Victoria Gillis, Clemson University Professor Emerita of Literacy, taught at Clemson for 20 years before retiring in 2010. She then accepted a position at the University of Wyoming as an Endowed Excellence Chair in literacy education, where she received the Faculty Award in 2017 from the College of Education for Outstanding Contributions Toward Improving the Climate of the College.
On March 2, 2025, Gillis was inducted into the Lewis Society of the alumni organization Women of North Georgia. The Lewis Society was created in 1873 to recognize women of significance within the history of the University of North Georgia (UNG), including its first female graduate, Willie Lewis, and her sister, Mary. Being inducted into the Lewis Society is a way to celebrate women who have had or lead exemplary lives. Gillis was inducted for her professional achievements at Clemson University and the University of Wyoming and for her work to award Quilts of Valor (QOV) to alumni of North Georgia College (now University of North Georgia) who have served in the military and been touched by war.
According to the organization Quilts of Valor, these special quilts are intended to provide comfort to veterans of war. To date, Gillis has provided 60 QOV to North Georgia College graduates in the classes of 1968 and 1969, awarded at their 55th class reunions.
Gillis learned about QOV ten years ago while in a restaurant in Anderson, S.C., where she observed a group of older people, one of whom was presented a beautiful quilt.
“As the group was leaving, I asked the man who did the presentation what was going on, and he told me about QOV,” she said. “Since I had graduated from a military college with my undergraduate degree in 1968, and most of my classmates went to Vietnam, it struck a chord.”
After retiring from the University of Wyoming in 2017, she began sewing with the Quilts of Valor group in Anderson.
Her first Quilt of Valor was gifted in 2019 to Senator Max Cleland, a Vietnam veteran and triple amputee, who served as Georgia’s Secretary of State and in the U.S. Senate. Cleland passed away in 2021, but Gillis remembers him as an old friend. They both grew up in Lithonia, Ga.
“I had kept up with him as he headed up the Veterans Administration for President Carter, and when he went on to serve in several elected positions,” she said. Since gifting that first quilt to Cleland, Gillis has awarded a total of 75 quilts, an average of 11 quilts annually. Currently, she is working on quilts for the Classes of 1965-1967 to be awarded at their 60th class reunions.