The 2022 Dum Vivimus Servimus Award goes to a Blue Hose with a green thumb and a big heart.

Susan Buffington Galloway’s horticultural knowledge and skill makes Clinton verdant and vibrant. 

The 1980 graduate is a founding member and president of Clinton Canopy, a non-profit group that improves the quality of life in Clinton by improving its green spaces. Partnering with the City of Clinton, Clinton High agricultural students, and others the volunteer group plants trees, landscapes city entrances and downtown streets, and maintains small spots of beauty around town. 

The group designed and raised money for the new Clinton High School’s arboretum and developed the concept and raised funding for a local artist to create a mural on Musgrove Street. Clinton Canopy helps the city maintain Tree City USA status and helped obtain and implement two $20,000 TD Bank grants for park improvements in low to middle income neighborhoods. As president, Susan was instrumental in getting a S.C. Parks, Recreation, and Tourism grant to develop the first phase of Millers Fork Trail near Interstate 26. 

Clinton Canopy has placed more than 250 plant identification signs all over town, linked to an online database, and published a promotional tourism brochure available in welcome centers across the state. 

Susan also served for six years on the board of the Clinton Community Garden Project, helping to build and plant a garden to provide fresh vegetables in a neighborhood on Bell Street. She still volunteers in the garden.

Susan was honored in recent years with the city’s Arbor Day Service Award and was named Citizen of the Year by the Clinton Chronicle.

At PC, Susan worked in admissions, sang in the PC Choir, and was a photographer for the PaCSaC. After graduating, she served as an admissions counselor and spent four years teaching freshman labs for the biology department. She is a member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Clinton and a former member of Bethany Presbyterian Church, where she helped create and teach drama for the Bethany Summer Youth Camp. She also assisted PC’s CHAMPS program by teaching character education. 

Susan and her husband, Morris ’78, co-founded Softlight Corp., a computer software firm specializing in security monitoring for IBM AS400 and I Series computers. The Galloways raised four sons, all of whom attended PC. She enjoys spending time with them and her two daughters-in-law and can often be seen working in her own yard.