Ron Millender ’75
Millender is helping to send a South Carolina county to college
When Ron Millender retired from Capsugel, a company that manufactures capsules for pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, he envisioned a life of golf, hunting and fishing. But he soon found a new purpose: ensuring that every student in the Greenwood, South Carolina, area knows they have a shot at college.
Millender, who earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Clemson University, has played a central role in founding and guiding Greenwood Promise.
“If you get a chance to give back, you should give someone a little nudge, help someone out — even if it is a small thing,” Millender says. “You never know how much of a difference that little bit of effort can make.”
With public and private funds, Greenwood Promise offers higher education support, including scholarships and mentorship, to all high school graduates who live in Greenwood County. This resource is open to those who attended public and private high schools and those who are homeschooled. Additional funding is key to expanding this opportunity, Millender says.
Matt Logan ’96, a member of the Greenwood Promise board and president and CEO of Self Regional Healthcare, credits Millender with creating Greenwood Promise’s data-driven approach.
“It’s really a great idea, and it wouldn’t have happened without Ron,” says Logan, a biological sciences graduate. “It has grown into something that I think is going to be special for the long term for the community.”
Educating the community will lead to less crime, better jobs, higher employment and more businesses for all, supporters say.
Millender, who grew up on a family farm near St. Matthews, South Carolina, says he might not have attended Clemson if the women’s group at West Bethel United Methodist Church hadn’t put together a scholarship fund that paid tuition for his first semester. To cover the rest of the bill, Millender realized he would need to work.
On campus, Millender found his way to the Swann Fitness Center at Fike Recreation Center, where he worked under coach Banks McFadden ’40, checking IDs, officiating basketball, volleyball, football and softball for $2 a game, and serving the last year and a half as student intramurals director.
Jack Whetstone ’75, M ’78, who has known Millender since kindergarten and roomed with him at Clemson for two years, says that if anyone embodies the vision Thomas Green Clemson had for a university, it is Millender.
“He was always a fantastic all-around, all-American boy growing up, and he has always worked hard,” says Whetstone, associate professor emeritus of forestry and environmental conservation at Clemson.
Millender went on to a world-trotting career, including 26 years with Capsugel. He retired as vice president and general manager of the Americas region.
“None of this happens without Clemson,” he says. “None of this happens, quite frankly, without that scholarship in that first semester.”
Fun Fact: Millender remembers often running into then-Clemson Football coach Frank Howard, who had an office in Swann Fitness Center at Fike Recreation Center and once gave Millender direction on how to landscape the grounds.
