Granddaughter’s Ring Ceremony comes with pleasant surprise for Holstein
Sam Holstein ’97 was sitting in Littlejohn Coliseum last fall watching his granddaughter, Anna Holstein ’26, receive her class ring. It was a scene Sam, 83, had witnessed once before when his son, Britt Holstein ’95, received his Clemson Ring.
And the ceremony brought out those same emotions in 2024 as it did in 1995. Britt said his father had looked at his ring and asked Britt to hand it to him.
“He said, ‘Man, I wish I would’ve gotten one of these,’” Britt reflects.
Sam came to what was then called Clemson College in 1959. He attended for three years before leaving early after being accepted into dental school at the University of North Carolina. He never received his Clemson Ring. One night at dinner last year, Anna and her brother, Thomas Holstein ’27, mentioned how cool it would be to surprise their grandfather with a ring when Anna received hers.
With a plan in motion, Anna received both rings that day. As the family gathered in the pavilion outside Littlejohn after the ceremony, Anna and Thomas presented Sam with his ring.
“It said 1963 on it,” said Anna, a senior majoring in health science. “We told him it was his. It took him a minute to process it. He was pretty emotional. He has not taken it off since.”
That’s because it was a long time coming for Sam. After completing dental school, he served in the U.S. Air Force from 1966–1968 and was stationed in Germany at Hahn Air Base. Upon returning to South Carolina, he began his career as a dentist in Chapin.
When Britt received his Clemson Ring in 1993, it dawned on Sam that he hadn’t received his diploma from Clemson. In 1997, he sent his credits from dental school to Clemson and subsequently received his diploma for preprofessional studies.
“When they sent my diploma, they welcomed me back to walk the stage,” Sam said. “I declined. I was an old guy by then. I would be the only one on the stage with a preprofessional studies diploma.”
But something was still missing.
“I always wanted a Clemson Ring, so my family surprised me with a wonderful gift,” Sam said. “The feeling is hard to describe. It means your family loves you. It means they care about you. It’s just a nice touch. It’s more than just getting the ring. It’s my family and what they did to do that. They said they had been planning it for a while, and it finally got done.”
Attending Clemson has become a family tradition for the Holsteins. It began with Sam’s uncle, who attended in the 1940s. As Anna completed her Clemson application and listed her legacies, she stopped at 17 family members. And each made the decision to attend without persuasion.
In fact, Anna was close to choosing the University of Georgia. “But then I was like, ‘There’s only one right option here,’” she said.
Now Sam can show off his ring with the rest of them.
“Being able to share that with him, someone who was here over 60 years ago, made it a huge family deal,” Anna said. “It was just really special and something I don’t think my family will ever forget.”
