{"id":42167,"date":"2026-05-07T11:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/?p=42167"},"modified":"2026-05-08T10:44:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:44:24","slug":"magazine-qa-with-nick-theodore-52","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/magazine-qa-with-nick-theodore-52\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A with Nick Theodore \u201852"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Theodore \u201952 and his\u00a0commitment to education, the\u00a0Greenville community and\u00a0Furman University is\u00a0well-known. As we celebrate the\u00a0200th anniversary of the start\u00a0of Furman, we asked Theodore\u00a0to reflect on his memories of\u00a0the university from its days\u00a0in downtown Greenville to the\u00a0move to a new campus and\u00a0everything that he has seen\u00a0since\u00a0graduating.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Theodore spoke with\u00a0sophomore business\u00a0administration and\u00a0communications studies double\u00a0major\u00a0Mary\u00a0Sheehan \u201928. Sheehan visited Theodore\u00a0at his home in November\u00a0bringing together a young\u00a0Furman student and one of\u00a0its\u00a0oldest\u00a0living alumni.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MARY SHEEHAN: How would\u00a0you describe the traditions and\u00a0atmosphere of the old Furman\u00a0University campus when you\u00a0were\u00a0in attendance?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NICK THEODORE: Well, the\u00a0traditions of Furman were\u00a0very deep at that\u00a0time\u00a0and\u00a0they\u00a0have continued to grow.\u00a0It was a small university,\u00a0much smaller than it is\u00a0today, and we were at the old\u00a0location right\u00a0off of\u00a0Augusta\u00a0Street in Greenville, South\u00a0Carolina. The tradition\u00a0of Furman was great, and\u00a0Greenville was always proud\u00a0to have a university in the\u00a0heart of downtown.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MS: What was it like when\u00a0Furman went from a\u00a0men\u2019s-only\u00a0campus to a coed campus?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NT: For a good while it was a\u00a0men’s campus, but not\u00a0very\u00a0far\u00a0from Furman was what\u00a0they called the GWC, the\u00a0Greenville Woman\u2019s College.\u00a0They\u00a0ultimately merged\u00a0together into Furman, so we\u00a0had women in the student\u00a0body. The women\u2019s college\u00a0was a beautiful campus that\u00a0was just a bit smaller, and it\u00a0turned out to be\u00a0a wonderful\u00a0merger. It provided the male\u00a0part of Furman with an\u00a0opportunity to go over there\u00a0up until closing time each day\u00a0and visit with the other parts\u00a0of a coed university. It turned\u00a0out to be a huge advantage\u00a0for Furman to have coed\u00a0higher education.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MS: Why did you choose to\u00a0attend a smaller university\u00a0like\u00a0Furman?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NT: Well, Furman could\u00a0have grown a lot faster,\u00a0but the faculty and the\u00a0board of Furman decided\u00a0to\u00a0maintain\u00a0the growth in\u00a0a very organized\u00a0fashion\u00a0without becoming too large\u00a0of a campus and losing the\u00a0feel of a\u00a0small liberal arts\u00a0school. At the time Greenville\u00a0was considered a textile\u00a0town, so Furman itself was\u00a0a strong element of moving\u00a0the Upstate of South Carolina\u00a0into cultural\u00a0growth with the\u00a0rest of the nation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MS: What was the football team\u00a0like when you attended Furman?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NT: Well, there was an era\u00a0back when Furman University\u00a0was up to par with Clemson\u00a0and the University of South\u00a0Carolina, and all the other\u00a0larger universities in the\u00a0Southeast. We would have\u00a0schedules that included\u00a0West Point,\u00a0Alabama\u00a0and\u00a0the University of Georgia on\u00a0a regular\u00a0basis.\u00a0I think that\u00a0changed after World War II,\u00a0when we decided to remain\u00a0a smaller size with better control of our\u00a0future rather than grow quickly\u00a0in order\u00a0to\u00a0compete with those universities in\u00a0athletics. We understood that we had two\u00a0different roads to follow. One of the super\u00a0major athletic programs, which is\u00a0very\u00a0expensive, and the one that we chose in\u00a0electing\u00a0to concentrate on the scholastic\u00a0parts of higher education.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MS: What were clubs and Greek life like\u00a0when\u00a0you attended\u00a0Furman?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NT: I was not a member of a fraternity, but\u00a0I was\u00a0very close\u00a0to\u00a0all of\u00a0the fraternities\u00a0and sororities.\u00a0And once we got past the\u00a0fact that the institutions were a little\u00a0reluctant to have dances and things of a\u00a0social nature, the\u00a0student\u00a0life at Furman\u00a0greatly improved. In fact, the Poinsett\u00a0Hotel, which just celebrated its 100th\u00a0anniversary, was one of the places we\u00a0were always looking forward to having\u00a0a dance or something special.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MS: Do you have many fond\u00a0memories of living in Greenville\u00a0while\u00a0you attended Furman?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NT:\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0lived in\u00a0Greenville\u00a0my whole short\u00a0life, and\u00a0that’s\u00a0a real pun being 97 years\u00a0old.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0seen Furman grow in a way of\u00a0quality\u00a0education\u00a0and\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been proud\u00a0of\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0occurred. Before I attended\u00a0Furman, I was always respectful of the\u00a0university but once I became a student, I\u00a0found\u00a0a fondness\u00a0and appreciation for the\u00a0education facilities of our university.\u00a0There were so many things to be proud\u00a0of, and I jokingly say that our favorite\u00a0pastime was\u00a0probably the\u00a0pinball machine\u00a0that was in the Lucky Strike Shop\u00a0[Lucky Strike Cafe and Bowling Alley]\u00a0on Augusta Street, which was just a few\u00a0steps\u00a0off of\u00a0the campus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MS: Do you still have many close friendships\u00a0from your time at Furman?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NT: Well, many have gone on to another\u00a0form in the sky, but the few of us that are\u00a0left today, especially the ones in South\u00a0Carolina, we\u00a0get together and talk about\u00a0Furman and the advancement of the\u00a0programs and how much it has meant to\u00a0us. In fact, I had lunch today with four\u00a0individuals and three out of the four\u00a0were Furman graduates.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

MS: What would be the piece of advice you\u00a0would\u00a0tell\u00a0all Furman students if you could?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

NT: I would die happy knowing that\u00a0the students of Furman will continue\u00a0to elevate their goals for humanity\u00a0and continue making contributions\u00a0to a better America, a stronger state\u00a0and help continue to support the\u00a0school financially to create a stronger\u00a0Furman University.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting to know one of Furman University’s most active and enduring alumni with the help of one of the institution’s recent students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":41571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,60,3534,3404,1963,3526],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-alumni-profiles","category-around-the-lake-spring-2026","category-bicentennial","category-furman-magazine","category-spring-2026"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42167","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\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42167"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42329,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42167\/revisions\/42329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}