Knoxville native William L. Wallace was a premed student at UT in 1927–28 and received the MD degree from the UT Medical Units in 1932. He had been a medical missionary in China for the Southern Baptists for several years when the Korean conflict began in June 1950. He was conducting the business of superintendent of the Stout Memorial Hospital in Wuchow in the early morning hours of December 19, 1950, when Communist soldiers forced their way into the hospital grounds and surrounded his house. The doctor’s rooms were ransacked, and a gun, apparently placed under the superintendent’s mattress by one of the soldiers, was “discovered.” Wallace was arrested and charged with spying. After weeks of deprivation and mental torture, he died by hanging in a Chinese prison on February 10, 1951. Local alumni created a memorial fund for the UT Library to purchase books in the area of religious studies in his memory.
In 1968 the premier of the movie Bill Wallace of China was shown at the Tennessee Theatre. A premovie dinner for persons who bought a patron ticket (for $25 or more) was given by UT President Andy Holt, and those attending were chauffeured from the dinner to the theater. The premier raised $7,289 to endow the memorial fund to purchase books on religion for the UT Library. A plaque in Hoskins Library commemorates the service of Bill Wallace and lists donors of $10 or more to the fund.