KNOXVILLE — The annual dinner to recognize recipients of the Sen. Herbert S. Walters Scholarship at the University of Tennessee is set for 6 p.m., April 13, at the University Club.
The Walters Scholarship, named for the former U.S. senator from Morristown, assists undergraduate students from East Tennessee attending UT.
The scholarships, valued at $3,100 each, go to about 25 incoming students annually. There are approximately 100 Walters Scholars on campus each year.
“Sen. Walters believed in a solid work ethic and wanted to encourage that independent spirit in the students the scholarship would assist,” Jack E. Williams, UT vice president for development and alumni affairs, said. “He specified that scholarship recipients should be willing to help support themselves and their college goals through employment.”
Williams said the endowment from the Walters trust has a value of more than $6 million.
Tennessee Gov. Frank Clement appointed Walters in 1963 to fill the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Estes Kefauver. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who was a personal friend, swore in Walters.
Walters, a Jefferson County, Tenn., native, served in the senate from August 1963 to November 1964. He also was a prominent banker, a member of the State House of Representatives from 1933 to 1935, and UT trustee from 1961 to 1973.
Walters’ family members scheduled to attend the ceremony include nephew George Herbert Prater of Morristown and niece Sara Louise Mott of Knoxville.
Dana Dalton, a senior in business administration from Knoxville, will represent the Walters Scholars by delivering the student response as part of the dinner program. Linda Davidson, UT associate vice president for Development, also will speak.