Dr. Thomas Menees was the first Dean of the combined medical departments of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University, a post which he held from 1874 to 1895. A native of Davidson County, Tennessee, Dr. Menees received his M.D. degree from Transylvania University in 1846. He practiced medicine in Springfield, TN a number of years before becoming interested in politics. He held elective office in the Tennessee State Legislature being elected in 1857 as a senator. When Tennessee joined the Confederacy, he was a representaive being first elected in 1861 and again in 1863. Following the Civil War, he took up the practice of medicine in Nashville. In 1873 he became professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Medical Department of the University of Nashville, elevating to the post of dean when the two departments combined.