Today I made some brief remarks to Wofford's Heritage Society – the group of students who have ancestors who graduated from the college. They gathered for lunch on this day before Commencement with their parents and other family members, many of whom are alums. Charlie Gray '72, who admitted me in 1990, asked me to share some details about ways that alumni have helped the college through the years. This is a little longer than one of my usual posts, but it's still fairly concise.
On what was probably a very warm day in July 1859, a group of Wofford’s alumni gathered in Main Building and, with the permission of the Board of Trustees, organized an alumni association. Like ours today, their gathering was held on the day before Commencement, and when the class of 1859 took their degrees the next day, the number of alumni grew from 18 to 32. By the way, those 14 graduates of the class of 1859 each had to give a speech at graduation on topics ranging from “Americans Abroad” to “Liberty, not Licentiousness.” Be grateful for that change. For decades after, alumni gathered and were a part of Wofford’s multi-day Commencement activities. Along with literary society debates, baccalaureate and graduation, an alumni banquet and alumni address were highlights of Commencement week. Were this a true alumni address, you could count on me going on for an hour or more about my selected topic. Fortunately, this is not one of those addresses.
As a body, Wofford’s alumni have risen to a number of challenges through the years. In the 1880s, the college needed to build additional student housing. The trustees planned to build a few small cottages, but the alumni offered to raise funds to build a larger residence for students. The trustees accepted their offer, and under the leadership of John B. Cleveland of the class of 1869, the alumni raised the funds to build Alumni Hall. Dedicated in 1888, that building is still standing – we know it today as the home of the admission and financial aid offices.
About twenty years later, a group of alumni banded together to build another campus residence – this time as a memorial to the college’s late president who had been such a mentor to each of them. In 1911, the college broke ground on the first James H. Carlisle Hall – which, when it opened the next year, housed all of the freshmen and sophomores. This alumni gift helped revolutionize student life, putting nearly half of the student body of the day in one residence and providing a dining room for them as well.
In the 1950s, the alumni responded to another challenge, this one by newly-appointed trustee Roger Milliken. He pledged that for every 1% increase in the number of alumni donors, he would contribute $1000. As a result, in 1956, some 74% of Wofford’s alumni made a gift to the college – a national record. It’s even more remarkable because in 1954, that number was 12%. I note than in all of these efforts where alumni joined together, their goal was to help Wofford students.
Alumni loyalty has been one of the strongest features of the college from the very beginning, and that loyalty has produced many multi-generational Wofford families. At least four of the first seven graduates had descendants who later earned degrees – and the Civil War kept that number from being higher. One of first graduate Samuel Dibble’s great-great-grandsons is studying here now. William Wallace Duncan, an 1858 graduate, was the son of an original faculty member, he was himself a professor here, he and his brother were trustees, and his son graduated in 1881. His daughters both married alums, and a number of their descendants also graduated from Wofford. They all believed in Wofford enough to entrust their children’s education to the college. And their children knew enough from their fathers (and now, mothers) about Wofford to know that they wanted to be a part of that legacy. You don’t have to do too much digging in Wofford history before you run into all of the interconnections among alumni. I remember asking my predecessor, Herbert Hucks, who graduated in 1934, if he ever thought about going to college anywhere other than his father’s alma mater, and in a word, he replied “no.”
Earlier I mentioned the word “legacy” – which is the term often applied to students who have a parent, grandparent, or older sibling who attended the college. Another definition is that it’s a gift, or something handed down or received from the past or from an ancestor or predecessor. All of us are the beneficiaries of Benjamin Wofford and of the work of faculty and alumni who have long gone on to their reward. We are here because others worked to build a college, increasing in power and goodness through the ages, and we are here because we all saw something here that we liked and wanted to join. That legacy goes well beyond the campus.
Many of the college’s alumni, after leaving this place, have gone out to do great and good things in their communities. Maybe they served as teachers or principals in their local schools. Maybe they led civic organizations or served on volunteer boards, or maybe they provided quiet leadership in a difficult time. And maybe they influenced someone else to come to Wofford.
And this service relates to an older definition of the word legacy, from the Middle Ages. It relates to the office of a legate, to a group of people sent on a diplomatic mission. Essentially, it was another word for an ambassador or envoy. As legacies, you’re all envoys or ambassadors for Wofford. My challenge to you, graduates of the class of 2011 or graduates of classes of years ago: Go out and be good ambassadors of our alma mater.
