Dr. Don Fowler ’57, a longtime Democratic Party leader on the South Carolina and national stages, died Dec. 15 in Columbia, S.C.
Fowler chaired the state Democratic Party from 1971 to 1980 and helped two governors win elections. He oversaw the 1988 Democratic National Convention and spent two years as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1995 to 1997. His time leading the DNC included President Bill Clinton becoming the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win reelection.
Fowler was a Wofford trustee from 1992 to 2003, and he was a longtime consultant to the college in the areas of marketing and communication strategy. He also served as the college’s vice president for marketing and communications in the mid-2000s.
Fowler taught political science at the University of South Carolina for more than 50 years. He was teaching a course in American politics up until his death. He also occasionally taught at Wofford.
“He really had the common touch and loved Wofford College,” says Doyle Boggs ’70, the college’s former associate vice president of marketing and communications.
Boggs was a teenager aspiring to be a sportswriter when he first met Fowler. He was considering another college when Fowler encouraged him to choose Wofford by telling him about opportunities for students in the college’s sports information department.
Boggs would later take one of Fowler’s classes at Wofford and enjoy a lifetime of friendship with him.
Boggs said Fowler would get up at 4 a.m. and make the drive from Columbia to teach an 8 a.m. class at the college. During class, Fowler, a gifted storyteller, talked about desegregating the political system and shared stories from his work.
“No one ever cut a Don Fowler class,” says Boggs, who also learned to never turn down lunch with Fowler either. “There was always a story that was hilarious and fun,” says Boggs, while remembering Fowler sharing his struggles with getting Clinton off the stage at the DNC after the future president exceeded his time.
Fowler was born in Spartanburg and was a student-athlete while attending Wofford. He was an All-American on the men’s basketball team and his No. 13 is retired at the college.
“Don was one of our most loyal, generous and visible alumni,” says President Nayef Samhat. “He’s the ideal example of someone who brought honor upon his alma mater by going out into the world and doing well and doing good. He will be missed, and our thoughts are with Don’s widow, Carol, and his two children, Donnie, and our colleague in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology Dr. Cissy Fowler.”
Upon learning of Fowler’s death, Van Hipp ’82, who chaired the S.C. Republican Party in the 1980s, tweeted that he was a teenager when he first met Fowler and they both served in the U.S. Army Reserve together.
“We were on opposite sides of the political aisle, but I always enjoyed talking politics, military issues and all things South Carolina with him,” says Hipp in his tweet. “Don was a patriot who loved America.”