November 15, 2024
Please mark your calendars for a special Coffee House Music Session: Holiday Sing Along on Friday December 20, 2024, 10:00 am-11:30 am!
November 12, 2024
The Annual Holiday Social is always a favorite event within our Emeriti community because it’s a party – hanging out together, meeting new people and catching up with old friends, and just having some good old-fashioned fun – no agendas, no awards, no business. We hope to see you there. Please register in advance REGISTER TO ATTEND HERE
EMERITUS COLLEGE HOLIDAY SOCIAL – See you there!
Date: Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Time: 11:30 am – 1:30 pm
Place: Palmettos Catering and Event Center
October 30, 2024
The Clemson University Emeritus College gathered on Tuesday, October 29 for the annual Fall Picnic and Business Meeting. Around 150 emeritus faculty enjoyed great food and conversation; welcomed new members; approved changes to the college’s by-laws; and awarded the prestigious Emeritus Award for Research and Scholarship to two very deserving Emeritus Faculty for their outstanding contributions to scholarly research: Dr. Frankie O. Felder and Dr. Jack C. Peck!
Since retiring in 2017, Dr. Felder has devoted a significant amount of time to researching and writing two important historical documents. These include a history of her family, whose roots are from deep southern states, and the history of graduate education at Clemson University.
Both publications invite critical thought about subjects that impact those living in the South. Her publication OURstory, Unchained and Liberated from HIStory (pronounced HIS-story), was published in 2021, and describes the lesser-known aspects of an African American family experience prior to and through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow.
Dr. Frank Smith, director of the African American Civil War Memorial Museum, called this book “a must read for any serious scholar wishing to understand this period of American history.” Dr. Vernon Burton, who wrote her foreword, said she “opens the doors to the history of education of blacks in the South to the general reader through the rise of her ancestors’ descendants as they passed through the doors of Rosenwald School and Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” Her book … “addresses how the South’s very dark period of American history has changed in her lifetime” offering “hope for the future in the victories of the past.”
Dr. Felder has also researched the history of graduate education at Clemson. Her book Graduate Education at Clemson and the Evolution to a University is due out in the spring. She was the opening plenary speaker at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools this year where she shared her premise that graduate education transformed a rural college into a world-class university. Her nominator notes that she received a resounding standing ovation for her presentation on the relevance of graduate education not only to Clemson University, but to all southern colleges and universities. Her book recognizes more than one hundred graduate “trailblazers” and reflects on one hundred years of graduate education at Clemson from1924 to 2024.
Upon his retirement from Clemson in 2000, Dr. Peck was among the top Computer Science faculty in publications and funded research. He continues to be a successful serial entrepreneur. In 1987, he co-founded Foxfire Technologies Corporation to create software for both the manufacturing and distribution industries. Beginning operations in a Clemson University incubator, Foxfire grew to more than twenty employees. Foxfire’s products were employed by such well-known companies as Levi, Wrangler, Playtex, Sara Lee, Jantzen, Intertape Polymer, and Carters.
In 2006, after a successful exit from Foxfire Technologies, Dr. Peck co-founded FastFetch Corporation to supply innovative hardware and software solutions for eCommerce order fulfillment.
He provided the creative impetus that formed the basis for FastFetch’s products. One such product employs artificial intelligence to determine a right-sized container for shipping multiple items of different sizes and shapes with minimal wasted space. This problem has long been recognized as a difficult problem in the computer science field. In 2019, this development was judged as the most innovative supply chain management product in the US by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP), edging out Intel Corporation.
While there are numerous artificial intelligence applications currently being developed for the supply chain industry, the FastFetch solution is one of only a few that are in production daily by well-known companies such as Snap-on, Staples, FedEx, and UPS. In addition to receiving the CSCMP innovation award in 2019, FastFetch was a finalist for the innovation award in 2018 and the runner-up in 2023. Dr. Peck has been granted 5 US patents and several international patents on the innovations employed in FastFetch products. Jack is recognized as a thought leader in the supply chain industry. He has frequently presented technical talks at industry conferences, served on industry panels, been interviewed on several occasions by supply chain media outlets, and been quoted in trade publications. Additionally, Dr. Peck continues to publish scholarly papers in a refereed, international supply chain journal with publications in 2019, 2023, and a publication scheduled for 2025.
October 24, 2024
November 4, 2024, (Monday), 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Hybrid, Doug’s Holiday Gift Tech Talk! Join Doug, our CCIT Support Consultant, as he provides his suggestions and moderates others’ ideas on helpful small, inexpensive, and more expensive tech products to consider this holiday buying season. Doug will feature items under $10 and others to fit all budgets with freebie suggestions. He will also discuss how to repurpose or upgrade existing tech. Stay to the end for some giveaway prizes for online/in-person participants!” Light refreshments will be served. Contact emerituscollege@clemson.edu for the Zoom Meeting Link.
October 1, 2024
Hurricane Helene’s impacts resulted in the need to reschedule our Fall Picnic from Oct 1st to Oct 29. Everyone must reregister for the new date of the picnic:
September 4, 2024
Members of the Emeritus College truly enjoy getting together for the Annual Fall Picnic and Business Meeting! Come on out to Palmettos Event and Catering Center at 11:30 am on Tuesday, October 1, 2024. Bring a guest (suggested donation of $20 per guest). Registration is required. Thank you. See you then!
July 24, 2024
SPECIAL EMERITUS COLLEGE MUSIC EVENT – OCTOBER 18TH
Event: Interview Mac Arnold and enjoy Mac’s music along with one band member
Date: Friday, October 18, 2024, at 10:00 am (Coffee House Music Session)
Place: Emeritus College Seminar Room
Cost: Free (donations are welcome!)
The Clemson University Emeritus College has arranged for legendary Blues performer Mac Arnold to discuss his career and provide musical entertainment during our regularly scheduled Coffee House event on Friday, October 18, 2024, beginning at 10 AM.
You may be familiar with Mac, but here is a brief bio: Born in Ware Place, SC to a family of sharecroppers, he and his brother, Leroy, taught themselves how to play guitar by fashioning a broom stick and a gas can into an instrument. As a teenager, Mac formed a band with James Brown playing the piano. In 1965, he moved to Chicago to be close to the electric blues scene and became a part of Muddy Waters’ band. By the 1970s, Mac was in Los Angeles and began coordinating music on the TV show Soul Train, later playing bass on the theme song for the extraordinarily successful television show Sanford and Son, starring Redd Fox. Mac became remarkably busy doing recording work with Otis Redding, B.B. King, Bill Withers, and others. In the 1980s, he returned to South Carolina to become an organic farmer. Mac eventually formed the Plate Full O’Blues band, and they toured together.
We will interview Mac about his career and enjoy a jam session with a member of the Plate Full O’Blues band. Please invite friends and family who would appreciate getting to know this South Carolina treasure. He is a very humble and approachable man. Please feel free to ask him questions as this will be very informal and lots of fun. Sponsored by The Debbie and Vince Jackson Endowment for Music and your contributions, which make music events at the Emeritus College possible.
July 24, 2024
July 16, 2024
The Programming Committee of the Emeritus College urges you to consider presenting one of these interesting programs. Our seminars are always hybrid and typically scheduled from 10:00 to 11:30 am, with 45 minutes to one hour for the speaker and the remaining time dedicated to Q&A.
Guess Who is Coming to Dinner
Guess Who is Coming to Dinner Concept and Guidelines: Create a Power Point presentation featuring one or more historical figures. Your “dinner guest” can be famous (or infamous) but should be someone of consequence and importance. One approach is to organize a group of 3 or 4 who each present 15 minutes. Another approach is for you to present alone – creating an in-depth presentation about one person or vignettes on a few people (dinner party). Your final slide should pose questions you would ask your guest if they came to your house for dinner.
Example of Solo Presentation: Nancy Dunlap – “What Do We Really Know About William Shakespeare?” Not much it seems. There are no surviving accounts from colleagues, friends, or family, and he had no known (legitimate) descendants. Who was this man whose works have been taught, quoted, and performed for over four hundred years? Was he, indeed, the GOAT, or was he, as his contemporary and fellow dramatist Robert Greene called him, the “Upstart Crow?”
Example of Multiple Presentations: Dr. Dee Stegelin’s dinner guest is Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States and Supreme Commander of the European forces during WWII. He was raised in Abilene, Kansas near Dee’s family dairy farm. Dr. Cecil Huey’s dinner guest is Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a 19th century engineer who built ships, railways, bridges and the first tunnel under the Thames. Brunel was voted second greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 national poll, second only to Winston Churchill. Dr. Skip Eisiminger’s dinner guest is Leonardo da Vinci, the illegitimate son of a notary public and an unschooled woman who should, but has not, put to rest the import of “good breeding.” The focus will be on da Vinci’s brainstorming drawings (not his famous paintings).
Virtual Tours
Virtual Tour Concept and Directions: Create a Power Point Presentation about a place you have come to know intimately. Perhaps you were born and/or raised in a different country or have traveled there many times with students or have researched an area deeply for your own purposes.
Example: Virtual Tour of Dominica – A True Paradise – with Dr. John Hains. Dominica is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. Columbus encountered this island on his second voyage in 1493. If Columbus returned today, Dominica is the only island that he might say is most unchanged from the 15th Century. This presentation will focus on the natural features of ‘The Nature Island of the Caribbean’ along with two recent eco-tours and several study-abroad trips with Clemson students. Hains hopes you will enjoy this virtual tour of one of the most unspoiled and beautiful places on earth.
Example: Dr. Bill Stringer presents: D-Day Landings, A Virtual Tour. The liberation of German-occupied Europe was a huge triumph of courage, technology, planning and execution. The first segment examines the military problems to be solved, the planning and preparation, and the launch on June 6, 1944.
Example: Another take on this presentation can combine Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner with a Virtual Tour. For example, Dr. Steve Wainscott’s dinner guest was the Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, who lived and painted in Antwerp, Belgium, a historically important port and one of the world’s great art cities.
Please contact Victoria Musheff at vmushef@clemson.edu
July 1, 2024
The Emeritus College Advisory Board, Director, and Staff express tremendous appreciation to the following individuals who have generously donated funds to the Emeritus College during 2023-2024. The Emeritus College annually sponsors emeritus awards and student scholarships, funds speakers, offers programs and activities, and hosts social events. Donations make this possible while also facilitating the growth of the college.
2023-2024 Donor List
Clementina R. Adams
Paul Adams
H. Kyle K. Anderson
Pamela B. B. Ardern
John C. Bednar
Lansford C. Bell
Adolph L. Beyerlein
Robert D. Bixler
Joan Bridgwood
Ida C. Briscoe
Ann I. Brown
Roxanne Calabria
Harold E. Cheatham
Donald L. Collins
Donald L. Collins
Christopher L. Cox
Michael D. Crino
Joseph D. Culin
Jane M. DeLuca
Marty B. Duckenfield
EC Trivia Faculty Group
Clifton S. Egan
Diane Egan
Sterling K. Eisiminger
Ralph D. Elliott
John T. Farris
Lewis T. Fitch
Larry W. Gahan
Linda Gahan
Robert M. Geist
Robert P. Green
Bhuvenesh Goswami
Dixie C. Goswami
Imtiaz and Mary Haque
Pamela A. Havice
William Havice
Hoke S. Hill
Robert J. Hogan
Bonnie J. Holaday
William M. Hood
Verne W. House
Gordon E. Howard
Cecil O. Huey
Kevin J. Hughes
Debra B. Jackson
Richard V. Jackson
Richard H. Klein
Michael Kohl
Robert J. Kosinski
Carol D. Kozma
Olga Kritskaya
Thomas J. Kuehn
Larry L. LaForge
Mary LaForge
Barbara S. Lewis
James London
Donna London
Rose M. Lowe
Rose M. McDonald
Rob R. McGregor
Donald M. McKale
Jane A. McLamarrah
Sharon U. Miller
Janice W. Murdoch
Victoria Musheff
William C. Norman
Rameth R. Owens
James Palmer
James W. Patterson
Betsy Pearson
John Peters
Nancy M. Porter
Rosanne H. Pruitt
Donna Reiss
Tina L. Robbins
David J. Senn
Laura J. Shick
Murali Sitaraman
Thomas E. Skelton
Diane G. Smathers
Webb Smathers
Dolores A. Stegelin
Forrest E. Stegelin
Roy and Iva L. Stoddard
William C. Stringer
Successful Practices Network Inc
Susan Hilligoss
Karyna M. Szmurlo
Dennis S. Taylor
Christine Thurston
Jerry E. Trapnell
Albert J. (Joe) Turner
Ray Turner
Gerald L. Waddle
John R. Wagner
Stephen H. Wainscott
Charlie R. White
Robert E. Williamson
Donna H. Winchell
Jeffery Ann S. Yang
Arthur P. Young
