MRS. FANNIE PHELPS ADAMS

Fannie Phelps Adams was born on June 27, 1917, the eighth of ten children of the late James and Mary Lou Phelps. She graduated from Booker T. Washington High School in 1934 and went on to earn a B.A. degree from Allen University in 1938 and an M.S. degree from South Carolina State University in 1953. She did further study at Columbia University in New York, at North Carolina College in Durham and Fisk University in Nashville.

Mrs. Adams began her professional career in 1938 as a teacher at Booker T. Washington Heights Elementary School (later Sarah Nance Elementary and now Watkins-Nance Elementary) where she taught third grade until 1943. She went on to teach English and social studies at Booker T. Washington High School and continued her service there as a teacher, guidance counselor, assistant principal and acting principal until the school closed in 1974. She then served as assistant principal at A.C. Flora High School until she retired in 1979.

During her more than 40 years in Richland County School District One, she taught, guided and befriended hundreds of students and scores of her fellow teachers. The people whose lives she touched are far too numerous to count. The Booker T. Washington Foundation established the Fannie Phelps Adams Scholarship in her honor in 1986.

In addition to being a lifetime member of St. James AME Church, Mrs. Adams serves as a trustee, class leader and member of the church school and Bible study groups. She was the church’s 1975 Mother of the Year. She also has received the Heritage Award, the Meritorious Membership Award and, in 2007, she was honored as the church’s oldest living member. The Presbyterian Women of Northminster Presbyterian Church recognized Mrs. Adams as a Woman of Faith. Her many other honors include receiving Human Relations Awards from the Richland County Education Association, the South Carolina Education Association and the National Education Association.

Mrs. Adams is the founder of the Palmetto Cemetery Association and director of the Wheeler Hill Neighborhood Association. She has been a member of the Columbia Branch of the National Association of University Women since 1945 and a member of the Beta Zeta Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority since 1944. She is a former board member of Palmetto Richland Hospital, a charter member of Palmetto Richland Children’s Hospital, a volunteer with the Senior Citizen Food Co-Op and a member of the NAACP.

Mrs. Adams and her husband, David King Adams (now deceased), had a daughter, Mary Suzette Adams-Jenkins. In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Adams has a grandson, David Edward Adams; two great-grandchildren, Davion and Diamond Adams; and a surviving sister, Celia Phelps Martin, who is also a retired Richland One educator.

At 91 years young, Mrs. Adams continues to serve as a guiding light to her family, friends, church, community and students with God as her guiding light.

 

CHARLES D. BEAMAN JR.

Charles D. (Chuck) Beaman Jr., serves as president and chief executive officer of Palmetto Health, the largest integrated healthcare delivery system in South Carolina with net revenues of approximately $1.2 billion. He served as founding president of Palmetto Health at its inception in 1998 and was appointed by the Palmetto Health Board of Directors to succeed founding CEO Kester S. Freeman, Jr., upon his retirement in January 2007.

Mr. Beaman is a native of Columbia and a product of the public school system. He attended Rosewood Elementary School and Hand Junior High School (now Hand Middle School), and he is a 1969 graduate of Dreher High School. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of South Carolina and his master of science degree in hospital administration from the University of Alabama-Birmingham. He served his administrative residency with the Baptist Medical Centers of Alabama and with the chief executive officer of Baptist Healthcare System in Columbia.

Prior to the creation of Palmetto Health, Mr. Beaman served as president and CEO of Baptist Healthcare System of South Carolina, Inc. He began his career with the Baptist Healthcare System as a unit manager in 1973 and over the next 15 years served in various management positions with increasing responsibilities leading up to his appointment in 1987 as its president and chief executive officer. Mr. Beaman received the 2004 South Carolina Hospital Association’s Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor presented to individuals who have contributed significantly to health care in South Carolina.

In his role as a community leader, Mr. Beaman serves as a member of the PSARAS Foundation board, the Columbia Community Advisory Board for HomeWorks of America, Inc., the Midlands Technical College Foundation board and as chairman of its Building the Future Campaign Steering Committee, the South Carolina Bank and Trust Advisory Board, the City Center Partnership board and the Midlands Business Leaders board. He is the chair-elect of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce board and chairs that organization’s Foundation that is sustaining the Chamber’s "Navigating from Good to Great" five-year community development initiative. He is a founding director of the Midlands Housing Alliance, which was created to address homelessness in the Midlands to assure comprehensive services and programs for the homeless as well as economic progress for the community.

Mr. Beaman has led the way in developing and sustaining Palmetto Health’s work in support of Richland County School District One through several initiatives. Lunch Buddies, Teen Talk and Healthy Choices are but a few of the initiatives that he has supported. The Lunch Buddies partnership began with Baptist Medical Center and A.C. Flora High School in 1992-93 directly under Mr. Beaman’s leadership prior to the union between Baptist Medical Center and Richland Memorial Hospital. The Healthy Choices initiative derived from the Palmetto Healthy Start program as a strategy to prevent teen pregnancy. The Real Talk and Boys to Men initiatives were designed to help teens develop a positive self-image, learn valuable life skills and establish goals while making healthy choices.

Mr. Beaman and his wife, Joni R. Beaman, have been married for 31 years and they have two children - William (age 25), who is a graduate of Clemson University, and Ashley (age 22), who is a senior at Lander College. Mr. Beaman and his family are active members of Shandon Baptist Church in Columbia.

 

GARY B. BELL, M.D.

Gary B. Bell was born March 12, 1956 in Columbia, a son of Leroy and Marie Bell. A product of Richland County School District One, he attended Florence C. Benson Elementary School, Booker T. Washington High School and C.A. Johnson High School and graduated from Columbia High School in 1974. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of South Carolina in 1976 and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1983.

Dr. Bell decided to focus on internal medicine in medical school after discovering that one of his siblings had sickle cell anemia. He has served on the board of directors and as medical advisor for the James R. Clark Sickle Cell Foundation. In 1991, he was named Volunteer of the Year for the outstanding services he provided to sickle cell patients.

Living his philosophy “to whom much is given, much is required,” Dr. Bell was a volunteer with the Columbia Free Medical Clinic, a project of the Columbia Medical Society, which provides healthcare services to the underserved and those who simply cannot afford health coverage. He also served on the advisory board and as a medical advisor for Healthy Learners, a privately funded program that provides health care for disadvantaged school children in the Midlands. Dr. Bell worked with nurse Dee Dee Chewning, director of Healthy Learners, to create access to health care for school-age children who otherwise would have “fallen through the cracks.” Barriers, such as dental, vision and hearing problems, which interfered with the academic performance of children, were addressed. Through school nurses, these students were screened and provided needed health care services.

Dr. Bell’s belief that professionals who have done well should give back to their community continues to be a guiding principle for him. He served as past president and board chairman of the board of directors for HOPE Worldwide South Carolina. As the past president, vice president and director of the HOPE Health Corps and as a member of the HOPE Health Corps, he volunteered as a clinical physician at the Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and at the Healing AIDS conference in Los Angeles. Dr. Bell and his wife, a dentist, gave of their time to help persons in the most dire of circumstances. At the Hope Health Clinic in Kingston, Jamaica, patients lined up before sunrise to receive the medical services he provided as a volunteer clinical physician.

His many honors and awards include recognition as the Watkins Elementary School (now Watkins-Nance Elementary) Volunteer of the Year. In 1991, Dr. Bell, his parents and seven brothers and sisters received the National Black Family Summit Family of the Year Award for outstanding academic and professional achievements, and they were recognized by Congress.

Dr. Bell and his wife, Dr. Benetta Gadegbeku-Bell, have two children - Jonathan Michael and Katherine Elizabeth. He is a member of the Longcreek Church of Christ, where he serves as a deacon.

 

THE HONORABLE JUDGE WILLIE T. SMITH, JR.

Willie T. Smith, Jr., was born on January 17, 1920 in Sumter, S.C., the son of Willie T. Smith, Sr. and Mary Moore Smith. After moving to Columbia, he attended Howard Elementary School and Booker T. Washington High School (Class of 1936). His college education began at Benedict College, but being drafted into the United States Army interrupted this pursuit of learning. Smith served in North Africa, Italy and Sicily during World War II. He was also deployed to the Phillippines and Japan prior to returning home. His educational pursuits were continued through the GI Bill. Smith enrolled at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, N.C., where he earned a baccalaureate degree in 1948.

With an avid interest in law and a desire to influence change in his native South Carolina, Smith attended the South Carolina State College School of Law. His time at S.C. State College was interrupted as he entered the U.S. Air Force during the Korean Conflict. After returning to school, he earned a Juris Doctorate degree in 1954.

Smith began the private practice of law in 1954 and served as a cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He handled such civil rights cases as Whittenburg vs. The School District of Greenville County, the case that desegregated Greenville County Schools. He was also responsible for the sit-in case of Peterson vs. City of Greenville that led to the repeal of all city ordinances requiring segregation of races in public facilities.

He was an outstanding, dedicated jurist. He participated in a number of prominent cases, including Harvey Gantt vs. Clemson College and the defense of numerous young people during the sit-in movement. He co-chaired the Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce Bi-Racial and Community Relations Committee, which was responsible for the smooth and orderly desegregation of all public accommodations in Greenville County. From 1967-1973, he served as senior attorney for Legal Services of Greenville and served as its executive director from 1973-1977. In 1977, Smith was elected Family Court judge for the 13th Judicial Circuit of South Carolina by a unanimous vote of the South Carolina General Assembly.

Judge Smith was a member of the American Bar Association, the South Carolina Bar, the Judicial Council of the National Bar Association, the Greenville County Bar and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. His many honors and awards include election to the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame (1994) and the Matthew J. Perry Medallion from the Columbia Lawyers Association (1996).

A true public servant, Judge Smith served on numerous boards, task forces, commissions and committees. Among them are the Greenville County Redevelopment Authority, Greenville Chamber of Commerce, Greenville Urban League, Phyllis Wheatley Association, Greenville Technical College Foundation, NAACP, American Red Cross, Rotary Club of Greenville and the Board of Directors of the Peace Center for the Performing Arts. He was the local organizer of the Delta Beta Boule’, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, Inc., a national family-oriented gentlemen’s service organization. During its formative years, the Greenville men of Delta Beta Boule’ were recognized by the national body for their outstanding mentoring program for young men. Delta Beta Boule’ holds the annual Willie T. Smith Annual Public Policy Forum in his honor.

Judge Smith and his wife, Anna Marie Clark Smith, were married for more than 47 years until his death on December 17, 2002. Their son, Willie T. Smith, III is a sports writer for The Greenville News.