During Women's History Month, Wofford College celebrates the women who have helped shape the college’s history.
Vivian Fisher came to Wofford in 1973.
“The way I understand it, the English department decided it was time to hire a woman in a full-time, tenure-track position. English was the first department to do that at Wofford,” Fisher says. “What I remember from those early days was prep, prep, prep for those new courses.”
Fisher’s first office was on the first floor of Greene Hall, which remains a residence hall. She remembers a young man walking into her office and sitting on the corner of her desk.
“‘Whose secretary are you?’ he asked. Change has gotta start somewhere, so I enlightened him,” says Fisher. “Turns out he was a student in my class.”
Fisher made lifelong friends at Wofford with Dr. C.L. “Ab” Abercrombie, Dr. J.R. Gross, Dr. Harris Chewning, Dr. Walt Hudgens, the Racines and the Maultsbys. She enjoyed her department and adored her students, some with whom she still keeps in touch.
“I became friends with Constance Armitage Antonsen when she came back to Wofford. In addition to letting me work out with her fencing Interim, she was kind enough to let me audit one of her classes. I think it was history of architecture,” says Fisher. “I was also able to be in some plays. At the time, there were no women to take the women’s roles, so I volunteered.”
Like so many others who were “firsts,” Fisher didn’t think of herself in those terms.
“Although it was obvious at faculty meetings,” she says. “Wofford was smart to begin admitting women and hiring more women to teach. By admit-ting women as students, they doubled the pool of outstanding students, and the college’s profile improved.”
Now Fisher spends much of her time reading. She is rereading some of the authors she taught such as Thackeray, Dickens, Lawrence and Eliot, and she’s rediscovering some of the books that have made their way onto banned books lists, like “The Color Purple.” Fisher also works on her historic home and garden in Hampton Heights and manages several historic rental properties.