Mark Gwyn, Tennessee’s first Black TBI director dies

Nashville, Tenn. (TN Tribune)-Mark Gwyn, the first African American to serve as director for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, died in his home Aug. 22. He was 61. Gwyn served as TBI director for 15 years before retiring in 2018 less than two years into his third term. A native of McMinnville, Tenn., he graduated from Middle Tennessee State University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in communications, and later enrolled at Tennessee State University, where he earned a master’s degree. He began his career in law enforcement as a patrolman with the McMinnville Police Department in 1985. Three years later he joined the TBI as a special agent, where he spent nearly a decade investigating some of the state’s most high-profile crimes. After being promoted to executive officer in 1996, Gwyn would later become assistant director of TBI in 2001 and lead the agency’s Forensic Services Division, where he supervised the state’s three crime labs. In 2004, he was appointed Tennessee TBI director by former Gov. Phil Bredesen and was an active member of the Governor’s Meth Task Force, which helped craft legislation to combat the illegal production and use of methamphetamine. Additionally, the state’s Fusion Center was constructed...