Frederick W. Hicks III

‌Chancellor, USC Coastal Carolina University: 1983-1985

Frederick "Fred" W. Hicks III served as chancellor of USC Coastal Carolina College from 1983 to 1985, following the retirement of long-serving director and chancellor Edward M. "Dick" Singleton. At the time, enrollment topped 2,000 students, 14 different degree programs were offered, and planning for the Honors Program was initiated. In addition, campus technology improved and the addition to Williams-Brice opened, providing much-needed space for student recreation. The movement toward establishing residence halls gained momentum and finally became a reality in 1987.

Hicks served as a professor of history from 1985 to 1998. He was particularly proud of the popular course he taught: Vietnam: The American Experience, 1941-1982. He was a Fulbright-Hays Fellow to India in 1988 and a Fulbright-Hays lecturer and consultant to the Minister of Education of Cyprus from 1990 to 1995. In the late 1980s, he was the principal investigator on a three-year grant for curriculum enrichment in international studies focusing on the needs of historically black colleges and universities.

After serving in the U.S. Army Security Agency (ASA) overseas from 1954-1957, Hicks served in a number of capacities at the University of Michigan and Arizona State University. From 1964 to 1978, he held numerous positions at Rollins College in Florida: dean of student affairs, dean of men, assistant chancellor, and assistant to the chairman of the board of trustees and executive vice president; he also served as acting president in 1978. He was president of Wesleyan College in Georgia from1979-1983. Hicks was a Carnegie Fellow in the Center for the Study of Higher Education in 1962-1963 and he received an H.H. Powers Grant for Study in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in 1968.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in history in 1954, a master’s degree in history 1959, and Ph.D. in higher education in 1963, all from the University of Michigan. In 1979, he earned a master’s degree in criminal justice from Rollins College and was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1980. 

In 2000, he established a $100,000 endowment fund to provide scholarships in the E. Craig Wall Sr. School of Business Administration, and created the Fred W. Hicks IV and Sara L. Hicks Speakers Series, named for his children. He made additional gifts to support the Department of Psychology, the Honors Program and Lackey Chapel.

In 2010 the Board of Trustees voted to name the main dining facility on campus – Frederick W. Hicks III Hall – in his honor. The building was dedicated in April 2011.