MARTIN, Tenn. – Opportunities arise at random times, and when they do, they should be taken advantage of because they can often be life-changing.
That was the message brought by Dr. Marshall Priest III, who presented the commencement address at both of the University of Tennessee at Martin’s fall 2025 graduation ceremonies held at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., Dec. 13, at the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center.
Priest’s life was shaped by taking advantage of opportunities that arose. The opportunities did not conform with his life plans, but brought him the life that he dreamed of.
Priest is a retired interventional cardiologist from Boise, Idaho. A native of Huntingdon, he graduated from UT Martin in 1965 before earning a master’s degree from UT Knoxville and his medical degree from the UT Health Science Center.
“I entered as an 18-year-old freshman from Huntingdon in the liberal arts college,” he told the graduates. “Shortly after, I encountered a mountain I couldn’t climb named French. … I moved over to the College of Education so that I wouldn’t have to take another year of a foreign language.
“I wasn’t mature enough, nor did I have the study skills to master that, but I was able to continue toward my goal in the sciences, particularly biology as well as in history.”
Priest said that along the way, two of his favorite professors had a “come-to-Jesus” meeting with him about his academic progress.
That encouraged him to do better – so much so that he was later asked to stay on staff after graduation and teach first-year biology labs.
“What a spectacular opportunity that was,” he said. “I loved it. I was right where I wanted to be. I loved interacting with the students, and I was the guy with the answers, so I had to know, so I had to study as well.
“That created a spark in me to consider graduate education, so I applied for an assistantship at UT Knoxville, was accepted and went there to pursue a Ph.D. in zoology and ecology. That was another tremendous opportunity for me, in that it proved to me that I could compete academically with the best minds, because I had sort of grown up after getting started here.”
Three years into studying for his Ph.D., Priest ran into an old friend from Huntingdon, whom he hadn’t seen for a few years. He had graduated from UT Knoxville with an advanced degree in business and was climbing the corporate ladder with Eli Lilly, a multinational pharmaceutical company that now goes by the name Lilly.
“I asked him, ‘What are you doing here?’ and he said, ‘I’m going to medical school, and I’m back here getting my pre-med out of the way,’” Priest said. “We spent a year together – often in classes, hiking in the Smokies and having a great time re-energizing our friendship. During that time, he challenged me to go to medical school – something that was not on my radar. I was in a comfort zone, heading for my Ph.D. and a professorship.
“Medical school was a hill I didn’t think I could climb, but I thought about it quite a bit. … So, I went to medical school. It was another opportunity that I was able to take advantage of. I loved it; I was right where I needed to be.”
Priest finished in the top 5% of his class, completed an internal medicine residency in Memphis and secured a coveted cardiovascular fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Three years later, he was going to start his practice in Knoxville when a friend from medical school who had moved out West called Priest and told him that he needed to come out there and look.
“You’d like this country; you love the outdoors” the friend told him. “Boise needs another cardiologist.”
Priest told the graduates that this was yet another opportunity.
“Having never been west of Colorado, we moved to Boise,” he said. “What a fantastic decision that was! I don’t think that I could have scripted a career any better than I have enjoyed in Boise, not only as practicing cardiology but enjoying the spectacular outdoor opportunities that are there, with mountain biking, climbing, hiking – those kinds of things.
“That kind of opportunity would have never happened had I not taken a detour and climbed that hill to go to medical school. The friend that challenged me to do that is sitting right over here; his name is Dr. Scott Portis.”
Portis is the chief county medical examiner for Benton and Henry counties – where he has served as a medical examiner since 2010 – and was the medical director of the Eagle Creek Clinic, an office in Buchanan associated with the Henry County Medical Center, from 2010 to 2018.
Priest said that what he learned from a life journey like his – things that he wanted to pass along to the graduates – are to seize the opportunity that you have and to be strong.
“If you are doing something that’s not good for you, that you are not happy about, seize the opportunity,” he said.
“Work is going to be a huge part of your life, and you’re going to want to do great work, but you know that you can’t do great work if you don’t love what you’re doing. So, take advantage of opportunities that come for you.”
Priest continues to give back to UT Martin. Having seen the importance of high-quality nursing care in patient outcomes and with his appreciation for the nursing profession and desire to give back to the university, he established the Priest Family Clinical Excellence Fund and Endowment in the university’s department of nursing.
The university in turn honored Priest and his family Oct. 7 by naming a Gooch Hall nursing classroom the Priest Family Clinical Excellence Lab. The large lab space includes teaching equipment made possible by gifts from Priest and his wife, Cynthia, a registered nurse.
At the opening of the commencement ceremony, Chancellor Yancy Freeman Sr. provided his advice to the graduates from a quote from actress Katherine Hepburn.
“It simply reads, ‘Nothing is impossible. Even the word itself says ‘I’m possible,’” he said. “Graduates, you have sacrificed and made possible what many might have thought was impossible. Remember your experience at UTM and move forward with believing that your only limitation is what you perceive to be impossible.”
Members of the UT Martin fall 2025 graduating class came from 62 of the 95 Tennessee counties and 22 other U.S. states as well as from Egypt and Russia.
Videos of the two fall 2025 graduation ceremonies can be found at youtube.com/@utmartin/streams.
Photo –– Retired interventional cardiologist Dr. Marshall Priest III, a 1965 UT Martin graduate, speaks to the fall 2025 graduates at the university’s commencement exercises Dec. 13.