As part of Coastal’s 50th Anniversary, the university launched a $10 million fund-raising campaign, the largest fund-raising effort in the university’s history. The three-part campaign, co-chaired by Billy Alford and Hal Holmes Jr., is designed to raise private funds to support the academic, physical and athletic needs of the university, including scholarships, endowed professorships and programmatic endeavors.

“Coastal’s leaders have planned a 50th anniversary that gives us a unique vantage point to look back but also to look forward, to outline our vision for building a culture of excellence that will characterize our university in the next 50 years,” says Coastal President Ronald R. Ingle. “The 50th Anniversary Initiatives campaign is an integral part of our vision for the future.”

The 50th Anniversary Initiatives campaign will conclude by June 30, 2005. The campaign includes three initiatives:

Bob Brooks & Ron Ingle

The $2 million gift from local businessman Bob Brooks, made during the silent phase of the 50th Anniversary Initiatives campaign, is the largest single gift Coastal has received to date.

Named in honor of his children, Coby Garrett and Boni Belle, Brooks Stadium was dedicated Sept. 6, 2003, during Coastal’s first football game against Newberry College.

Brooks, who grew up on a farm in Loris, is the CEO and founder of Eastern Foods, Inc., creators of the Naturally Fresh line of products, and chairman of Hooters of America, Inc., which includes restaurants by the same name in 41 states and nine countries. He also created Hooters Air Charter Airline, the National Golf Association Hooters Tour, and the Hooters ProCup Series, a $3-million-a-year operation that includes 30 short-track races in small towns throughout the Southeast and Midwest.

“I am glad we were able to contribute to this com-munity in this way,” said Brooks. “I trust that our involvement in the community will continue for a long time. I would ask that other businesses get involved also because of the critical importance of supporting education in our community.”

Spadoni College of Education

Brenda Spadoni Urquhart remembers her parents giving back to the community when she was growing up even when they didn’t have a lot to give.

“Coastal Carolina University has brought a great sense of pride to the area, and we have always felt the importance of giving back to the community,” said Urquhart.

William L. “Spud” Spadoni and members of his family have given a gift of $1 million to Coastal. In recognition of the gift, the university has renamed its education college the Spadoni College of Education. The gift was made by Spadoni, owner of Better Brands, Inc., of Myrtle Beach, his wife Julia, daughter Brenda Spadoni Urquhart and son-in-law Gary Urquhart.

“This gift offers a tremendous opportunity for Coastal to better prepare teachers for today’s K-12 classrooms, as well as to further develop our master’s degree programs in education,” said Gil Hunt, dean of the Spadoni College of Education.

The Spadoni name has long been associated with Coastal. The campus’
Spadoni Park, named in memory of Spadoni’s son Nicholas, was dedicated in 1982. The park has been a focal point of campus life, the setting for many festivals, receptions and other events.

Elizabeth & James P. Blanton

On April 14, 2004, Atheneum Circle, the drive that surrounds the horseshoe in the center of the Coastal campus, was renamed to honor the late James P. Blanton, one of the original founders of the institution. Blanton, who died in September, was present at the occasion, along with many members of his family who helped Coastal honor one of the university’s true patriarchs.

Blanton was one of the members of the first committee that met in July 1954 to discuss the establishment of a junior college in Horry County. He served on the Coastal Educational Foundation, continuously through the years, and was a director emeritus until his death.

Blanton is known for his devotion to education and to the conservation of the natural resources of Horry County. He was the founder and the guiding spirit of Playcard Environmental Education Center, a unique learning facility located by a 250-acre blackwater swamp 20 miles west of Conway. Blanton received the honorary degree Doctor of Public Service from Coastal in 2001.

Florida Yeldell Women’s Studies Collection

Florida Yeldell

When Florida Yeldell was a little girl, she learned to read by perusing the undeliverable mail that her father, a rural postman in Georgetown County, would bring home. In memory of her father, the late Robert J. Jackson, the 89-year-old Yeldell made a gift to Kimbel Library to start the Women’s Studies Collection.

“Our whole lives we were surrounded with books and magazines,” said Yeldell. “I wanted to remember Papa with books, biographies about women all over the world, to acknowledge the universality of women and to acknowledge that we live in a global world.”

Yeldell was born in 1915 in Georgetown. She earned her A.B. in English at Morris College in 1936. During the Depression, she received a scholarship from the National Youth Administration to study history at Howard University, where she earned a master’s degree in 1941. She worked for the government during World War II and pursued a long career teaching at colleges in Texas.

The collection was established with 135 volumes contributed by Sally Hare, director of Coastal’s Center for Education and Community.

John Vrooman

Before he retired after 36 years at Coastal, John Vrooman was a professor, baseball coach, academic dean and interim athletic director. This past spring, Coastal’s baseball field was named Vrooman Field after he made a gift to the 50th Anniversary Initiatives campaign in honor of his parents, Irv and Bernice Vrooman.

Vrooman Field was dedicated at Charles L. Watson Stadium in a pre-game ceremony in March 2004.

Vrooman joined the Coastal faculty in 1968 as an adjunct faculty member. In 1971, he became a fulltime faculty member in the Department of History. He was Coastal’s head baseball coach for 13 seasons, including from 1974-1977 and from 1987-1995. He had a record of 345-256 (.574) during his tenure, including leading Coastal to six consecutive Big South Conference regular season championships from 1988 to 1993, a pair of conference tournament titles in 1991 and 1992 and the program’s first-ever appearance in a NCAA Regional in 1991 at Florida State. In concert with his retirement, Coastal’s board of trustees named him professor emeritus in January of 1998.

Among the improvements Vrooman’s gift has made possible are a new outfield wall, a completely renovated infield with new fencing and dugout extensions, and a new sound system. 

Nancy & Cathcart Smith

The Nancy Arthur Smith Distinguished Visitors-in-Residence Series, a new program that will bring noted artists and scholars to campus, has been established at Coastal to honor the legacy of Smith, a long-time supporter and advocate of the university.

The program, funded through a gift bequeathed to Coastal by area education and community activist Nancy A. Smith (1918-2002) and her husband, Dr. R. Cathcart Smith (1914-2001), will support campus residencies for artists and intellectuals who have distinguished careers in the arts, history, archaeology, international affairs or philosophy.

According to preliminary plans, a visitor-in-residence will be chosen every other year to join the university community for a period of months, ideally a semester. In alternate years, he or she will be on campus for a period of three days to one week. During their residencies, the visitors will conduct seminars for students and faculty as well as interact with the local and regional community. A public lecture will also highlight their visit.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Duke University, Smith moved to Conway in
1947 with her husband. Their lives were characterized by a deep sense of civic duty, and they were both keenly interested in higher education.

The Jackson Family

The five daughters of area business and civic leaders Nelson and Mary Emily Platt Jackson honored their parents with a generous gift to Coastal for the establishment of a resource center focusing on values and ethics.

The purpose of the Jackson Family Center for Values and Ethics is to cultivate and promote awareness in students of the importance of personal and professional integrity. The center will sponsor scholarships and visiting scholars as well as public discussion forums on ethical issues in science, business, education, and the arts and humanities.

“This new center, which will be unique to our region in its purpose and its scope, recognizes and celebrates the superlative example of integrity and civic commitment for which Nelson and Emily Jackson and their family are already well known throughout the region and the state,” said Coastal President Ronald R. Ingle.

A major feature of the new center will be its “Four Cornerstone” programs: the Jackson Scholars, the Jackson Junior Scholars, the Jackson Visiting Ethicist, and the Jackson Resource Center. The Jackson family plans to take an active role in the center, which will be housed in Coastal’s Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.

Burroughs & Chapin Company, Inc., donated $1.5 million to Coastal Carolina University for the development of a marine educational facility on Waites Island. The facility will serve as a research base for Coastal’s Center for Marine and Wetland Studies, which was renamed the Burroughs & Chapin Center for Marine and Wetland Studies last fall after the gift was announced.

“Understanding our complex coastal environment is essential in maintaining and improving our ecological and economic well being, here on the Grand Strand and around the globe,” said Burroughs & Chapin Chairman Egerton Burroughs. “This gift will allow Coastal Carolina University to make significant advancements in its already widely respected programs in marine science and marine biology,” said President Ingle.

An on-site research facility has been central to Coastal’s plans for the island since it acquired the pristine, 1,062-acre property through a gift from the Boyce and Tilghman families in the early 1990s.

The facility will serve as a research base for Coastal’s new master’s degree in coastal marine and wetland studies, which was initiated last year, as well as for undergraduate students involved in cutting-edge analysis of beach erosion, water quality and other topics of vital importance to South Carolina and the nation. 

College of Natural and Applied Sciences
Endowed Chair in Wetlands Studies

Hal Holmes

A deep interest in protecting the area’s coastal environment led Dr. Hal Holmes of Conway to endow a chair in Coastal’s College of Natural and Applied Sciences. According to the conditions of the gift, professors who hold the chair must be specialists in the study of wetlands.

“The marine and coastal environment is critical to our community and our way of life,” says Holmes. “There is a great need for good science to help us understand and preserve it for the enjoyment of future generations.”

Holmes has been involved with Coastal since 1982 when he was named to the Horry County Higher Education Commission, which he led as chair for two years. He has served on the Coastal Educational Foundation since 1987 and was president from 1993 to 1996. He also served on Coastal’s board of trustees from 1999 to 2003. Along with Col. William J. Baxley Jr. and Mildred Holmes Allen Prince, Holmes was named an honorary founder of the university at Coastal’s 17th annual Founders’ Day Convocation in 2003.

Coastal’s Student Center has been named for the late Elizabeth Benson Jackson of Myrtle Beach.

Jackson was born and raised in Salisbury, N.C., the oldest of four children. She married A.E. Jackson Jr., and the couple moved to Myrtle Beach in 1939.

She was an active member of the First United Methodist Church of Myrtle Beach for 65 years, serving on the building committee and other committees, and she was president of the Women’s Society of Christian Service.

Jackson was involved in the PTA, was president of the Myrtle Beach Garden Club, a Girl Scout leader and a founding member of the Archibald Rutledge Book Club and later the Heritage Book Club. She enjoyed serving the community and playing golf and bridge.

The Moore Family

When Coastal trustee Daniel Moore and his wife Toni decided to do something for Coastal in honor of Daniel’s father, retired North Myrtle Beach real estate leader and longtime Coastal supporter Donald A. Moore, they decided to create a scholarship to benefit Horry County high school graduates who study in Coastal’s Spadoni College of Education.

“My father started out as a teacher, and his heart has always been in education. He has been a guiding force in my life,” said Moore. “I’m happy to have this opportunity to acknowledge his contributions to Coastal and to the area.”

Donald A. Moore was named an honorary founder of Coastal in 1999. From 1970 to 1994, he was a member of the Horry County Higher Education Commission, the government-appointed body that manages the tax millage allocated to the university. Moore served as the commission’s chairman from 1975 to 1976 and its treasurer from 1976 to 1991. His son Daniel began following in his footsteps when he succeeded his father on the commission beginning in 1994. He served on the commission until 2000, when he was elected to the board of trustees.

In recognition of a generous gift made by Southern Asphalt to the Initiatives campaign, the university has named the Brooks Stadium entrance area the Southern Asphalt Plaza.

“This community has been good to us, so we wanted to give back to the community and show our support for the great football program at Coastal,” said co-owners Donald Godwin and Sam Adams.

Southern Asphalt has been in business for 10 years. The company’s recent paving projects include the widening of S.C. 544 and the Grissom Parkway in Myrtle Beach.

Fred DuBard

Fred F. DuBard, chairman of Coastal Carolina University’s board of trustees, has made a $50,000 pledge which will be used to create a Board of Trustees’ Distinguished Leadership Endowment at the university.

The endowment will be managed by the board of directors of the Coastal Educational Foundation according to the foundation’s investment and disbursement policies.

DuBard is owner, president and CEO of DuBard, Inc., of Florence, a distributor of Anheuser-Busch products. He has served on Coastal’s board of trustees since 1993, including three terms as chairman. DuBard has been an active leader in many Florence area civic organizations including the Florence Chamber of Commerce, the Florence Rotary Club, the YMCA, and the Florence-Darlington Technical Foundation.

The sound of bell chimes have echoed across campus every hour since the Graham Bell Tower was dedicated on Sept. 20, 2004 as part of Coastal’s official 50th anniversary kick off and Founders’ Day celebration.

The day started out with a campuswide lunch picnic in Spadoni Park. At 4 p.m. in Wheelwright Auditorium, a memorable Founders’ Day convocation honored three institutions that were instrumental in Coastal’s founding and development—Horry County Schools, the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina. At the end of the ceremony, the crowd headed out to Spadoni Park to dedicate the new bell tower in honor of the late Harvey Graham Sr. of Loris. A time capsule containing Coastal memorabilia was placed by the tower during the ceremony, to be opened in 2054, the year of the university’s 100th anniversary.

The 25-bell tower, constructed by the Verdin Co., is named in honor of
the late Harvey Graham Sr., a prominent Loris businessman whose
family made a major donation to Coastal’s 50th Anniversary Initiatives Campaign. His son, Harvey Graham Jr., followed him into his business enterprises, as did his grandson, Harvey Graham III. Their businesses include The Brick Warehouse, the Graham Brothers Farm Supply Store, and Carolina Linen Service. Graham Sr. died in 1998.

BB&T has also made a gift to Coastal to support the Graham Bell Tower project.