{"id":30054,"date":"2024-02-09T11:40:33","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=30054"},"modified":"2024-02-13T16:49:23","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T21:49:23","slug":"john-54-and-jeanette-cothran-sustaining-a-legacy-of-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/john-54-and-jeanette-cothran-sustaining-a-legacy-of-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"John \u201954 and Jeanette Cothran: Sustaining a legacy of giving\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than 10 years ago, John C. Cothran \u201954 and Jeanette Cothran made an institutional gift toward establishing the endowment for the <\/span>Center for Vocational Reflection<\/span><\/a> at Furman University. The Center, formerly called the Lilly Center, is known now as the Cothran Center. At the time of the pledge, John said, \u201cAn investment in people never goes down in value.\u201d The two stand by that today.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cothrans, who live at The Woodlands at Furman, have pledged $1 million divided between the <\/span>Partners Scholarship Program<\/span><\/a>, the Cothran Center and the <\/span>Timmons Arena renovation<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have always felt Furman offers an exceptional education,\u201d said John, noting <\/span>The Furman Advantage<\/span><\/a>, smaller class sizes and low student-to-faculty ratio. \u201cThere are a lot of deserving students who can’t afford college at almost any level, but they are bright, brilliant and have great promise. They need a helping hand.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the Cothrans were on the ground floor of the Partners Program when it launched in 1998. \u201cWe’ve been very pleased with that program,\u201d said John, who studied business and economics and now serves as emeritus trustee on Furman\u2019s board. \u201cIt allows us to partner with those who are deserving of aid, and we get to meet the recipients, learn who they are and become friends with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cothrans cherish the letters they\u2019ve received from students over the years. Jeanette, who attended Mars Hill College and graduated Winthrop University in business, said the students routinely praise Furman for the education they are receiving and its impact on their lives.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne student wrote, \u2018It\u2019s a dream to attend Furman, and I wouldn\u2019t be here if it weren\u2019t for the scholarship,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The family connection dates to John\u2019s father, Rev. Joseph Guy Cothran, a 1922 alumnus and a U.S. Navy veteran. John served two years in the U.S. Army at Fort Knox after graduating Furman in 1954. He remembers making visits to Furman\u2019s new campus, which broke ground in 1953. Back home from the Army and wrestling with career path decisions, John accompanied his father at the cornerstone-laying ceremony for the James B. Duke Library in 1956.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As the crowd gathered for the ceremony, John\u2019s father pointed out a gentleman wearing a white, 10- gallon hat and white coat \u2013 Greenville real estate mogul E. Roy Stone Sr. \u201cMy father said, \u2018You might want to go into the real estate business,\u2019\u201d John recalled. Stone would become John\u2019s employer and mentor, leading John to open his own real estate firm in 1962. A cascade of successful business ventures stretching five decades followed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Among a <\/span>slew of posts and honors<\/span><\/a>, including his induction into the South Carolina Homebuilders Hall of Fame, John is former member of the Hollingsworth Funds Board and chair emeritus of Verdae Development, Inc., and past president of the Greenville Board of Realtors and Home Builders Association.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But John and Jeanette, longtime members of First Baptist Church, are most proud of their family stemming from their 63 years of marriage, including four sons, two of them Furman grads, six grandchildren and four great grandsons.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of each one of them and what they\u2019ve accomplished,\u201d Jeanette said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Clark Cothran \u201984 is a senior pilot with American Airlines, and Steve Cothran \u201986, former Furman cheerleader, is associate pastor to youth and families at Central Baptist in Newnan, Georgia. Philip Cothran and Scott (\u201cBootie\u201d) Cothran chose more entrepreneurial endeavors.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Philip is a SCUBA instructor and boat captain who lives in Maui, Hawaii. He is also filming a documentary about humpback whale behavior.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bootie, a graduate of USC Upstate, appeared in eight seasons of \u201cAmerican Ninja Warrior\u201d and is co-owner of Motive School of Movement in Greenville.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The family attends dozens of Furman sporting events. Through the Partners Program, they follow team members from the basketball, football and tennis programs, and they are in the stands for most home basketball and football games.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During a homecoming event for tennis alumni and current players, John, who played on the men\u2019s tennis team in the day, brought his vintage wooden racket to show athletes how far the technology has progressed. \u201cI left it with the coaches so they could use it as a museum piece,\u201d John said, laughing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While attending Partners Program luncheons and other events, students sometimes ask John if he attended Furman. \u201cI\u2019ll tell them, \u2018Yes, but not <\/span>this<\/span><\/i> Furman.\u2019\u201d Students didn\u2019t occupy the current campus until 1961, and Black students were admitted only after desegregation, starting with Joseph Vaughn \u201968.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Like that 50s era racket, things change. But what remains for the Cothrans is their commitment to students and the value they bring to the Furman experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cothrans\u2019 gift is part of Clearly Furman, the Campaign for Our Third Century, the university\u2019s historic comprehensive campaign, which aims to raise $426 million by 2026. <\/span>Learn more about <\/span>Clearly Furman, the Campaign for Our Third Century.<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John C. Cothran \u201954 and Jeanette Cothran, who live at The Woodlands at Furman, have pledged $1 million divided between the Partners Scholarship Program, the Cothran Center and the Timmons Arena renovation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":30142,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24,1922,88,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-athletics","category-clearly-furman","category-cothran-center-for-vocational-reflection","category-donor-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}