ROTC to dedicate new center, say good-bye to commander

Tucked away in the basement of the library for more than four decades, the military science department will dedicate its own facility, the Bryan Center for Military Science, in an 11 a.m. ceremony. The center, made possible by a $450,000 gift from W.K. (B.K) and Frances Bryan of Greenville, is located on the east side of the Herman W. Lay Physical Activities Center.

The center includes classrooms for military science, offices for the ROTC cadre and cadets, supply and storage facilities, a conference room and a military history library. The building also includes a wellness facility for the Department of Health and Exercise Science.

W.K. and Frances Bryan are natives of New Bern, N.C., and moved to Greenville in 1946. He is the former owner of General Wholesalers Distributors and is currently head of WKB Enterprises, a collection of bank and real estate investments. Bryan is a member of the Furman Advisory Council and the executive committee of the Richard Furman Society.

The May 23 date is also significant for another reason. The ROTC department will bid farewell to its commander, Lt. Col. Thomas Nickerson, during a change of command ceremony.

Nickerson, a native of Daytona Beach, Fla., is being transferred to South Korea to serve as the senior public affairs officer for the 8th U.S. Army. Nickerson took over the Furman ROTC department in 1997 and is largely responsible for transforming the program into a top military training ground for future Army officers.

The Furman program was ranked 12th among 270 college and university ROTC programs in the nation in a 1999 survey. The program was ranked 229th in 1996.

The rankings are compiled and published by Cadet Command, which administers the national ROTC program from Fort Monroe, Va. Cadet Command compiles its rankings from the performance records of cadets attending officer training camps.

In addition to increasing Furman’s standing with other ROTC programs, Nickerson helped spearhead fund-raising efforts for the Bryan Center, introduced a more physical cadet training regimen and increased the number of scholarships allocated to Furman by the U.S. Army Cadet Command from 10 to 12.

Lt. Col. Robert Sanders, director of military science at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, has been named to succeed Nickerson.