If you’re in a convenience store in Florence, S.C., and three people are in line, at least one of them will be a Wofford graduate. Carpool lines, concerts, school assemblies, committee meetings, dance recitals, restaurants and youth soccer games follow the same pattern — at least that’s a running Wofford joke in the community that sits at the heart of the Pee Dee region of the state.
The Wofford-Florence connection dates back to the college’s earliest years. Even before Florence was chartered in 1871 and incorporated in 1890, families from the Pee Dee region often sent their best and brightest to Wofford for a liberal arts education. They believed, in the words of James H. Carlisle, Wofford’s third president, “The student ought to be educated not simply or chiefly because he intends to become a farmer, lawyer, or statesman, but because he is a human being — with inlets of joy, with possibilities of effort and action that no trade or calling can satisfy or exhaust.”
Some things have changed in the pipeline between the Pee Dee and Wofford. Women and minorities now drive the highways between Wofford and Florence for holidays and summer vacations. Students from Florence have traveled the world with Wofford support — Victoria Nwankudu ’19, a Spanish and international affairs major from Florence, did research abroad in South Africa, Peru and Morocco as the college’s Presidential International Scholar, and Helen Lamm ’17 spent her junior year studying abroad in China as a Boren Scholar. Students from the Pee Dee area are involved at Wofford as student-athletes, musicians, artists, Campus Union representatives and members of sororities and fraternities.
One thing, however, has remained the same. Wofford graduates in the Florence area are still doing their part to make their community a better place to live and work.
Pheobe Clark ’02 | FOR equality and positive change
Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Oliver Hill, Charlotte E. Ray, Macon Allen, Barack Obama. Pheobe Clark ’02 looks at influential African-American attorneys and feels a sense of responsibility.
“We have a responsibility as minorities to maintain the strides that have been made before us,” says Clark, an attorney with the Wukela Law Firm in Florence, S.C. “My part means addressing discrimination. Calling out wrong and doing it in a way that can change the law and have a positive impact on the landscape of my community.”
Clark, who played basketball for the Terriers, practices in the areas of civil rights, employment discrimination, wage disputes, bankruptcy and medical malpractice. She also is involved in her community through Delta Sigma Theta, the American Cancer Society, youth mentoring and Trinity Baptist Church, a congregation that has been involved in the revitalization of downtown Florence through youth, homeless and food ministries.
“When I came back to Florence as an adult (after Wofford and law school), I began to hear a lot of rumblings about changes in the downtown area; small or black businesses were being pushed out. I felt like not much had changed,” says Clark. “But things are never black and white; that’s something I learned at Wofford. When I understood the overall goals and the far-reaching effect of revitalization, I began to see that the temporary discomfort would lead to a bigger and brighter downtown.”
According to Clark, the addition of a discount grocery store in an impoverished area near downtown and First Friday downtown festivities with art, music, food and shopping have been welcome byproducts of revitalization.
“It’s beautiful. All races, all ages, all backgrounds sitting together in the middle of the street on Fridays listening to music,” says Clark. “I want Florence to be above the fray, not indifferent, but different. That’s what I’m seeing more and more.”
Evans Holland ’57 | FOR community development
Evans Holland ’57 still wears his Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity ring, and the medallion he received at his 50th college reunion hangs in his Florence, S.C., office along with other Wofford memorabilia. He was one of 13 young men from McClenaghan High School in Florence to matriculate to Wofford in the fall of 1953, and like many who have come to Wofford from the area, he still remains connected to both his hometown and college roots.
“I think that year we had the second-highest number of students attending Wofford in the state,” says Holland, who was recruited to play football for the Terriers and majored in chemistry. “The whole college only had about 600 guys then.”
After graduation, Holland began working with Milliken and Co., which required moving around, but when he started his own businesses, he knew he would settle in Florence.
“We lived in Fayetteville, N.C., for about 10 years, and I enjoyed it and got to know a lot of people, but Florence is home,” he says.
Holland found success developing Liberty Life buildings in the Carolinas. Then he partnered with his mother-in-law, who had land in the Myrtle Beach area, to establish Pearce Land Co.
The company, which has been a part of downtown Florence revitalization efforts, is prospering along with the community, and Holland remains active both professionally and personally — the Florence economic development board, the Salvation Army board and multiple boards and committees with McLeod Health and the McLeod Foundation board. He was also on the committee to build the Florence Presbyterian Community and McLeod Hospice House, a commitment for which Holland was honored with the Spirit of Hospice Award in 2015.
“I just do what the family, the office and the community ask me to do,” he says. Holland is being humble, but he does find true pleasure in working with others to improve his community.
Dr. Lynn Clary ’86 | FOR medicine and music
Dr. Lynn Clary ’86 is used to being a pioneer. She was among the first in her family to go to college. She was one of the first residential women at Wofford, and she was the third woman to practice obstetrics and gynecology in Florence, S.C.
“My best friend and former partner — Dr. Kelly Rainwater, a Furman University graduate and parent of Wofford students Turner Rainwater ’18 (now in medical school) and Price Rainwater ’21 — finished a year before me. She’s from Florence and was committed to the community. She convinced me to join her practice,” says Clary.
Clary decided to become a physician when she was 16 and hospitalized in Charleston for three months with an eating disorder. There she met a third-year medical student and Wofford graduate.
“We connected, and I decided then that I was going to Wofford and was going to become a doctor.” Clary majored in biology, and Dr. Donald Dobbs became a mentor. “I loved that man. I still remember how he chewed on that cigar the whole time he was in class,” she says. Dr. Charlie Barrett and Dr. Jim Seegars were also favorites.
Now suffering from severe arthritis, Clary no longer practices obstetrics and is considering which trail to blaze next. She has enjoyed being a part of the thriving medical community in Florence but realizes it may be time for a change.
“My first love was music,” says Clary, who was raised by her grandmother, a woman she calls smart, independent and resilient (sounds familiar). “She taught us to sing and play piano almost before we could walk.” Clary still enjoys playing the piano, both for herself and for Central United Methodist Church when asked.
For now, Clary is enjoying time with friends and family [husband William Garey; twins John and James, who just started college; and Sarah Kate (14)] as well as having more time to invest in her church and the Florence community.
Dr. Carroll Player ’60 | FOR a good cause
Dr. Carroll Player ’60, a retired dentist and community volunteer in Florence, S.C., was on hand to promote and support junior golf in South Carolina at the 68th Grant Bennett Florence Junior Invitational, the longestrunning junior boys championship in the state. Also at the Country Club of Florence for the event were Jesse Smith ’03 (left), a member of the board of trustees of the South Carolina Junior Golf Foundation and owner of Element Advisors in Columbia, S.C., and Brian Fast ’07, senior vice president and market executive with First Citizens Bank in Florence. In 2018, Player initiated the Dr. Robert C. Jeffrey Endowed Scholarship Fund at Wofford under the Trustee Matching Fund. Once funded, the scholarship will support students who demonstrate financial need and an interest in studying government. Jeffrey is a professor of government and international affairs at Wofford. Former students who wish to make gifts to the fund in his honor should contact the Wofford College Office of Advancement at advancement@wofford.edu or 864-497-4200.
Dr. Zenobia Collins Edwards ’90 | FOR opportunity and education
Dr. Zenobia Collins Edwards ’90 has always had an affinity for students on the margins. She mentors, coaches, teaches, develops programs, analyzes data, champions and sometimes, by strength of will alone, creates opportunities and equity for students.
“Children today have so much more trauma in their lives, and poor performance in school is usually a product of their environment or something beyond their control,” says Edwards. “We have to deal with that, and we have to do it by pairing structure and consistency with new and creative ways of looking at problems, teaching students and helping them reach their goals.”
After establishing the Darlington County Intervention School in 1999 and shepherding the program to distinction as a national dropout prevention model within three years, Edwards accepted a position with College Summit, a national nonprofit designed to help mid-tier students prepare for and gain entrance into top colleges. She then was founding dean of Metropolitan College at Johnson C. Smith University. There she developed a comprehensive adult degree program and worked on a freshman entry program with the goal of helping marginally admitted firstyear students graduate at the same rate as their peers.
Now Edwards is back in the Florence area to be closer to family and to breathe new life into the Intervention School.
“Our school becomes a family for students who often have been considered the least of these,” says Edwards.
Edwards was raised in a family of educators. Her father taught science at Byrnes High School in Spartanburg County, and Edwards taught in the classroom beside him immediately after she graduated from Wofford, something she calls her “greatest honor.” Her mother was a teacher as well. She would bring students home, feed them and help them with their homework. Her father was a community mentor whose door was always open.
“This doesn’t feel like work to me,” says Edwards. “I know I’m doing exactly what God asked me to do. Educating students is in my DNA.”
In 2004, Edwards took her work with students beyond the classroom. She and her sister, Dr. Tina Collins Woodward, started I Am B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. Inc., an initiative designed to empower young girls.
“We noticed that we were constantly coaching girls and even their mothers, trying to get them to stay on course,” says Edwards. “We all love being called beautiful, but the word should be about more than hair and makeup. We took the word and made it about identity and character. Our ‘BEAUTIFUL’ stands for: Brave, Energetic, Assertive, Unique, Tenacious, Important, Fabulous, Unequaled and Loved.”
In 2017, women’s clothing line Lane Bryant made I Am B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. the recipient of the proceeds of its #ImNoAngel challenge, which made more empowerment opportunities available to more girls and women. One of those opportunities brought girls from Georgia and South Carolina to Wofford.
“We stopped at Greene Hall, and I showed them the exact room I was in my first year. I told them about Light Kinney ’91, who was in my philosophy class, and showed them his sculpture in front of the library. They loved the new fine arts building, and they got to go to the bookstore,” says Edwards. “I want these girls to aspire to be at Wofford or another top college or university.”
Jay Ham ’90 | FOR renovation and revitalization
JAY HAM ’90 barely noticed the pigeon guano, animal nests and spider webs. As he walked through the old Schofield Hardware and Barringer Building in downtown Florence, S.C., he only had eyes for the original plaster, hardwood floors and exposed beams.
Now the buildings are home to Hotel Florence and Victor’s, a boutique hotel and upscale restaurant. Following large municipal and university projects — a library, a museum and a center for the arts — Hotel Florence was the first major private project in the downtown revitalization movement. Ham was the project manager and part of a joint venture as the general contractor. Since then, Ham and his SpringBridge Development partners have completed eight downtown building renovation and construction projects over the past five years, including the construction of a new Hyatt Place on the corner of East Evans and South Dargan streets that opened earlier this year.
“Lots of people ask how it happened so quickly — the revitalization of downtown Florence,” says Ham. “We were just coming out of the recession, so it was the right combination of public and private interest at the right time.”
Ham gets a lot of satisfaction from listening to his community respond to the change.
“I love hearing the stories from older generations who have enjoyed seeing these buildings restored … how they used to come to downtown Florence and buy one shotgun shell at a time from Barringer Hardware, or how they came downtown to buy shoes at Nofals.”
The economic reward — both for his business and his community — is just one of the reasons Ham is particularly proud of his work in Florence.
“My kids are growing up here. I want them to consider it a cool place to live and work and raise their own families if that’s what they decide to do,” he says.
Ham and his wife, Annie, have two children, James (16) and Anabel (12). Ham recently stopped by Wofford’s campus with James for a tour. The experience brought back memories.
“I was underperforming as a sophomore when Dr. Vince Miller called me into his office after class one day. He said, ‘Why are you here?’ He didn’t say, but it was definitely implied, that I should quit wasting his time, go back home and work in my family’s construction company. That woke me up, and I turned things around. I was a finance major, but from that time on, I took every English class I could, especially classes with Dr. Miller.”
After graduation, Ham did go back to work for his family’s construction company, then he spent four years working in the public finance sector. He returned home at 27 with the resources and expertise to buy and take over the family business.
“Construction companies rise and fall, but our family’s company still exists today … in a different form, but it still exists,” says Ham, who, along with his partners, has active hotel development projects throughout the Southeast.
“I didn’t realize the benefits of a liberal arts education when I was at Wofford, but I did know that I enjoyed taking classes outside of my major,” he says. “Wofford is a big family, and the Wofford experience teaches you to get along with everybody. And working well with other people is a big part of being successful in business.”
Fred DuBard ’57 | FOR new ways, thoughts and ideas
Fred DuBard ’57 loves a good story — both hearing one and telling one.
His Florence, S.C., story starts at Wofford.
“I’d never been down there, except to go to the beach,” says DuBard, even though his hometown was Columbia, S.C., “but about half of my Kappa Sig brothers were from the Pee Dee area.”
As a Wofford student, DuBard spent a year working with Frank Logan in the college’s Department of Admission. He loved the work and planned a career in the field.
“The last thing I wanted to do was go back into the food business like my daddy,” says DuBard, but after a military commitment and with a family to support, that’s exactly what happened. Working with PYA Monarch took DuBard to Charleston and Greenville, S.C., before he was asked to take over Anheuser-Busch’s underperforming market in the Pee Dee area.
“It was like throwing Brer Rabbit in the briar patch,” says DuBard. “I liked the small town feel and the people, some I knew from Wofford. People in the Pee Dee had their own time and pace. When I was in Greenville, I wore a coat and tie every day. Here I took that tie off really quickly, and now I only wear one when I go to church.”
After 40 years in the community, he’s made his mark.
“When I got here, Budweiser only had 15 percent market share,” says DuBard. “When I sold the company, we had 72 percent share of the market.”
Success meant long days, cold calls, building a fleet of reliable trucks and trusting his employees.
“I hired good people. I gave them a job to do; I trained them, then I got out of their way,” he says. “We had very little turnover, and I think that’s because people were given the authority and the means to do their jobs. I helped when asked, gave praise when deserved, then watched as people came up with new ways and new thoughts and new ideas.”
In the early 1990s, DuBard was asked to join a group called Vision 2000. The community planning group had no money, but they did research, visited other communities and planned. Vision 2010 and Vision 2020 followed, and DuBard has been committed since the start.
“What’s happened in downtown Florence today started in that group,” says DuBard. “Lots of people said nothing would ever get going downtown, but one person got interested in what was best for Florence, then another, then another. Now it’s a marvel.”
DuBard is retired, but he stays busy caring for his farm and wife of 61 years, Jessie.
“I have a garden, mow the grass and shake and pick the pecan trees,” says DuBard. “I’ve lived here for 40 years now. Florence is home.”
Nicole Simmons Hupfer ’96 and Jay Hupfer ’96 | FOR home and family
Nicole Simmons Hupfer ’96 always knew she would return to her hometown of Florence, S.C. Jay Hupfer ’96 also grew up in the Pee Dee region, about 30 minutes away in Hartsville, S.C. He came to Florence with a clerkship during law school.
Now they’re doing their part to make sure their community thrives with opportunity for their children and others who want to make Florence home.
“There’s a chance that my children will get married in the same church where we got married, in the same church in which they were baptized. That doesn’t always happen anymore,” says Nicole. Coming back home also means their children, Eloise (15) and Jack (12), get to spend time regularly with both sets of grandparents and their 97-yearold great-grandmother. “If they want to come back to Florence, I want them to have the opportunity to pursue whatever.”
Jay is an attorney with King, Love, Hupfer and Nance. Nicole is a financial advisor with Edward Jones Investments. She’s heavily involved in her children’s schools and in the life of Central United Methodist Church, including service on the staff-parish relations committee. Jay is on the board of the Florence Symphony and the Boy Scouts, and he helped bring a Smithsonian-quality museum as an anchor to the downtown area.
“We’re very lucky to have a museum of this quality in Florence,” says Jay. “Downtown revitalization efforts weren’t a guaranteed success, but they have been.”
While the Hupfers are committed to making their community a better place to live and work, they’re also committed to making sure their children are global citizens.
They have maps in their home from their family travels.
“We believe that a more worldly view gives you better empathy for others, even if you live in a small southern town,” says Nicole. “It’s important to us that our children understand that all people are valued. Wofford did that for us when we were students.”
The Hupfers also bring Eloise and Jack to campus a few times each year for Homecoming and athletics events. Eloise just finished Rod Ray’s tennis camp at Wofford, leaving with the 2019 Competitor of the Year award.
“I’ve grown up at Wofford,” says Eloise. “When I’m there for camp, I never want to leave.”
The connections between the Hupfers and Florence and Wofford seem endless. They enjoy athletics watch events with Wofford friends in the community. (The family says Hood Temple ’86, an attorney and former Wofford student body president, is one of the biggest Wofford fans in town and throws the best watch parties.) They worship with Terriers at Central United Methodist Church, where the Rev. Thomas Smith ’97 and Ellen Burris Smith ’97 now serve. (The Rev. Will Malambri ’98 and Sally Gray McIntyre Malambri ’97 were at Central until June 2019.) The Hupfers meet Terriers for dinner, gather with sorority and fraternity friends and travel to cheer on the Terriers whenever possible. Eloise even roomed with Frances Smith, the daughter of Mary Catherine Caldwell Smith ’96, one of Nicole’s college roommates, during tennis camp at Wofford.
“When you walk into a room with a Wofford person, there’s an immediate trust,” Nicole says. “I feel comfortable saying, ‘hold my purse and watch my kids.’ Florence is home, and Wofford is family.”
Robert Massey ’16 | FOR competition and work ethic
Robert Massey ’16 says it’s been a blur since graduating from Wofford. After graduation he began working in Atlanta, Ga. He and his wife, Katy, were married, and now he has moved back to the Pee Dee area, where he’s an inside sales representative with Nucor Cold Finish, a company that sells steel products in Darlington, S.C.
Massey, who was a member of the college’s football team, remains connected to the college through athletics.
“This year specifically, we enjoyed seeing the men’s basketball team make their NCAA run,” says Massey. “We traveled to Jacksonville to see them play Kentucky live. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
Massey still falls back on the lessons he learned on the gridiron with his Wofford teammates. “The game taught me how to take coaching, demand greatness, be excited about life and work hard for the person right beside you,” he says. “I’ll always be a big supporter of the great people of Wofford and their athletics.”
By Jo Ann Mitchell Brasington ’89