Annually, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation makes awards of up to $30,000 to some 60 college juniors who are committed to careers in public service. Following President Truman’s death in 1972, John W. Snyder, secretary of the treasury during the president’s administration, and Stuart Symington, then-senator from Missouri, worked together to create the foundation through an act of Congress as the nation’s official memorial to Truman, who did not himself earn a college degree. The bill passed in December 1974, and President Gerald Ford signed it into law on January 4, 1975. The act authorized the foundation to “award scholarships to persons who demonstrate outstanding potential for and who plan to pursue a career in public service” and to conduct a nationwide competition to select Truman scholars. The foundation awarded its first scholarships in the 1977–78 academic year. The first UT Knoxville recipient of a Truman Scholarship was William D. Griggs, in 1979.