Oral history interview with Kenneth L. Roberts, 27 July 2006.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

This interview was recorded in digital format using a Marantz PMD671 solid state recorder. The interview was recorded in .wav format at 48 khz and 16 bit and was converted to .mp3 format for access.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: Oral history interview with Nashville businessman and civic leader Kenneth L. Roberts, conducted 27 July 2006 by Cabot Pyle as part of The Turner Interviews series of the Nashville Public Library's Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project. During the 1 hour and 42 second interview, Roberts discusses such topics as his family and education; Nashville during the 1950s when he first came to town to attend law school at Vanderbilt; practicing law; the five things that happened during the 1960s that helped to shape modern Nashville; the civil rights movement; his political activity; the formation of Metro Government; banking in Nashville in the 1960s; the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce; the liquor by the drink campaign; HCA; the importance of mentoring; Leadership Nashville; the Frist, Ingram, and Turner families and their influence; committee work; Vanderbilt; the development and growth of the Cool Springs area; the United Way; the Center for Nonprofit Management; the Frist Center for the Visual Arts; development in the Gulch area and along Demonbreun Street; and how his political and business experiences prepared him for work in the non-profit sector.

Cite as: Oral history interview with Kenneth L. Roberts, The Turner Interviews, Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library.

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code)

Nashville businessman and civic leader. Born in 1932, Roberts graduated from Vanderbilt University (1954) and Vanderbilt School of Law (1959). He served as an assistant professor of law at Vanderbilt before entering into private practice with the Nashville firm of Waller, Lansden & Dortch in 1960. He took a leave of absence in 1966 to make an unsuccessful race in the Republican primary for US Senate. Roberts joined Commerce Union Bank as vice president (1966), was named senior vice president (1968) and executive vice president (later in 1968), and was elected to board of directors (1969). He left Nashville in 1971 to become president and CEO of Central National Bank and Central National Corp. of Richmond, Virginia. Roberts returned to Nashville in 1976 as president and CEO of First American National Bank and vice chairman of First American Corp. He left First American in 1990 and became president of the HCA Foundation in 1991. Roberts has served on the Vanderbilt University Board of Trustees and the Frist Foundation Board of Trustees. Roberts has been associated with Genesco Inc., Leadership Nashville, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, and the United Way. He also served as president of the Center for Nonprofit Management's Board of Trustees. The Center, created 20 years ago by the Frist Foundation and United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, named its Management Resource Center after Roberts. The Kenneth L. Roberts Nonprofit Library is a reference library of books, periodicals, CD-ROMs, audiocassettes, and videos on topics related to the management of nonprofit organizations.

In English.

Index available in repository.

Forms part of: Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project: The Turner Interviews.