Family Practice

Seven decades of UT football and counting— a Lambert family tradition

Harold Lambert of Maryville has been going to UT football games for 70 years, and he has been pumped up about the 2008 season since the last one ended on January 1.

At age 79, Lambert may not be the oldest UT football fan, but he has definitely established “seniority” as a loyal follower. And he is nearly as enthusiastic about the charitable remainder trust he and his wife, Jean, established 12 years ago to benefit the UT men’s athletics program.

“My CPA was the first to tell me about all the benefits of using a trust as an estate-planning tool, and I’ve been sold on it ever since,” says the retired businessman.

By far, the most attractive feature of this type of trust, Lambert explains, is that it pays the couple an income based on a payout percentage they have chosen and the amount of trust-generated assets.
Simply stated, a charitable remainder trust allows taxpayers to reduce estate taxes, eliminate capital gains, claim an income tax deduction, and benefit charities instead of the IRS.

“I highly recommend it,” the grandfather of seven says. “It takes big bucks to build and maintain a nationally ranked team. I’m glad to be in a position to help the program, especially the student-athletes who want a chance to live their dreams as Tennessee Volunteers.”

As long as Harold “Sonny” Lambert can remember, he has been attending Vol football games. At first, he went with his dad and he can recall the days when the crowd numbered around 30,000—mostly men. “It was pretty typical back then for fights to break out because security wasn’t as important.” Then, after World War II, the atmosphere changed. “More women started coming to the games. They wore suits and high-heels, so the men began to dress—and behave—better.”

After attending UT and Tulane and working a year for Austin Powder Company, Lambert joined his dad, the late Walter Lambert, in the stone business in 1951. The company, Lambert Brothers Inc., was formed in 1936 as a portable rock-crushing operation in Maryville.

Lambert Brothers, which included Harold, his four younger brothers, and several other family members, became America’s largest quarrying operation. In 1957 the company was bought by Vulcan Materials, the nation’s leading producer of construction aggregates. “I came up through the ranks of the company,” he said, retiring in 1995 as president of Vulcan’s MidSouth Division.

During the last dozen years of his career, Harold Lambert traveled 60,000 to 80,000 miles a year. A former UT Chancellor’s Associate, he and Jean have raised three children during their 58-year marriage and have moved 18 times. Daughters Sherry Miller and Kathy Painter live close to their parents as does son, Randy, who has been head basketball coach at Maryville College since 1980. Randy and nephew Kevin Painter both have master’s degrees from UT, tightening even further a Lambert family tradition of unbridled support that has withstood the tests of time, weather, and mountainous tailgate spreads.