Frankie Felder, M.Ed., Ph.D., retired in 2017 after a notable 30-year career that included being Clemson University’s first-ever African American dean. A former senior associate dean of Clemson’s Graduate School, Felder is now part of a memoir-writing project at the University’s 850-member Emeritus College, working with other retirees to capture and share their life experiences on paper.
Six Week Series by Cecil Huey titled “Space isn’t What it Used to be, Time isn’t Doing so Well Either, and Reality is a Crapshoot: Science from Pythagoras to Planck for Bar Stool Physicists and Starbucks Philosophers.”
Information on Emeritus College 6 Week Series on the History of Science by Dr. Cecil Huey Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering
Session 3 Guide (Email emerituscollege@clemson.edu for a session zoom link)
On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, the Clemson University Emeritus College welcomed new members and honored its annual award recipients during its 22nd celebration ceremony and luncheon. President Jim Clements and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Bob Jones welcomed 21 new emeritus faculty members to the college and Cecil Huey, professor emeritus and chair of the Emeritus College Advisory Board, welcomed nine affiliate, associate, and honorary members.
A new lecture series honoring the legacy of Associate Professor Emeritus Raymond Huff, FAIA, NOMA, is set to launch at the Clemson Design Center in Charleston (CDC.C) this spring.
Established by Liollio Architecture, the Professor Ray Huff FAIA, NOMA, Endowed Lecture Series celebrates the work and legacy of Professor Huff, the former director of the Clemson Design Center.
This endowed series is dedicated to enriching the educational experience of Clemson School of Architecture students by hosting distinguished speakers who will explore topics in “critical design and innovative architectural practices.” Read full article
Dr. Rosanne Pruitt, Emeritus College Representative on the University-wide Well-Being Council, Advisory Board Member, and Co-Chair of the Emeritus College’s Well-Being Committee, is pictured with 30 Clemson employees who recently completed two-day adversity training.
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!
Dr. Frankie O. Felder
Dr. Felder, 2024 Fall Picnic and Business Meeting, Emeritus Collegge
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.
Dr. Jack C. Peck
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.