Nunley Award

Bob Depriest

Navy

• MTSU Graduate  

Robert Owen DePriest  (13 JUL 1926 –   23 JUN 2023).  Robert joined the US Navy in 1943. He was transferred to the US Marine Corps and served as a medical corpsman in the World War II Battle of Iwo Jima.

Following the war, Robert returned to Nashville, Tennessee. He married Mary Lillian Stone in 1947. Robert graduated from Middle Tennessee State University and became a Federal investigator with the US Civil Service Commission in 1952 in Memphis, Tennessee.

Retiring as Chief of Investigations for the Southeast region of the United States based in Atlanta, Georgia. Following retirement, Robert came back to MTSU earning a master’s degree after which he served as an archivist with the Tennessee State Library and Archives for 5 years.

Robert and his wife Mary served one year with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board in Hawaii. He was a member of Tulip Grove Baptist Church in Hermitage, Tennessee.