(Left to right) PC president Dr. Anita Gustafson, Dr. Holbrook Raynal 70, Dr. Erika Gotfredson ’16, Dr. Bob Smith 61, Gayla Smith ’85, Steve Smith ’84, Rev. Dr. Jeri Parris Perkins ’81, Fran Hipp, Tommy Williams, and Jessica Jetton ’99.

Presbyterian College’s finest graduates were celebrated during Homecoming Weekend at the PC Alumni Association’s annual alumni awards program.

Eight members of the PC family were recognized for their professional achievements and service to the college and their communities.

In her welcome to alumni, PC president Dr. Anita Gustafson addressed the lingering presence of Hurricane Helene, an “uninvited guest” whose destruction left a permanent mark on the college’s campus but not its spirit.

“If you weren’t here, you likely saw the pictures,” Gustafson said. “Campus was a mess. However, the outpouring of concern that we heard from our alumni made me realize more deeply how important this place is for all of us. The sense of place here and how we are drawn together in a community matter deeply to all of us. So, our beautiful campus is coming back. We have been working really hard to prepare for Homecoming.

“And it shows. Somebody a couple of days ago said it didn’t look as bad as I thought it would. And I said, well, we’ve been working hard to improve it for sure.”

Gustafson thanked everyone on staff and in the community who is helping PC rebound from the storm. The effort, she said, is a prime example of what it means to be True Blue.

“True Blue is the heart and soul of PC that always stays true through all the years,” she said. “That is the essence of the character of the people that we are celebrating today. They are a product of a strong and challenging academic program that continues to prepare graduates for their futures.”

Alumni award winners are the product of a PC liberal arts education steeped in service, Gustafson said.

“They are the product of a strong sense of community,” she said. “We call it True Blue camaraderie that extends beyond the beautiful campus and forges the Blue Hose Nation. And they are a product of a deep heart of service. ‘While we live, we serve.’ And we mean it.

“Service is in our DNA. I firmly believe that the significance of our education here is that our students and alumni give back to their communities. You all work to make the world a better place – and it matters.”

The Outstanding Young Alumna Award was presented to Dr. Erika L. Gotfredson ’16, an assistant professor of English at Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo., she was president of the Student Activities Board and an honors graduate in English. Her husband, Jonathan Turnley ’18, is also a PC graduate, as is her brother, Duncan Gotfredson ’19, and sister-in-law, Janie Miles Gotfredson ’18.

Gotfredson recalled a conversation with religion professor Dr. Bob Bryant in which she expressed doubts on what she was going to do after graduation. She told Bryant she would stay in school forever if she could.

“He said, ‘Why don’t you go to grad school and become a professor?'” she said. “He changed my life that day. My own students call me Dr. G, just like I called Dr. Gustafson when I was in her class years ago. I try to push my students academically just like my own English professors did. So much of who I am as a teacher was shaped by the teachers that I had here.”

The Outstanding Young Alumnus Award was presented in absentia to Adam Herendeen ’09, who coached the Blue Hose Men’s Tennis team that captured PC’s first Big South regular season title in 2014. Now the head women’s coach at Texas Tech University, Herendeen also coached at Furman University, where his teams secured six Southern Conference titles in seven years.

The Mike Turner Scotsman Club Award was presented to Steve ’84 and Gayla ’85 Smith of Waxhaw, N.C., longtime Scotsman Club members, and PC’s William Plumer Jacobs Society members. At PC, Smith was a captain of the Blue Hose Men’s Basketball team, while Gayla was a member of the PC Cheerleading team. Together, their philanthropic support has included donations to the Championship Spirit campaign, including dedicating the gymnasium floor at Templeton Physical Education Center in honor of former head basketball coach Gregg Nibert.

The couple also established the Gayla M. and Steven M. Smith Scholarship Fund to support a student involved with the basketball program.

“We’re humbled by being here,” Smith, also a PC trustee, said. “What little we do and what we give back cannot mirror what the community and PC have done for our lives.”

The Mary F. Lehman Service Award was presented to Dr. Holbrook Raynal ’70, a Clinton native and physician who currently serves on the PC Board of Trustees. After serving two years in the U.S. Army, Raynal completed graduate studies at Clemson University before earning a medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina. His long career in medicine includes serving as chief of medical staff at Laurens County Memorial Hospital and as a Laurens County Healthcare System trustee. In 1992, he co-founded the Family Healthcare Center and is medical director and chief medical officer for Qlarant Integrity Solutions. His wife, Susan, is an honorary alumna of PC.

“When I can be included with the likes of Mary Lehman and previous recipients of this award – people like Bobo Beasley, Johnny Walther, Mark Cobb, Carlton Manning, Wayne Harris, and John Jeselnik – if I can be named in the same conversation as them, I feel very fortunate,” Raynal said. “I’m grateful for this, and thank you all very much.”

The Thomas Aurelius Stallworth ’55 Award is presented annually to a PC graduate who embodies the characteristics of its namesake, professor, and administrator, the Rev. Dr. Tom Stallworth. This year’s recipient, Rev. Dr. Jeri Parris Perkins ’81, former PC chaplain and college trustee, recalled her first day in Stallworth’s Christian doctrine class.

In a class of generally conservative young southerners, Stallworth picked up a copy of the Bible and chucked it over the class’s heads and into a back wall.

“You could hear a pin dropping down in that room,” Perkins said. “It was just like, that’s a mortal sin, you know. And so that day, I’ll never forget it because he taught us that day that we don’t worship the Bible. We don’t worship the things of the church or the things of this world. We worship God and God alone. That was the very beginning of a liberal arts education for me, especially in the area of religion and Christian education.”

As the former pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Clinton, Perkins also ministered to Stallworth’s widow, the late Mary Stallworth.

“I had the incredible honor of having her family as members of that congregation,” Perkins said. “Of being able to conduct Stallworth weddings, to watch this family’s babies come into this world, and to be able to baptize Tom and Mary’s first great-grandchild. I have been most blessed by this family that’s committed to all the values of Presbyterian College, committed to the Church of Jesus Christ, and that’s what makes this award so very special to me.”

This year’s Dum Vivimus Servimus Award went to the Rev. Dr. Bob Smith ’61, the college’s inaugural director of church relations and founder of the Celtic Cross program for future church leaders. Smith and his late wife, Dottie, also served as missionaries to the Congo before he became an associate pastor at First Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Sardis Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C.

“I give thanks to God for the day I decided to come to PC because I found out what a wonderful place it was, and what a wonderful experience it is,” Smith said. “The friendships that I developed have lasted through the years.”

Smith said service is what life is all about – especially at PC.

The Alumni Gold P Award was presented posthumously to the late Frank C. King, Jr. ’64. King was a longtime educator and served 35 years as a successful football coach and superintendent. He was also a member of the Scotsman Club and the William Plumer Jacobs Society and the recipient of both the Mike Turner Scotsman Club Award and the Thomas Aurelius Stallworth Award from PC.

Fran Starr Hipp, the spouse of alumnus Irby Hipp ’73, was named an Honorary Alumna of PC.

The Clinton resident recalled an epiphany she had about PC at a Homecoming event she attended with her husband.

“Irby was taking his class reunion picture taken at Bailey Stadium,” she said. “I was sitting outside on a bench listening to Iggy’s ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ being played over the speakers. Sitting on that bench and looking up at the new Bailey Stadium, I just felt at peace. I thought, this is my somewhere.”

The Alumni Association also recognized members who have passed away in the previous year:

1970s

• Wylie Watt ‘73
• William Lewis ‘74
• Joan Miles ‘74
• Dooley Miller ‘75
• Elizabeth Carroll ‘77
• Richard Phinney ‘77
• Stephen Buchanan ‘78

1980s

• William Howell ‘81
• Helen Blakely ‘82
• Barbara Brady ‘84
• Saralyn Bulovas ‘86
• Sidney Jackson ‘87
• Brian Bates ‘88

1990s

• Mitt Tucker ‘92
• Stacey Krause ‘97

2000s

• William Keener ‘06
• Richard Parmer ‘07
• Nathan Head ‘08

Professors Emeritus

• Dr. Dottie Brandt
• Dr. Paul Campbell
• Dr. Richard Newman