Archive for category: Alumni Profiles

Judson McKinney hopes he has just joined the likes of Elton John, James Taylor and Tom Waits. All three of them performed early in their careers at the legendary Troubadour club in West Hollywood, where McKinney had the opportunity to take the stage on June 20.
Unlike the alums who headed to Nashville (see p. 20), McKinney headed to Los Angeles with a degree in philosophy. He’s worked hard, pounding the streets with CDs, even living in his car on occasion.
But it’s paid off, as evidenced by his performance at the Troubadour. With a style that’s been described as Americana, the singer/songwriter/guitarist is playing regularly at venues in Los Angeles and beyond. His new album, “Drink the Wine,” released by Atomic Sweater Records, cracked the iTunes charts upon its debut. And one of the tracks, “People Grow Up So Slow,” is soon to be featured in Michael Rosenbaum’s film “Old Days.”
His reviews describe him as “both straightforward and oddly mercurial.” A reviewer from L.A. Record described the performance at the Troubadour like this: “Judson and his Americana crew rocked the Troubadour and got everybody’s hips shaking and faces smiling.” LA Times has called him one of “the more compelling live acts around.”
At Clemson, McKinney played in a band called Sum Yung Gai, later known as Everyday Strangers, which performed at the now-defunct Joint, as well as at the Handlebar in Greenville and at clubs in Charleston.

When Jason Underwood ’04, Harrison Brookie ’07, M’08, Meg Pierson ’08  and Ben Burris  ’11 were members of Clemson’s improv comedy group, Mock Turtle Soup, they never dreamed that one day they would come together and form their own theater.
Alchemy Comedy Theater was created to perform and teach improv comedy. All of the members have day jobs, but have pooled their talents and experiences to form the only comedy improv theater in Greenville.
Artistic director Brookie is a secondary education graduate teaching at Southside International Baccalaureate High School. Underwood, class instructor, has a degree in architecture and works at Fluor Daniel. Pierson, Improv 201 instructor, graduated in history, and electrical engineering graduate Burris works at aeSolutions and is the group’s assistant artistic director.
They created a training center that has produced almost 50 students of comedy — some who have joined the theater. Performances are every Friday night at Coffee Underground. For more information, go to http://alchemycomedy.com/.

Industrial management major Jimmy Mullinax has come back to Clemson 17 years after being commissioned by the Clemson Army ROTC. A lieutenant colonel in the Army, Mullinax, a logistics officer, returned in June tasked with developing cadets into future Army officers and ensuring that they meet yearly Army commissioning requirements.
Mullinax has also served as an air defense officer in a Patriot Missile unit, as well as in a variety of positions ranging from platoon leader to brigade operations officer. He has been stationed in South Korea, Germany, California, Kentucky, Virginia and Texas. He has his master’s degree in military studies from Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
Mullinax and his wife, Angie Chapman ’95 (SED-MA) Mullinax, are living in Liberty with their three children.

Electrical engineering graduate Thomas Black of Blythewood was looking for a way that he could give back. The vice president of engineering at Fairfield Electric Cooperative took his Clemson education and life skills to serve as the project coordinator for a 200-foot pedestrian bridge over a raging river in rural Nicaragua.
The walking bridge improved the lives in two communities by allowing the people to reach stores, medical treatment and their farmland when the river floods. Black’s experiences on the church-sponsored project led him to publish a book, Ten $1 Bills. The book can be downloaded for free at www.tenonedollarbills.com.