Lipscomb alumnus celebrates 99th birthday

Chris Pepple | 

As we kicked off our 118th year and dedicated four new campus facilities, one Lipscomb alumnus reflected upon the days when things were much different. When Grant (G. L.) Landiss (’27) graduated from Lipscomb at the age of 17, H. Leo Boles served as the president. Students played basketball in Burton Gym, which cost $17,000 to build.  B. H. Murphy and C. P. Poole kept students updated on current events by placing a radio in Harding hall. The first such occasion occurred in March 1927 when the students heard President Calvin Coolidge speak over the radio. Classes were dismissed early for the event.

Grant Landiss remembers the honor it was for him to be sent to Lipscomb to study. He arrived from his hometown of Cumberland City, Tenn., to a growing campus. His receipts show that he paid $1.50 for his most expensive text book and .55 cents for a lab manual. While at Lipscomb, he lived in Elam Hall and was part of the Calliopean Literary Society, the Callio Ten, the Tennessee Club, the Doctor’s Club and the Boy’s Tennis Club.

“I started college when I was 15 years old. I had an uncle who attended Lipscomb, so my father sent me there. I was younger than most of the students, but I was considering being a doctor. You could go to David Lipscomb, and then Vandy honored that degree as a pre-med degree. Money wasn’t hanging on trees, though. We lived through a lot of hard times back then. When I finished at Lipscomb, I headed back home to Cumberland City,” said Landiss.
 
Landiss began teaching in Stewart County in 1928, but left that position when he was appointed rural mail carrier. He kept that post until his retirement in October 1969. His other business ventures included farming and the operation of a general store named Landiss and Company, which he operated in Cumberland City from 1953 until 1973. He served on the Citizens Cumberland City Bank Board for 52 years and on the Stewart County Commission for 22 years. He held the position of executive director of the Highland Rim Economic Corporation from 1974 to 1984. From 1978 until 2006, he served as a member of the Stewart-Houston Industrial Park board of directors. He was a charter member of the Bi-County Solid Waste Management Board and served until 1997.

Fred Landiss, Grant Landiss and Molly Jo Landiss Shaw

Grant Landiss overlooking Cumberland River in Clarksville.

In a January 2007 proclamation issued by Tennessee’s House of Representatives, the General Assembly recognized Landiss as “one such estimable person who evinces the greatest integrity and probity in all his chosen endeavors…and is wholly committed to the noble precepts of public service that have earned Tennessee recognition as the ‘Volunteer State.’”

On Thanksgiving Day 1929, Grant Landiss married Alice Katherine “Kate” Gillihan in Palmyra, Tenn. They raised two children, Molly Jo Landiss Shaw and Fred Levi Landiss. Kate and Grant Landiss celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary before she died in 2000 after a brief illness.

On September 20, Landiss will celebrate his 99th birthday surrounded by many friends and family members. He remains healthy and active to this day, still dropping by the bank, shopping for a new sports coat or attending church in Cumberland City as he does almost every week. He has moved to Clarksville to be nearer to his family, but still stops by his farm to check on the land and his cattle. He stays busy spending time with his four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Many people in the Lipscomb community are also familiar with Grant Landiss’ brother, Dr. Morris P. Landiss (’31), longtime chairman of Lipscomb’s Department of English. In October 1985, Morris Landiss established the fund that bears his name and supports the Landiss Lecture Series. He did so out of a belief that students need experiences beyond the classroom to encourage their intellectual growth. He dreamed of bringing to the campus writers and critics along with scholars of national reputation to challenge the minds of those in this academic community as well as in the community at large.

The Lipscomb community wishes Mr. Grant (G. L.) Landiss a very happy birthday! 

Kate Landiss at age 17 Grant Landiss at age 17