Dr. Doris A. Tegart, who steered Bellarmine University’s academic course for 24 years with humor, tenacity and style, including a term as interim president, died Sept. 14 at Norton Women's & Children's Hospital in Louisville. She was 67.
Born in Leavenworth, Ind., Dr. Tegart began her rich career in education as a teacher at Leavenworth Elementary before earning her doctorate in education from Indiana University in Bloomington, She held a bachelor’s degree from Indiana State University.
She joined the Bellarmine faculty in 1994 and became a member of President Joseph J. McGowan’s leadership team in 1999, eventually serving as education dean, vice president of enrollment management, vice president of academic affairs and provost. She was an integral part of Bellarmine’s strategic growth and overarching culture, as well as the university’s chief academic officer. During her tenure, the university increased the number of full-time faculty by 25 percent and overall student enrollment by 35 percent and launched 23 new academic programs, including its first Ph.D. program.
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Dr. Tegart oversaw all seven academic schools and the launches of varied entrepreneurial ventures, including two new schools and two new institutes; stewarded the university’s accreditation; and, as “first among equals,” served as President McGowan’s second in command. She viewed academic entrepreneurship as “a delicate balance between market and mission” that Bellarmine must make in order to survive. “We have the liberal arts—the classical foundation—but we have to listen to the market as well. You look at the Venn diagram: The market needs this and our mission is this—is there any intersection where we can come forward and offer a program that’s needed and wanted?”
Her breakneck meeting schedule and 3 a.m. emails caused some co-workers to speculate that Dr. Tegart didn’t sleep. “I sleep just as much as everybody else,” she once said. “I go to bed really early—at 8 or 9 o’clock—and get up at 3 and check messages, and I can’t help but respond.” The fact that she was never without at least one of her two iPads helped.
She was a huge basketball fan, following the Knights to numerous away games. And she was universally admired for her dramatic fashion accessories. As the subject of a Q&A in Bellarmine Magazine, she was asked how many scarves she owned. Her response: “If tied together they would reach from New Albany to Louisville. Growing up in the ’50s and ’60s, there were certain fashion rules you did not break and wearing too many accessories at once was one of the big infractions. I heard my home economics teacher (look it up, students) say more than once, ‘If in doubt, leave it out.’” That is just one of the home economics axioms that were lost on me.”
As a leader, she never trivialized difficult situations, but she used her trademark comic genius to help everyone keep their equilibrium, current Bellarmine Provost Carole Pfeffer said.
“When I think of Doris, this first comes to mind: Work hard. Have fun. Make a difference,” Dr. Pfeffer said. “She challenged all of us to think innovatively. She chose people for positions of leadership, set high expectations, then got out of the way, [allowing] them to develop their talents in the service of Bellarmine. For me, her humor was like tonic for the spirit.”
In November 2014, Cottey College, a liberal arts women’s college in Nevada, Missouri, announced that Dr. Tegart, who was then Bellarmine’s provost, would become its 12th president the following June. Almost immediately after that announcement, she fell severely ill with what would eventually be diagnosed as fallopian-tube cancer and had to turn down the job.
Ovarian cancer is notoriously difficult to treat. The surgery and treatments, known as intraperitoneal (IP) chemotherapy, are grueling. The IP is so hard on patients that many won’t consent to it, and many doctors won’t even try it. But Dr. Tegart never considered another option. “My doctor would say, ‘Are you up for this next treatment?’ and I would say, ‘I’m going to crawl down this hall before I stop. I’m not going to blink,’” she told Bellarmine Magazine.
After receiving a clean bill of health, she came back to work at Bellarmine as executive vice president. Then, in March 2016, she lost a mentor, longtime colleague and dear friend when Dr. McGowan died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. The Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Tegart as interim president at its April meeting, and she helped a shocked and grieving campus community recover from Dr. McGowan’s sudden passing with compassion, humor and grace.
During her interim presidency, Bellarmine reorganized the school’s healthcare education programs into a new College of Health Professions; acquired a radiation therapy program and varsity wrestling team from St. Catharine College; and began developing a master’s program in athletic training. “I’m just thankful for her,” said then-Board of Trustees Chair Pat Mulloy. “She did everything we asked of her, and did it gracefully.”
At the 2016 Spring Commencement, Dr. Tegart announced a new Bellarmine tradition: the McGowan Medal. Dr. McGowan “helped me be where I am today,” she said of her mentor. “Graduates, somebody did that for you.” She encouraged them to give the medal to that person, and to become mentors themselves. Dr. Tegart retired from Bellarmine in May 2017.
View her obituary at legacy.com.