NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A former student-athlete and Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame member whose philanthropic spirt touched generations of golfers and embodied the lifelong bonds at the heart of the Vanderbilt experience, Lew Conner, BA’60, JD’63, has passed away. He was 87.
Conner’s Vanderbilt story began as a student-athlete on the men’s golf team from 1957-60, one of head coach Frank Thorsey’s “capable men,” as The Vanderbilt Hustler put it at the time. But beyond the opportunity to compete against the SEC’s best, Conner’s years as a student-athlete proved to be only the spark for a fire that remained alight for more than six decades. An ardent supporter of Vanderbilt Athletics and golf, he devoted himself to giving back to the university and sport that brought him to Nashville in the first place.
At Vanderbilt Legends Club, home of the nationally recognized Vanderbilt men’s and women’s golf teams, Conner is the namesake of the Conner Family Hitting Bays and the Cleo and Lewis Conner, Sr. Short Game Practice Facility. The facilities he energetically and generously spearheaded over more than two decades have helped the men’s and women’s teams enjoy an unprecedented golden era under Thomas F. Roush, M.D., and Family Men’s Golf Head Coach Scott Limbaugh and women’s golf head coach Greg Allen. His support helped his successors on the men’s team reach heights earlier generations only dreamed of—winning three SEC championships and making 11 consecutive appearances in the NCAA Championships under Limbaugh’s tutelage.
In 2023, Conner and wife Ashley, BA’60, also joined fellow former student-athletes and Hall of Fame inductees Toby Wilt, BE’66 and Brandt Snedeker, BA’03, along with their wives, Lucianne Wilt and Mandy Snedeker, BA’02, in providing seed gifts to a Vandy United project that included the newly-dedicated Anthony Family Golf Team House, a reimagined best-in-class home for men’s and women’s golf student-athletes on and off the course.
“Vanderbilt golf has always been close to my heart,” Conner said at the time of the seed gift. “My time as a student-athlete shaped my Vanderbilt experience and life, and Ashley and I have been proud to support the student-athletes who have so admirably carried on the tradition and lifted the program to new heights.”
Conner’s deep affection for the sport permeated the golf community throughout the region and state. A 2010 inductee into the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame, he served as a longtime director and president of the Tennessee Golf Association and chairman of the Tennessee Golf Foundation—an organization his tireless efforts helped create. The Foundation is a permanent, tax-exempt entity dedicated to junior golf, amateur championships, player development, and statewide initiatives.
Nor did his time on course end with his final round for Vanderbilt. More than a decade after his collegiate career, the accomplished amateur was named the 1973 Tennessee Player of the Year. He was selected to 20 Tennessee Challenge Cup teams, won multiple state titles and was still competing for senior titles as a new century arrived.
After becoming a Double Dore with his law degree, Conner remained in Nashville as a highly respected attorney. He served on the Tennessee Court of Appeals from 1980–1984 and later as special chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Conner was inducted into the Vanderbilt Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017, as well as the Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame in 2010.
Although a Chattanooga native, Conner became synonymous with his adopted hometown after coming to Vanderbilt. Among numerous community efforts throughout his life in Nashville, including work with the Music City Bowl and Nashville Sports Council, he also held leadership roles with the National Commodore Club.
A school, a sport and a city shaped his life. And he spent more than 60 years doing all he could to ensure Vanderbilt student-athletes had a similar opportunity to walk off the 18th green with a lifetime of possibility ahead of them.
“I think it’s so important for those of us who have had the benefit of Vanderbilt educations to give back,” Conner said in 2017. “I’ve tried to do that. Vanderbilt has been good to Lew Conner.”
And the university is forever better because of him.
