Distinguished Alumnus Award
The Distinguished Alumnus award was established to recognize alumni who have made significant contributions to their professions and communities over a long period of time.

Ray Reece ’59
Ray Reece, general manager of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Conway-Myrtle Beach, Inc., enrolled at Coastal Carolina Junior College on the G.I. Bill after serving in the Korean conflict. He attended classes in the old Conway High School after 3 p.m. and in the evenings, earning an associate’s degree in 1959.
“I was in the top 25 percent of a graduating class of four,” he recalls.

Ray Reece ’59 (right) with CCU official Eddie Dyer

A native of the Wampee section of Horry County, Reece has been associated with Pepsi-Cola’s Conway plant for more than 44 years. He has served on the South Carolina Bottlers Association in many capacities through the years, including vice president.

The bottling company, under Reece’s guidance, has been a good friend to Coastal through the years, offering support for many different aspects of the university.

Reece has been involved in several community organizations including Junior Achievement. He is an active member of Maple Baptist Church near Conway, where he has served as treasurer for more than 20 years.

Reece and his wife Donna have five children, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Alumni of the Year
College of Education
Sandy Sarvis Brossard is the perfect embodiment of the qualities Coastal’s College of Education strives to instill in its graduates: professionalism, dedication and a passion for student achievement.

Sandy Sarvis Brossard ’79 (right) with College of Education Dean Gil Hunt

Brossard graduated magna cum laude from Coastal Carolina in 1979, earning a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. She went on to the University of South Carolina to get her master’s degree in 1986, an educational specialist (Ed.S.) degree in school administration in 1989, and also did post-graduate work towards her Ph.D.

She has been a K-12 teacher in Horry County, an assistant and associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Lexington County, and an instructor at USC. More recently, she has earned recognition as a national educational consultant and speaker and as the founder and president of Educational Services and Policies, Inc., based in Columbia.

Brossard’s honors include receiving the S.C. Department of Education’s first Barbara H. James Award for Outstanding Assistant Superintendent in 1993. She was named Columbia’s Young Career Woman of the Year 1991 and 1992 and South Carolina’s Young Career Woman of the Year for 1991-1992.

Sandy lives in Columbia with her husband Gerry and five children: Bryn, Holly, Lissa, Melanie and Gerry Jr.

Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Janice Cannan is an attorney, a teacher, a civic volunteer and, since the fall 2003 semester, a Coastal administrator.

Janice Cannan ’96

A native of Holland, Pa., Cannan attended Radford University, but, undecided about the career path she wanted to take, didn’t finish her degree. At Coastal, however, she found her calling in the political science classes of Eddie Dyer, Jack Riley and Richard Weldon. She got involved in the student legislature and participated in its annual statewide debate in Columbia, and she joined Coastal’s chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, a national law fraternity.

Graduating in 1996, Cannan went on to earn her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 2000. She is now a managing partner in the Conway law firm of Weldon & Cannan, LLC, with her former professor Richard Weldon. She is also president and CEO of South Carolina Title Insurance Agency, Inc.

She has served as an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Politics since 2001 and, as of fall 2003, she is also director of Instructional Services for Coastal’s Division of Academic Outreach, which governs the university’s satellite centers. Cannan is an active member of Coastal’s Alumni Association.

E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration
Back in October 2002, Myrtle Beach banker Jay Huggins was one of three area businessmen who gave a talk to senior finance majors as part of Finance Day, a career guidance event hosted each year by the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration.

“Jay” Huggins ’88 (center) with Wall College of Business Professor Jim Eason and Dean David DeCenzo

Huggins knows what a difference a little encouragement and some sound advice can make in the life and career of a student. After an unsuccessful freshman year at the University of South Carolina, Huggins says he might not have continued with college if he hadn’t met Coastal business professor Jim Eason, who urged him to give Coastal a try.

“That personal connection made all the difference in the world,” says Huggins. He credits Eason, who was his academic adviser, and other finance professors like Gerry Boyles with starting him on a successful career path.

Huggins graduated from Coastal in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in finance and later attended the graduate school for banking at Louisiana State University. He began his career with C&S Bank (later NationsBank) in Atlanta.

Returning back home to the Grand Strand area in 1994, Huggins served as a vice president of Carolina First Bank before co-founding Crescent Bank in July 2001. Jay lives in Myrtle Beach with his wife Cheryl and their two children, Max and Sean.

College of Natural and Applied Sciences
Tony Prince, a 1993 computer science graduate, is the founder of LURHQ Corporation, a Myrtle Beach-based information security firm that scored national media coverage in July 2003 for discovering a worldwide computer pornography hacking scam. Prince, a native of Loris, fielded calls from The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, MSNBC and other national news organizations covering the story.

Tony Prince ’93

The fact that a major communications scam, affecting thousands of computers the world over, was exposed by a small, young company in a resort area that is decidedly not associated with high technology is a great tribute to Prince and his staff—and a great point of pride for Coastal, his alma mater.

Prince began his career as a network engineer at Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC) in Conway while he was a Coastal student. After graduating, cum laude, he went to work for Trusted Information Systems, a Washington, D.C.-based firm specializing in computer security software and services.

Prince and his wife Kristi started LURHQ Corp. in 1996 in their garage. Now the company employs more than 30 expert technicians and has more than 400 clients worldwide, including several Fortune 500 companies and government agencies.

Interdisciplinary Studies
Chuck Canterbury, who earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies in 1999, began his career as a law enforcement officer in 1979 with the City of North Myrtle Beach. After a stint as a patrol officer with the City of Myrtle Beach, he joined the Horry County Police Department in 1986 and steadily rose through the ranks, from sergeant, to lieutenant, to captain and finally to major of operations. Along the way he has been a crime prevention specialist charged with Neighborhood Watch and head training officer for the department.

Chuck Canterbury ’99

Canterbury’s involvement in the Fraternal Order of Police, a national law enforcement labor organization with more than 300,000 members, has been marked by a similar progression of promotions, achievement and responsibility. He assisted in the chartering of a local chapter, the Coastal Carolina Lodge 12, in 1984 and was elected to the statewide board of directors in 1985. He served as president of the South Carolina State Lodge from 1990 to 1998. In 1995 he was elected to serve on the organization’s National Executive Board and earlier this year he was elected national president of the organization. In this capacity he has met with President George W. Bush and has testified before Congress on law enforcement issues.

In March 2003, President Bush appointed Canterbury to the National Medal of Valor Board, which selects Medal of Valor winners among America’s bravest police officers.

Canterbury lives in Myrtle Beach and has two children, K.C. and Katie.