Clemson Honors recipients of the 2025 Distinguished Service Award

Columbia architect and volunteer leader James Timothy Hance, Sr. will receive the Clemson Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.

The 1984 Clemson graduate is a member of the American Institute of Architects. He is owner and president of the architectural firm he founded in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1994.

His firm, J. Timothy Hance, Architect, P.A., offers primarily residential architectural design and selected commercial design for projects throughout South Carolina. Before opening his own practice, Hance worked for Stevens and Wilkinson, one of the largest architectural firms in the Southeast, and then McClam-Blake Architects, a small residential design firm located in Columbia.

Two different South Carolina governors have appointed Hance to the state’s Building Codes Council, on which he has served since 2011. The council’s primary functions are to adopt or modify model building codes for South Carolina and to regulate the registration of building codes enforcement officers, special inspectors and Modular Building Program participants.

Hance is a former member of the city of Columbia’s Property Maintenance Board of Appeals and worked with the city’s Façade Improvement Program in 2011-2012. He has held several leadership positions for the Washington Street United Methodist Church, including as chairman of its board of trustees. Hance is currently a member of Shandon United Methodist Church.

For Clemson, Hance currently chairs the University’s Board of Visitors, on which he has served since 2015. He previously was secretary and then chairman of the board’s legislative committee. He works closely with the University’s Office of Governmental Affairs in organizing annual Clemson Day at the State House events and has regularly traveled to Washington, D.C., to interact with congressional members on Clemson’s behalf.

He has been active with the Clemson Architectural Foundation since 2011, serving in the roles of secretary, treasurer and trustee. The foundation provides alumni and financial assistance to programs and students in the School of Architecture through endowments and scholarships. He also served on the School’s Architectural Professional Review Committee in 2011-2013 and has been a strong proponent of hiring Clemson architectural students as Summer interns.

His financial donations to Clemson programs and activities include gifts for the Clemson Architectural Foundation, the Board of Visitors, the Grace Catherine Clements ClemsonLIFE Endowed Grant-in-Aid and the Thomas Few Memorial Scholarship.

Hance and his wife, Susan Sutherland Hance, have two children, both of whom are Clemson alumni: daughter Sarah Hance Short, Class of 2017; and son James Timothy Hance Jr., Class of 2021.

Prominent South Carolina attorney Anthony Lee “Tony” Harbin, a partner in the Harbin & Burnett law firm in Anderson, South Carolina, will receive the Clemson Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.

The 1988 Clemson honors graduate is a Greenville native. He has lived and practiced law in Anderson since 1996. Before attending Clemson, he served with distinction in the U.S. Marine Corps. He is a member of the American Legion and of Disabled American Veterans.

After earning his Juris Doctor degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1991, he worked at various law firms in the state before forming Harbin & Burnett in 2014.

He has held leadership roles in numerous statewide organizations, including multiple offices in the South Carolina Association for Justice (SCAJ), which promotes fairness under the law for all South Carolinians. He has served on the SCAJ board of governors since 2005 and was the association’s 2014-2015 president.

Harbin regularly volunteers in legal clinics and engages in pro-bono work for individuals, small businesses and churches who cannot afford legal representation. In 2016, he received SCAJ’s Matthew J. Perry Public Service Award, which recognizes those whose monumental sacrifice in the name of public service has, over the course of a career, made a significant difference to the community. In 2023, he received the association’s Founder’s Award, which is presented to a lawyer who has demonstrated great skill and confidence as a trial advocate for at least 30 years and is recognized as a leader with the highest ethical reputation.

He is a member of The National Trial Lawyers Top 100, an invitation-only professional organization composed of the premier trial lawyers from each state or region. For more than 10 years, he has been designated as a Super Lawyer, a rating of outstanding lawyers who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement, and listed in the Best Lawyers in America directory, which showcases lawyers who meet the highest standards of professional excellence.

While serving on Clemson’s Board of Visitors from 2012 to 2015, Harbin volunteered at Tigertown Bound receptions for prospective students and their families. He also participated in Clemson Day at the State House events, and he continues to promote strong relationships between Clemson and state leaders. In support of Clemson students in both academics and athletics, he has spoken to legal studies classes, has welcomed Clemson interns into his law offices and is a major donor to IPTAY to further the success of student-athletes. 

Harbin and his wife, Diana Hembree Harbin, have two daughters, Kathleen Harbin Black and Mary Catherine Harbin, a 2016 Clemson graduate, and a son, Charles Anthony Harbin.

Atlanta business executive and community volunteer Aubrey Harrell, a retired audit partner with KPMG, will receive the Clemson Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.

The 1989 Clemson honors graduate has more than 34 years of experience in various industries, including aerospace, real estate, entertainment, food and beverage, and alternative investments. In 2024, he was appointed by the governor of Georgia to the State Board of Accountancy, which regulates certified public accountants in the Peach State.

Within KPMG, Harrell was one of the firm’s national audit diversity, equity and inclusion leaders and a member of the DEI Executive Leadership Council. He also chaired KPMG’s national African Ancestry Business Resource Group, leading strategy development and execution for more than 7,000 members to connect, thrive and advance within the firm.

Harrell has served since 2017 on the National Association of Black Accountants’ corporate advisory board. He has volunteered since 2007 with First Step Staffing and currently chairs its board. First Step’s mission is to provide a pathway to economic stability through employment and retention services. Since 2021, he has served on the board of directors and finance committee of The Study Hall, an after-school program to advance students in economically challenged areas.

He also has held multiple board leadership positions with Goodwill of North Georgia and Goodwill Industries of North Georgia. He has been a volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and is a member of Holsey Temple CME Church.

For Clemson, Harrell is a past member of the Clemson University Foundation board of directors and a current member of the School of Accountancy advisory board. In 2015, he established the Bryant Aubrey Harrell ’89 Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Fund to support retention of students from historically marginalized populations.

In further service to his alma mater, he took the lead role in revitalizing the Clemson Career Workshop, a program to attract academically talented, underrepresented high school students to the university. He is the founding and current chair of the program’s advisory board, and in 2022 he established the B. Aubrey Harrell ’89 Snelsire, Sawyer, Robinson Clemson Career Workshop Scholarship Endowment, the title of which reflects the program’s new name.

While a Clemson student, Harrell joined the Pi Alpha Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. He remains active as an alumni volunteer for the fraternity and serves as an advisor and mentor for young Alpha Phi Alpha Clemson graduates as they start their professional careers.

Harrell and his wife, Lisa, have three daughters: Alexis Lorraine Harrell, Maia Therese Harrell and Kalis Raquel Johnson, a 2022 Clemson graduate.

Johnston, South Carolina, native, agricultural and civic leader, Lewis F. Holmes III, will receive the Clemson Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.

The 1973 Clemson graduate is owner and operator of Lewis F. Holmes Farms in his hometown of Johnston. A diversified farmer, he has grown or produced numerous crops, including cotton, corn, wheat, rye, grain sorghum, soybeans, brown top millet and timber. He was a successful peach grower and commercial peach packer for more than 30 years.

Holmes is a past president of both the South Carolina Peach Council and the National Peach Council. He is a former chairman of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the South Carolina Peach Board. He received the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Award for the Southeast in 2004.

A U.S. Army veteran who served in Korea, Holmes is a past commander of American Legion Post 154 in Johnston and a former Edgefield County American Legion commander.

He previously served as president of the Johnston Sertoma Club and the Ridge Agricultural Club. He is an original member of the Blue Steel Club of Strom Thurmond High School Athletics. He was a major contributor to the Golden Harvest Food Bank and Salvation Army, both of Augusta, Georgia. He was also a long-time football prognosticator for the Aiken Standard.

For Clemson, Holmes is a longtime supporter of the Clemson Alumni Association and of IPTAY, for which he had been Edgefield County chairman for more than 35 years. He is a member of the Anna Calhoun Clemson Cumulative Giving Society, the 1889 Society, the 110 Society and has served on the University’s Board of Visitors.

Holmes and his family were initial contributors to the West Zone initiatives for the Tiger football program, resulting in the naming of the head coach’s office in his father’s memory. They also established a perpetual scholarship in Clemson’s School of Architecture in memory of his late brother, Preston Brooks Holmes.

During his days as a Clemson student, Lewis Holmes III served as a senior sports editor for The Tiger newspaper and as an ROTC company commander. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army upon graduation.

Holmes has two daughters, Brannon H. McComb, a 2001 Clemson graduate, and Valarie Brooks Davis. He and his wife, Linda, currently reside in Evans, Georgia.

Columbia, South Carolina, business executive and community volunteer David Carr Lockwood III, an international leader in the commercial real estate industry, will receive the Clemson Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.

The 1984 Clemson graduate is executive vice president and chief operating officer of Colliers International South Carolina Inc., which has four offices across the state and affiliations worldwide. After joining Colliers | South Carolina as a broker in 1986, he advanced through increasingly significant roles before assuming his current position in 2016.

Lockwood is a prominent leader in numerous local, state, national and international professional organizations, including serving as the 2024 global president of the Society of Industrial and Office REALTORS® (SIOR), the leading global professional office and industrial real estate association. He has earned National Association of REALTORS® designations as both a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) and a member of the Counselors of Real Estate (CRE). 

Among his many civic activities, Lockwood represented the Second Congressional District on the South Carolina Real Estate Commission from 2013 to 2022 and was its vice chairman in 2020-2021. He has served on the boards of EngenuitySC (2005-2015), Friends of Juvenile Justice (2007-2010) and the City Center Partnership (2006-2011, including as chairman in 2010-2011). He was a member of the city of Columbia’s Business-Friendly Implementation Task Force in 2013-2014, has held multiple leadership posts with the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce, the Central Carolina REALTORS® Association, the South Carolina REALTORS® Association and the National Association of REALTORS®. David is a 1993 graduate of Leadership Columbia.

Lockwood served on the Sandhills School’s board of directors from 2007 to 2012 and chaired the board from 2008 to 2010. For Lexington–Richland School District Five, he served on the Business Advisory Council in 2005 and on the Facilities Review Committee in 2006 and 2007. He is a former member of the River Springs Elementary School Improvement Council and the Congaree Girl Scout Council’s board of directors. He has held a variety of volunteer positions with Riverland Hills Baptist Church. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Second Century Ventures. Lockwood was named one of the 50 Most Influential People in Columbia for 2023 and 2024.

For Clemson, Lockwood was a member the Board of Visitors and chaired its Student Engagement Committee. He is a former chairman of the Student Affairs Advisory Board. When he was a student, he was involved in numerous leadership and service activities and received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for excellence of character and service to humanity. 

Lockwood and his wife, Lesli, have a daughter, Kimberlee Lockwood Cannon, and a son, David Carr Lockwood IV.