Behavioral Health News & Events
Volume 2, Issue 1 | January 2014
TAMHO Member Organization Happenings
Remembering Psychiatric Healthcare Pioneer Dr.
Nat T. Winston
An American Psychiatrist, Tennessee’s
former Commissioner of Mental Health,
and a former candidate for Governor of
Tennessee
Nat T. Winston Jr., Psychiatric healthcare pioneer. Nat Taylor
Winston Jr (Dr. Nat) died peacefully Tuesday, December 31, 2013.
A native of Johnson City, TN, he is the son of Nat Taylor Winston
and Frances Naomi Colblantz.
He attended Science Hill High School serving as class president and
graduating valedictorian before deploying to the Pacific Theater of
WW2, where he commanded as an infantry officer. After serving
the United States, he attended Vanderbilt University graduating
Magna Cum Laude from Vanderbilt Medical School in 1953. He
quickly gained success in the psychiatric field as the first Director of
the Johnson City Mental Health Clinic and was later appointed the
first Superintendent of Moccasin Bend Psychiatric Hospital, where
his work gained national recognition placing Tennessee on the
forefront of mental healthcare. Credited by Readers Digest to
"spawning the birth of a quiet psychiatric revolution", he was
appointed Commissioner of Mental Health for Tennessee by Gov.
Frank Clemet and again under Gov. Buford Ellington. After a
Republican bid for the 19 sBwV&W&