Richard Wilson Austin, an 1877 graduate of East Tennessee University (UT’s predecessor), was consul to Scotland from 1906 to 1907 and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1909 to 1919.

John Dewitt Clinton Atkins graduated from East Tennessee University (UT’s predecessor) in 1846. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Tennessee House and the Tennessee Senate. He was commissioner of Indian affairs from 1885 to 1888.

Washington Curran Whitthorne (1843) was a U.S. senator from Tennessee in 1886-87 and a U.S. representative. He also was speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives.

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.