The Gillenwater Story
Jay Y. Gillenwater is a globally-respected academic and physician—and a woodland gardener with an old-school belief in family, friendship, and self-sufficiency. This portrait of a plain-spoken scientist who married his childhood sweetheart brings out the wisdom of an unassuming Southerner and the moral compass of an exemplary man.
Born in an East Tennessee industrial town during the Great Depression, Jay Gillenwater has witnessed fundamental transformations in society, science, and academia, from his grandparents’ Depression-Era financial collapse to his father’s role in the creation of the Oak Ridge atomic bomb facility to his own principled support for the first women physicians to enter his specialty.
“The Gillenwater Story” springs from the testimony of its protagonist, his family and friends, and from hundreds of historical photographs and documents. But it goes beyond this one story to demonstrate how biography is a distinctive tool for understanding and representing the social history of our time.