The following is a list of people associated with the University of Tennessee system in all its campuses. The list does not include personnel associated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Politics and law
Lamar Alexander, former Tennessee Governor, UT President and current US Senator
John Justin Armitage, diplomat
Victor Ashe, U.S. ambassador to Poland, former mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee
John DeWitt Clinton Atkins, member of House of Representatives
Richard W. Austin, member of House of Representatives
Howard Baker, Ambassador and former Senate Majority Leader
Howard Baker, Sr., member of House of Representatives
William M. Barker, Chief Justice to Tennessee Supreme Court
George White Baxter, Governor of Wyoming territory
Marion Speed Boyd, former U.S. district and Chief judge for Tennessee
John Lafayette Camp, politician and Civil War veteran
Brett Carter, U.S. House of Representatives Candidate
Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senator
Walter Chandler, former mayor of Memphis, Tennessee
Philander Priestly Claxton, Jr., U.S. State Department official; president of the World Population Society, 1975-1985
Clement Comer Clay, former Governor of Alabama
Bob Corker, former mayor of Chattanooga; U.S. Senator
John Hervey Crozier, member of House of Representatives
Arthur B. Culvahouse, Jr., former White House Counsel
Lincoln Davis, member of House of Representatives
Jim DeMint, South Carolina U.S. Senator
M. Jerome Diamond, Vermont Attorney General, 1975-1981
Lurita Doan, current Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration
Jimmy Duncan, member of House of Representatives
John Duncan, Sr., member of House of Representative
Winfield Dunn, former Governor of Tennessee
Charlene Fite, Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Crawford County, Arkansas
James B. Frazier, former Governor of Tennessee and U.S. Senator
Bart Gordon, member of House of Representatives
Al Gore, Jr., former Vice President of the United States, US Congressman, US Senator, Professor, and Environmentalist, recipient Honorary Doctorate, 2010
Albert Gore, Sr., member of House of Representatives and U.S. Senator
Ronnie Greer, U.S. District judge for eastern Tennessee
Bill Hendon, former member of U.S. House of Representatives
Van Hilleary, U. S. Congressman
John C. Houk, former member of U.S. House of Representatives
Thomas G. Hull, former member of U.S. House of Representatives
Amadou Scattred Janneh, former Secretary of State for Communication, Information and Technology, from The Gambia
Ray Jenkins, Senate counsel during the Army-McCarthy Hearings
William L. Jenkins, member of U.S. House of Representatives
Ed Jones, former member of U.S. House of Representatives
Jim Justice, Governor of West Virginia
Joel A. Katz, entertainment lawyer (UT College of Law)
Estes Kefauver, former U.S. Senator
Alvan Lafargue, M.D. 1910, Louisiana physician and mayor of Sulphur, 1926-1932
Arthur Larson, politician
Dan Lipinski, U.S. Congressman (D-IL) and former professor
William Gibbs McAdoo, former United States Secretary of the Treasury
John E. McCall, former member of U.S. House of Representatives
Jimmy Naifeh, Speaker of the House, Tennessee House of Representatives
John Randolph Neal, Jr., Scopes Trial attorney
Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson, former member of U.S. House of Representatives
George W. Ochs, former Mayor of Chattanooga
Michael C. Polt, U.S. Ambassador to Serbia
Percy Priest, former member of U.S. House of Representatives
Bob Ramsey (born 1947), Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives.
Glenn Reynolds, UT law professor and author of the Instapundit political weblog
Mercer Reynolds, former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland
Madeline Rogero, first female mayor of Knoxville
Kenneth Rush, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany
Edward Terry Sanford, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Jim Sasser, former U.S. Senator
Ronald L. Schlicher, former U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus
Margaret Scobey, former U.S. Ambassador to Syria and Egypt
Heath Shuler, U.S. Representative from North Carolina, former NFL player
Paul Summers, former Attorney General of State of Tennessee
John S. Tanner, member of House of Representatives
Deborah Tate, United States Federal Communications Commission Commissioner
George Caldwell Taylor, former U.S. district judge
Lawrence Tyson, former U.S. Senator
Gary R. Wade, Tennessee Supreme Court appointee, as of 2006
Herbert S. Walters, former U.S. Senator
Zach Wamp, member of House of Representatives
Allen West, U.S. Representative from Florida
Washington C. Whitthorne, former U.S. Senator
Laura I. Wiley, former member of the North Carolina General Assembly and current member of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors.
Edward L. Ayers, President of the University of Richmond
Guy Bailey, 15th President of Texas Tech University; President of the University of Alabama
Philander P. Claxton Sr., founder of the UT Department of Education and U.S. commissioner of education, 1911-1921
Bob Clement, President of Cumberland College and politician
Margaret Cuninggim, former Dean of Women at the University of Tennessee
David L. Eubanks, former President of Johnson Bible College
John Gaventa, political sociologist
John Rice Irwin, historian, founder of Museum of Appalachia
Graham Leonard, BA '47 International Relations; PhD in Education from Harvard University; worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, helping implement a national education system for Palestine; Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, 1968-1969
William Allen Montgomery (1829-1905), graduated in 1850; lawyer, planter, Confederate chaplain and Baptist minister; President of Carson–Newman University from 1888 to 1892.
John Thomas Mentzer (~1951-2010), marketing and supply chain scholar
F. Ann Millner, 11th President of Weber State University
Brian E. Noland, 9th President of East Tennessee State University, Chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Commission
Linwood H. Rose, 5th President of James Madison University
W. I. Thomas, sociologist
Bernie L. Wade, Chancellor, International Circle of Faith Colleges and Seminaries
Actors, directors, and entertainers
Clarence Brown, Academy Award-nominated film director
Dixie Carter, actress
Henry Cho, comedian
John Cullum, actor and singer
James Denton, actor, Desperate Housewives
David Keith, actor and director
Constance Shulman, voice-over, actress
Artists and musicians
Jeff Baxter, Nike designer
Deana Carter, country music singer and songwriter
Ashley Cleveland, gospel singer
James Denton, actor
The Dirty Guv'nahs, rock band
Thomas Fulton, opera conductor
Drew Holcomb, singer and songwriter
Ellie Holcomb, singer and songwriter
Wardell Milan, artist
John Howell Morrison, composer
Park Overall, actress
Dolly Parton, country music singer, recipient Honorary Doctorate, 2009
Cheryl Lynn Studer, opera soprano
Carl Sublett, painter
Pam Tillis, country music singer
Gilbert Harry Trythall, composer and pianist
Richard Aaker Trythall, composer and pianist
Sarah Webb, artist
Delores Ziegler, opera singer
Travis Beacham, screenwriter
Lowell Cunningham, comic book writer
Owen Davis, playwright
Bruce Foster, paper engineer, pop-up children's books creator
Alex Haley, novelist, biographer and essayist
May Justus, author of children's books
Marilyn Kallet, poet
Joseph Wood Krutch, novelist, critic and naturalist
Richard Marius, novelist, scholar and speechwriter
Cormac McCarthy, novelist
John C. McManus, Ph.D., military historian and professor of military history
Dave Ramsey, financial guru, author, and host of The Dave Ramsey Show
Vince Staten, humorist
Allen Wier, fiction writer and scholar
Business and economy
Charles Scott Abbott, one of the two originators of Trivial Pursuit
James Clayton, President and CEO of Clayton Homes
Michael T. Dugan, educator and accounting scholar
Charlie Ergen, CEO of Echostar
James Haslam Jr., founder and CEO of Pilot Corporation
Charles O. Holliday, Chairman of Bank of America and Former Chairman of DuPont
Min Kao, CEO and founder of Garmin
Charles McClung McGhee, late 19th-century Knoxville railroad magnate and financier
Abdisalam Omer, Governor of the Central Bank of Somalia
Jerry Sisk, Jr., gemologist and television executive, co-founded Jewelry Television in 1993
Donnie Smith, CEO of Tyson Foods
Chris Whittle, founder of Whittle Communications and Edison Schools
Burwell B. Bell III, U.S. Army Commander
Robert Emmet Callan, major general in the U.S. Army and assistant chief of staff in the War Department, 1931-1935
Clifton B. Cates, aide to President Woodrow Wilson and later Commandant of the Marine Corps
Thomas A. Davis, Captain of Spanish–American War
Norman C. Gaddis, former Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force
Robert C. Hinson, former Deputy Commander-in-Chief of United States Strategic Command
Bruce K. Holloway, military commander of Allied Forces
Ridley McLean, rear admiral in the U.S. Navy and wrote the Bluejacket’s Manual, which is still used to teach naval recruits the basics of seamanship
Major General Spurgeon Neel, pioneer in aeromedical evacuation
Austin C. Shofner, World War II U.S. General
Maurice F. Weisner, former Pacific Fleet Admiral
Athletics and sportscasters
Monica Abbott, NPF pitcher for the Washington Glory, Olympian (2008)
Pete Athas, former NFL player
Bill Bates, former NFL Pro Bowl safety
Buddy Bolding, head baseball coach at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia
Chris Burke, retired Major League Baseball player
Kevin Burnett, former NFL player
Ray Bussard, Hall of Fame and Olympic swimming coach, 1968-1989
Tamika Catchings, WNBA player, two-time Olympian (2004, 2008)
Joey Clinkscales, professional football wide receiver, scout, and executive
Denny Crawford, professional football guard
Jonathan Crompton, NFL free agent quarterback
Antone Davis, former National Football League offensive lineman
Doug Dickey, College Football Hall of Fame head coach at the University of Tennessee (1964–1969) and the University of Florida (1970–1978); athletic director at Tennessee (1985–2002)
R.A. Dickey, professional baseball pitcher
Bobby Dodd, college football coach and athletic director at Georgia Tech
Dale Ellis, former NBA player
Beattie Feathers, former NFL player; collegiate football and baseball coach
Paul Finebaum, radio host and journalist
Cory Fleming, former NFL wide receiver
Richmond Flowers, former NFL player
Arian Foster, NFL running back
Phillip Fulmer, head coach of Tennessee Volunteers football team (1992–2008)
Harry Galbreath, former National Football League offensive lineman
Charlie Garner, NFL running back
Phil Garner, former Major League Baseball player and manager
Justin Gatlin, 2004 Summer Olympics 100m gold medalist
Willie Gault, former NFL wide receiver
Bobby Gordon, football player
Sam Graddy, 1984 Summer Olympics 100m silver medalist and 4x100m gold medalist
Ray Graves, former NFL player; University of Florida head football coach (1960–1969) and athletic director (1960–1979); College Football Hall of Fame (1990)
Ernie Grunfeld, former NBA player and current president of basketball operations, Washington Wizards
Travis Haney, college football writer for ESPN Insider
Alvin Harper, former NFL wide receiver
Albert Haynesworth, NFL defensive tackle
Todd Helton, former Major League Baseball first baseman for the Colorado Rockies
Chamique Holdsclaw, former WNBA player, Olympian (2000)
Rick Honeycutt, former Major League Baseball player and current pitching coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers
Allan Houston, NBA shooting guard
Luke Hudson, Major League Baseball pitcher for the Kansas City Royals
Austin Johnson, NFL player
Dale Jones, former NFL player and current assistant coach at Appalachian State
Steve Kiner, former NFL player, College Football Hall of Fame inductee
Bernard King, former NBA player
Kara Lawson, WNBA player, Olympian (2008), ESPN analyst
Jamal Lewis, NFL running back
Jeremy Linn, swimmer, won one gold and one silver medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.
Christine Magnuson, swimmer, won two silver medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
Johnny Majors, College Football Hall of Fame 1987, Heisman Trophy runner-up (1956); head football coach at Iowa State University (1968–1972), University of Pittsburgh (1973–1976) and the University of Tennessee (1977–1992)
Peyton Manning, NFL quarterback
Tee Martin, former NFL quarterback
Steve Matthews, former NFL quarterback
Jeronne Maymon (born 1991), basketball player for Hapoel Eilat B.C. of the Israeli Basketball Premier League
Bill Mayo, All-American
Jacques McClendon, NFL offensive lineman
Tim McGee, NFL receiver
Ross McGowan, professional golfer
Greg McMichael, former Major League Baseball player
Charles McRae, former National Football League offensive lineman
Aries Merritt, 2012 Summer Olympics 110m hurdles gold medalist
Anthony Miller, former NFL pro Bowl wide receiver
Mike Miller, NFL player
Chris Moneymaker, 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event winner
Tom Myslinski, former NFL center
Kevin Nash, professional wrestler and UT basketball player
Lindsey Nelson, sportscaster
Augie Ojeda, Major League Baseball player for the Arizona Diamondbacks
Candace Parker, WNBA player, Olympian (2008)
Woody Paige, sports analyst for The Denver Post and ESPN's Around the Horn
Bruce Pearl, former men's head basketball coach
Carl Pickens, former NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver
Peerless Price, former NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver
Semeka Randall, former WNBA player
Mychal Rivera, tight end; brother of Glee actress Naya Rivera
Pat Ryan, former NFL player
Ovince St. Preux, collegiate football defensive end and linebacker; professional mixed martial artist, formerly with Strikeforce and currently with the UFC
Robert Shaw, former NFL center
Michelle Snow, WNBA player
Donté Stallworth, NFL WR
Melvin Stewart, swimmer, won two gold medals and one bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain
Pat Summitt, former women's basketball head coach (1974–2012); member of Naismith Memorial and Women's Basketball Halls of Fame; Olympian (1976); head coach for the 1984 Olympic women's basketball team that won gold
Tyler Summitt, Pat's son and former head women's basketball coach at Louisiana Tech
Lenny Taylor, NFL player
Holly Warlick, former Lady Vols basketball player and current Lady Vols head coach
Chuck Webb, NFL player
Reggie White, former NFL defensive lineman
Ron Widby, former NFL Pro Bowl punter
Jordan Williams, NFL player
Rhyne Williams, professional tennis player
Al Wilson, NFL player
Gibril Wilson, NFL safety
Jason Witten, NFL Pro Bowl tight end
Gene Wojciechowski, college football reporter/senior writer, ESPN The Magazine
Bob Woodruff, head football coach at Baylor University (1947–1949); head football coach and athletic director at the University of Florida (1950–1959)
Chris Woodruff, associate head coach at the University of Tennessee, former professional tennis player
Journalists and newscasters
Huell Howser, California television personality
Ann Taylor, NPR newscaster
Chris Vining, Emmy Award-winning video editor
Charles Winters, journalist
Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN writer and commentator
Bernadotte E. Schmitt, Merton College, B.A 1908. M.A 1913. Distinguished professor, largely at Western Reserve University (1910-1925), and the University of Chicago (1925-1946). When Schmitt retired from Chicago, he held the Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professorship of Modern History.He held a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1927, was elected President of the American Historical Association in 1960, and was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.Served briefly in World War I as a 2nd Lieutenant of Field Artillery, and during World War II, he acted as a special consultant on history in the Department of State's Division of Research and Publications and its Division of Historical Policy Research.
Matthew Glenn Smith, Hertford College, B.A. 1914. Served in WW l as Captain of Coast Artillery in France. Following discharge in 1918, went on to a prominent legal career in Texas.
Arthur Preston Whitaker, Awarded Rhodes Scholarship in 1917 but prevented from actualizing it by WW l. Graduated from Harvard University with an M.A in 1917 and a Ph.D. in 1924.Distinguished academic career as a professor at Amherst, Vanderbilt, New York University, Cornell, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania. At Penn he held the first chair in Latin American History in 1936. During WW ll, he served as a consultant to the State Department on Latin America.
William Everett Derryberry, St. John's College, B.A 1932 M.A 1940. At Oxford, he captained the St. John's tennis team, was a member of the university's international championship lacrosse team, and played doubles at Wimbledon. Went on to a distinguished 34-year academic career as president of Tennessee Technological University, where he oversaw the transformation of the school from a campus of a few acres and a few buildings with 700 students and 31 faculty members to a university comprising six colleges and schools on 235 acres of property with a student body of close to 7,000 and a faculty of more than 350.
Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, Balliol College, B.A. 1981 M.A 1986. Graduated from Harvard Law School in 1983 with a J.D Degree. Went on to serve in the cabinet of Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter, sit on several corporate boards, and most recently served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy under President Obama and Director of White House Office of Healthcare Reform.
Jennfier Santoro, DPhil. 1999
Lindsay E. Lee, MSc. 2014
Miranda Gottlieb, 2018.
James Buchanan, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economic Science; received an M.S. degree from UT in 1941
Peter C. Doherty, faculty member in the UT Health Science Center in Memphis
John Netherland Heiskell, publisher and editor of the Arkansas Gazette from 1902 to 1972. Under his leadership, the Gazette won a Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service. 1893 graduate of the University of Tennessee.
Owen Davis, 1889 graduate, won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Icebound in 1923.
Cormac McCarthy, novelist who attended University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1951-1952 and 1957-1960. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Road.
Edward Osborne Wilson, attended University of Tennessee from 1950-1951, won two Pulitzer Prizes for nonfiction for his books On Human Nature (1979) and The Ants (1991).
John Noble Wilford, won two Pulitzer Prizes for national reporting. He is science correspondent for the New York Times and founder of the paper’s weekly science section. 1955 graduate of the University of Tennessee.
Ron Kirksey, 1970 graduate of the University of Tennessee, won the Pulitzer prize for public service journalism in 1994 as part of a team at the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal.
John M. Hightower, attended the University of Tennessee 1927-1929. He won a Pulitzer while at the Associated Press for International Reporting in 1951.
Bernadotte E. Schmitt, earned a bachelor of arts at the University of Tennessee in 1902, earned a Pulitzer in History in 1931 for his book The Coming of the War, 1914 (1930).
Science and technology
Mladen Bestvina, topologists, professor of mathematics at University of Utah
Jack Dongarra, computer science professor; creator of LINPACK and LAPACK
Weston Fulton, meteorologist, inventor
Lee Giles, computer scientist, CiteSeer, David Reese Professor at Pennsylvania State University
Carl B. Huffaker, biologist and agricultural scientist
Mohammad Ataul Karim, physicist
Frank Knight, economist
Madeline Kneberg Lewis, archaeologist of the Southeastern United States
Gerald North, atmospheric scientist, author of North Report and The Impact of Global Warming in Texas
Douglas W. Owsley, division head of physical anthropology of Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History
Ronald H. Petersen, mycologist of the University of Tennessee
Alan Rabinowitz, zoologist, CEO of Panthera
Edward K. Reedy, radar researcher and director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, 1998-2003
Antoinette Rodez Schiesler, chemist, director of research at Villanova University
Jeremy C. Smith, Governor's Chair and Director of UT/ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics
Morwen Thistlethwaite, knot theorist
E.O. Wilson, biologist and naturalist
Jeffrey Ashby
Joe Edwards
Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie
Chris Hadfield
Henry Hartsfield
Charles O. Hobaugh
Scott J. Kelly
Donald H. Peterson
Margaret Rhea Seddon
Barry E. Wilmore
Christa Pike, sentenced to death at age 19 for the murder of Colleen Slemmer
List of University of Tennessee people Wikipedia (Text) CC BY-SA
