David Sherman, the second president of the university, served as president of East Tennessee College from 1820 to 1825. An 1802 Yale graduate, Rev. Sherman was principal of Hampden-Sydney Academy when East Tennessee College temporarily consolidated with it in 1820. He served as both president of East Tennessee College and principal of Hampden-Sydney Academy. He was also the librarian of the newly formed Knoxville Library Company (at a salary of $20 per year). He resigned due to poor health but later assumed the presidency of Jackson College in Columbia, Tennessee. He died in 1843.
David A. Sherman