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Lifelong Tigers

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iphoneTOTMscreenIntroducing Tigers on the Move

Ever want an easy way to find out what an old classmate is doing now? Or a quick way to send a message to the Clemson Family about your newest job, impending nuptials or move to a new location?
“Tigers on the Move,” a new interactive Web portal, will allow you to do just that. A complement to the alumni news found in Clemson World magazine, this site will allow for real-time, immediate updates and searchability.
Check it out at TigersOnTheMove.com and submit your latest Tiger news today!

RINGsepiaGetting (more) social

Are you a ring-wearing Clemson alum? We have recently launched a Twitter feed and Instagram page dedicated to the Clemson Ring. Share pictures of you and your ring, indicating your class year and location by tweeting @ClemsonRing and tagging ClemsonRing on Instagram.

Students have chosen Ashby B. Bodine as the 2013 Alumni Master Teacher.

MasterTeacher2013Bodine is professor emeritus/visiting professor in the Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences.
Bodine’s research has been on the biochemistry and immunology of archaic vertebrates, in particular, sharks, rays and skates. Since 2006 an interdisciplinary Creative Inquiry team mentored by Bodine has been researching an anti-tumor protein from the bonnethead shark that has great potential for use in anti-cancer treatments.
Bodine has received the Godley-Snell Outstanding Agricultural Research Award, the Class of ’39 Faculty Award for Excellence, the Gamma Sigma Delta Outstanding Teacher Award, the National Scholars Program Award of Distinction and the Outstanding Teacher Award from the National Association for Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture.
The Alumni Master Teacher Award for outstanding undergraduate classroom instruction is presented to a faculty member nominated by the student body and selected by the Student Alumni Council.

Class of 1963Class of ’63 celebrates golden anniversary

This year marked the Golden Tiger Reunion for the Class of 1963. Bobby Kemp ’63 drove the same car to reunion that he drove off campus on graduation day. The car even had its original Clemson College parking decal. See page 46 for news on the Class of 1963’s reunion gift.
More than 450 attendees returned to campus for Reunion Weekend, and alums from the Classes of 1939
through 1963 gathered to reminisce and reconnect with the Clemson Family.

Alumni Association names new board members

The Clemson Alumni Association Board of Directors has elected four new members to take office July 1.
Gary E. Clary ’70 of Central, a retired circuit judge and certified mediator and arbitrator, will serve a two-year term. An IPTAY representative emeritus, he has served as a member of the Alumni Association National Council and is a past president of the Cherokee County Clemson Club and now a member of the Fort Hill Clemson Club.
Mike Dowling ’93 of Greenville, chief financial officer of Southern First Bancshares will serve a three-year term. He served on the Student Alumni Council and is a past-president of the Clemson University Young Alumni Council. He has also served as an Alumni National Council representative and Board of Visitors representative.
Patsy Siebert DuPre ’80 of Hendersonville, N.C., will serve a three-year term. An independent contractor in Washington, D.C., she was on the board of the Washington-Baltimore Clemson Club before moving to N.C. Members of the President’s Leadership Circle, she and her husband have a son at Clemson.
Heather Simmons Jones ’97, M ’12 of Columbia, founder and CEO of Opus 3, a firm specializing in economic development, human resources and labor relations, was re-elected to a two-year term. She was a charter member and officer for both the Coosawhatchie and Anderson Area Clemson clubs and is a board member of the Columbia Clemson Club.
The alumni board has 23 members and is the governing body for the Alumni Association. Primary responsibilities include general oversight of programs and initiatives of the Alumni Association, financial audit and review, creation of governing policies and strategic planning.

DOING IT RIGHT, DOING IT BETTER

SeniorPlatoon2013Marching into history

This spring, members of the Clemson Senior Platoon once again gathered on campus to celebrate their Clemson history. The first drill team ever established at Clemson, the platoon was founded in 1930 by Gator Farr as a way to reward senior cadets for three years of hard work. The group remained active from 1930 through 1960, when Clemson became a civilian school.
The platoon has performed at home football games, bowl games and even once at Yankee Stadium. Through the years, the Clemson Senior Platoon has contributed more than $25 million back to Clemson, making it one of the most generous groups in the University’s history. Under the leadership of Sanford Smith ’55, the platoon still performs at events such as the First Friday Parade and Military Appreciation Day.

Alumni and students mark National Week of Service

For the fifth year in a row, alumni clubs and groups celebrated a National Week of Service. The first week of April, 20 alumni groups, from Montana to New England, joined together in community service projects that ranged from packaging, cooking or delivering meals to working with Habitat for Humanity and other nonprofits.
This year, the event was coordinated with the annual University week of service, and through Clemson Sweep and the Unity Project, students participated in on- and off-campus service projects.


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FlagSCBecome a Clemson advocate!

The Enterprise Act, a bill that would allow Clemson to operate some of its non-academic functions more like a business, was passed by the S.C. Senate this spring, but didn’t make it through the House before the legislative session ended. The bill would give the University’s Board of Trustees the authority to move such functions as athletics, research and economic development into a new “enterprise division” that would be able to do such things as buy and sell property without going through the process required for state agencies.
It’s needed, Clemson officials say, because the bureaucracy of state government frequently inhibits the institution’s ability to undertake projects with private business and industry in a timely manner to respond to market conditions. You can be an advocate for Clemson at the state level. For more information, or to sign up, go to clemson.edu/governmentalaffairs.

The Clemson Medallion

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Two trustees awarded Clemson’s highest honor

In March, Thomas B. McTeer Jr. and Joseph D. Swann were awarded the Thomas Green Clemson Medallion, the University’s highest public honor. The Clemson Medallion is awarded to those members of the Clemson Family whose dedication and service embody the spirit of the University’s founder. These two long-serving trustees who worked quietly and passionately have made immeasurable contributions to Clemson through leadership, teamwork and perseverance from classroom to career.

Thomas B. McTeer ’60


William Shakespeare said, “When words are scarce they are seldom spent in vain,” and Thomas B. McTeer’s more than 35 years of service to Clemson as a man of few words but great action are a testament to this statement.
And to think this longtime Tiger fan almost became a Gamecock.
McTeer was set on playing Carolina football when Coach Frank Howard offered him a last-minute scholarship. He would go on to become one of the longest-serving members of Clemson’s Board of Trustees, his passion for teamwork and unity evoking a drive that would see the University through challenge and triumph, from integration to winning a national football championship and becoming a top-25 public university.
As an industrial management major, McTeer played football and ran track; was involved in student government, Tiger Brotherhood and Blue Key Honor Society; and served as vice president of the Central Dance Association and the senior class.
President of McTeer Real Estate since 1964, McTeer also has served on the Columbia Board of Realtors and the Columbia Zoning Board of Adjustment Appeals, and offers his skills and expertise to Clemson as a member of the Real Estate Foundation Board.
McTeer’s Clemson legacy has also continued through family ties. All three of his daughters are Clemson graduates as well as one of his grandchildren; two grandchildren are current students. An IPTAY and Clemson Fund donor, McTeer established the Sandra B. McTeer Memorial Scholarship Endowment in memory of his late wife. Chair of the board from 1981 to 1983, he was named Trustee Emeritus in 2012 after retiring from his tenure that began in 1976.

Joseph D. Swann ’63


When he took part in student government’s efforts to welcome Harvey Gantt to Clemson in 1963, Joseph D. Swann demonstrated the self-discipline and leadership skills he would later use to help guide the University to national and international acclaim.
A Clemson University trustee for 23 years and two-term vice chair of the board, Swann demonstrated a passion for service throughout his undergraduate career as a ceramic engineering major. He was involved with student government and Blue Key Honor Society and served as vice president of the junior and senior classes. He also lent his talents as a writer to the engineering magazine Slipstick and The Tiger student newspaper.
Swann began his career in the ceramics industry by working as a development engineer for the Ferro Corp. in Cleveland, Ohio. He went on to become the division materials manager and earned an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.
After taking a job with Reliance Electric in 1969, he moved his family back south, eventually settling in Greenville and becoming vice president and general manager of the company. He was named senior vice president in 1995 when Rockwell Automation acquired Reliance Electric, and he became president in 1998. Though he retired in 2007, he continued to serve as chair of the board of directors for integrated power services.
A recipient of the Clemson Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award in 1995, Swann has served as an IPTAY representative and is a past member of the Board of Visitors. All three of his children are Clemson graduates, and his family left a permanent mark on the University in 2003 when the Swann Fitness Center was dedicated after their generous donation.

Determined Spirits

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Determined Spirits


In April, five Clemson alumni joined a select group and received the highest honor bestowed upon a former student by the Alumni Association. All five of these honorees have experienced success in their lives, personally and professionally. But one quality ties them together, more than all the others. And that’s their determination. They were determined in the classroom and on the playing field, in their communities and their careers, in their public personas and in their personal lives. And they bring that determination to their continuing involvement with Clemson.

A can-do attitude

William L. “Roy” Abercrombie Jr. ’69 learned early on in his life that “Can’t can never do anything.” That can-do attitude was nurtured along by his professors at Clemson, including Dean Wallace Trevillian, who required shirts and ties at all his management classes.
Though he started out in sales, Abercrombie ended up in banking. He rose to chair of the board, CEO and president at American Federal, where he served until 1997, when the bank merged with CCB–Central Carolina Bank. He continued with CCB until his retirement in 2003. He currently serves as chair of Colliers International–Greenville.
Abercrombie is a life IPTAY member, WestZone Initiative and Heisman-level donor, member of the Leadership Circle, and former member and past chair of the Board of Visitors. He was instrumental in securing resources needed to enable the board to promote the University. Past chair of the Clemson Real Estate Foundation, he is a founding member and chair of the Clemson Land Stewardship Foundation.

A thinker and a problem-solver

E. Mitchell “Mitch” Norville ’80 got his degree in engineering, but thanks to Professor Douglas Bradbury, he came to see himself as a thinker and problem-solver. He worked as an engineer for a couple of years before going to the University of Virginia to earn his MBA and continue his career at Boston Properties, one of the largest self-managed real estate investment trusts specializing in the development and ownership of office, industrial and hotel properties in the United States.
Clemson may not be the city on his driver’s license, but it does have his heart. A board member for the Baltimore/Washington D.C. Clemson Club, he has made significant financial contributions to Clemson’s basketball program and the WestZone, where Gate 6 was named the “Norville Family Gate” in honor of his family.
A founding member of the President’s Leadership Circle, he endowed the Ernest R. Norville Chair in Biomedical Engineering in honor of his father. He serves on the Clemson University Foun-dation Board of Directors, the President’s Advisory Board and the Advancement Board for Real Estate Development.

The eye of the needle

At 6 feet and 135 pounds, James Warren “Jimmy” Addison ’68 didn’t see himself as a potential college football star. Fortunately, Coach Fred Cone thought differently and recruited the young man known as “the Needle.” Addison went on to capture honors including All ACC Quarterback, S.C. Athlete of the Year and an NCAA Post-graduate Scholarship. Three ACC Championships helped cement his membership in the Athletic Hall of Fame.
His determination on the field was matched in the classroom and in ROTC. A member of Scabbard and Blade, he graduated with both the Norris Medal and the Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award. He went on to law school at the University of Virginia and now chairs the Commercial Real Estate Section at Troutman Sanders LLP.
Addison has served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors and the Advancement Board for the School of Humanities. He also established the Virginia and Bill Addison Endowment for the Humanities and has served as chair of Clemson’s Athletic Hall of Fame. In addition, Addison has given much of his recent time to the Clemson University Foundation Board.

Paving the way to success

Russell Carlton Ashmore Jr. ’50 has always had a way of turning roadblocks into opportunities — in athletics and academics, professionally and personally. When his football career ended for medical reasons, he served as an Army cadet and focused on his studies. When his pre-med dreams met a queasy stomach, he still found ways to provide medical care, both here and abroad, to those unable to afford it.
After graduation, Ashmore served in the U.S. Army and the Reserves, then returned to Clemson to pursue his interest in ceramic engineering, after which he took a position at General Shale in Tennessee. While on his way up the corporate ladder, he was convinced to return to the family business in grading, paving and excavation. He not only helped guide the family business, but also served as an industry leader.
For more than five decades, Ashmore has been a member of IPTAY and an annual donor to the Clemson Fund. An active supporter of Clemson Corps, he was one of the principal organizers and fundraising chair for the Military Heritage Plaza and Cadet Monument. President of the Class of 1950, he is co-founder of the Taylors Clemson Touring Club — the originators of orange overalls at football games.

One Clemson

“There’s never been a Duckworth who didn’t want to win,” says Edgar James “Ed” Duckworth ’61. But as competitive as he may be, Duckworth believes that it’s not winning or losing that matters in the long run, but how you play the game. And though he is a supporter of Clemson athletics, it is the philosophy of “One Clemson” that has captured his heart.
Duckworth graduated with a degree in civil engineering, then transitioned into the world of finance, where he has had a 40-year career in the securities industry as a broker, dealer and financial adviser. He is currently the senior member of an elite group of financial advisers for Morgan Stanley in Atlanta.
A member of the Clemson University Foundation Board of Directors, Duckworth is vice chair of the finance committee and a member of the Will to Lead National Campaign Committee. He was instrumental in helping the Atlanta Clemson Club fund the Clemson Tiger Paw license plate in Georgia, and continues to support IPTAY, Clemson Fund, alumni activities and the Class of 1961. He and his family recently made a major contribution to build the Duckworth Family Pavilion to support Clemson’s tennis teams.