James Zwingle (1929, 1932) was president of Park College (Missouri) from 1947 to 1955. He later was a vice president at Cornell University and president of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

Seymour Allen Mynders (1880) was the first president of West Tennessee State Normal College (University of Memphis).

Edward C. Merrill Jr. (1948) was the fourth president of Gallaudet University. He served from 1969 to 1983. Merrill was dean of the UT College of Education at Knoxville from 1961 to 1969.

David Bancroft Johnson earned degrees from UT in Knoxville in 1877 and 1880. He founded Winthrop University (South Carolina) and was president of the National Education Association from 1915 to 1916.

Thomas W. Humes became president of East Tennessee University in 1865. During his term, in 1879, the legislature changed the institution’s name to the University of Tennessee. He resigned the presidency in 1883. Humes was an 1830 graduate of East Tennessee College, the forerunner of East Tennessee University and UT.

James D. Hoskins was UT’s 14th president. He earned UT degrees in 1891, 1893, and 1897.

Nathan W. Dougherty (1909) was dean of the UT College of Engineering at Knoxville from 1940 to 1956 and chairman of the UT Athletic Council from 1917 to 1956. He was a member of the College Football Hall of Fame.

Lawrence G. Derthick (1930) was U.S. commissioner of education from 1956 to 1961.

Cleveland Leon Dennard (1964) was president of Atlanta University from 1977 to 1983, and president of the Technological Institute of Washington from 1976 to 1977. He was chief operating officer of the Martin Luther King Center for Non-Violent Social Change and was the 1972 Washingtonian of the Year.

William D. Carnes, an 1842 graduate of East Tennessee University (UT’s predecessor), was UT president from 1858 to 1860.