Education

In November 1862 Pember was approached by Mrs. George W. Randolph, wife of the Confederate secretary of war. She asked Pember to serve as matron in Chimborazo Hospital, a complex of military hospitals on the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia.

After becoming Penn Community Center in 1953, the institution began to focus on social issues affecting the well-being of the native islanders.

“Miss Jim” Perry was the first woman admitted to the South Carolina Bar and a distinguished lawyer and civic leader for forty years.

From about 1898 to 1926 Perry ran the Elhanan orphanage and school for poor children in Marion, North Carolina.

Pickens used his intellectual talents as a method of protest, especially during his years as a full-time educator.

Born in Charleston, Carrie, Mabel, and Anita Pollitzer were artists, activists, and social reformers.

A slaveowner and supporter of secession, Porcher volunteered as a surgeon for the Confederate army in 1861, serving first in an army hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, and later in Petersburg, Virginia.

The Port Royal Experiment, also called the Sea Island Experiment, was an early humanitarian effort to prepare the former slaves of the South Carolina Sea Islands for inclusion as free citizens in American public life.

In the 1950s, after years of declining enrollments as public schools gained broad acceptance, Porter Academy faced a grave crisis. Officials sold off assets such as football uniforms and jettisoned the military and high school departments just to survive.

Originally known as Clinton College, the institution became the Presbyterian College of South Carolina in 1890, when oversight of the college was increased to include all presbyteries in the Synod of South Carolina.

Preston was appointed president and professor of belles lettres of South Carolina College in 1845 and assumed his post on January 1, 1846. Preston was an able scholar and a successful college administrator.

South Carolina progressives, like reformers throughout the nation, emerged primarily from the town-based middle class, which included lawyers, journalists, professors, educators, ministers, businessmen, doctors, civic leaders, agricultural scientists, agricultural extension agents, and others.

Rash considers himself an Appalachian writer, and his published work typically uses the mountains as a setting. However, his major literary themes and concerns are universal: the nature of evil in human beings, the incessant struggle for certitude despite the chaos of existence, and the tragedy of unfulfilled lives.

After helping to establish the Medical College of South Carolina in 1824, Ravenel served as its professor of chemistry and pharmacy and, later, as dean.

In 1903 Rea became professor of biology and geology and curator of the museum at the College of Charleston. He would remain at the college until 1914. He assumed his position as curator of the museum at a time when it needed a leader with vision and a commitment to increasing the educational and research potentials of the collections.

In 1999 Ennis Rees was awarded recognition for his literary contributions by being inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors. He counted his influences as Homer, Chaucer, Emerson, and Whitman. All of his writing—his children’s books, his various translations, and his own poetry—is notable for its uncomplicated diction, sense of optimism, humor, and wordplay.

Typically, his writing concerned the flora and fauna of South Carolina, farming practices, and environmental issues. Rice served as chief game warden of South Carolina (1911–1913) and as an inspector for the U.S. Biological Survey (1913–1917). Among many groups and associations in which he was active were the Audubon Society, the American Forestry Association, and the Conservation Society of South Carolina.

In 1933 Rice first gained nationwide attention when the demand for his resignation from Rollins College sparked a highly publicized investigation by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

Popular as a teacher, Richardson named the literary societies that played a significant part of campus life. She also became noted for her promotion of women’s suffrage, with her stated goal at the Greenville Woman’s College being to educate “girls who are staunch advocates of women’s rights.”

By the end of Clinton’s second term, Riley had helped the Department of Education reach record levels of federal education spending. After eight years in the post of secretary of education, Riley was hailed in the national press as “one of the great statesmen of education” in the twentieth century and “one of the most decent and honorable men in public life.”