Winthrop Presents Medal of Honor in the Arts

Winthrop celebrated the work of five individuals or couples with outstanding involvement in the arts on Oct. 24, 2003.

The recipients of the Medal of Honor in the Arts were: Guy and Margaret Lipscomb of Columbia, S.C.; Mary Mintich of Belmont, N.C.; David and Diane White of Rock Hill; Robert Manson Myers of Charlotte, N.C.; and B.S. Plair of Rock Hill. The medal ceremony, now in its second year, is the most prestigious award granted by Winthrop's College of Visual and Performing Arts.

“This year’s honorees represent the highest of artistic excellence and achievement and the kind of selfless philanthropy and community-mindedness that have become hallmarks of this award,” said Andrew Svedlow, dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. “It is a privilege to be associated with these distinguished arts professionals and arts devotees.”

The recipients contributed to the arts in the following ways:

• Guy and Margaret Lipscomb and their four daughters have added to the state’s cultural life with the Lipscomb Family Foundation. While Margaret Lipscomb ’41 enjoys playing the piano, her husband has devoted himself to his artwork for the past 30 years. He helped establish the South Carolina State Museum and has been instrumental in the growth of the Columbia Museum of Art and South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities. He has had numerous exhibitions in galleries and museums.

• Mary Mintich, Winthrop professor emeritus of art and design, has been a pioneering art educator and sculptor in the region. She taught at East Mecklenburg High School and at Sacred Heart College. Her sculptures are included in the Archives of Women Sculptors at Texas Women’s University and in the collections of Bank of America, American Express and the South Carolina State Art Collection, to name a few. Mintich worked at Winthrop from 1973-99.

• Many of the cultural event offerings that exist today in Rock Hill can be tied to the dedication of David and Diane “Tweedie” White. She helped start the Winthrop Fine Arts Series in 1975 and worked to establish the artists in the school programs in Rock Hill. David White, a Rock Hill attorney, has headed the Winthrop University Foundation and served on the university’s Board of Trustees from 1990 to 2002. The Whites recently established a fund to underwrite Eagle Editions, the College of Visual and Performing Arts’ recording label, which has produced several compact discs.

• Dr. Robert Manson Myers considers himself an “educator, literary critic, historian, playwright, incorrigible Anglophile, and a proud Virginian.” He taught English at Yale University, the College of William and Mary, Tulane University, and the University of Maryland, before retiring in 1986. A Fulbright scholar at the University of London, he won the prestigious National Book Award in 1973 for "The Children of Pride." A member of the Winthrop University Board of Visitors, he resides in Charlotte, N.C.

• A Rock Hill native, B.S. Plair has had a distinguished career as a musician and educator. He has performed with Ike Johnson, the Drifters, the Tams, Patti LaBelle, the Platters, the Duke Ellington Band and headlined as the B.S. Plair Combo and B.S. Plair Dazzlers. He recently purchased the historical Hermon Presbyterian Church building in Rock Hill with plans for it to become a community center.

Organizers gave the recipients a medal created for the event, as well as presented a theatre scene and musical, dance and performance art pieces. Each of the entertainment segments paid tribute to a recipient and his/her love of art and highlighted the talented students and faculty of the College of Visual and Performing Arts.

The dance segment of seven female dancers, “Movescapes: the Puccini Collection,” combined Guy Lipscomb’s fascination with watercolor painting with his wife’s love of Puccini operas. A graduate student introduced a sculpture tribute to Mintich which was a performance art piece titled “I am the knot.” Theatre students presented a comedy of manners scene from Myers’ play, Lover Pro Tem. Plairs’ sons and two other musicians dedicated a musical tribute to the long-time performer. The Winthrop Jazz Voices sang selections to honor the Whites and their appreciation of music.

Winthrop commissioned art professor Alf Ward to design and produce a medal to present to the recipients. Since his arrival at Winthrop in 1989, Ward has designed and produced ceremonial maces for Winthrop and designed brooch pins for the last 10 First Ladies of South Carolina.

Proceeds from the Medal of Honor in the Arts event went toward arts scholarships for students from North and South Carolina.
 

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