Austin Peay mourns Dr. Solie Fott, who performed with legends as a ‘gig’ to support time with students
By: Dr. Andrea Spofford and Brian Dunn April 8, 2026
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Professor Emeritus Dr. Solie Fott, a driving force in the establishment of Austin Peay State University’s Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, passed on Monday, April 6, 2026, at his home in Clarksville, Tennessee. An accomplished violinist, Fott had a legacy at APSU of deep generosity to students and an abiding commitment to the arts.
Dr. Fott served at APSU for over 40 years, including 22 years as the chair of the Department of Music. He was the founding president of the university's Faculty Senate and its first chairperson of University Assembly. As a violinist, he performed with the Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville Symphonies before joining the Austin Peay music faculty in 1958, and he was also a veteran of the United States Third Army Band. Between 1960 and 1980, he worked as a studio musician and television performer in Nashville, participating in more than 2,000 recording sessions alongside artists including Patsy Cline, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley. Dr. Fott retired from APSU in 2000.
Of his two decades of studio work, Dr. Fott was characteristically understated during a 2024 podcast interview with Dr. Buzz Hoon, dean of the College of Arts and Letters. The sessions were, he said, simply "a gig ... it was a way to supplement a teacher salary" — and a change of pace from academic life.
“Solie Fott gave Austin Peay more than four decades of his life, and he gave them generously as a teacher, a leader, and a presence that made this place better,” said Dr. Mike Licari, APSU’s president. “He will be deeply missed by everyone who knew him and remembered by generations who never had the chance.”
Alongside faculty from across the arts at Austin Peay, Dr. Fott played an instrumental role in establishing the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA) in 1985. As CECA celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, center staff members are reflecting on the faculty members whose vision and advocacy shaped what the center has become. For the Department of Music, that legacy belongs in no small part to Dr. Fott, an advocate for the arts across disciplines, known for the warmth and wit he brought to every room he entered. A member of the Clarksville Community Concert Association for more than six decades, Dr. Fott served as the association’s president from 1996 to 2000 and remained active on its board of directors. He also carried poems in his pockets, reciting from memory his favorite writers.
Hoon recalled Dr. Fott's gregarious nature and the humility with which he approached life.
"You might know that Solie was a talented musician,” he said. “Solie didn't talk about it unless you asked him specific questions. It wasn't until I saw a CD, made by his son, containing all the artists and songs he played with, that I got a real sense of his abilities. Solie performed in over 2,000 sessions over a 20-year period, but he wasn't going to have that one thing define who he was. He loved to be with others."
In the 2024 interview, Dr. Fott closed with a poem by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore that he said summed up his life: "I slept and dreamt that life is Joy / I acted and saw that life is Duty / and beheld that duty is Joy.”
"When a person's duties coincide with his or her interests," he said, "that is a good life. And I consider myself fortunate along those lines."
CECA recognized Dr. Fott as the 2020 George Mabry Award winner. His dedication to education in music was also recognized with awards from the Tennessee Arts Academy and Tennessee Music Educators Association.
Austin Peay’s senior leaders and Faculty Senate members will celebrate the Senate’s 50th anniversary celebration on Friday, April 10.
As Licari noted, Dr. Fott's impact on students, faculty, and staff will continue to live on. In 2007, Dr. Fott's family established the Solie Fott Music Scholarship. In 2025, Michael S. Humnicky established the Dr. Solie Fott Strings Scholarship Endowment to benefit APSU music students whose primary instrument is the violin, honoring a longtime friend whose life in music was shaped by Dr. Fott's mentorship.