A love of teaching brought Lt. Colonel Hubert “Herb” Rentz, Jr. and College of Charleston alumna Elizabeth “Beth” Reid ’80 together, and today, that shared love is their legacy. “Beth played such an important role in education,” Rentz says of his wife who passed away in 2017. “She is still missed by a lot of people whose...Read More

Dr. John Covington ’84 and Professor Robert J. Lukey were a couple for nearly 36 years and shared a passion for travel, the arts, healthcare and education. Both were deeply committed to helping others regardless of age, race, religion, origin and sexual orientation or identification. It is in this spirit of giving opportunity to the...Read More

The College Libraries make up the nexus of CofC, and with hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, their critical services are needed now more than ever.   From the laptop lending program to research help for students and instructional support to faculty for online classes, the Libraries are dedicated to serving the CofC community — no matter the medium.   The Libraries’ decision to pursue online avenues of research, instruction and accessibility aggressively long predates COVID-19....Read More

Joanna Lau, founder and CEO of executive consulting and investment company Lau Acquisitions and member of the College of Charleston’s School of Business Board of Governors, is on a mission. “Women make a great impact in the economy and the workplace,” she says. “The mission for the Center for Women’s Leadership Initiative (WLI) is to promote the advancement of women.”  Lau is a successful leader in a male–dominated industry, but she’s not interested...Read More

When Theodore “Ted” S. Stern became the College of Charleston’s 16th president in 1968, the College was integrating the campus and facing a financial crisis. Stern proved to be just the right person to get the College through the hardships and move it forward.  A visionary who knew how to make the College grow, Stern transformed the College from a small, private, financially insolvent institution of 481 students to a public liberal arts college of more...Read More

MEET A SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT Samba Ndiaye ’21 • Dakar, Senegal Hospitality and Tourism Management major  Tap and Jean Johnson Men’s Basketball Scholarship Recipient  “When I think of the power of philanthropy, I think of someone who aims to improve the lives of others, someone who gives others a chance or opportunity to succeed in education, and life in...Read More

In 1934, Emmett Robinson ’35 won the College of Charleston’s Robert Worth Bingham Oratorical Contest. An annual tradition dating to 1907, the speech competition, judged by a panel of College faculty, identified the best student rhetorician. Robinson’s winning speech, which celebrates the value of music in our daily lives, continues to ring true today.   “With so many devices to make life less of...Read More

Greg Garvan and Priscilla Quirk, proud parents of Brady Quirk-Garvan '08, have endowed a scholarship in honor of Carrie Trapp Kilgore, an African American woman who helped raise Greg Garvan and his siblings in Spartanburg, SC. One of the most beloved people in Greg’s life, Carrie had an almost perpetual smile, and more love in...Read More

Ten-year anniversaries traditionally call for gifts of tin or aluminum. For Mace Brown, the 10-year anniversary of the Mace Brown Museum of Natural History at the College of Charleston is being marked by a multi-year gift to support a new research fellowship to take the museum’s research and community outreach to the next level.   Brown’s gift may not have been intended as an anniversary present, but his investment is intentional nonetheless. After...Read More

It began with a single student. During a 2017 visit to Special Collections in Addlestone Library, a Cougar inquired about materials featuring the Lowcountry's LGBTQ community. For Special Collections - home to many of the rarest materials not just in the region, but the world - coming up emptyhanded was uncommon. Due to a long practice of...Read More