In 1989 Whittle Communications made a commitment to provide, over a seven-year period, more than $500,000 to fund 20 “full-ride” scholarships for print journalism minority students in the College of Communications. In fall 1989 the scholarships (then valued at approximately $7,050) were awarded to two entering freshmen, one sophomore, one junior, and one senior. Thereafter, … Continued

Announced at a press conference in front of the Carolyn P. Brown Memorial University Center, a new program was launched on March 30, 1989, and was designed to invite 20 graduating high school seniors to attend UT as Whittle Scholars. The first scholarships were to be awarded in fall 1990. Chris Whittle envisioned the program … Continued

Chris Whittle, from Athens, Tennessee, served as president of the UT student body in 1969. (His bumper sticker, produced for the election, said For a Better Education.) Upon graduation from UT in 1969, he, David White, Phillip Moffitt, and Brient Mayfield first established Knoxville in a Nutshell magazine, which morphed into Collegiate Marketing and Management … Continued

When Ron Widby graduated in 1967, he had lettered in four sports at UT (football, basketball, baseball, and golf). A three-time letterman in both football and basketball, he was an acclaimed punter in football and was drafted in the first round by the New Orleans Saints. In basketball he was the first UT player to … Continued

Colin Wilcox attended UT from summer quarter 1953 to spring quarter 1956. She spent her early years in Highlands, North Carolina, where her parents and some of their friends founded the Highlands Community Theatre (now Highlands Playhouse) in 1939. Her first speaking role was in the HCT production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. She was … Continued

The Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was begun in 1951. Dr. Aaron J. Sharp, head of UT’s Department of Botany, was named director of the pilgrimage. The first pilgrimage drew approximately three hundred professional and amateur botanists and received broad national attention.

Anna Catherine Wiley, artist, was a UT student from 1895 to 1897. She studied at the Art Student League in 1904 under Frank Demond and the New York School of Art in 1904–5. She served on the faculty of the Related Arts Department (in the College of Home Economics) as instructor of freehand drawing (1905–17) … Continued

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Noble Wilford received the BS in journalism from UT in 1955 and the MA in political science in 1956. His career in journalism began in 1956 with a post as a general assignment reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He was with Time and joined the staff of the New York … Continued

In 1998 Eugenia Williams willed the university the 10,800-square-foot (including the basement and garage) riverfront house at 4848 Lyons View Drive and the 24 acres of land that surround it. A childhood friend, John Fanz Staub (UT, 1913), designed the house for her in 1940. She gave the property as a memorial to her father, … Continued

The Wills Clinic in the College of Law was funded in 2009 with a grant from the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel Foundation. In the clinic, students represent indigent clients in trusts and estates matters. Students interview clients; draft wills, living wills, trusts, and other documents; and may handle probate matters.