|
Fall
2004 -- Vol. 57, No. 4
I’ve often wondered if my grandfather knew
what he was starting when he stepped off the train at the Calhoun
station that fall day in 1892. As a member of Clemson’s first
graduating class in 1896, Joseph Hunter represented the first generation
of Hunter Clemson men (and later, Hunter women), a tradition that
has stretched over a century. After graduating, he tried his hand
at teaching in the public schools, but his heart was always at
Clemson. In 1901, he returned to Clemson to teach mathematics,
a labor of love that he continued for the next 47 years.
 In keeping with a Clemson tradition of the time, my grandfather
developed a nickname while in school, “Little Joe.” Although
his oldest son, Joseph E. Hunter Jr., grew to be 6 feet 6 inches
tall, Little Joe was on the short side, standing only 5 feet 4
inches. I have talked with many of his students, but they never
mentioned his height.
What they all remembered and mentioned first was “the stub.” As
a young man in a run-in with a table saw, Little Joe lost all the
fingers on his left hand except for the thumb and first joint of
one finger. As a teacher, it was his practice to have the cadets
in his classes work math problems on the blackboard. Those who
failed to show what he felt to be proper progress would be reminded
of their shortcomings by getting jabbed in the ribs with “the
stub.” I was always amazed that they all remembered it fondly.
Little Joe built his home in Clemson around 1910. He calculated
the number of bricks it would take to complete the house and purchased
exactly that many. Upon completion, there was one leftover brick,
which he directed to be placed on the chimney. The little brick
house stood on Cherry Street just down from the infirmary for over
80 years until the growth of the school forced it to give way to
progress. I remember that cadets would come to the house on weekends
to be tutored. They would sit straight on the front of the chair
seats while he did math problems on the blackboard he kept in the
dining room.
Little Joe began extending the Hunter family Clemson tradition
in 1905 when he convinced his younger brother, Thomas M. Hunter,
to earn his degree at Clemson, which he did in 1909. When Tom Hunter
died in 1987 at the age of 101, he held the distinction of being
the oldest living Clemson graduate.
The Hunter tradition extended into the second generation with
both of Little Joe’s sons — Joe Jr. graduated in 1934 and
my father, Jimmie, in 1937. Both of their oldest children continued
the tradition into the third generation when I graduated in 1968
and my cousin, Georgia, in 1971. Georgia was the first lady in
the family to become a Clemson “gentleman.” My youngest
brother, Joe, graduated in 1981. Also, my sister-in-law Laura,
wife of my middle brother, Steve, earned a master’s degree
in 1977, and their son, Eddie, is currently a senior at Clemson,
establishing the fourth generation, over 100 years after the first.
Although my grandfather passed away when I was only seven years
old, some of my most vivid memories are of him and the time I
spent in Clemson. He almost always had a cigar in his mouth and
would
go through three or four a day. But I have never met anyone who
remembers him ever lighting one. They just got shorter and shorter.
Although I still love to go to Clemson football games, the games
played in the years right after his death were special. We would
have a picnic lunch in the cemetery, spreading a tablecloth over
his marker. When the game was ready to start, we would walk straight
down the hill to the stadium right on the 50-yard line. My father
has since joined him in the cemetery on the 50-yard line, and
Frank Howard is just across the little road that circles the
cemetery.
Somehow it all seems appropriate.
Tom Hunter lives with his wife, Sue, in Mooresville, N.C.,
where he’s a plant manager with the Charlotte Mecklenburg
Utility Department.
|
