William Brooks Thayer honored at Legacy Day

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The bronze leaves honoring members of the Fort Hill Legacy Society, a posthumous honor for those who have given the University $1 million or more, lie under the trees next to the Calhoun Mansion.
William Brooks Thayer ’52 is the most recent inductee into the Fort Hill Legacy Society, honored with a bronze leaf bearing his name during the Legacy Day celebration in November.
Thayer served his country as an officer in the Air Force and served his community as a talented agricultural engineer. He established the William B. Thayer ’52 Quasi-Endowment for Excellence, designated for Clemson’s areas of greatest need.
Clemson’s Legacy Day was started in 2009 to recognize the fact that Clemson was founded by an act of philanthropy by Anna and Thomas Green Clemson. To learn more about the Fort Hill Legacy Society, or to see pictures of the day’s events, go to clemson.world, and click on “Clemson Forever.”
Learn more about the Fort Hill Legacy Society and other giving societies at Clemson.
See more photos of the Legacy Day events.

Katsiyannis honored with Class of ’39

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Antonis KatsiyannisThe 2016 Class of ’39 Award for Excellence was announced at the December faculty meeting, but the official presentation to Antonis Katsiyannis took place in February in front of the bell that bears the names of all those who share the honor.
Katsiyannis, who holds the title of alumni distinguished professor in special education, is known for his teaching, his research and his service, both in and beyond the University. Now he has the added designation of being an honorary member of the Class of 1939, which endowed the award to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the class. Recipients are chosen by their faculty peers to represent the highest achievement of service to the student body, University and community, state or nation.
“I am humbled with this distinct recognition,” said Katsiyannis. “I am thrilled to be at a university with world class faculty, bright students and dynamic leaders. The spirit of the Class of ’39 is well and alive in all Clemson does!”
Katsiyannis was recently recognized with the 2017 Outstanding Leadership Award by the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders in recognition of his wide-ranging and exemplary service in the field of special education. He has published 180 articles in legal and policy issues and delinquency in professional journals, such as Behavioral Disorders, Exceptional Children, Remedial and Special Education, Fordham Urban Law Review, and the Journal of Special Education. He serves as an associate editor for Remedial and Special Education and Intervention in School and Clinic and just completed a five-year term as co-editor of the Journal of Disability Policy Studies.
He has mentored numerous graduate and undergraduate students in publishing in professional journals and serves as a co-investigator of a federally funded grant — Project EXPERTISE. He also is president of the Council for Exceptional Children.
He has served as president of Clemson’s Faculty Senate and has been active in community-based activities for children with developmental disabilities such as TOPSoccer and Challenger League (baseball).

Whipped goodness: Washica “Shica” Hagood Little ’96

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Clemson alumna Shica LittleShica Hagood Little saw her waistline expand as she was drinking multiple cups of sugar-and-cream-filled cups of coffee while teaching and working on her Ph.D. in education leadership at Grand Canyon University. But Little wasn’t ready to cut coffee from her routine. Something had to give. That’s when she got in her kitchen and started from scratch.
She bought cream, butter, spices and vanilla and blended it with a hand blender. “It came out horribly,” she said. “It didn’t perform the way it should and didn’t taste the way it should,” she said. “So I started researching.”
More than 2,000 batches later, she’s the proud creator of “Dr. Shica’s Healthy Surprises,” which includes “Incredi-Whip,” a coffee creamer, fruit dip and whipped cream in one. “Initially the product was called “Coffee Whip,” but once I started working with a couple of the stores and buyers, I decided it should be not only for coffee drinkers, but for everyone,” she said. The product doesn’t include artificial colors or flavors, high fructose corn syrup, carrageenan or gluten. With many of the ingredients that were going into her 1,000-calorie cup of coffee gone, Little said she was able to drop about 40 pounds using her product instead.
The next step was to bring Incredi-Whip to the masses. Little saw an audition for “Hatched” on the CW network, where entrepreneurs pitch their brands to business moguls. Her pitch was a success, and she partnered with investors Mark Koops, “Hatched” TV executive producer, and Freddy Cameron, retail expert and host of season 1 “Hatched,” to bring her product to Walmart, Sam’s Club and Kroger. “What that show did for me is amazing,” she said. “They have consumers come in and try your product so you have real-time feedback, and they tell you what you have to do to get on shelves.”
Little has gone on to appear on another show called “MVP: Most Valuable Partner” on Verizon’s Go90 television, where she earned the endorsement of basketball star Kevin Durant and his mother, as well as three other sports stars on the series. Little’s research showed Durant’s mother was an avid coffee drinker, and he was going to 7-Eleven every night to get her a coffee.
Little knew she had her hook. “I didn’t know if any of them wanted to work with me, but they all worked with me.” Little said she always dreamed of being “somebody” and going to California to lead her life. In October she was able to make her dream a reality and work full time for her brand that’s helped her rub elbows with industry titans and earn superstar endorsements.
— Julia Sellers

Researchers explore economical, environmentally friendly technology

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Professors Chris Cole (left) and Philip Brown.

Professors Chris Cole (left) and Philip Brown.


With key support from the Walmart Foundation and its U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund, Clemson textile experts are working with the world’s most widely used fiber, polyester, to develop technologies that will make dyeing it more economical and environmentally friendly.
Chris Cole, a faculty member in materials science and engineering, has extensive experience in both textile and apparel design and fabrication, while her collaborator, Philip Brown, also a faculty member in materials science and engineering, is recognized nationally and internationally for his work in designing and extruding textile fibers.
The nearly $1 million award from the Walmart Foundation allows the research team to pursue three primary research objectives: reduce the amount of dyestuff required to color polyester; reduce the energy required to color polyester; and lower the amount of colored effluent from polyester dyeing processes. Effluent is the liquid waste remaining from the dyeing process, and as Cole has noted, “There’s a lot of dye used in dyeing polyester to be able to get the colors that we all know and love like our bright Clemson orange.”
The award was announced by the Walmart Foundation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors at the 2016 meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. Clemson is one of five universities conducting research through this opportunity, which is focused on supporting research that strives to create new manufacturing technologies and to reduce the cost of producing goods in the U.S. with the ultimate goal of creating jobs that support America’s growing manufacturing base. Clemson’s award is supporting 2½ years of research.
Within Clemson’s Olin Hall is a unique machine that has enabled the research team to design a polyester fiber that will dye more easily. “The funding provided by the Walmart Foundation has allowed me to build this machine — something that has never been done before — and it’s phenomenal,” said Brown. “There’s only one in the world.” Researchers in the industry have attempted to dye polyester using copolymers, but due to fiber manufacturing technology limitations, they typically used a single polymer. This technology also suffered a very poor wash fastness unlike the technology Brown and his researchers have developed. “We might dye a fabric a brilliant orange, but after it was laundered a few times you could see the color was starting to fade with these other polymers,” said Cole. “Because of Dr. Brown’s expertise and the facilities we have at Clemson, we can now build fibers where we can take advantage of being able to get the dye in quickly with intense colors and excellent dye pickup by the fibers. We’re not leaving as much dye behind at the end of the cycle, but at the same time we’re going to be able to get the wash fastness and the light fastness that the commercial market requires.”
Materials science and engineering makes it a priority to get students involved in projects that provide them with hands-on research experience. “By being part of a major research project, students can see the techniques that we use, how to design a large project, how to build a team effectively for a large project and the communication skills you have to have,” said Cole. Another benefit is that students are introduced to the manufacturers who are their potential employers. With another award from the U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund announced this year, these two researchers are optimistic about expanding their research program to look at how they might develop polyester fibers that achieve a high level of water and oil repellency at lower economic and environmental cost.

A Cup of Mustard: Charlie Mustard ’91

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Clemson alumnus Charlie Mustard
Free cups of coffee were all Charlie Mustard wanted when he volunteered to roast coffee at Jittery Joe’s in Athens, Georgia. At the time, he was working on his graduate thesis at the University of Georgia in nutrition and chugging cups of coffee as he wrote. Twenty-two years later he’s still at Jittery Joe’s, but now as their head coffee roaster.
“That was awesome they let me do that because I didn’t know anything about roasting coffee,” said Mustard with a laugh. But he found the answers at the UGA library. “There was a whole shelf dedicated to coffee and coffee production.” With a background in biological sciences from Clemson, and having focused on sciences most of his life, Mustard said, “Oh yeah, I can do this.”
Now he’s roasting batches from all over the world and has mastered how to get each bean to open the flavors indicative of their area. “If I am roasting a coffee from Tanzania for example, I am thinking about temperature, humidity, air pressure, size and density of the bean and how the bean was processed on the farm — to name a few of the variables” he said.
Jittery Joe’s is now sold all over the Southeast, throughout the country and around the globe, including being the brand packaged for the Ritz-Carlton in Atlanta. Roasting has even taken him as far as Japan to teach, as well as learn techniques.
“I actually do reflect from time to time about how much coffee we roast and how many cups are consumed every day — you can make 35 to 40 cups of coffee per pound. It blows your mind when you think about how many cups we’ve shared with this community,” he said. “This community is such a neat, creative place to be. There are so many who are being creative, whether that’s in a band, painting, acting or writing poetry. What I really like is that we get to help fuel that creativity.”
Mustard’s love of his job even filtered into his 20- and 21-year-old children’s lives. Mustard said when they were little he caught one son on the playground saying, “My daddy doesn’t work, he just drinks coffee all day.”
“Just for me personally, I see success in that I’m doing something that I truly like doing. What
excites you that you say, ‘I can do this for the rest of my life’? My children have never heard me saying, ‘Work sucks.’”
— Julia Sellers
 
 

McCall endows Clemson agriculture college scholarship

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Peter LeRoy “Roy” McCall Jr. ’53Continuing in the footsteps of Clemson founder Thomas Green Clemson, who established the University with a legacy of land, Peter LeRoy “Roy” McCall Jr. ’53 has established a new scholarship endowment through a gift of land valued at more than $1 million. The Peter LeRoy “Roy” McCall Jr. ’53 Scholarship Endowment will fund scholarships for students in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences like Carlos Morales Jr., a freshman agricultural mechanization and business major. “This gift will make a huge difference for students,” said Morales. “The scholarships I received have allowed me the opportunity to attend Clemson, and my decision to attend Clemson was supported by generous donors like Mr. McCall.” “I am proud to know that this gift is an asset to Clemson and to the fellow students who will take advantage of this scholarship program.
I wish the students well,” McCall said when the gift was announced at the South Carolina
Farm Bureau CAFLS Alumni Tailgate in November. “Mr. McCall’s gift will benefit Clemson’s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences literally forever. It is a demonstration of faith in the future and of faith in Clemson,” said President James P. Clements. McCall earned his bachelor’s degree in agronomy from Clemson in 1953 and has been a long-time supporter of his alma mater. In 2009, he established an endowment to provide Universitywide scholarships that have helped more than 75 students attend Clemson.
He has also supported Clemson’s Scroll of Honor and Military Heritage Plaza, the WestZone project in Memorial Stadium and the Class of 1953 Golden Anniversary Scholarship Endowment. In addition, McCall supports the Clemson University President’s Fund. “Mr. McCall’s gift of a scholarship endowment to the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences will open doors for deserving students to attend CAFLS and will have a direct, positive impact on our ability to educate the next generation of agribusiness leaders,” said George Askew, dean of the college and vice president of Public Service and Agriculture.

Jason Puhlasky named honorary alumnus

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Jason Puhlasky, an honorary Clemson alumnusHis diploma might read “University of South Carolina,” but his heart bleeds orange. And in February during “Clemson Day at the Statehouse,” the Alumni Association made it official, naming Jason Puhlasky an honorary Clemson alumnus. A lobbyist with Parker Poe Consulting in Columbia, Puhlasky went to USC because he could work and pay his way through college.
As a student, he interned in the S.C. House of Representatives, where he discovered his love of politics. He moved on to the State Republican Party Headquarters and eventually on to the staff of U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond.
He returned to South Carolina where he landed a position with the S.C. State Senate. Since leaving that position he has run numerous political campaigns and advocated for various clients. Puhlasky currently serves as a member of Clemson’s Board of Visitors, and in that role and as a private citizen, works “tirelessly and selflessly on behalf of Clemson,” according to one of the letters written in support of his nomination.

Thin Ice

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Assistant Professor of Art Todd Anderson is a printmaker, skilled at transferring beauty and wonder from landscapes onto paper. His most recent project, The Last Glacier, involved hiking more than 500 miles through Glacier National Park over the last six years.

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