Alumni Profiles

Cultural center tribute
Harvey B. Gantt ’65, HD ’85Harvey B. Gantt ’65, HD ’85

Summer 2007

Architect Harvey Gantt of Charlotte, N.C., longtime business, civic and cultural leader, recently received a new honor.

The Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Foundation has granted $1 million to the Campaign for Cultural Facilities as a tribute to Gantt. The grant is the first gift toward a $5 million effort to name the Afro-American Cultural Center in honor of Gantt, Charlotte’s first African American mayor.

In 1963, Gantt became the first African American student to attend Clemson. Today, he’s the co-founder of Gantt Huberman Architects, a firm that has designed some of Charlotte’s highest profile civic facilities including the Transportation Center and ImaginOn, the new children’s library and theater in downtown Charlotte.

He and his wife, Lucinda, continue to support Clemson in a variety of ways including the Gantt Intercultural Center. The Harvey B. Gantt Scholarship and Harvey Gantt Lecturer in African American Literature are also named in his honor. Harvey and Lucinda are pictured at Clemson’s Gantt Intercultural Center.