Category: Life After Retirement

DEWITT STONE has continued to be actively involved in the academic world since his retirement as Assistant VP for Academic Affairs in October of 2001. His interest in South Carolina history led to his writing five articles for the South Carolina Encyclopedia, and his book Wandering to Glory: Confederate Veterans Remember Evans’ Brigade was published by the USC Press in 2002. It is the only history that has been written about this interesting brigade in which about 10,000 South Carolinians fought during the course of “The War”. He accepted a (voluntary) position at Lander University, where he established and directed the study abroad program from 2004-2014. Under his leadership this program assisted 148 students to spend a semester at a university abroad, and it also assisted about 20 faculty members to take approximately 250 students on 35 two-week study tours abroad. In 2014 he filed for election to the Lander Board of Trustees, and he defeated the incumbent trustee and another challenger to win the seat. He was recently elected to a second term (2018-2022) by the South Carolina General Assembly.

Since her graduate student days, Dr. Mechthild Cranston (Professor Emerita of Languages) has been an active professional, enjoying teaching and/or studying at universities here and abroad (Marburg, Germany; Paris, France, and Perugia, Italy).  She has received NEH and/or ACLS grants to Yale, Stanford and Paris and was awarded a knighthood by the Prime Minister of France via the French Ministry of Education (Chevalier des Palmes Academiques). At Clemson, she was honored with a Provost Medal for Scholarly Achievement, the Class of 1940 D. W. Bradbury Award for Outstanding Service to the Honors College and two Board of Trustees Awards for Faculty Excellence.

Her many articles have appeared in journals like PMLA (New York),  FMLS (England), RLMC (Italy),  MLR (England), Les Lettres Francaises (Paris), Dalhousie French Studies (Canada), and Theoria (South Africa). Her major focus has been on modern French poetry (Apollinaire, Char, St John Perse) and the works of Marguerite Duras, reviewed in, e.g., The French Review, World  Literature Today, Romanische Forschungen (Germany), and the Carnet critique  (Paris). She has worked on literature and painting as well as poetry and music.

Her own poetry has received recognition from the American Poetry Association.

Dr. Cranston has been a frequent reviewer for  World Literature Today and participated in many professional meetings as organizer, chair, discussant, or speaker. For nine years, she was editor of The Comparatist, award winning journal of the  Southern Comparative Literature Association.

Since her retirement in 2004, Dr. Cranston has enjoyed reading and writing in Menton, France, attending concerts in Berlin, Germany, and restoring her mother’s home and garden in Berkeley, California. Springs and autumns, she writes, are most impressive in the Carolinas.

Dr. R. Barton Palmer, Calhoun Lemon Professor Emeritus of English, retired from Clemson University in 2018 after 23 years of services. While at Clemson, Dr. Palmer served as Director of the World Cinema Program.

Book Details: With Murray Pomerance of Ryerson University, Dr. Palmer recently published a co-edited multi-author volume, THE MANY CINEMAS OF MICHAEL CURTIZ with the University of Texas Press.  This is the first full study of the most prolific and successful Hollywood generalist of the classic studio period (1920-1970).  Curtiz worked in all the genres Hollywood had to offer, turning out over a hundred films all together, including many classics such as CASABLANCA, MILDRED PIERCE, YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, and ROGUES OF SHERWOOD FOREST.  This book adds a major chapter to the history of Hollywood’s studio era.

In June 2018, he published, with musicologist Jacques Boogart, Volume 9 of a long-term scholarly edition, involving American and European universities: THE COMPLETE POETRY AND MUSIC OF GUILLAUME DE MACHAUT.  Machaut was the pre-eminent poet and musician of the late Middle Ages, and this project makes good the attempt of late 19th century French scholars to produce a complete edition of both his substantial body of poetry and his large repertoire of musical settings.  World War I interrupted the project, and the Machaut project team has made good their aim to provide this invaluable scholarly resource to medievalists.  This particular volume is devoted to Machaut’s motets (the motet is a complex musical form with extensive lyrics). Dr. Palmer’s contribution has been to provide the first translations into any modern languages of these French and Latin texts.  The edition is formatted so that it can be used both by performers and readers.  The publisher is Medieval Institute Publications. Dr. Palmer also has published a book chapter devoted to “The  Small Adult Film: A Prestige Form of Cold War Filmmaking” in Homer Pettey, ed., COLD WAR FILM GENRES (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), 62-78.

Published Writing Details: Dr. Palmer is the editor of THE TENNESSEE WILLIAMS ANNUAL REVIEW. The 2018 issue includes an edited Williams document (a hitherto unpublished screenplay for what would become THE GLASS MENAGERIE) as well as Dr. Palmer’s essay exploring “PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT: Tennessee Williams and Noel Coward.”

Other Activities:  Dr. Palmer also serves as the general series editor at five university/academic presses. They include University Press of Florida, Rutgers University Press, Edinburgh University Press-Traditions in American Cinema and Traditions in World Cinema, University of Georgia Press, and Palgrave MacMillan. He is the Editor for the SOUTH ATLANTIC REVIEW, a major, regional scholarly journal from the South Atlantic Modern Language Association.

Dr. Palmer also does pro bono teaching at the Hybrid Education in Greater Atlanta (HEGA), an alternative high school. “HEGA is a non-traditional, secular school dedicated to the individual potential of each student, providing them with academically challenging courses in a vibrant and safe environment.”

Dr. Art Young, Professor Emeritus of English and Robert S. Campbell Chair retired in 2009.

Award Details: Inducted into the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities Hall of Fame on Friday, March 9, 2018, as a member of the second class of inductees.

Teaching/Advising Details: I regularly enroll in OLLI courses at Furman, and I teach short courses in Furman’s OLLI program.

Volunteer Details: In Greenville, SC, I volunteer at Greenville Center for Creative Arts and other arts organizations.

While Dr. Young currently lives in Greenville, SC, he continues to stay involved with Clemson through committees and events sponsored by the CU Emeritus College, The Class of 1939 (he is an honorary member) and the CU English Department, especially with the department’s annual literary festival. 

Dr. David Bodde, Professor Emeritus of Automotive Engineering, continues to be very involved since his retirement in 2017.

Book Details: The book is “Chance and Intent: Managing the Risks of Innovation and Entrepreneurship”. The first edition was published by Routledge in 2012, and the publisher would like to bring out a second edition…revised to include new opportunities and new risks.

Published Writing Details: Contributing a paper “Exponential Technologies and Innovation Ecosystems” to be presented at Clemson’s Power Systems Conference in Charleston, SC  September, 2018.

Teaching/Advising Details: Invited lecture at Long Island University, “Making Sense of an Unknowable Future”.

Dr. Bodde also is serving as a senior scholar at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, developing issue papers on entrepreneurship and urban mobility.

Dr. Hoke Hill, Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences, retired in 2014. Along with leading numerous study abroad trips, Dr. Hill also serves as the Chair for the Emeritus College Executive Committee and is a member of the EC Advisory Board.

Teaching and Advising: In summer of 2017, I led a five-week Clemson study abroad trip of 17 students to Rome, Italy.  I taught Statistics for Science and Engineering as part of the program.  A few other course choices were available to our students taught by faculty of The American University of Rome (AUR), our host institution. Each student took two courses, participated in an AUR staff-led tour of Naples, Paestum, and Pompeii and enjoyed long-weekend travel to other selected destinations in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. Previously, I had developed a Clemson summer study abroad program, Statistics and Irish Studies, in which I taught a statistics course and students all took an Irish History and Literature course. I led this program to Dublin, Ireland, in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Alumni Distinguished Professor Emerita of Visual Arts, Sydney Cross, retired in 2015. Professor Cross was recently honored at the CAAH Dean’s Gallery. Click HERE for more information about the exhibition. She also has had exhibitions in Iowa, Texas and the Los Angeles Printmaking Society Membership Exhibition.

Award Details: Received the 2017 Southern Graphics Council International Printmaker Emeritus Award.

Professor Cross has had several former students, have been hired and or promoted in full and adjunct teaching positions in Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Nebraska.  Kevin Pohle is working in athletic shoe design and recently visited China for his company.  Travis Wood has established a 3-D design studio in Atlanta called Wooden Leg Studio.

She serves on the Board for the LA Printmaking Society and attended the 2018 Southern Graphics Council International Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Professor Emerita of Mathematical Sciences, Iris B. Reed, retired in 2000.

Volunteer Details:  I currently am filling most of my free time doing volunteer work for my church, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pendleton.  I compose and compile our monthly church newsletter, Tempo.  I also am active in Episcopal Church Women, recently retiring after 12 years as Treasurer of that group.  Serving on our Altar Guild, several committees, and working at the St. Paul’s Thrift Shop also are joyous activities that keep me very busy.

My husband, Jim, and I love to travel.  We have 3 cats, 6 grandchildren, and currently reside in Pendleton, SC.  It is hard to believe that I have now been retired for 18 years!

Associate Professor Emerita of English, Elisa Kay Sparks, retired in 2013.

Book Details: About halfway through my magnum opus, currently titled “About a Hundred Flowers” detailing botany, mythology, literary allusions of all references to 99 or so flowers in Virginia Woolf’s fiction, essays, and life writing.

Digital Publications: Writing my 77^th out of 97 essays on flowers appearing in Virginia Woolf’s fiction; each essay details botany, horticultural history, mythology, literary allusions, and all references to a given flowers in Virginia Woolf’s fiction, essays, and life writing.  Essays from Almond Blossom to Rhododendrons are available on-line at https://woolfherbarium.blogspot.com

Published Writings: Review of new anthology, Bloomsbury Handbook, for Woolf Studies Annual. Review of Lisabeth Larsson, “Walking Woolf’s London,” also for Woolf Studies Annual. Revision of paper on “Apples and Poppies: Alive, Alive, Oh!” (conference paper for the 2018 Woolf conference on Woolf and Peace in Canterbury UK) for forthcoming collection on Woolf and Peace. My essay on roses in Virginia Woolf, “’In Fading Silks Compose’: Reading Woolf’s Rosary”  is being published in a Brazilian anthology on new approaches to Modernism. My essay about Woolf’s parodic critique of Aristotle’s Poetics “Mrs. Brown and the Trojan Cow: Deconstructing Aristotle in “An Unwritten Novel” is being published in a 2018 anthology on Woolf and Reading.

Latest Published Writings: (All available at https://clemson.academia.edu/ElisaKaySparks)

• Just delivered: “Opening Flowers in a ‘Sketch of the Past’: A Phenomenological Blooming” presented at the 20^th Annual International Conference on Virginia Woolf.
• “’Pansies! Rosemary! Violence! My Wedding Bouquet’: The Violence of Violets in Virginia Woolf.” Conversa com Virginia Woolf. Davi Pinho, Maria A. de Oliveria, and Nicea Nogueir, Organizadores. Colecao X. Rio de Janeiro., 2020.
• “Thoughts on Flowering in an Air Raid: Apples and Poppies — Alive, Alive Oh!” Virginia Woolf, Europe, Peace, and War, Vol 2: Aesthetics and Theory. Ed. Peter Adkins and Derek Ryan, Clemson and Liverpool UP, 2020.
• “Mrs. Brown and the Trojan Cow: Deconstructing Aristotle in ‘An Unwritten Novel’.” Virginia Woolf and the World of Books: The Centenary of the Hogarth Press, ed. Nicola Wilson and Claire Battershill. Clemson and Liverpool UP, 2018.
• “’In fading silks compose’: Reading Woolf’s Rosary.” Literaturas de Lingua Inglesa: Leituras Interdisciplinaries, 2. Ed. Davi Pinho and Fernanda Medieros. Rio De Janeiro, Brazil: Letra Capital Editoria, 2017.

Exhibitions:  I had a woodcut/encaustic monopytpe in avprintmaking exhibition, an exchange between the Contemporary Printmaker’s Collective in Greenville, SC and a group in Taiwan.

Other Details: Moved into my new house in Seattle, just down the block from Alki Beach, two years ago this March where I have been happily gardening, constantly zooming with Woolf scholars and friends, and writing essay after essay on flowers in Virginia Woolf (well over 100,000 words so far).

Dr. Wm. Michael Hood, Professor Emeritus of Entomology retired in 2013. He was extension/Research Apiculturist where he co-founded the South Carolina Master Beekeeper Program in 1995. He continues as an instructor in the programs certified and Journeyman levels.

Dr. Hood continues to publish and is an active volunteer in his retirement.

Published book titled “The Small Hive Beetle, Aethina tumida Murray”
Pulisher: Northern Bee Books, UK, 140 pp.  ISBN 978-1-912271-07-8.
Until 1996, the small hive beetle range expansion was limited to the African continent. This all changed when small hive beetles were collected in Charleston, South Carolina in summer of 1996. This invasive honey bee pest is now found in five continents other than its native Africa. I conducted research on control of this new invasive honey bee pest for my last 15 years prior to retirement and published many publications on the small hive beetle.

I am currently writing another book titled “50 Great Stories About Bees.” My work as an extension Bee Specialist in support of the beekeeping industry for over 30 years offered me many great opportunities to meet some very interesting individuals who came from diverse backgrounds. I met these people simply because we had one common interest and that was working with bees which produced some bizarre and unpredictable situations that I have chosen to record and share through this book.

Volunteer Details:  He serves as Deacon at Concord Baptist Church in Anderson where he teaches adults Sunday School Classes and mentors young men in the church’s Radical Mentoring Program and is active in the church’s Men’s Ministry Program..