SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford College Board of Trustees today (Tuesday, May 10, 2016) recognized three retiring members, including chairman J. Harold Chandler, a 1971 graduate. The board also named the board room in the DuPre Administration Building in honor of Chandler.
In addition to Chandler, retiring from the board are the Rev. Dr. B. Mike Alexander, class of 1973, and Dr. James E. Bostic.
Chandler served on the Wofford board from 1988 to 2000 and then again since 2004. He was vice chair from 2009 and has been chair since 2011.
A graduate of Belton-Honea Path High School in Honea Path, S.C., Chandler was an outstanding student-athlete at Wofford, leading the Terrier football team as quarterback for two seasons and to the NAIA National Championship game in 1970. He graduated summa cum laude from Wofford in 1971 with a degree in economics. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa while at Wofford.
Chandler is chairman of the board of Spartanburg-based Milliken & Co. He earned his MBA from the University of South Carolina and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s advanced management program. He has served in major management positions or as chief executive officer with regional and national banking, insurance and benefits administration organizations as well as leading numerous corporate boards of directors.
He was selected as Wofford’s Young Alumnus of the Year in 1983 and has led the Terrier Club and endowed athletics scholarship efforts for many years, helping to achieve more than $40 million in endowed athletics funds. He and his wife, Delores, have generously supported numerous Wofford scholarship, renovation and building projects over more than 45 years of involvement with the college.
During his tenure on the board, Chandler has overseen significant reform of the college’s governance structure and served as an example and mentor to presidents emeriti Joab M. (Joe) Lesesne and Benjamin (Bernie) Dunlap, as well as overseeing the hiring and first three years of the administration of President Nayef Samhat.
“Harold Chandler’s influence and impact across the full spectrum of student experience, athletics accomplishments, strategic counsel and living example of the ultimate Wofford servant-leader is unsurpassed in recent history,” Samhat says, echoing a proclamation honoring Chandler passed by the board. “We thank Harold and Delores for their service and undying love and devotion for Wofford.”
Samhat continues, “We also thank Mike Alexander and Jim Bostic for their stellar service to Wofford and to the board of trustees. Their counsel has been extremely valuable to the college through these years, and we are grateful for their leadership.”
Alexander, a minister at Belin United Methodist Church in Murrells Inlet, S.C., was a member of the presidential search committee that led to the appointment of Samhat. He earned his master of divinity degree from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and his doctor of ministry from Erskine Theological Seminary. He is a native of Bishopville, S.C.
Bostic recently received Clemson University’s highest public honor, the Clemson Medallion. He is a 1969 graduate of Clemson, where he also received his Ph.D. in chemistry. He was the first African-American to be granted a Ph.D. by a South Carolina institution.
A Bennettsville, S.C., native, Bostic began his leadership roles as a student at Clemson and continued his service there on the board of trustees, the college’s foundation board of directors and the Alumni Association’s board of directors. He has been president of and on the board of directors for the Athletics Division’s IPTAY organization and received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Award. He was executive vice president of Georgia-Pacific Corp. from 2000 until his retirement in 2005; he had been with the company since 1985.