Honor and Altruism Evident
in Gifts to UT Health Science Center

From lettering in swimming to flight training in the U.S. Air Force, David D.
“Mickey” Coleman has filled his life full of doing what he loves and doing for those he loves. Among his loves is the University of Tennessee.

Coleman recently gave $1.1 million in the form of a charitable remainder annuity trust to
establish the David D. Coleman Endowment at the UT Hamilton Eye Institute. 10 years
ago, Coleman funded a trust with commercial property valued at $1.2 million to establish the
David D. Coleman Endowed Professorship in Transplantation Research, in honor of his father,
who died when Mickey was 13. He committed an additional $300,000 to fully fund the prestigious $1.5 million professorship in the UT College of Medicine Department of Surgery.

Mickey Coleman attended UT Knoxville, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon and
lettered in swimming. “I never drowned,” he joked, “and I could really dog paddle.” Although
Coleman made the most of his years at UT, he did not take home a diploma. “I wasn’t an outstanding student,” he said.

But Coleman showed a knack for business early on, following in the footsteps of his father, a levee contractor, first president of the Mississippi Valley Flood Control Association
of General Contractors (levee division), and partner in his own firm of Horton & Coleman
Contractors. The elder Coleman purchased a farm near Proctor, Ark., but died before he
could retire to the land.

After a stint in the Air Force, Mickey Coleman went back to the farm in Arkansas. In 1986,
Coleman sold the farm that his father had purchased in 1940. Subsequent smart investing
enabled him to make substantial gifts to UT. Coleman’s gift to the University of Tennessee
Hamilton Eye Institute resulted from his favorable experience with and admiration for Barrett G. Haik, MD, FACS. “The eyes are the window to the body,” he said. “Dr. Haik has been
able to tell me so much about my health from just an eye exam.”

Coleman also had great praise for the man for whom the Eye Institute is named, Ralph S. Hamilton, MD. “I think very highly of Dr. Hamilton,” he said. “He’s an amazing man.”

Coleman has honored his late mother, by creating a professorship at Concordia Lutheran
Seminary, donating to a building for the Mid-South District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and making a $1.5 million gift to Immanuel Lutheran Church of Memphis, all in her name.

A $500,000 gift to the UTK business school in honor of his roommate at UT, James Goodner, “is
given in thanks to my roommate for a stock tip he gave me years ago that has made all these other
gifts possible.”

In his visits to the Eye Institute, Coleman has had ample opportunity to survey the demolition and clearance of debris from the old Baptist Memorial Hospital across the street. He joked that although his two gifts to the Health Science Center bear his name, they are not evident to
many people outside the UT community. “I am ultimately hoping to give more to create a fountain and steps up to the new building,” he laughed. “I think that would take care of my ego problem! But it’s already bigger than it should be.”

All joking aside, Mickey Coleman is unpretentious and modest in his ability to give so much to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. “I’m lucky,” he said. “I can give because I’m just lucky.”

Coleman’s philanthropy is based on helping others and honoring his loved ones. He has been remarkably successful at accomplishing both.