"A Book Worthy of a Bicentennial"
Dr. Courtney Tollison '99 tells FFSA about her new history of Furman University
This month, we bring you an exclusive written interview with Dr. Courtney Tollison ‘99, Furman’s Distinguished University Public Historian and Scholar.
Dr. Tollison discusses her recently published bicentennial history of Furman, delving into the process of writing the book and recounting fascinating moments of Furman’s past. You can purchase Furman University, 1826-2026: A Bicentennial History by clicking on this link. You can read the full interview below:
Would you briefly introduce your book?
Published in February 2026, Furman University, 1826-2026: A Bicentennial History offers the most thorough assessment of the history of Furman University. The book was published by Duke University Press and includes nearly 1200 images and over 400 pages of text. We started with Dr. Richard Furman’s birth in 1755, so we had a lot to cover. Furman, the institution, is only 50 years younger than our nation.
When I reference “we,” I’m referring to my co-authors, Bryant Garrison ’25 and Emily Anne Harris ’25, and to Pender Raymond ’27, who joined us in the summer of 2025. This truly was a highly collaborative effort, which made the process so much more fun.
What has been written previously about Furman’s history? How did you draw on those volumes in your book? What is distinct about your work?
I’ve consistently studied Furman’s history since my senior year at Furman. Before I started writing this book, I was already familiar with what had been published on Furman’s history, on Richard and James C. Furman, and on the Greenville Woman’s College. University histories were published by President William J. McGlothlin in 1926, Dean Robert N. Daniel in 1951, and Dr. Al Reid in 1976. I was also fairly familiar with articles and other works that have been written about specific aspects of the university’s past.
As I dove deeper into this project, however, I spent more time than ever before with these histories. Not only did I begin to feel a certain kinship with their authors, but I felt a mounting sense of responsibility to them and to their efforts, and to the Furman community of the past and present.
Every version of Furman’s history is a product of its times; the questions we ask and the events that we find relevant and interesting are a reflection of our culture and values. The past doesn’t change but the way historians write about it does; such is the nature of the field of history. Our history of Furman not only covers more chronology, but it includes people who have always been part of Furman’s past but haven’t always been included in its history. Additionally, it is the first to weave together the histories of Furman and the Greenville Woman’s College.
Why did you opt for a coffee-table-book format?
Provost Ken Peterson first talked with me about a bicentennial history beginning in 2021. At the time, I was in the final stages of publishing a history of Greenville with USC Press and actually suggested several other people for the project because I didn’t think I had the bandwidth to do it the way it needed to be done. Throughout 2022, I remained tempted but non-committal. I should mention that my husband and I have 3 young children, so I was already extremely busy with my home life and teaching.
In November 2023, when I told President Davis I would do a book for the bicentennial, I planned to do a coffee table book, thinking that that format would be easier than a monograph and would be appealing to the Furman community. As I dove deeper into this project and the significance of the bicentennial hit me, however, I realized we needed to author a book that was worthy of a bicentennial.
The result is a book with lots of images combined with the depth of scholarship we would have undertaken had we written a monograph. So really, its images and layout are coffee table quality, and the research and analysis are what you would find in a monograph. And now, looking back, I can’t believe I nearly gave up what has been an extraordinary opportunity to craft Furman’s identity. It has been an incredible honor and I’m so grateful to Provosts Peterson and Pontari, Liz Seman, and President Davis for believing I could do this even when I didn’t see a way to do it myself.
What is “Then and Now”?
Then and Now is the last chapter. It was originally conceived as the chapter where we would cover organizations, traditions, and other aspects of Furman that have transcended the downtown campus and the present campus, such as football and the Furman Singers.
Richard Furman and James C. Furman have complicated legacies. How do you approach them in the book?
That is a very insightful and diplomatically phrased question. As a historian, I seek context balanced with whole-truth history. As a human being, I’m reminded of Bryan Stevenson’s quote: “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
Richard Furman was a visionary. The legacy of his contributions to our country, to the Baptist faith, and to education have endured for centuries. He was also an enslaver. We wrote about each of these aspects of his legacy and sought to understand how his writings about slavery were shaped by his nearly life-long goals of uniting Baptists in lowcountry and backcountry South Carolina and saving souls.
His son James C. Furman lived during a much more intense period of strife regarding slavery. We wrote about his involvement in secession and his unwavering defense of slavery. His public and private pronouncements were based more in motivating others by fear, whereas his father was much more scholarly in his defense of slavery.
Yet, James C. Furman worked tirelessly after the Civil War to revive the institution, which had closed, and to regain viability and, eventually, financial stability. He refused pay and turned down lucrative opportunities at churches and the presidency of the University of South Carolina, noting in regard to Furman that “it is better for one man to be sacrificed than for a great institution to be imperiled.” Without James C. Furman’s efforts, Furman wouldn’t have survived the 1880s.
What role has free speech played at Furman over the years?
As an institution of higher education associated with the SC Baptist Convention (SCBC) throughout most of its 200 years, the issue of free speech and academic freedom was one often determined by trends within the SCBC, Furman trustees (all of whom were SC Baptists), and Furman’s president. The first instance of free speech and academic freedom that comes to mind is a controversy with several professors in the early 1900s. It’s a long history, one capped most recently by the university’s adoption of a Statement on Freedom of Inquiry and Expression in 2024.
How did Furman end up a beneficiary of the Duke Endowment?
It’s a great story that is featured on p. 108 in the book. Thirty years before Ben Geer was president of Furman, he served on the Furman faculty. In 1911, he left Furman to manage several mills in the Greenville area. In this role, Geer became very close with one of his board members, James B. Duke. Throughout the 1910s and early 1920s, the Dukes and Geers traveled together and the Geers stayed with the Dukes at their residences in Manhattan, New Jersey, and Charlotte. On one of these trips aboard the Duke’s private railcar, named for their daughter Doris, Geer told Duke about Furman. Years later, in 1924, when Duke was finalizing the investiture of trust, he allegedly looked over at an assistant and asked, “what is the name of that school in Greenville that Ben Geer is such a fool about?” His assistant couldn’t remember either, so Duke penciled in “Ben Geer’s college.” Henceforth, Furman has been one of four institutions of higher education (along with Duke, Johnson C. Smith, and Davidson) that has benefitted from the endowment for over a century.
And interestingly, when Greenvillian John D. Hollingsworth was setting up the Hollingsworth Funds, which since 2001 has also been of great benefit to Furman, he asked a friend, Red Hughes, to obtain a copy of Duke’s investiture, which Hughes provided. Hollingsworth modeled the Hollingsworth Funds in part on the Duke Endowment.
I communicated several times with staff at the endowment, who shared images and data with us. In its first century, the Duke Endowment granted nearly $538 million (adjusted) to Furman. As we wrote in the book, Furman’s relationship with the Duke Endowment has been “transformational.”
How did you approach writing about Furman’s split with the South Carolina Baptist Convention?
Very thoughtfully, and with a regard for the long view of this relationship and for the many perspectives involved in its demise. I have attended First Baptist Greenville for most of my life, so I had some understanding of these issues when I began conducting oral histories with people on both sides of the split in 2004. Furthermore, noteworthy figures in this process have shared their papers with me over the years. Minor Shaw gave me a box of papers collected by her mother, Minor Mickel—who chaired the board during the split—after her mother died in 2005. In 2008, Benny Walker, who was integral to this process day in and day out, also gave me his personal notes.
The material on the split is 23 pages; it doesn’t appear at the end of the book, obviously, but it was the last section I wrote. I knew it was going to be long and complex, and it was. I’m grateful to Neil Rabon, Baxter Wynn, Benny Walker, and Helen Lee Turner, who offered thoughtful feedback on my drafts. What appears in the book is the first published history of that event, and it needed to be done well.
What is your favorite part of the book?
My favorite parts have been the process and the reaction the book has received. Working with Bryant, Emily Anne, and Pender was among the most rewarding experiences of what has been a deeply fulfilling career thus far.
For reasons beyond our control that had to do with the dye that was created for the book cover, the books were delayed. The books arrived on campus on February 11, the day before we kicked off the bicentennial, around 1PM via a 53-feet long tractor trailer (the books and pallets collectively weighed over 18,000 lbs.) from Manitoba, where the book was printed. It was nerve wracking and in the days leading up to the bicentennial I obsessively refreshed Fed Ex tracking updates.
On the morning of February 12, President Davis began her remarks at the bicentennial convocation by announcing the book’s arrival and holding it up for the audience in McAlister. Later that day, Bryant, Emily Anne, Pender and I gave a presentation to a standing room only crowd in Watkins and received a standing ovation midway through our presentation. I’ve also received wonderful letters, emails and comments from people, many of whom were involved in the events we have written about. These have been very special and rewarding moments.
Do you have a favorite Furman president?
Well, truly, I’m grateful to President Davis for commissioning this book and for believing in the value of looking backward to thoughtfully root Furman’s identity, which of course contextualizes our present and future. I admire her and her leadership. I’m also grateful to her and to First Gentleman Charles Davis for the stability they bring, and to Charles for his meticulous stewardship of White Oaks.
Looking back, I feel so fortunate to have known Mrs. Plyler, President and Mrs. Blackwell, President and Mrs. Johns, and the Shis, Smollas, and Kohrts. My mother worked in President Blackwell’s office at Furman when she was in her 20s. My parents remained friendly with them and we visited them on many Christmas Eves. I used to love talking about history with President Johns and I miss his humor. I was close with Martha Johns in her later years, and love and admire Susan Shi—as everyone does!—for her continued commitment to Furman and Greenville. The Shis were in office when I was a student, so they both will always be special to me. Carl and Lynne Kohrt are so loyal to Furman, and are also wonderful people.
Having said all that, my favorite president from the more distant past is Bennette E. Geer. He was quite progressive, committed to academic freedom, and developed close and meaningful connections between Furman and Greenville for the mutual benefit of both.
Did you discover anything unexpected during your research for the book?
I had never thought much about the impact of having administrators and faculty living on Furman’s campus, but that is the way the downtown campus was. I came to appreciate the close, familial bonds and the deep loyalty to Furman and to each other that resulted from that. In this part of the book, we quote Al Reid, who described those administrators and faculty as “great and good men, dedicated to their students, to Furman, and to their church and community.… They were the ideal of a church-related faculty, equally at home in the classroom and the church, men of character, piety, and compassion.” For more, read pages 122-124 from our book!
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