Brownlee O. Currey, Jr.

Brownlee O. Currey, Jr., a Nashville native and a trustee since 1968, becoming a trustee emeritus in 2004, graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1949.

The day after graduation, he began working for Equitable Securities Corporation. He entered the U.S. Air Force in 1952 and served on active duty as a fighter pilot for two years.

He returned to Nashville and resumed work as a securities broker for Equitable Securities until 1957, when he transferred to the company’s New York office. Approximately a year and a half later, he became a director and helped run Equitable Securities’ eastern division. After the firm was sold to American Express Company in 1968, he continued in the position of director with Equitable and also became a director, a senior vice president, and a member of the executive committee of Equitable Securities Morton & Company, Inc., a subsidiary of American Express. In 1970, he became vice chairman in New York of the Commerce Union Corporation, which subsequently became Sovran Bank Corporation, then C & S, then NationsBank. He resigned from the position of vice chairman and went on to purchase the Nashville Banner, where he held at varying times the positions of chairman, chief executive officer, and publisher between 1980 and 1998. In 1995, he co-founded Osborn Communications, a public radio company, and served as chairman until it was sold in 1997.

Mr. Currey served on the boards of ESC Strategic Funds and One Sutton Place South Corporation of New York City and currently serves on the boards of the United States Equestrian Team Foundation, the National Foundation for Facial Reconstruction, the Volunteer Horsemen’s Association, Watkins College of Art&Design, Montgomery Bell Academy, the Show Jumping Hall of Fame and Museum, International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Southampton Association, and The Meadow Club of Southhampton. He formerly served on the boards of ESC Strategic Funds, One Sutton Place South Corporation of New York City, Thomas Nelson Publishing Company, the Tennessee Tennis Association Hall of Fame and Leadership Nashville.

In 1984, Mr. Currey received Tennessee’s Outstanding Achievement Award from Governor Lamar Alexander. He also received the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce Bronze Seal of Honor in 1984 for the two gold medals that the horse Touch of Class, ridden by Joe Fargis, received in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Curreys were among the owners of the horse syndicate.

He and his wife, Agneta Akerlund, are the parents of Christian Brownlee Currey, Stephanie Currey Ingram, and Frances Currey Briggs (all of whom graduated from Vanderbilt). They have ten grandchildren.