Mims Thomason, who was associated with United Press International from 1943 to 1974, serving eventually as president and then chairman of the board, got his journalistic start at UT, which he attended from 1927 to 1931. He was editor of the Orange and White in 1930. He served as a reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel and Knoxville Journal from 1927 to 1933 and as city editor of the Journal in 1934. He joined UPI as a bureau manager in 1934 but left to work for the Detroit Times and the Suffolk (Virginia) News-Herald before returning to UPI in 1943.