The final Honorary Alumnus , Herbert R. Silvers , has practiced law in the Tri-Cities area since the 1950s. He is a native of Welch, W.Va., and a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School. With his experience as an attorney, he ran for Congress in 1962. He did not win the election, but he did better than any Democrat in the century in an effort to win the Republican-dominated 1st District Congressional seat. He taught business law and political science classes at the Greeneville campus of ETSU, and he helped his late wife, Barbara Jaffe Silvers, who was an adjunct faculty member in the ETSU department of history, with her classes by giving occasional lectures and grading papers.
Silvers is a devoted contributor to the university's scholarship efforts.
He and other friends and family provided the initial funding for the Barbara Jaffe Silvers Memorial Scholarship, and he gave his financial backing to support the Barbara Jaffe Silvers Reading Area in the new Charles C. Sherrod Library's second floor, which provides a comfortable and quiet atmosphere for students to study. He is also active in a variety of community organizations. Silvers and his wife, Pamela, reside in Johnson City.