Rob Roy Purdy was born in Pensacola, Florida in 1914. He died in Nashville on March 24, 1988 at the age of 74. He graduated from Davidson College, and came to Vanderbilt in 1937. After receiving his master degree he taught at Florence State College in Alabama for a year and served for two years in the Navy during World War II. He then returned to Vanderbilt for his Ph.D. in English. He became a member of the Vanderbilt English Faculty, and rose to the rank of full professor teaching courses in Anglo-Saxon Literature and Chaucer and in Shakespeare and Southern American Literature. In 1959 Professor Purdy became Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University. At his retirement in 1979 he was awarded the titles of Professor of English, Emeritus and Senior Vice-Chancellor Emeritus.

He was a member of the Committee of Educational Inquiry at Vanderbilt, one of ten such committees sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation in U.S. and Canadian Universities, and in 1956-57 he was the General Chairman of all ten committees. Dr. Purdy was director of the Vanderbilt University Press from 1957 to 1959 and Chairman of the University Committee on Athletics.

He edited for publication the many hours of tape from the 1956 Fugitive Reunion. The finished work was published in May 1958 with the title Fugitives’ Reunion: Conversations at Vanderbilt, May 3 -5, 1956.

He was married to Frances Edwards Purdy, and they had three sons.