Wofford College

On July 4, 1851, the future Methodist Bishop William Wightman came to a beautiful site on a high ridge overlooking the tiny courthouse village of Spartanburg, South Carolina. As more than 4,000 people looked on, he made the keynote address while local Masons laid the cornerstone for Wofford College. A distinguished professor, journalist, and clergyman, Wightman stressed that the new institution would pattern itself after neither the South’s then-elitist public universities nor the narrowly sectarian colleges sponsored by some denominations. Instead, he argued, “It is impossible to conceive of greater benefits — to the individual or to society — than those embraced in the gift of a liberal education, combining moral principle ... with the enlightened and cultivated understanding which is the product of thorough scholarship.” Wofford College later experienced both good times and hard times, but it stands more than 150 years later as one of a handful of pre-Civil War American colleges operating continuously and successfully on its original campus. It has offered carefully selected students a respected academic program, tempered with concern for the individual. It has respected the virtues of continuity and heritage while responding with energy, optimism, and excitement to the challenges of a changing world.