2023 Distinguished Service to Pharmacy Award Winner
Dr. James C. Eoff III retired in December 2014, after a 45-year career teaching at the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy (UTCOP), where he served as the Executive Associate Dean, Dean of Student Affairs, and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy for the last 27 years of his career at the College. He graduated from the UTCOP with his BSPh degree in 1969 and his PharmD degree in 1970, the second class of PharmD students (Doctor of Pharmacy degree).
He served on the faculty full time from 1970 to 1978 at which time he purchased Balmoral Pharmacy in Memphis but continued to teach the OTC course which he developed and implemented in 1970. He rejoined the College of Pharmacy full time in 1984 and served as interim dean of the College on two occasions, in 1989 and 2013.
Dr. Eoff served as the president of the UT College of Pharmacy Alumni Association in 1985-86 and in 1987-89 and he was the recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award of the College of Pharmacy in 1987. He also served on the Shelby County UT Alumni Association Board and on the UT National Alumni Board of Governors. He received the UT National Alumni Association’s Outstanding Teacher Award on four separate occasions early in his career and received the UT National Alumni Association Distinguished Community Service Award in 1990. He received numerous other student teaching awards during his career and was co-editor of the American Pharmacist Association’s Complete Pharmacy Review book for national board exams for the first 10 editions from 2004 to 2013.
Dr. Eoff served as member of the Seldon D. Feurt Committee since 1989, and has been chair of the committee since 2000, which is advisory to the dean for the College’s largest endowment, the Seldon D. Feurt Fund, which provides student scholarships and supports the College’s international pharmacy program. In 2012, the alumni and faculty raised funds to name the Student/Academic Affairs Dean’s Suite in new College of Pharmacy Building in his honor. Dr. Eoff has loves music and plays the piano and pipe organ, which he has played for the College’s Honor & Awards programs and graduation for many years. The faculty & alumni presented him with a night at the Orpheum theater for his retirement gift, where he gave a concert on the Wurlitzer pipe organ at the Orpheum to faculty, students, alumni, and friends in June 2015.
Dr. Eoff and his wife Ann have three sons, two daughters, seven grandchildren, one great granddaughter and a great grandson expected in January 2023. He served as chairman of the Briarcrest Christian School Board of Trustees from 1991-1992 where his children graduated. He has been an active member of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis since 1966 and a member of the Administrative Board on several occasions as well as serving as chair of the Pastor Staff Relations & Work Area on Education committees in the past. He has also taught the Lamplighters Sunday School class at Christ Methodist for more than 45 years.