Cassie Cohen ’26 attended Wednesday’s All Saints Day of Remembrance Tolling of the Bells to perform with the Wofford Singers. When a familiar name was read, Cohen, a theatre major from Hilton Head, South Carolina, was moved to tears.
Michael Wallace Bassett ’96 was Cohen’s English teacher at Hilton Head Prep. She didn’t know he was a Wofford graduate until the moment his name was read as one of the 141 students, staff, faculty, alumni and friends of the college who died during the past year.
“There was something about the way he taught, the way he cared,” says Cohen. “He pushed my best friend to write a book and now she’s published. The way he taught English, he just made it enjoyable and made me want to continue.”
The All Saints Day of Remembrance Tolling of the Bells is held each Nov. 1. The tolling of the bell is a Wofford tradition, and it tolls three times for every student – to welcome them to campus as first-year students, to celebrate their graduation and upon their death.
“This is such a heartwarming tradition the college has and it shows what the Wofford community is all about, how we’re all connected through this place,” says Katie Kirk ’25, a government major from Greenville, South Carolina. “It shows the strength of our community.”
Emma Skelton ’24, a psychology and sociology and anthropology double major from Greenville, South Carolina, says she’s appreciative of the number of people who attended the ceremony.
“It was really special to see so many people in the crowd who could’ve had a family member pass away that went to Wofford,” Skelton says. “It shows there are so many crosses between your real family and your Wofford family. I’m glad to know that whenever my grandfather (David Massey ’68) passes away, I’ll be here for the bells to remember him as well.”
The Rev. Dr. Ron Robinson ’78, Wofford’s Perkins-Prothro Chaplain and Professor of Religion, says that when he was going over the list with others on Wednesday morning, he stopped many times to tell a brief story about the person.
“That’s the thing about these names,” says Robinson. “They all have a story, and Wofford College is an important part of their story.”
Below is a list of those remembered this year:
Austin Gray Abercrombie ’68
Clyde Major Aiken ’55
Sidney Allan Allred ’70
Joyce D. Arthur, retired adm/staff
Michael Wallace Bassett ’96
John Drew Bateman ’66
William Jones Bates ’66
Charles Major Bauknight ’56
Gregory Fulton Bitting ’74
Joseph Nates Blanton Jr. ’58
Johnny C. Bomar Sr., friend
Charles Jackson Bradshaw Sr. ’59
Robert A. Brannon ’72
Thomas Cole Bristow Jr. ’61
Karen Albiez Brooks ’82
John Ashmore Brown Jr. ’70
Basford Belew Bryson Jr. ’58
John Moore Bullard, retired faculty
Lewis Patrick Bullington ’57
Charles Alan Bundy ’51
Cecil M. Burns ’58
Kenneth Campbell Burr ’64
Malcolm Jones Caldwell ’75
William Zimmerman Cannon, friend
Martha Carroll Carter, friend
Gene Eldredge Collins ’54
Charles Conrad III, former parent
Peter Michael Cooper ’93
James Horace Corn ’51
Edgar Leonidas Culler III ’63
William Robert Cunningham ’64
Michael Curtis, retired faculty
Richard Mortimer Cutler Jr., former parent
Robert Darren Dillon, current parent
Beverly June Doster, retired staff
Susan Wamer Edmonds, friend
David Franklin Edwards ’66
John Carver Edwards ’64
Gerrald Ray Etheredge ’62
Nancy Scoggins Floyd, friend
Lawrence Emile Flynn Jr., friend
Arthur M. Fowler III ’68
James William Fowler Jr. ’57
Bennie Martin Fulbright ’90
Thomas James Gasque ’59
James Riley Gettys Jr. ’68
Donald Baxter Gibson ’64
Sharon B. Glenn, former parent
Holman Cleveland Gossett Jr. ’70
Charles Carter Graham ’62
Caroline Marie Gram ’04
Jimmy Randall Grant ’70
Kevin A. Gray ’78
Robert Earle Gregory Jr. ’64
Marjorie Gault Halford, former parent
Dorothy B. Halligan, retired adm/staff
Harvey Craig Hayes ’68
Murray Clifton Hedgepath Jr. ’80
Jack Edward Henderson Jr. ’75
John Whitley Hinks Sr. ’66
James Raymond Holden ’59
Kenneth Arthur Horn ’50
Ann Payne Howard ’80
Paul Hugh Infinger ’67
Ronald Rudloff Ingle ’62
Douglas Eugene Jackson ’77
James Ansel Jacobs Jr. ’68
John Wilson Jenrette Jr. ’58
Aquilla Richard Johnston Jr. ’62
Harry Latané Johnston ’68
Thomas C. Jones Jr. ’53
Robert Lewis Joyner Sr. ’64
Randall Rich Kincaid Jr. ’62
William Light Kinney Jr. ’54
Lawrence Keith Lackey ’72
Peter James Lampros ’64
David LeRoy Lane ’57
Mark Anthony Lane, former parent
Marcus Keith Ledford, former parent
James Grady Locklear ’65
Paul Stroman Lofton Jr. ’61
Billy Hugh Mason ’57
Walker Reid McBride ’54
James Douglas McLain ’66
Marshall L. Meadors Jr. ’55
Marshall LeRoy Meadors III ’79
Murray Melinda Meetze ’09
Julian Ramsey Mellette Jr. ’61
David C. Mitchell, friend
Jackson Mizell Jr. ’69
Robert Clyde Monson ’62
Walter Scott Montgomery Jr., former parent
Calvin Robert Myers ’52
Wayne Melton Norris ’70
Donald Russell O'Dell ’54
Wilbur Cunningham Ormond Jr. ’64
William Hall Phillipps, former parent
Osborne Eugene Powell Jr. ’62
Elizabeth Hayden Quattlebaum, friend
David M Renwick ’86
Jerome Johnson Richardson ’59
Richard Long Robinson ’61
Peter Andrew Rowe ’71
Steven Mack Satterfield, retired staff
John Scism, friend
Carol Earl Scoggins ’60
John L. Seitz, retired faculty
Robert A. Shelor Jr., friend
Ernest R. Shives III, current parent
Robert Calhoun Sims ’70
James Franklin Sloan Jr. ’65
Franklin Oscar Smith Jr. ’54
William Clyde Smith III ’72
Samuel Akin Soulé ’59
Reddick Bowman Still III ’58
Harry Robert Stullenbarger ’59
Lisa Barbee Switzer, retired adm/staff
Joe Earl Taylor Jr. ’80
William Bonner Thomason Sr. ’58
Charles Evans Thompson ’67
John B. Thompson, current parent
Keaton Bryce Thompson ’11
Mary Elizabeth Thompson-Smith ’11
Walter Probst Tiedeman III ’59
Carl Hicks Todd ’51
Elizabeth Clarke Todd, former parent
Max Burton Trout ’52
Alice Smith Turner ’64
William Bryan Tyson Jr. ’59
James Lucas Walker ’45
Patricia Coxe Ware, friend
Milton Dale Warner ’57
Ralph Denniston West ’65
David Melvin Whisnant, retired faculty
Hugh Dave Whitener III ’93
William Henry Whitley Jr. ’58
Grover Cleveland Whitmire ’56
Harry Pinkney Williams Jr. ’42
Betty Owen Williamson, friend
Robert Eugene Wright ’70
Stephen Hix Wright ’67