05.09.05

Erskine College and Seminary Board of Counselors Chairman Dr. Robert J. Robinson, right, presents a resolution to Erskine President Dr. John L. Carson, left, and Carson's wife, Sarah Ellen.

Four inducted into Erskine Academic Hall of Fame; Hills, Carsons honored

The Erskine College Academic Hall of Fame added four new members Friday night, two alumni were presented with the Board of Counselors' highest award, and outgoing Erskine President John L. Carson and his wife, Sarah Ellen, were honored.

Maud Mills Bigham, John Irwin Bonner, William Henry Frances Kuykendall and James Hearst Pressly were the 2005 inductees into Erskine's Academic Hall of Fame, believed to be one of the few of its kind at institutions of higher education in the nation.

Board of Counselors Chairman Dr. Robert J. Robinson presented the Chairman's Award Leo Hill '49 and Grace Lucile Hill '52 for their endeavors and accomplishments that "speak to their commitment to academic excellence, leadership, service and ministry."

Leo Hill, a native of Greenville, completed his juris doctorate from the University of South Carolina in 1952. During his distinguished law career, he served as president of the South Carolina Bar Association, as a South Carolina Supreme Court appointee to the state Judicial Council, as secretary to the Greenville County Democratic Party and as City Attorney and Special Counsel for numerous counties, municipalities, boards, authorities, commissions and public service districts. He is a renowned expert in the field of governmental law.

He has practiced in several prominent law firms in South Carolina and is currently of counsel with Nelson, Mullins, Riley and Scarborough, a nationally recognized firm.

Dr. Grace Lucile Hill has impacted education in South Carolina through her committed efforts as a public school teacher, a school psychologist and counselor, a consultant and an adjunct professor in the education departments of both Furman University and the University of South Carolina. She has dedicated her life to assisting students with learning disabilities to academically succeed and achieve a higher standard in life. Her extensive work and expertise in the field of learning disabilities have provided her many venues to assist students and teachers alike in working through the developmental and educational challenges caused by such disabilities.

She formed her own consultation agency, Educational Diagnostic Services and served many institutions, including Erskine, as an educational consultant.

The Hills married in 1954 and have served faithfully their church, their college and their community. Both have served as Trustees of Erskine College and as members of the Erskine Friends of the Arts Executive Committee. Leo has also been a member of the Erskine Board of Counselors, while Grace Lucile has served the Alumni Association as a Class Agent.

The Hills have three children and six grandchildren.

The Carsons were honored with a resolution presented to them by Robinson.

In part, the resolution recognized the Carsons' contribution to Erskine College and Seminary since June 15, 1998, when Carson became president. He has announced he will step down from his position this summer.

The Board of Counselors expressed its appreciation to Carson for his contributions to the college, seminary, ARP Church and "the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Further, the board expressed its gratitude to the Carsons, "whose lives have consistently exemplified the precepts taught at Erskine."

The board also pledged its "prayerful support" to Carson.

The Erskine Academic Hall of Fame inductee biographical sketches follow:

Maud Mills Bigham (1889-1986)      

Bigham was born in 1889 in Gastonia, N.C. The family moved to Chester, where she attended the public schools and graduated from Chester High School in 1907. She then came to Due West and entered Erskine College where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.

She first taught mathematics in Clifton Forge, Va., near Roanoke, and soon returned to South Carolina, where she taught mathematics for some 41 years. During the summers she did graduate work at Columbia University, the University of California at Berkeley, Winthrop College and the College of William and Mary. She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma.

Bigham was blessed with abundant energy and keen curiosity. Often during the bleak days of the Depression she took summer trips with friends to New York City to work in the Automat cafeterias. This project had a dual purpose: to replenish dwindling financial resources and to enable her to enjoy the wonders of our nation’s largest city. She also traveled outside the United States on several occasions in order to broaden her horizons, visiting England, France, Italy and Greece.

As a teacher of mathematics, geometry was her great love. She made math class interesting and encouraged students to do their best. "Use your reasoning powers," she would say. "It's all perfectly logical." She had a genuine interest in high school sports, knew which of her students participated in sports and how well they performed, and complimented those who played well.

Math and athletics were only two of the elements that came into play in Bigham's classroom. Scripture was also important. Each morning before the students arrived, she wrote a verse from Proverbs on the blackboard as the theme for that day.

An outstanding characteristic of "Miss Maud," as she was called, was her interest in people—all people. She remembered the names of her students and many details about them long after they had graduated from high school. She always recognized her former students and remembered where they had sat in her classroom.

She was an active member of the Chester Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. She taught the Bessie White Sunday School Class for a number of years. To those not close at hand she sent postcards. It was well known among her friends that Maud Bigham could get more news on a postcard than anybody else in the world could do.

When she was not in Chester she was likely to be at Bonclarken, the assembly grounds of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, where she attended lectures and conferences each summer. She cared for her mother, who lived to be 96, in Chester and at Bonclarken.

She was a well-known and highly regarded graduate of Erskine. She served on the Board of Trustees and was the recipient of the Mary Mildred Sullivan Award. She was also South Carolina's first recipient of the Bernard Baruch Teacher of the Year Award in 1957.

An enthusiastic and beloved teacher, she left generations of students with "Miss Maud stories" to treasure and share. This extraordinary educator was described by Harriett H. Stringfellow in The Associate Reformed Presbyterian as "a witness for Christ and an inspiration to all with whom she came in contact."

John Irwin Bonner (1882-81)

Bonner was born in Monroe County, Alabama, on Oct. 9, 1822, and spent his early life in Wilcox County. His father and mother, James and Mary Bonner, had come from the Abbeville District of South Carolina. Among his teachers was the Rev. James P. Pressly, who received his college education at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Young Bonner moved with his family to Indiana, near Oxford, Ohio, when he was about 14 years old. He attended the schools of that area, graduated, and began study at Miami University, where he completed his undergraduate degree. He pursued further education at Erskine Theological Seminary, and upon graduation he was licensed to preach at Long Cane, South Carolina, in 1845.

Following a brief marriage to Miss N.M. Baldridge of Indiana, who lived only a short time, he married Armathine Lindsay, the only daughter of Squire James Lindsay of Due West in 1845. They had four sons and three daughters, and she predeceased him. In the first months after his ordination and second marriage, he preached in several Alabama churches. Within the year, he moved to Due West, where he would spend the rest of his life.

In December 1846, he and his wife opened an academy, which included boys and girls although it later became known as the Due West Female Academy.  In 1851, he began a publication for children entitled The Little Banner. In 1853, he and his brother-in-law, J.O. Lindsay, founded the first newspaper in Due West.  Shortly afterward, Lindsay withdrew from the venture, and J.I. Bonner became the sole owner and editor of the paper, which was, renamed The Due West Telescope. He continued as its proprietor until it ceased publication in 1863 during the Civil War.

When The Due West Telescope resumed publication in 1868, its name was changed to The Associate Reformed Presbyterian. With the blessing of the Associate Reformed Synod of the South, it became the official organ of the denomination, although Bonner received no financial assistance from the church.

As important as his newspaper work was, perhaps his greatest contribution to the church was as president of the Due West Female College from its founding in 1859 until his death in 1881. Like his newspapers, the college received no financial support from the denomination, but under his leadership it established a good reputation among women's colleges in South Carolina. Its graduates included the denomination's pioneer foreign missionary and its first medical missionary. J.I. Bonner was a primary influence on both. During the first four decades of Due West Female College, its graduates included the wives of 85 ARP ministers.

The Centennial History of the Synod said of Bonner, "He sought with fervent zeal to make the Institution over which he presided one of the best in the land and surely this Institution is his best monument in that it tells what he was and what he was capable of achieving."  When Bonner died in 1881, Hugh Wilson, longtime editor of the Abbeville Press and Banner, wrote that in his opinion, Abbeville County had lost its most valuable citizen. He was survived by his third wife, the former Miss Lila Morse of New York, later principal of Due West Female College.

William Henry Frazer Kuykendall (1934-2004)

Kuykendall was born Sept. 14, 1934, in Charlotte, N.C., to James Bell and Emily Frazer Kuykendall. His early education was in the public schools of Charlotte. In 1956 he graduated summacum laude from Davidson College with a major in classics. With fellowships from the Danforth Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, he pursued graduate studies at the Oriental Seminary of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Six years of study on the Baltimore campus were followed by a year of study under a fellowship grant at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.

On the advice of Dr. John Leith, a professor at Union Seminary and an Erskine graduate, he agreed to be interviewed by Dr. J.M. Lesesne, president of Erskine College, for a position in the Bible Department. He accepted the position of assistant professor of Bible at Erskine in the fall of 1963.

He began the writing of his dissertation while at Union Seminary and continued while at Erskine. The disastrous fire that destroyed Bonner Hall in October 1964 also consumed the finished but unsubmitted copy of his dissertation. Three Erskine students rescued a rough draft from the fire and he was able to retype the paper. After a year's delay, he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Near Eastern Languages and Archaeology from Johns Hopkins University in the spring of 1966.

In 1971, Kuykendall was made a full professor. During his years at the college students and faculty recognized his scholarship. His enthusiasm for his subject matter and his desire that students achieve excellence in learning drew students to his classes. His teaching was not confined to the classroom. In his daily contacts with students he confronted them with the truths of Christianity by his words and example.

Kuykendall used his sabbaticals and summers to work on deciphering Linear A, a Minoan language that still remains a mystery. His diverse scholarship led him to volunteer to teach a class of Latin in the local high school. Although it was not his primary field at Erskine, he taught archaeology courses where students learned the techniques involved and practiced them in local digs. These records and reports are now at the state archives in Columbia.

In 1983, he moved from the college to the seminary, where he taught Hebrew and Old Testament courses. His scholarship was recognized in 1990 when he was named the John Montgomery Bell Professor of Biblical Studies.

In addition to his academic duties, he wrote the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Adult Sunday School Quarterly from 1976 until his death and taught an adult Sunday school class, a youth group and a college age Bible study. In 1984 he served as Moderator of the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Even though he suffered a serious heart attack in 1971 while on a trip with students to the Holy Land and Greece and a debilitating automobile accident in 2002, he persevered in his quest for excellence in all that he did.

Kuykendall never equivocated when it came to taking a stand for that which he thought was right and which he knew to be in accord with the teachings of God's Word. He was looked upon as a spiritual giant among his peers.

Kuykendall married a graduate of Erskine College, Mary Elizabeth Brooks of Atlanta, Ga. Three sons were born to them — John Edward, Robert Deaver and James Brooks.

James Hearst Pressly (1866-1955)

Pressly was born March 8, 1866, in the manse of the Generostee Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Anderson County, to the Rev. William Laurens and Frances Elizabeth Wideman Pressly. His father was pastor of the Generostee and Due West Associate Reformed Presbyterian congregations before serving as president of Erskine Seminary until his death in 1906. His grandfather, Ebenezer Erskine Pressly, likewise had served the Due West Church prior to becoming the founding president of Erskine College in 1839.

Pressly graduated from Erskine College in 1885 and from the seminary in 1892. Within three months of graduation, on Aug. 5, 1892, he was installed as pastor of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Statesville, N.C., which he served for 54 years, one of the longest pastorates in the history of the denomination.

The Rev. W.A. Kennedy once said of him, "He was richly endowed for ministerial work. Tall, straight as an arrow, endowed with a remarkable voice and a dramatic manner, with a wonderful memory and vivid imagination, he began his ministry with all the advantages on his side." The editor of The Charlotte Observer said, "When Rev. Pressly preached, he made things walk about in your mind."

Few ministers have played such a crucial role in shaping the character of a congregation as James Hearst Pressly did at Statesville. It has been estimated that he preached 5,000 sermons, baptized more than 1,000 people and performed innumerable marriage ceremonies. He was known as a strong pastor, practicing patience and gentleness among his people. His love for common people marked his ministry. At the time of his death, one of his church members said that he was probably the best known and loved man in Iredell County. His tireless labors went far beyond the membership of his congregation, and far beyond the limits of the city in which he lived.

In 1895, he was united in marriage with Julia Mabel Lowry of Harrells, Ala. They had 11 children, including six daughters who made great contributions to the work of their homes and their churches. One daughter dedicated herself to full-time missionary service in Pakistan. Of his five sons, three became medical doctors and two served as ministers. Each of his 11 children received a college education, even on his minister’s salary, thanks to his ardent dedication to education and his love for Erskine.  

In 1899 the Statesville ARP Church was destroyed by a cyclone, and the congregation worshiped in the Jewish synagogue until the present church was constructed. In 1908 members of the Statesville congregation established a church in the southern part of the city, and it was named Pressly Memorial in honor of James Hearst Pressly and other ministers of the Pressly family. He was also the inspiration for starting the Salisbury ARP Church, having conducted services in a home in the Salisbury community in addition to his regular duties at Statesville.

Pressly retired from the ministry on March 1, 1946, and died at home on July 19, 1955, preceded in death by his wife of 47 years. He made his mark in this life as he ministered in preparation for the next.

His legacy lives on in the several churches of the denomination that he inspired and in the lives of those who were influenced by his example and preaching. His legacy lives on as four generations of his family have continued to study at Erskine. His legacy lives on as Erskine strives to embody all that he exemplified in his life and work.

Dr. Reginald N. Ramsey, left, presents a citation on behalf of Maud Bigham to family member Jon Miller Grier.

Erskine alumni Leo and Grace Lucile Hill, left, were presented the Chairman's Award during Friday night's Academic Hall of Fame banquet. Also pictured is Board of Counselors Chairman Dr. Robert J. Robinson.

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