Mother and Daughter Professors Forge a Big Orange Family Legacy
by Randall Brown
Not everyone starts forming career goals as a toddler, but not every toddler spends time visiting their mother’s parasitology lab.
“I would say, ‘I’m going to work in my mother’s lab—that will be my plan,’” said Rachel Patton McCord, now an associate professor in UT’s Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology.
It helped her strong early sense of direction that her mother is Professor Emeritus Sharon Patton, who was the first female faculty member in the UT College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM) and taught at UT for 38 years.
“I started as a professor at UT in 2016, the year after she retired, so it’s almost like handing off the baton,” said McCord. “I don’t know if there are any other mother/daughter professor pairs at UT. It’s not something I necessarily expected to be possible in my life.”
McCord earned her PhD in biophysics at Harvard University and did postdoctoral research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School before looking for a permanent faculty position. She hoped to find one not too far from her family in Knoxville but didn’t know she would become a “second-generation professor” at Rocky Top.
“Finding academic jobs is not trivial, and you very well may not have the opportunity to work at the same place as your parents,” she said. “But the job came available here to do exactly what I do. It was the opportunity to be back in the place where I grew up, going into my mother’s office and watching what she did as a professor.”
Patton joined UTCVM in 1977, during its inaugural year of classes (the college is currently celebrating the 50th anniversary of its official founding).
“The first time parasitology was taught, I was there to help teach it,” said Patton. “When the first students arrived, I arrived with them—the building was still being built.”
She arrived at UT from the University of Kentucky (UK) more prepared than the average new faculty hire—she had her own collection of example parasites, inherited from her recently retired faculty mentor at UK.
“I showed up with all these bottles of worms, which of course the vet school didn’t have at that time,” said Patton. “It helped that we had all these things through the years. I would say that by the time I retired, we had one of the best collections anywhere.”
She also brought a personalized teaching style to her classes, engaging students in a call-and-response style of participation to convey important principles, something she likens to “an old-time gospel meeting.” She also developed a special end-of-class message of encouragement over the years.
“I would tell them, ‘That’s all for today. Remember, I love you,’” said Patton. “When I first said that I didn’t really mean it—I was just saying it, you know? But as time goes by, you really do love them.”
Her teaching impacted many students over the years, including incoming UTCVM Dean Paul Plummer, who had classes with Patton and earned his DVM at UT in 2000. The impression she made on McCord was, of course, the deepest.
“I always saw how much she loved her students and could impact their lives,” said McCord. “I learned to teach by imitating my mother: when I’m talking in class, the tone of voice I use. I practiced until it became something I could do.”
McCord also absorbed knowledge growing up that helps her in her field, even though her specialty is DNA and human genome structure, not parasitology.
“We have a professor just two doors down the hall who is working on parasites, but more related to what I do,” said McCord. “I’m studying DNA structure, he’s studying DNA in parasites, and in collaborating with him I’m suddenly getting to work with things I heard about growing up—all these words are as familiar to me as some people might be with, ‘Oh, my mother’s cooking,’ or ‘my mother’s quilts.’ I’m like, ‘Oh toxoplasmosis, that sounds so familiar.’”
Patton is happy that she helped connect her daughter to the scientific world, and happy to have McCord continue their family’s teaching legacy at UT.
“It feels great,” said Patton. “She’s really a good, careful researcher, and a good teacher. Of course, I’m her mother, so I think she’s talented in all respects. But after she’d done her postdoc work and came to UT—it was overwhelming. It was just wonderful.”
In addition to sharing their family bond through UT academics, both mother and daughter proudly say their “blood runs orange.” McCord recalls hearing the Pride of the Southland Band practicing their Vol walk while working on a grant proposal in her first fall semester back on campus.
“You could hear ‘Rocky Top’ through the window, and without even thinking, I jumped up and ran outside,” she said. “It was amazing how it made me feel inspired to go write my grant better. Like, I will give my all for Tennessee today!”