Born in Leadvale, Jefferson County, Tennessee, in 1891, Herbert S. Walters was a 1918 graduate of UT. He was president (then chairman of the board) of Walters and Prater Inc., a contracting business he started in 1922. He was a prominent banker and served as a director of Nashville Gas Company and of Tennessee Natural Gas Lines. He was a trustee of the Cordell Hull Foundation, a Mason, and a Kiwanian. He served in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1933 to 1935 and was commissioner of the State Highway Department in 1934–35. In August 1963 he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of US Senator Estes Kefauver, who had died in office. He served from August 20, 1963, to November 3, 1964, and was not a candidate for election.
Widely known as “Mr. Hub,” Walters was a behind-the-scenes power broker on many fronts, including UT, upon whose board of trustees he served from 1962 until his death in 1973. As chair of the UT Development Council, he was one of the first UT supporters to make use of a charitable trust as a vehicle of planned giving.
Only a few weeks before his death, Walters had agreed to fund a publication project for a book on the political and administrative career of the late Governor Frank G. Clement, with Dr. Lee S. Greene, UT political science professor, to serve as senior author and UT Press to publish the manuscript. After Walters’ death, the trustees authorized—upon President Boling’s recommendation—an expenditure of $6,000 from nontax funds to initiate work on the book. At the same September 5, 1973, meeting, the board voted to name the planned life sciences facility for Walters.