Captain William Rule served on the UT Board of Trustees from 1868 to 1887, and as secretary for more than 40 years. A native Knoxvillian, he served in the Union Army during the Civil War and was named adjutant, which carried the rank of captain. At the end of the war, Captain Rule returned to Knoxville and served as Knox County court clerk (1866–71), mayor of Knoxville (1873–74; 1898–1900) and postmaster (1874–81). He was a member of the Republican National Committee from 1876 to 1884. He edited the Knoxville Whig from 1866 to 1870, and in 1870 established (with Henry C. Tarwater) the Knoxville Chronicle. He sold his interest in the Chronicle, and in 1885, began publication of the Knoxville Journal. In 1900 he compiled a history of Knoxville and wrote the chapter on the press.
When he resigned as secretary of the UT Board of Trustees in 1918, the board approved conferring the master’s of arts degree upon him as a mark of its appreciation. This 1918 honorary master’s degree was the sole exception to the discontinuance of conferral of honorary master’s degrees adopted by the board of trustees in 1889. William Rule has been inducted into the Tennessee Newspaper Hall of Fame.