Bob Eoff returns to city for exhibition

Watercolors helped define artistic bent

Sit down to talk about art with Bob Eoff and inevitably you end up talking about television.

Eoff has an exhibition of watercolors, “Appalachian Wrangler,” on display at ANF Architects through July 10, but his life was so bound up with broadcasting in Memphis that his success and the evolution of his painting seem to have occurred simultaneously.

Eoff graduated from Whitehaven High School in 1967 and went to Memphis State University to major in English.

“I wanted to teach, but I was not a very good reader of other people’s writing,” he said over lunch at The Brushmark, the restaurant at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. He switched majors to radio-television-film management, a decision that determined his career for the next 40 years.

Or perhaps what determined his career was a wrong turn. While still a junior at MSU, in 1969, Eoff began working at WREGTV Channel 3, the local CBS affiliate, as a cameraman. This was when Channel 3 was still in the basement of The Peabody. “I thought I wanted to be a deejay,” said Eoff, “but I walked through the wrong door into the TV studio.”

Following the legendary business-world trajectory — “from mail room to board room” — Eoff moved over the years from cameraman to technical director to director to producer-director to president and general manager, and in 2004 he became president of The New York Times Broadcast Group and had a seat on the board of directors.

Going back to the early 1970s, however, we see a young man looking for a creative outlet, one not fulfilled by writing, poetry and music. “That’s when I started watercolor,” Eoff said, “teaching myself through books and looking at artists I admired in museums and galleries.” He

Bob Eoff

ian, but no positions were available. Instead, she landed a job as a medical assistant at local hospital.

“That was where I got my first real taste of human doctoring,” Mann said. “As a medical assistant I wasn’t doing a lot of technical stuff, but I got a lot of hands-on experience working with patients and dealing with all types of people.”

That was the summer after high school. So when Mann started college, her decision to take the pre-med track was a no-brainer.

“My grandfather was a medical doctor, a generalist in Covington,” she said. “He died when I was very young, but I know about him from stories my mom has told and from pictures. Maybe there are some genetics there. But maybe some of the stories inspired me, too.”

After f inishing med school and a residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Mann began working in her specialty area of obstetrics and gynecology. It’s a job she loves.

“I do a lot of deliveries,” she said. “It does have its rewards.”

But she knows it’s also important to balance her busy career with a little bit of fun.

“Keeping your hobbies, I think, is so important,” she said. “Because you have to have a mix in life between career and fun. That’s how you keep yourself young.”

What’s your proudest moment so far, career-wise?

Being close to my hometown, I deliver babies for a lot of family and friends that I grew up with, but I think by far a career highlight for me would be the delivery of my two nieces, my brother’s children. Being the physician there and also being genetically tied to these babies, it meant a lot.

What are your favorite things about Memphis?

I think the options for education — or if you’re wanting to exercise or get involved in a sport or be on a team — it doesn’t take a whole lot of work to find a niche where you’re comfortable and where you can expand your horizons. I like that about Memphis. Also, the churches and variety of places where you can go and learn spiritually is another thing I like about Memphis. Because I grew up in the South, and in particular in a small town, I see a Southern community spirit here. People still know their neighbors and help each other out. And of course I like the restaurant options. We’ve got everything in Memphis, from seafood to soul food.

What would others be surprised to learn about you?

Maybe that I am a legal permit carrier for a weapon. I think it’s becoming more common for women to go and get educated in that area. And I do legally carry a gun at times.

What (or who) most inspires you, and why?

I’ve been inspired by so many people in my life, depending on my focus in life at the time — because you go through phases. Right now, anything that drives me spiritually is important. I have to say that Lysa TerKeurst, who is a spiritual leader for women, inspires me the most right now. The reason is because she is such a busy woman. She’s got a big family — she’s got kids ranging from young children to almost young adults, and she always seems to keep it real and be down to earth and still maintain her focus on faith, and that inspires me.

Song that would be the title track to the soundtrack of your life?

“If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys. It’s not a description of my life so far, but as far as my motto in life, it does fit me pretty well. My motto is to not take myself too seriously, and the bottom line is just to love people and love what you’re doing and just be happy. The lyrics — “some people live for fortune and fame” and feel like they’ve got to have diamonds and roses to make them happy — that’s all superficial. Just love in general, that’s what’s important. Just being happy with making your own happiness.

What’s the trip you keep talking about taking one day?

I want to take a trip to Alaska, and I want to do some inland exploration — hiking, doing some stuff on land — and then I want to watch the whales. And if I won the lottery, I’d maybe buy a ticket to one of those space shuttles and for a million dollars go out in space.