D-Day: The 75th Anniversary
Seventy-five years ago, thousands of Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy or parachuted behind enemy lines — Clemson alumni among them.
Landmarks & Legends: Clemson on Ice
In 1977, the Southeast was experiencing its coldest winter since 1900, and Clemson was covered in a sheet of ice.
Ben and Tommy's Excellent Frisbee Golf Course
Since the frisbee, as we know it, was invented in 1948, it has since become a necessity for the average college student. Bowman Field and the intramural fields have certainly seen their fair share of the sporting disc over the years. But it was in the ’80s when Clemson’s first unofficial Frisbee golf course began to take off, thanks to a couple of friends — namely Ben Gaddis ’88 and Tommy Campbell ’89 — who tweaked and propagated aspects of the original campus course (of unknown origins).
“The basic course was in place I think back in the ’70s,” Campbell says. “Ben, our friends and I just expanded on it over a period of time from the mid ’80s until the late ’90s.”
Gaddis and Campbell shared with us their famous 18-hole Frisbee golf adventure. Here are some of the highlights:
1 Tee from the Thomas Green Clemson statue in front of Tillman Hall to a lamppost by the lower corner of Brackett Hall.
3 Tee from the middle of the sidewalk above the amphitheater with a mandatory dogleg through the amphitheater stage door to the lamppost directly behind the stage door.
7 Tee from the top of the stairs on Library Bridge to the lamppost on the right side of the reflection pond underneath the trees.
13 Tee from the cannons on Bowman Field (old location) to the front of Holtzendorff.
17 Tee from the upper Holtzendorff sidewalk (blind shot) to the old track around Riggs Field with a mandatory dogleg through the tunnel at the back of the building (entrance to Riggs Field) to hit the manhole near the bottom of the stairs.
18 Tee from the Riggs track to split the large brick buildings and enter the quad courtyard; then dogleg left to a distant flag pole.
Friday Flyers
When John Acorn was in elementary school, he and his classmates would get their graded tests back from their teachers every Friday so that they could take them home and share them with their parents.
Clemson Bands Sings for the President
In 1960, both John Fitzgerald Kennedy and I reached enviable positions of power, he to the presidency of the United States, I to the position of director of bands at Clemson College.
The Bob and Betsy Campbell Museum of Natural History
It’s a small unassuming building that looks like it belongs in an earlier time. Many people on campus aren’t aware of its existence, and few have been inside.
No man (or animal) is an island
Brackett Hall is home to “Spiral Mesh,” a series of sculptures by Charleston-based artist Joe Walters.
Bloom Where You're Planted
Brooks Center Director Lillian U. Harder, set to retire in 2017, reflects on her 44 years at Clemson.
One year.
That’s how long Lillian “Mickey” Harder, director of the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts, and her husband planned to stay in Clemson when they arrived in 1972. Sitting in her office 44 years later, she reflected on the course of her life. “Sometimes we need to relax and take what comes,” she mused, “because if anyone had ever told me that I would have ended up doing what I’ve been doing, I would have laughed out loud.”
Harder, who will retire this year, knows the surprises life can hold. She began teaching piano at age 16 in her hometown of St. George, South Carolina, and believes she was destined for a career in education: “To take students who knew absolutely nothing about music and to be able to turn them on to something that they could use for the rest of their lives was awe-inspiring.”
After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Coker College and her master’s degree from Converse College, Harder’s first college job offer wasn’t the right fit. “I had the heart to know something else was out there,” she said. She never thought that “something” would be Clemson. Harder’s husband returned from service in Vietnam to serve as a physician on the staff of Redfern Health Center. Though doubtful she could pursue music at a University primarily known for engineering and agriculture, Harder reluctantly accepted a one-year teaching appointment in the music department.
One year turned into many. Rising through the ranks to full professor, Harder taught piano and other music courses for 24 years. In 1986, she and her husband established and funded what would become her legacy: the Lillian and Robert Utsey Chamber Music Series. Named in honor of her parents, the series has featured up-and-coming classical musicians, free of charge, for over three decades. Harder was in charge of booking those musicians for 10 years before receiving the opportunity of a lifetime in 1996.
That was the year she was offered the position of director by performing arts department chair, Chip Egan. “I was really very reticent about doing it,” she said. “I loved the classroom, and I felt very successful in that.”
Two pieces of advice ultimately swayed her. Egan himself told her, “Your classroom is just going to be bigger.” In a speech honoring co-education at Clemson, news anchor and Clemson graduate Jane Robelot said, “Those of us who can, have to do, because there are a lot of people who can only dream.” With that, Harder accepted the position and has spent two decades at the helm of Clemson University’s only performing arts center.
There is perhaps no better illustration of Harder’s favorite saying, “Bloom where you’re planted,” than her own life. “I think, sometimes, we just have to go with things and be determined that we’re going to do and be the best that we can,” she said. “Things happen for a reason, and they usually turn out pretty darn well.”
— Thomas Hudgins
Landmarks & Legends: Marking History
Three new historical markers at Clemson are tangible reminders of the University’s full history — a history not as idyllic as the well-manicured lawn of Bowman field and the picture-perfect walk by the library.
In April, University officials, trustees and guests broke ground for three double-sided markers: One at the intersection of South Palmetto Boulevard and Fernow Street Extension to commemorate a site where slave quarters stood on the plantation owned by John C. Calhoun and later by University founder Thomas Green Clemson; the second near Calhoun Bottoms farmland to commemorate the role of Native Americans and African-Americans in the development of the Fort Hill Plantation lands; the third near Woodland Cemetery to mark the burial sites of the family of John C. Calhoun, enslaved people and state-leased prisoners who died during their confinement at Clemson.
“The story of Clemson University’s founding is one of great vision, commitment and perseverance,” said President James P. Clements at the event. “However, it is also a story with some uncomfortable history. And, although we cannot change our history, we can acknowledge it and learn from it, and that is what great universities do.”
The markers are one way Clemson is working to give a more accurate public accounting of its history to acknowledge connections to slavery, segregation or other practices and viewpoints inconsistent with current institutional values.
During the event, Clements praised the work of Rhondda Thomas, associate professor of English, whose research on African-Americans who lived and labored at Clemson prior to desegregation spurred interest in the markers.
One of those stories is about Sharper and Caroline Brown, whose daughter Matilda was born into slavery but lived most of her life as a free woman. Matilda Brown’s granddaughter, Eva Hester Martin, 90, of Greenville, was a guest at the groundbreaking ceremony for the historical markers.
It’s a story Thomas pieced together from personal recollections backed up by photos, newspaper clippings, church and census records, and other documentation. The youngest of 10 children, Martin earned a degree in chemistry from S.C. State University, enjoyed a successful career as a medical technician in Chicago and Los Angeles, and raised four children.
“Our archives are a wonderful resource, and census records are a great help,” Thomas said. “For the convict laborers, however, the pardon records provide the strongest evidence of the men and boys who labored at Clemson, as the documentation specifies when they were released from Clemson College. But in some cases the records are incomplete or missing.”
Thomas hopes the University’s efforts to tell these stories will encourage more family members to come forward with information, photos, family Bibles or other materials that can confirm an ancestor’s connection to the University’s early years.
If you have information for Thomas’ research, email her at rhonddt@clemson.edu.
Read more about the history of these markers in The View From Sikes.