The University of Tennessee-Knoxville History Department has named Dr. Charles F. Bryan Jr. its Outstanding Alumnus for 2015. A native of McMinnville, Dr. Bryan earned his PhD from UT in 1978 under emeritus professor Paul Bergeron, specializing in the American Civil War.Dr. Bryan is one of the nation’s preeminent public historians. He served as assistant editor of the Papers of Andrew Jackson, and executive director of the East Tennessee Historical Society and the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association.