Herbert S. “Hub” Walters, who attended UTK from 1915 to 1918, served in the Tennessee House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate from 1963 to 1964. He endowed the Walters Scholarships at UT. Walters Life Science Building on the Knoxville campus is named for him, as is Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tennessee.

Lawrence D. Tyson graduated from UT in Knoxville in 1894. He was a brigadier general, speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives, and U.S. senator from 1925 to 1929.

Estes Kefauver (1924) served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1949 and in the Senate from 1949 to 1963. He was the Democratic party’s vice presidential nominee in 1956.

Albert Gore Sr. attended UT in Knoxville from 1926 to 1928. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1953 and the U.S. Senate from 1953 to 1971.

James B. Frazier, who graduated in 1878, was governor of Tennessee from 1903 to 1905 and U.S. senator from 1905 to 1911.

Clement C. Clay received one of the first degrees granted by East Tennessee College (now UT) in 1807. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, as a U.S. senator from Alabama, and as governor of Alabama.

James H. Williams, who graduated in 1827, was U.S. minister to Turkey from 1858 to 1861 and Confederate emissary to Britain in 1861.

Maurice F. Weisner, who attended UTK in 1956, is a retired admiral who commanded the Pacific fleet during the Vietnam War. He was vice chief of naval operations from 1972 to 1973 and commander in chief of Unified Pacific Command from 1976 to 1979.

David Duvall Thomas, who attended UT Knoxville in engineering in the 1930s, oversaw the U.S. air traffic control centers and retired in 1970 as deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. He was in charge of the federal air tracking system in the 1950s and in the 1960s helped increase airport security in response to [...]

George Caldwell Taylor (1908) was U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Tennessee and U.S. district judge. The UT College of Law is named for him.