member with the passing of Dr. Bob.” said Jonathon Fagan, chairman of the Rutherford County Democratic Party. “He leaves a legacy of working for the education of all, regardless of class or race. He truly cared for those least among us, as Jesus taught.”
Womack is survived by his sons, Andy (Cherry) Womack and Ricky Womack, daughters Lara (Steve) Daniel and Lynn Womack, grandsons David (Cheryl) Womack, Jackson Short and Samuel Short, granddaughters Dana Womack, Marguerite (Rob) Sims, Sara Womack and Meaghan Daniel, and great-grandchildren Molly Womack, Mason Womack, Riley Sims and Emery Sims.
Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. today at the Jennings & Ayers Funeral Home, located at 820 S. Church St. in Murfreesboro.
A graveside service will be conducted at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Rosebank Cemetery in Flat Creek in Bedford County.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the MTSU Foundation for the Womack Family Endowment.
