In April, the Alumni Association awarded five recipients the Distinguished Service Award — the highest honor the association bestows on those who graduated from the University. The award is based on three main criteria: personal and professional accomplishments, dedication and service to Clemson, and devotion to community and public service.
Margaret Segars Bond ’84
Highlands, North Carolina
Award-winning teacher. Inspiring example. A bright light for Clemson.
Margaret Segars Bond embodies all things service. After retirement, Margaret and her late husband, Steve ’80, established the Margaret and Steve Bond Award for Teacher Achievement. With Margaret’s encouragement, Steve, a letterwinner on the Clemson Men’s Golf team, worked with others to establish the Golf Paws program, which encourages financial support for the golf teams. For the past eight years, Margaret has continued to chair the program and support men’s and women’s golf. The Steve and Margaret Bond Golf Practice Facility is named in their honor. The couple also created the Bond Distinguished Athletes Award, which recognizes Clemson alumni athletes who demonstrate exemplary character, citizenship and service to their alma mater, community and family. Margaret attributes her love for Clemson to her father, Ray Segars Jr. ’49. The Clemson connection has continued throughout her family with many graduates and current students.
Julie Godshall Brown ’93
Greenville, South Carolina
Successful business owner. Effective civic leader. Excellent Clemson ambassador.
Julie Godshall Brown is known for her positive leadership style and effective volunteer service. She is the second-generation president and owner of the Godshall Professional Recruiting and Staffing firm. After earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Clemson and a master’s degree from the University of South Carolina, Brown joined Godshall Recruiting in 1995 and became its leader in 2004. The agency is certified as a Woman-Owned Business by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. For Clemson, Brown is a member and former chair of the Board of Visitors and a former member of the Clemson University Foundation board of directors. She serves on the MBA Program’s board of directors and regularly speaks to classes and organizations in the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business. Brown’s professional and community activities include service on the boards of directors of both the Bon Secours St. Francis Greenville Foundation and the Bank of Travelers Rest.
Michael Coakley ’91
Arlington, Virginia
Respected industry leader. Encouraging friend. Dedicated Clemson volunteer.
Michael Coakley has a record of service and success that stretches from the banks of the Potomac River to the shores of Lake Hartwell. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in management from Clemson, Coakley joined the C.J. Coakley Company Inc. and rose through the ranks to become co-president, managing major construction projects that include iconic national landmarks, such as the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Coakley is a member of the Clemson Legacy Society, which honors donors who have included Clemson in their estate plans, and the 1889 Vision Society, which honors donors for significant cumulative giving. He was also an inaugural member of the President’s Leadership Circle and has been a longtime leader of the Baltimore/Washington, D.C., Clemson Club.
Sandy Edge ’72
Clemson
Beloved educator. Trusted mentor. An embodiment of the Clemson spirit.
Sandy Edge has contributed more than 50 years of service to his nation, community and alma mater. After earning two degrees, including a bachelor’s in agricultural education from Clemson, Edge embarked on a 28-year military career, which included successive assignments of increasing responsibility for the Air Force in locations stretching from Spain and Saudia Arabia to Florida. His military awards and recognitions include the Defense Superior Service Medal and Legion of Merit. He returned to Clemson in 1997 as commander of the Air Force ROTC detachment and chair of the Department of Aerospace Studies. Upon active military retirement in 2001, he began more than two decades of service as a teacher and administrator in Clemson’s business school. Edge received the University’s Thomas Green Clemson Award for Excellence as a faculty member. He gives generously to Clemson academics and athletics as well as Rotary programs.
Samuel Rogers Stone ’76
Chester, South Carolina
Caring physician. Compassionate volunteer. Devoted alumnus.
Dr. Sam Stone has been on call for Clemson for nearly half a century, volunteering as the first-aid physician at most home football games for the past 43 years. He is also the former president of the Clemson Alumni Physicians Society and a founding member of Tigers on Call, an alumni engagement program for students pursuing health-related careers. Earning a bachelor’s degree in pre-medicine from Clemson and later a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical University of South Carolina, Sam was chief resident at Anderson Memorial Hospital in Anderson before returning to Chester, where he has practiced family medicine for more than 40 years. Sam mentors Clemson students interested in becoming physicians and allows them to shadow him at his practice. Sam and his wife, Beverly, provide Universitywide scholarship support through the Dr. Sam and Beverly Stone Family Scholarship Endowment. They also created the Banks McFadden Scholarship.
