Arzo Carson, an East Tennessee native whose long and rich life included serving as the first director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, died Sunday at age 100.
David Rausch, current TBI director, said Carson set the stage and the standard for how the TBI operates today.
"His legacy lives on, not only on our building here in Nashville at headquarters with his name on it, but also the core philosophy that Director Carson put in place, and that was, 'That guilt shall not escape, nor innocence suffer,' "
Rausch said in a video statement.
"That duality of the purpose for justice is what drives us today."
The agency formally has existed as the independent TBI since 1980. Carson was its first director and served in that role until 1990, according to the TBI.
The statewide investigative office traces its origins to an unsolved 1949 homicide in Greene County. As a result of that killing, Tennessee created a bureau within that Department of Safety that evolved into the TBI.
Carson was a Scott County native and former district attorney in the county.
He also was a veteran of World War II, serving in the U.S. Navy.
After retiring from the TBI, he was appointed director emeritus. The TBI's headquarters was named after him following passage of a bill in 2009 by the Legislature.
Carson's wife of 62 years, Shirley L. Carson, died in 2021.
Carson's funeral is Thursday.
Friends may visit from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at the First Baptist Church in Oneida. The service will follow.