CCU retirees and staff share Coastal memories
by Rohr
An all-star Coastal Carolina University lineup of people who have played major roles in building this University from the ground up assembled on Oct. 4 in the Alford Ballroom to walk down memory lane, and a group of 20 or so faculty/staff were pleased and honored to go with them.
The Office of Training, Development and Service Excellence hosted a CCU History Panel as part of International Customer Service Week, Oct. 2-6. The members of the panel were Charmaine Tomczyk, Patricia Singleton-Young, John Vrooman and Eddie Dyer.
Dyer joined the faculty in 1976 and served CCU in multiple capacities, including chair of the politics department, women’s golf coach, dean of humanities, vice president of university relations, and executive vice president. He retired in 2015, and the Edgar Dyer Institute for Leadership and Public Policy is named in his honor.
Singleton-Young graduated from CCU in 1975 and started working as the assistant director of campus activities in 1979. She has since held roles in a variety of areas, including academic advising, student services, career services, residence life and others. She is currently the director of Multicultural Student Services and is the only member of the panel who is still working full time at Coastal.
Tomczyk joined CCU in 1978 and held such positions as technical services librarian, assistant vice president for academic affairs and associate provost, and director of undergraduate research. She retired in 2012.
Vrooman joined Coastal’s history faculty in 1968 and was the head baseball coach for 13 years. He also served as dean and interim athletic director before retiring after 36 years, and the baseball field at Springs Brooks Stadium is named Vrooman Field in his honor.
The panel took turns answering questions posed by moderator Nick DeStefano, service excellence program coordinator, among them: “What challenges did you see our campus face and overcome in your time working here?” and “Which moment in athletic history stands out in your memories?”
In response to the first question, most of the panel cited the challenges CCU faced being a part of the University of South Carolina system, both because of the physical distance between the two colleges and the administrative challenges in the 1970s and 1980s.
The first football game in 2003 stood out to the panel as being a memorable moment in our sports history, as well as the baseball national championship victory in 2016.
The panel was also in agreement about the people who have worked at CCU over the years and the people in the surrounding community who have supported it.
“Students, faculty, and staff alike have had a passion to be at CCU, and that’s what has driven this university over the years,” said Vrooman. “Horry County is one of the few counties in the nation that supports its university in the way it does.”
Dyer shared the story of how he ended up at Coastal, saying he was about to accept a job in Georgia that came with some attractive perks, but was invited to interview for a teaching position at this small campus in South Carolina. He agreed to the interview, ultimately turning down the Georgia job (and free golf) because “I just liked the people here.”
Pat Singleton-Young echoed Dyer’s sentiment. “The people were always extraordinarily kind. Faculty always did whatever they could to help.”
The candor and humor were much appreciated by those in attendance. When asked what one of their funniest moments of his CCU career was, Dyer was quick to answer. “There was a game of basketball played inside Williams-Brice gymnasium where the players were riding donkeys. There was some clean-up involved,” he joked.
The panel members also shared memories from early CINO Days, what traffic was like on U.S. 501 and S.C. 544 (Singleton-Young said she could get from Murrells Inlet to CCU in 17 minutes when S.C. 544 was a two-land road) and their interactions with Clyde, the campus security guard.
But perhaps Tomcyzk summarized best what it was like to be at Coastal: “I wanted to be somewhere, do something where I could be a big fish in a little pond. I found it.”
