By: Connor Stewart
Who are the People Behind the Steinhauer-Rogan-Black Building?
Most people know that the buildings on Volunteer States Gallatin campus get their names from real people, however, practically no one knows who they really were.
The humanities building is the newest, opening in Aug. 2016, and has three different names attached to it: Steinhauer, Rogan, and Black.
The main contributor to the funding of the building is David and Diane Black. The two met in 1967 while David was in the Marine Corps but re-met and started dating in 1978 and got married in 1980. David adopted Diane’s three kids Steve, Jill and Katie.
David, being in forensic toxicology, worked with Diane to start the Aegis Sciences Corporation.
The two borrowed $70,000 and started with only four employees and eventually built into a $500 million company with over 1,000 employees only 25 years later.
Diane became a professor at Vol State teaching medical terminology and served in the Senate and House of Representatives becoming the first woman to serve as the Chairman of the House Budget Committee. Her experiences as a nurse made her an influential voice in national discussions focusing on health care, taxes, the economy, and federal debt.
The Blacks are now influential philanthropists and work to support local community efforts to help others. When they bought the naming rights to the humanities building, they chose friends who shared a similar want to help the community.
John Steinhauer was an entrepreneur who owned Hendersonville’s first advertising and relations firm, an FM Radio Station, and was one of the six families that started the St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Hendersonville.
He served in multiple different positions in State Government and as Hendersonville City Commissioner, later advocating for the need for a hospital in Hendersonville. In 2011 he was awarded the Ralph G. Hanning Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hendersonville Area Chamber of Commerce because of his contribution to Hendersonville.
When David and Diane Black moved to Hendersonville, they became close friends with the Steinhauer’s and requested their names on the building due to their contribution to Hendersonville.
Clara Rogan grew up in Gallatin and worked as a nurse at the Sumner Regional Medical Center. There she met Diane Black and became friends due to their love of serving the community.
Clara served on many boards including the Sumner Foundation and the Volunteer State College Foundation.
She has won many awards including the women in the NAACP award and Gallatin’s Citizen of the Year Award in 2015. She is also known for selling barbeque and providing catering for many events.
She says her mother, Frances Lucille Barr, was her biggest inspiration since she had to raise 7 kids, “She made sure we went to school and got an education,” said Rogan.
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