The following was featured in a recent Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE) publication:
Remembering the Sixties: A Summer Project at Clemson University
Through the years, Clemson University Emeritus College members have enjoyed a variety of small-group, shared-interest activities and exchanges that emerged organically and are sustained by mutual interests. These events afford the sharing of ideas and cross-disciplinary collaboration and have become substantially self-sustaining. Of particular note is a memoir writing group, now five years old, that convenes monthly, meeting via Zoom to accommodate scattered emeriti. Normal attendance is eight to twelve participants from multiple disciplines, united by a common interest in memoir writing. Participants have shared over 180 pieces through the Canvas utility, including some poetry and works of fiction. In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the College, the memoir group spearheaded the 2023 publication of Moments and Memories, a collection of individual career reflections from the wider emeritus community. It has become a significant addition to the historical record of the University, and a second volume is in the works. Both will be carried in the University bookstore.
As a summer project, the memoir group is collecting a selection of some themed writings into a volume titled, The Sixties: The Long Decade, 1954-1974. It will reflect the thoughts and experiences of a small group of retired academics who, though at the time were separated by place and circumstances, experienced the sixties firsthand and later enjoyed intersecting and overlapping careers at Clemson. Members of the group — having become familiar and drawn close by their sharing of thoughts and memories — offer a novel, collective view of that formative period. To learn more, contact Cecil O. Huey, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Department of Mechanical Engineering, cohuey@clemson.edu.