U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham
Erskine College And Seminary Commencements Set For May 15-16
Commencement ceremonies for Erskine College and Seminary are scheduled for Saturday, May 15, and Sunday, May 16, respectively.
The college Baccalaureate ceremony is planned for 10 a.m. May 15 at Due West ARP Church, while Commencement is planned for 1:30 p.m. that same day under the Towers.
College Commencement speaker is U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and honorary degrees will be presented to Robert Lynch Moultrie (doctor of humanities) and William Banks Patrick Jr. (doctor of laws).
Graham, a native South Carolinian who was born in Central, was elected to serve as United States Senator on Nov. 5, 2002, succeeding longtime U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond.
He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Carolina.
Graham was elected in 1992 to the S.C. House of Representatives and two years later, became the first Republican since 1877 to represent South Carolina’s Third Congressional District.
Moultrie, of Atlanta, is chairman and chief executive officer of The Facility Group, a company he founded in 1986. He is a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology.
His association with Erskine began when his son, William E. Moultrie, a 1991 graduate, entered the college as a freshman. He has served the college in several capacities, including chairmanship of two committees of the Board of Trustees.
Moultrie and his company worked to develop the Erskine campus Master Plan and influenced the growth and improvement of Erskine’s facilities, including the tennis-baseball complex and the Bowie Arts Center. His company also designed and constructed Erskine’s Daniel•Moultrie Science Center, which is named in part for his parents.
He also led the college’s previous campaign and he and his wife, Cheryl, serve as honorary co-chairmen of the institution’s Gold Campaign capital fund-raiser.
Patrick is a member of the Erskine College Class of 1966. An E.B. Kennedy Scholar at Erskine, he majored in history and served as president of the Student Government Association. He received his law degree from the University of South Carolina and established a successful practice as an attorney.
He served on Erskine’s Board of Counselors from 1978-82, and as chairman of the Board of Trustees from 1991-95 and again from 1997-2002.
An elder at Greenwood ARP Church, Patrick is married to Erskine alumna Lucille Bailey Patrick, Class of 1965, and they are the parents of four children, three of whom graduated from Erskine.
He serves on the Gold Campaign Steering Committee.
Seminary Commencement is slated for 4 p.m. May 16 at Due West ARP Church.
Seminary Commencement speaker is Dr. Randall Tucker Ruble and an honorary degree will be presented to Dr. James Lawrence McCleskey (doctor of divinity).
A native of Virginia, Ruble graduated from Erskine in 1958 with a degree in English and history. In 1961, he received the bachelor of divinity degree from Erskine Seminary and the master of divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1962. He received the Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1964.
He was professor of Old Testament at Erskine Seminary from 1965-97, was chaplain of the college from 1971-74, assistant dean of the seminary in 1975-76 and was vice president and dean of the seminary for 21 years, from 1976-97.
Ruble served as Moderator of the General Synod of the ARP Church, as a member of the Executive Board and the Board of Christian Education and was an ex-officio member of the Erskine Board of Trustees.
He is vice president and dean emeritus of Erskine Seminary. He is married to the former Molly Grant, and they have three children and five grandchildren.
McCleskey is the South Carolina Bishop of the United Methodist Church. He was elected bishop in 1996.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 1962 and received a bachelor of divinity degree from Duke in 1966. McCleskey received a doctor of ministry degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1984.
Baccalaureate preacher is C.D. “Jimmy” Agan III, former Erskine Seminary faculty member and current pastor of Clemson Presbyterian Church.
He attended Clemson University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1992. Agan received the master of divinity degree from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Mo.
Agan received his doctorate from Aberdeen University in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1998.
The following year, he joined the faculty at Erskine Seminary, where he stayed until after the spring term in 2003, when he left to take the pastorate in Clemson.
