Clemson Women, the Early Years

The very existence of Clemson University in the 21st century and the foundation of Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina in 1889 depended on outstanding men and women. But because the school began as a male-only student body and continued as such for its first 66 years, the role of women in the early years has been largely ignored. The following is from a longer history that sheds light on the female influence during those early years, written by Jerome “Jerry” Reel — historian, professor and a true Clemson treasure.

The good land

We often think of Fort Hill, the land that would become home to Clemson University, as starting with John C. Calhoun. But the female influence on Clemson began with his wife, Floride, who owned the land herself.

Actually, it began with her mother. Floride’s family had come into much Upcountry land in 1802. Nearby Fort Hill, then known as Clergy Hall, was built in 1803 as the manse for Old Stone Church just a few miles away. When Fort Hill came up for sale, Floride’s mother purchased the property.

Floride inherited the title to Fort Hill upon her mother’s death in 1836. (She and husband, John C., were already living there.) When John C. died in 1850, Floride Calhoun became the sole owner of Fort Hill House and 1,341 acres of land. When she died in 1866, portions of the property then went to their daughter and sole surviving child, Anna Maria, who had married Thomas Green Clemson. The Clemsons’ daughter Floride Elizabeth also inherited a portion.

Anna Maria Calhoun Clemson willed her share of Fort Hill to her husband, Thomas Clemson, and he inherited it when she died in 1875. Thus it was through a succession of the Calhoun-Clemson women that Fort Hill came into Thomas Clemson’s possession. (This is the abridged version of how the land passed through a series of hands to get to Clemson.)

The Clemsons had long wanted the state of South Carolina to create a scientific institution designed to teach agriculture and engineering. The state was in dire need after the Civil War, and the Clemsons saw education as a way to help. In 1886, Clemson signed his will deeding Fort Hill to South Carolina if the state would build the hoped-for school. His will — which did not speak to nor limit gender, race or place of origin — was finally accepted by the state in 1889.

The college was to be governed by 13 persons, seven of whom were trustees for life and six legislative trustees. These trustees, not the will, determined that the school would be for males only. The trustees, however, knew women were needed at the college.

Women on the hall

When Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina opened in 1893, two women were on staff — Mrs. John F. Calhoun, “matron of the barracks,” and Mrs. J.A. Fitzgerald, “matron of the infirmary.”

The first “professionally trained” female staff member to begin work at Clemson was librarian Katherine Trescot, in 1905, whom students called the “goddess of wisdom.”

The first female faculty member was Mary Hart Evans, assistant professor of botany, appointed in 1918. Female faculty members were few and far between for several more decades. Most were wives of male faculty members.

When the first official coeds — degree-seeking female students — started classes in the mid-1950s, there were only three female faculty members to 313 male faculty. But by the mid-1970s, 150 women taught at Clemson, forming about 12 percent of the faculty.

Another milestone was the 1983 designation of the first female faculty member — education professor Elizabeth Galloway — as an Alumni Distinguished Professor. Three years later, Carol Bleser, a highly regarded Southern historian, was brought to Clemson as the Katherine and Calhoun Lemon Professor of History, the first female titled professor.

By the 1990s, there were 303 female faculty representing 22 percent of the total. Today, Clemson has 346 permanent female faculty members, 124 temporary female faculty, and eight female named professors.

Slow, winding commute

Although we often think of women bursting onto the Clemson scene in 1955, the gradual emergence of women into most aspects of Clemson life was a long, slow process. So, too, was the arrival of female students.

The first women to attend Clemson as regular-semester undergraduates came much earlier — the fall of 1932. They were not degree seekers. In fact, all were students at other schools. Their fathers were either local merchants or on the faculty at Clemson. Financially strapped from the Great Depression, they requested that their daughters be enrolled temporarily at Clemson. In all, 14 women were in the group. President Sikes liked the experiment and wished to continue it. But the Board of Trustees didn’t approve its becoming permanent.

World War II brought about a variety of changes for Clemson. Postwar veterans, who were returning to or beginning their collegiate lives under the G.I. Bill, had already served their country and didn’t want to go back to a mandatory military environment. In addition, many were married men and fathers.

Clemson accommodated the veterans with family housing, including the “temporary prefabs,” and the trustees exempted veterans from membership in the corps. The presence of large numbers of noncorps members and the addition of their wives and children changed the landscape and environment. Some of the wives who already had bachelor’s degrees asked to be admitted to the graduate program. By 1952, Clemson graduate school was open to women.

Clemson also began to accommodate female summer-school students. In 1950, the Board of Trustees approved Clemson President R.F. Poole’s recommendation that a separate barracks and mess hall be reserved for women attending summer school.

Three years later, President Poole recommended that women undergraduates, specifically those who were teachers, be permitted to take courses during the regular term. This helped meet the state’s need to upgrade the educational level of public school teachers. Still, there was no move either to allow undergraduates to become degree seekers or to house women on campus, other than in the summer.

Welcome coeds!

By 1954, Korean War veterans were taking the places formerly occupied by World War II veterans, and various groups of females on campus were exempt from ROTC programs. The trustees realized that Clemson was changing quickly.

They hired a management firm to study the school and help plan for the future. Based on the firm’s suggestions and President Poole’s recommendation, the trustees determined that “effective at the beginning of the second semester,” spring 1955, the college was authorized to admit women students residing at their homes — in other words, day students.

As the spring semester opened in January of 1955, 11 females registered as undergraduates among an undergraduate student body of 2,800. All were transfer students with varying amounts of credit to apply toward a Clemson degree.

When the women arrived, they found a sign waiting for them on Bowman Field — male students had cut out big letters that read “WELCOME COEDS.” More women arrived to join the growing student body in the summer and fall of 1955. Most coeds were local because of the nonexistent housing. Their memories of acceptance varied. Some recalled more hostility from some of the faculty than their fellow students.

Margaret Marie Snider Coker, who transferred from Anderson College after receiving a two-year degree, commuted by hitchhiking daily with her brother to Clemson from her home in Anderson. She recalled that when she entered class, the boys all stood up and clapped.

She went on to earn a degree in chemistry in 1957 and at that moment became Clemson’s first female graduate. The following year, Virginia Cole Skelton became the first female graduate who had taken all her course work at Clemson. (She would also become the first female president of Clemson’s Alumni National Council in 1993.)

Places of their own

Among the earliest nonacademic areas to accept women was the cheerleading squad. In the autumn of 1955, Rachel Cole, Teresa Kelly and Charlotte Beckley cheered the Tigers on in their newly designed uniforms from the sidelines at the Clemson football games.

Shirley Hase ventured into male-dominated journalism on campus to write for The Tiger, and Camellia S. Greene became the first TAPS female junior staff member.

In 1956, Carolyn Willis Creel and Phyllis O’Dell became majorettes for Tiger Band, which, by the way, did not allow women instrumentalists until much later. Willis, who held several national twirling titles, came to Clemson mainly because Coach Frank Howard recruited her like a football player and offered her a scholarship. She, like other students whose homes were too far to commute, lived at Mrs. Ellie Newman’s boarding house. (The house is now a downtown restaurant on Hwy. 93 across from the tennis courts.)

Most early Clemson coeds weren’t comfortable going to the canteen in the Student Union, so they congregated in the nearby ladies lounge. Becky Epting, a student from 1959 to 1962, noticed the overcrowding in the lounge. She went upstairs to the office of Walter Cox, dean of students, and brought him down to the lounge. He immediately designated the much more spacious visitors lounge on the Loggia for women.

Clemson women made a major stride toward full acceptance when the first women’s residence, Mauldin Hall, was built and opened in the fall of 1963. Clemson coeds finally had a place of their own to study, to play bridge, to talk, to live. They also had their own dean. Susan Delony became Clemson’s dean of women and chief advocate in 1963. At that time, Clemson enrolled approximately 4,700 men and 114 women.

The 1960s continued to bring change for the better. One semester after Harvey Gantt became Clemson’s first African American student in January 1963, Lucinda Brawley, his future wife, enrolled and became Clemson’s first African American coed. Next were Dorothy Ashford, Delores Kimes Barton and LaVerne Williams White, who enrolled in 1965 and graduated in 1969, becoming Clemson’s first female African American graduates.

Linda Thomas became the first coed announcer for the student radio station WSBF in 1964, and TAPS, Clemson’s yearbook, saw its first female editor-in-chief — Nancy Miller — in 1967. (The Tiger was slower getting its first female editor-in-chief — Nancy Jacobs in 1973.)

Skirts at the podium

Some men’s organizations opened their doors to women officers, though often as secretaries. Women did get their own sororities along with men in the early 1960s — Chi Chi Chi, which would change to Delta Theta Chi; Omicron Zeta Tau; and Sigma Beta Chi. (These three would go national in 1970; in the same order, they would become Delta Delta Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Chi Omega.)

The first females were tapped for membership in Phi Kappa Phi, the ultimate academic society for juniors and seniors, in 1957-58. Dean Delony, however, led a movement to add Alpha Lambda Delta, a scholastic society for women, and Mortar Board, a leadership society for women.

A coed won one of the most esteemed Clemson awards early on. In 1959, Carol C. Faulkenberry won the Trustees’ Medal. But a coed didn’t receive the Norris Medal, an award for the most outstanding senior, until Nancy Jacobs received it in 1975.

Student government opened immediately to women. In 1956, Nancy Bonnette was elected secretary of the freshman class. In 1964, women were elected as first-year senators in the student government; a year later, women were elected as first-year sophomore senators, and so on each year. However, no female student was elected for top leadership for a long time.

During the 1970s and 1980s, women ran for student body president, but none won. Patricia Warren Daugherty, however, was elected president of the student senate in 1976. In the early 1980s, Beth English was chosen to serve as student government vice president. The first woman to serve as president of the student body was Tracy Malcolm in 1990; she assumed the office when the elected male president resigned.

Not until the new millennium (2000-2001) did Clemson see its first elected female student body president, Rita Bolt Barker, who went on to earn a law degree at Harvard.

As for the military, coeds made a place for themselves in Clemson’s vaunted tradition early on. Angel Flight became the female counterpart to the Arnold Air Society beginning in 1963. The Light Brigade served likewise for the Army ROTC in 1964, and Capers was the response to Pershing Rifles begun in 1968.

In a few more years, Clemson women began emerging as military leaders. The ROTC began accepting women in 1971. In 1974, Kathy Morris Hagar became the first Clemson female to be commissioned as a second lieutenant by the Air Force ROTC.

In the game!

The 1970s saw the ending of the Vietnam War. Society began to focus on other issues, one being women’s rights. A milestone was passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972.

In the early 1970s, along with the ERA, came “Title IX.” As part of 1972 congres-sional reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, women’s collegiate sports became a required part of the overall sports programs for educational institutions receiving federal funds.

Before then, Clemson had sports clubs for women but no intercollegiate teams. In 1975, the University began to catch up. Varsity athletics for Clemson women began with swimming, basketball and tennis.

Alumnus Mary C. Kennerty ’73, M ’77 became Clemson’s first coach in both women’s basketball and tennis in 1975. (Annie Tribble took over as head basketball coach in 1976.) The Clemson women’s basketball team played its first official game later that year.

Clemson women competed in their first official swimming meet in 1975. Lynn West Hupp, a diver on the first women’s swim team, recalls practicing in the basement of Holtzendorff until the Fike pool opened and wearing an orange-and-white trimmed warm-up suit that her mother made for her to travel in. Phyllis Grant Motto ’79, also a diver and swimmer, was the first female president of the Block C Club.

In the 30 years of women’s sports at Clemson, the Tigers have scored an outstanding record. Women now have basketball, rowing, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. They’ve accumulated an impressive list of All-America honors, championships, national honors and even Olympic medals.

Leading the University

An integral part of Clemson’s current leadership comes from its coeds. The University’s first female vice president, Almeda Rogers Jacks, who holds a Clemson degree in secondary education (1974) and a master’s in personnel services (1975), is the vice president for student affairs.

Another Clemson student of the 1970s Joy Shuler Smith — bachelor’s degree in administrative management (1975) and a master’s in personnel services (1977) — is Clemson’s dean of students.

Cathy Campbell M ’76 Turner’s impact as an assistant dean, beginning in the early 1970s, was so enduring that a leadership endowment was established in her name.

Clemson’s first female alumni director, Debbie Brockman DuBose, earned a bachelor’s degree at Clemson in 1975. She became executive director of the alumni association in 1988 and served through 2003, helping lead the University through two capital campaigns and shape the multifaceted alumni association of today.

The first female member of the Clemson University Foundation Board, Angie Spearman Howard, is a 1969 Clemson graduate. She’s currently an executive vice president for the Nuclear Energy Institute in D.C.

Other important firsts in Clemson’s female leadership include Dori Helms, provost and vice president of academic affairs, who is helping to revolutionize the University’s undergraduate experience, and Clemson Board of Trustees member Patricia McAbee, who was initially appointed to fill a vacancy left by a deceased trustee, and then who was elected in her own right.

Community of Clemson women

Along with the early participation of women, first in the staff and faculty and then as students, the women of the surrounding community have played an ongoing role in the life of Clemson University. Many local residents have opened their homes to students over the years. Also, in the early years, town women would accommodate the cadets’ dates on big dance weekends, with suitable curfews, of course.

Clemson women such as Mrs. Ellie Newman not only provided room and board, but aimed to give their guests a proper educational experience. Mary Katherine Littlejohn, a member of the famed Littlejohn family and author of Twice Told Tales of Tigertown, hosted Clemson student residents much of her lifetime.

Many local women played support roles through their churches, a practice that’s multiplied many times over today.

In addition to social activities, some women’s groups offer scholarship support. The Clemson Women’s Club, a local organization of wives of faculty and staff, alumnae, or wives and daughters of alumni, has focused much of its support on endowing a scholarship for undergraduates.

And when Clemson has had emergencies, the local women have done their part to help, be it the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919 or the fire last winter at an off-campus apartment complex.

It’s impossible to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Clemson coeducation without recognizing a whole community of women, from the Calhoun-Clemson women who first owned the land, to the ladies who helped make the college possible, to those early coeds who broke the gender and race barriers, to the leaders of today. Without the early women of Clemson, there would be no University as we know it today.

‘Nuclear’ executive

Angie Spearman Howard ’69, the first female member of the Clemson University Foundation Board, is the executive vice president of member relations and external affairs for the Nuclear Energy Institute. Earlier, she was vice president and director of industry relations and information services for the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and worked for the Duke Power Company from 1969 to 1980. In addition to her Clemson degree in parks, recreation and tourism management, she’s a graduate of the advanced management program at Harvard Business School and of the reactor technology program for utility executives sponsored by MIT and the National Academy for Nuclear Training.

‘Baywatch’ beauty

Clemson has had many beauties, but none more famous in the 1980s than Clemson education major Shawn Weatherly. In 1980, she became Miss USA and then Miss Universe. She was the first South Carolinian to win Miss USA since 1954 and the first Miss USA to win Miss Universe since 1967. Weatherly went on to become an original cast member in the TV series “Baywatch.” For the past two decades, she’s appeared in a variety of films and shows from “Happy Days” to “Murder She Wrote” to “Chicago Hope.” More recently she appeared in the documentary “Miss America.”

Engineering PhDivas

Clemson is fourth in the nation in the highest percentage of doctoral degrees in engineering awarded to women, according to PRISM engineering education magazine (October 2004 issue reporting on 2003 figures).

Through its WISE program (Women in Science and Engineering), Clemson reaches future female engineers and scientists much sooner. Clemson begins with elementary-age female students in its annual Girl Scout Day when students come to campus, meet female researchers and get hands-on science. Clemson’s Project WISE Camp shows middle-grade girls that math, science and engineering really are “a girl thing.” Through WISE Choice, high school girls experience college-level learning. And once women get to Clemson as engineering and science majors, they benefit from the WISE program’s support and commitment to their academic success.

Lady Tiger Olympians

These Clemson women athletes have left their imprint worldwide.

Swimmer Michelle Richardson won silver in the 800m freestyle in the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Swimmer Mitzi Kremer won bronze in the 1988 Summer Olympics 100m freestyle relay.

Tennis star Gigi Fernandez won gold medals in doubles competition in both the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics.

Sprinter Kim Graham ’93 won gold in the 1996 Summer Olympics 4x400m relay.

Michelle Burgher ’01 competed for Jamaica in both the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. She won silver in 2000 and bronze in 2004 as part of the 4x400m relay teams.

Cydonie Mothersill competed for the Cayman Islands in both the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics and advanced to the semifinals in 2004 in the 200m dash.

Itoro Umoh Coleman ’00 was captain of the Nigerian women’s basketball team in the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Pulitzer Prize winner

Former Washington Post editor Marilyn Walser Thompson ’74 got her start in journalism as a member of The Tiger staff. After Clemson she joined the Columbia Record as an investigative and governmental affairs reporter. She later worked in Philadelphia and New York before joining The Washington Post in 1990. There, her team twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, one for work uncovering D.C. police abuse and another investigating D.C. services for the retarded. Her latest work, The Killer Strain: Anthrax and a Government Exposed, is a behind-the-scenes account of the nation’s first real-life struggle with a long-feared weapon of mass destruction.

International broadcaster

Jane Robelot De Carvalho ’82, Clemson’s first graduate to become a national newscaster, is creating airwaves even farther now. In the 1990s, the CBS anchor went from local to regional to national news, hosting “CBS This Morning” in New York. She was awarded two Emmys for broadcast excellence.Now in Atlanta, she’s broadcast co-host and media relations director for Leading the Way, an international broadcast ministry. The ministry’s dual-language radio program can be heard in 191 countries.