Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/151812
2013 FURMAN PALADINS FOOTBALL FURMAN ADMINISTRATION Dr. Carl Kohrt President The Furman University Board of Trustees unanimously elected Carl F. Kohrt, Ph.D., to be interim president effective July 1. He succeeds Furman's 11th president, Rod Smolla, who resigned for personal reasons after serving since July 2010. A native of Tuscola, Illinois, Dr. Kohrt is a successful business executive and an accomplished academic with deep Furman ties. He was graduated magna cum laude from Furman in 1965 with a B.S. degree in chemistry, and earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago and a Master's degree in Management Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Kohrt has been a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow, a National Science Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow at the James Frank Institute, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow (honorary), a Sloan Fellow, and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Science degree from both Furman and Ohio Dominican University. Dr. Kohrt enjoyed a 29-year career at Eastman Kodak Company, joining the company as a scientist and retiring as executive vice president and chief technical officer, where he was responsible for research laboratories on four continents. From 2001 until his retirement in 2008, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Battelle Memorial Institute, one of the world's largest, non-profit research and development corporations. The son of two teachers, Kohrt has been devoted to improving math and science education in public schools. Under his leadership and consistent with its founding mission, Battelle began a significant investment in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, co-founding with The Ohio State University a multi-state network of public math and science college preparatory high schools. He also served as founding chair of Battelle for Kids, a nationally recognized teacher education assessment company. He is the past lead director of Scotts MiracleGro Company and currently serves as a director of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. He also has been a longstanding member of Furman's Board of Trustees, serving as its chair from 2006 to 2008. He and his wife, Lynne, are the parents of three sons, one a Furman graduate (Kris '84), and they have 10 grandchildren. on the league's academic honor roll. Clark's appointment as athletic director brought him full circle after first coming to Furman as a basketball player in the early 1970s and later returning in 1998 to serve as director of the Paladin Club, the school's athletic fund-raising organization. He added the title of associate athletic director for external affairs the following year. A 1974 Furman graduate with a B.A. degree in history, Clark earned M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of South Carolina. He spent the next 23 years at Spartanburg Day School as a teacher, coach, and, finally, headmaster, where he oversaw several successful enrollment and fund-raising campaigns. During his time as a Furman undergraduate, Clark lettered twice as a member of the basketball team and played on Paladin squads that won two Southern Conference Tournament championships and made two NCAA Tournament appearances under head coach Joe Williams. During his senior season, the Paladins posted a 22-9 record and defeated South Carolina, 75-67, in the NCAA East Regionals. A native of Chicago Heights, Ill., Clark, a former member of the NCAA's prestigious Management Council, is married to the former Merrie McCullough '75 of Honea Path and has two sons: Ryan and John Stewart. Dr. Bill Pierce Faculty Athletics Representative Dr. Bill Pierce, Furman's NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative, joined the Furman faculty in 1983 and has chaired the health sciences department for almost three decades. During his tenure as chair, the health sciences major has grown into one of the most popular on campus. The W. Va., native was a highly recruited two-time all-state basketball player who attended Davidson on a basketball scholarship. While at Davidson, he played on nationally ranked basketball teams that won three Southern Conference championships. He was also a successful half-miler on the track team. Pierce graduated from Davidson in 1971 with a degree in political science. He earned a master's degree in sports studies from West Virginia and doctorate in physical education from Virginia Tech. Dr. Gary Clark Athletics Director When Gary Clark was named director of athletics at Furman in August of 2000, he spoke of the challenge of building on the success of a program coming off one of its greatest decades. Now in his second decade as head of the school's 20-sport athletics program, it's clear Clark — and Furman — have made good on the task as Paladin athletics has maintained its competitiveness and overall excellence. During Clark's tenure, Furman athletic teams have combined to win 26 Southern Conference regular season championships and 27 league tournament titles, and make 40 NCAA Tournament appearances. Furman's athletics program earned an 108th place finish in the 2007-08 NACDA NCAA Division I Sports Academy Director's Cup all-sports competition, the highest showing by an SoCon school and third highest among state institutions, and the last four years Furman has ranked among national leaders in NCAA Academic Performance Rate (APR) scores. In addition, the university captured the SoCon's 2007-08 Barrett-Bonner Award by placing the highest percentage of its student-athletes Furman 106 Paladins