“The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway.” – Michael Pollan.
Maintaining the 700 acres of pastoral landscapes that make up the main campus is the most visible service Clemson University Facilities provides. Anyone who takes care of a yard —whether for the love of it or because an HOA requires it —can imagine what a herculean task that is. Nobody takes on that challenge better than the Clemson landscape services team.
In a world with plenty of picturesque college campuses, Clemson stands above. It is a wonder of inviting paths, sparkling fountains, and colorful flowerbeds tucked around layers of immaculately groomed courtyards and small forests of trees holding lush, leafy canopies that cast a welcoming shade over it all.
Ray Turner has cared for Clemson’s bucolic panorama for as long as anyone. For more than 40 years, he’s been showing up every day to mow, prune, weed, trim, rake, blow leaves, plant flowers or whatever else needs doing to keep the place impeccable. He is a fixture around his campus section every morning, encompassing the top of Fort Hill and including the Calhoun Mansion and Trustee Park. With his long blond hair and full beard, Turner’s rugged appearance belies his gentle demeanor. Like many people who choose a line of work that places them around plant life more than human life, Turner is a man of few words.
“I just get up and do it,” he says matter-of-factly during an interview in the Clemson Landscaping headquarters building, hidden behind a wall of trees along Old Stadium Road. “I get here at 6 a.m., look to see what needs it worst and get to work. We have a few trash cans we have to empty first, and they’re usually full. If I don’t get attacked by a raccoon, the start of the day goes smoothly.”
Like many Clemson University Facilities staff members, Turner’s roots at the University run deep. His father, Raymond C. Turner, is an Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics, and his brother and sister are both alumni.
When asked what his favorite part of campus is, he answers with a wry smile.
“My part, of course.”
Land lords
Director of Landscape Services Tommy Fallaw ‘94 says every team member takes ownership over their sections like Turner does. They are also keenly aware the campus is one of Clemson’s best ambassadors.
“Our work is the first thing people see when they arrive on our campus and the last thing they see when they leave,” says Fallaw. “So, we get two opportunities every day to make an impression.”
Like Turner, Fallaw is typical among Clemson Facilities employees in that his ties to the University spread out in every direction. He earned a degree in horticulture from Clemson in 1994, his wife, Beth, earned a degree in parks, recreation, and tourism management in 1993, his daughter, Kirkley, is currently a junior packaging science major, and his mother, Jeralyn, was a Clemson Extension agent for Lexington County for 32 years.
“People on our team enjoy working with their hands, of course, and working outside,” he says. “And I would like to think it’s people who appreciate nature and beauty. We’ve had people who have worked in offices their whole lives apply and just say, ‘Hey, I want to do something different.’ And, boy, is it different!”
Chief Facilities Officer Todd Barnette says the 42 members of the Landscaping crews do much more than give the students bucolic scenery to walk to and from classes through.
“We know our campus is an invaluable recruiting tool for students, faculty and staff,” he explains. “It is consistently on the top of the list when new students are asked why they chose Clemson. Our landscaping crew ensures it is breathtaking from every angle, 365 days a year.”
Green zones
Fallaw and his team split the grounds into seven zones to keep on top of the campus as a whole, with a supervisor overseeing the care in each zone.
The heart of the campus is a place every Clemson student knows well: Bowman Field. Essentially Clemson’s front lawn, keeping the sloped five acres of Bermuda grass neat and green, is a perpetual challenge. Events that bring hordes of people onto the field, like the Homecoming float contest, and rain constantly try to turn it into a mud bog.
“Somebody always tears it up, and we always put it back together,” laughs Fallaw. “It’s a kind of grass that recovers quickly, so we always have it looking nice.”
If Bowman Field is the heart of campus, then Woodland Cemetery is the soul. A quiet refuge that sits in the massive shadow of Memorial Stadium, Woodland Cemetery is the final resting place of some 700 plus Clemson faculty and staff members and, discovered in July 2020 and January 2021, more than 500 African American enslaved persons and convicted laborers in unmarked graves.
Cemetery superintendent Anthony Herrera, who started at Clemson as a landscape technician in 2020, worked with researchers and faculty to find a solution in the graveyard that honors the nameless while preserving the existing gravesites. Small, tasteful stones were placed on each unmarked grave, and Herrera and his co-workers hand-planted 8,000 daffodils that blanketed the cemetery in bright yellow explosions as Spring arrived this year.
Herrera, whose wife, Kelly, earned a degree in environmental natural resources with a minor in horticulture from Clemson in 2013, sees caring for the cemetery as a sacred task he is uniquely qualified to carry out.
“Maintaining the University landscaping has always been a favorite part of my job,” he says. “But being a part of the cemetery, learning its history, and dealing with the families who visit or bury a loved one is the most rewarding.”
The Woodland Cemetery, Bowman Field and Fort Hill are just three among hundreds of beautiful places that fit into the beautiful tapestry of Clemson’s campus, each piece cared for by diligent workers like Turner and Herrera. Whether you’re walking the paths around the top of Fort Hill or exploring the grounds of Memorial Stadium, driving through campus via the tree-lined lanes of Perimeter Road or Old Greenville Highway, cooling off in the Carillon Garden or pondering your future at the R.M Cooper Library reflection pond — Clemson’s Landscaping staff ensures every person fortunate enough to see our University won’t forget it.
