In 1955 President Brehm formed the UT Development Council to solicit gifts and grants for the university. Howard Preston, a Knoxville banker, was elected the first council chairman. The first gift to the Development Fund came at the council’s initial meeting, with the Sovereign States Life Insurance Company of Nashville’s gift of $1,000 annually to support five $200 UT scholarships. The council immediately began a campaign seeking gifts for UT—Toward a Greater University of Tennessee.
The first year in which the council raised more than $1 million was 1957.