Charles Weaver was the first chancellor of the Knoxville campus. He was appointed in 1968 when the institution was reorganized into a statewide system. He was born in Murfreesboro and grew up in Nashville. He attended Vanderbilt for two years, working as a cable splicer’s helper for Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph to help defray expenses, before enrolling at UT in the cooperative engineering program. He received the BS degree in electrical engineering in 1943.
During World War II, he worked in Oak Ridge as an engineer and supervisor in one phase of the development of the first atomic bomb. He then returned to UT as an instructor in engineering. He received the MS in engineering from UT in 1948 and the PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1956, with a major in electrical engineering and a minor in physics. In 1959 he joined the faculty of Auburn University as Westinghouse Professor of Electrical Engineering and in 1963 was appointed head of the department. He returned to UT in 1965 as dean of the College of Engineering, a capacity in which he served until being appointed chancellor in July 1968. He served as chancellor from 1968 to 1971. Following service as chancellor, he became vice president of continuing education and dean of the Space Institute, posts he held until 1982, when he returned to teaching engineering. He retired in 1986.
Weaver was elected a fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) in 1970.