Make the next 125 years as historic as the last

By TJ Staff

Leaving a legacy means more than brick and mortar

Illustration by Joy Brown • Special to The JohnsonianUshering in Winthrop’s 125th year in true WU style, the campus has become acquainted with its newest building, the Anthony and Gale DiGiorgio Campus Center.  

Names in brick and mortar may be one way to leave your mark on campus, but we hope all Winthrop community members-students, faculty and staff-will use this special anniversary to reflect on what leaving a legacy really means.  

Many people in this university’s history have made insightful changes, challenged the status quo and helped others realize their academic goals and life aspirations.

Students such as Cynthia Plair Roddey, the first African-American graduate student at Winthrop, Arnetta Gladden Mackey and Delores Johnson Hurt, the first two African-American undergraduate students to enroll, exemplify what it means to overcome adversity.
 
Past administrators have been known for leading Winthrop down new roads. President James P. Kinard helped sustain the young school during the Depression.  President Philip Lader initiated cultural event credits on campus in the early 1980s.
 
Student-athletes have left their mark on and off the competition field since the early days at Winthrop.

Lucile Godbold, class of 1922, carried the U.S. flag on the International Team Tour (now known as the Olympics).  She became the first woman to be inducted into South Carolina’s Athletic Hall of Fame.  

Today, Winthrop is well-known for a basketball team that consistently dominates the Big South, attracting players from around the world and ensuring that athletes succeed in the classroom.  

But you don’t have to be a record breaker or the first to do something in order to make a difference at Winthrop.  

In fact, leaving a legacy is not as much about people remembering your name as it is people remembering how you helped or how you made them feel.

You may never meet the students who occasionally play their guitars on the steps of Byrnes Auditorium but you may one day fondly remember bouncing your head to their music on the way from the cafeteria to class.  

You may not specifically remember the acts DSU brings to campus each Welcome Week but you may think back on your first days at Winthrop when you send your own kids to college.  

Leaving a legacy is as easy as spreading a good attitude around campus by smiling at the person you step onto the elevator with.  

Making your mark just means doing something outside yourself, for someone other than yourself.  

Winthrop is lucky to have hard-working professors and support staff, creative students and prudent administrators.  

If we all apply ourselves, we can be part of making Winthrop’s next 125 years just as historic as the last 125.