Archive for category: Distinguished Service Award

Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Farris Carlos Hill ’86 Receives the 2023 Distinguished Service Award

Natural leader. Accomplished professional. Highly respected Clemson role model.

Retired Brig. Gen. Carlos Hill, a Ninety Six native and Air Force ROTC scholarship recipient, graduated from Clemson in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. A 32-year military career followed, culminating with his service as Mobilization Assistant to the Director of Legislative Liaison in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.

In that role he was the liaison between the Air Force and Congress for all programs, air and space weapons systems and legislative inquiries. He was responsible for ensuring the full authorization of the Air Force’s $145 billion annual budget.

In addition to his Clemson degree, Carlos earned a master’s degree in management and human relations from Abilene Christian University in Texas. He also attended several military schools and programs, including the Squadron Officer’s School, the Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College, all at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, and the U.S. Air Force Enterprise Leadership Program at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.

Carlos received numerous awards and recognitions for his service, including the Air Force Legion of Merit, Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Air Force Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Air Force Achievement Medal with oak leaf cluster, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Air Force Expeditionary Service Ribbon.

He was promoted to Brigadier General in 2015 and retired from military service in 2019. He continues to work at the Pentagon in the civilian role of Director of Air Force Reserve Policy Integration.

Carlos served on the Clemson Alumni Association’s board of directors from 2014 to 2019. As a board member, he chaired the Diversity and Inclusion Committee in 2016 and was the CAA’s representative on the Clemson University Board of Visitors for 2017-2018. He is president of the Northern Virginia Clemson Club, which is a part of the regional Baltimore/Washington, DC Clemson Club.

He has played a leadership role in efforts to make Clemson’s military history an important component of the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project. Through this project, the Library of Congress is collecting, preserving and providing access to the personal accounts of American war veterans. Carlos has helped to add the stories of 25 Clemson veterans to the project.

Carlos frequently returns to Clemson to speak to and mentor current students, including Air Force ROTC cadets. In 2015, he established the Farris Carlos Hill Diversity and Inclusion Excellence Endowment to support retention of underrepresented Clemson students.

In 2022, he established the first endowment to support Clemson’s nationally acclaimed Call Me MISTER program. His gift created the Call Me MISTER Endowed Scholarship Fund. Call Me MISTER works to increase the pool of teachers from diverse backgrounds available to serve particularly in South Carolina’s lowest performing elementary schools. Student participants are largely selected from among underserved, socio-economically disadvantaged and educationally at-risk communities.

David P. Rochester Sr. ’68 Receives the 2023 Distinguished Service Award

Business and finance expert. Helping hand to others. True Clemson ambassador.

David Rochester of Aldie, Virginia, sets the standard for impactful service and effective leadership in everything he does – as a professional, in his community, and especially for Clemson.

The Clemson, S.C., native earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Clemson University in 1968. He went on to earn a master’s in economics from North Carolina State University in 1970 and a doctorate in business and finance from the University of Georgia in 1974. He served in the United States Army from 1968 to 1982.

Today, he is chairman of Capital Resources Group Inc., the investment banking firm that he founded in 1983, and owner and operator of Cool Spring Farm, an award-winning Angus cattle and sport horse enterprise. He also is president of WorldWideWord Inc., a Christian ministry that he and his wife, Catherine, founded in 2000 to fund schools and orphanages, promote health care and provide micro business start-up loans throughout Africa, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Eastern European countries.

David, who was chief economist for the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. from 1977 to 1980, has frequently served as an expert witness on federal and state levels, including in court cases and before Congressional subcommittees. He has published scholarly articles in numerous professional journals and has held faculty positions at the University of Georgia, the University of Alabama, Virginia Tech and George Washington University.

Among his many community service activities and accomplishments in Virginia, he is a longtime member of the Piedmont Environmental Council and received the Clean Water Farm Award for the Potomac River Basin from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation. He is founder and president of the Leesburg Church Foundation for funding Christian ministries and is a leader of the Leesburg Community Church, the Middleburg Humane Foundation and several other local organizations.

Since 1996, David has been active in multiple roles for the Baltimore/Washington, DC Clemson Club. His contributions, leadership and relationships have been instrumental in the club’s growth and success in alumni engagement throughout Maryland, the District of Columbia and northern Virginia and in fundraising initiatives to support scholarships and other University priorities.

He is noted for his willingness to assist Clemson officials and students who visit Washington and for creating global opportunities for Clemson by hosting receptions and programs in the embassies of countries such as Belgium, Germany, Canada, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, India and China. He and his wife also established the Rochester Passport Program to support student travel overseas to learn about servant leadership by reducing poverty through the creation of small businesses in developing countries.

David has helped to arrange business and government internships for Clemson students and regularly mentors Clemson alumni in the greater Washington area. He also meets with local high school students and parents to promote their interest in Clemson.

David and Catherine have two children: daughter Caroline Rochester Dickens and son David P. Rochester II.

Robert J. Stanzione ’69 Receives the 2023 Distinguished Service Award

Industry pioneer. Selfless philanthropist. Passionate Clemson supporter.

Robert (Bob) Stanzione developed an interest in math and science as a high school student in his hometown of Hartsville. For college, he chose Clemson because he thought it would be the right fit for pursuing those subjects. He graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and more than 50 years later, Bob and Clemson continue to be the right fit for making a positive difference in the world.

During his early professional career, Bob held a range of engineering and management positions at AT&T. In 1995, he was appointed president and CEO of ARRIS Interactive, a Nortel Networks/ANTEC joint venture. He grew the start-up company into a world market leader in cable networking products. In 1998, he became president, chief operating officer and a director of ANTEC and was appointed CEO in 2000.

In 2001, ANTEC acquired Nortel’s share of ARRIS Interactive and re-named the company ARRIS Group. Bob served as ARRIS Group’s CEO until September 1, 2016, when he became its executive chairman and chairman of the board of directors. ARRIS Group was sold in 2019 for $7 billion. Bob retired from the company but remains active in managing his family’s farm and private investments.

Bob sits on The Cable Center Board of Directors’ executive committee and is a former trustee on the Committee for Economic Development in Washington, D.C. He was inducted into the Cable TV Pioneers in 2010 and is a member of the Class of 2016 Cable Hall of Fame. He was awarded the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ 2008 Chairman’s Award and the 2009 Vanguard Award for Associates and Affiliates, which recognizes important contributions made by equipment manufacturers and service suppliers to cable industry innovation. He is a past board member of both the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and Symmetricom, a developer and manufacturer of timekeeping technology.

In addition to his Clemson degree, Bob earned a master’s degree in industrial engineering (MIE) from North Carolina State University. He also has completed executive development programs at the University of Richmond, Babson College and the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland.

Bob and his wife, Kaye, live in Alpharetta, Georgia, where they are active in many organizations and causes. He has served on the board of directors of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Georgia chapter and chaired its major gifts fundraising campaign. He recently received the chapter’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He also has engaged with St. Jude’s Children Hospital as a fundraiser and has been a scholarship sponsor for Cristo Rey High School.

The ClemsonLIFE program is of special interest to Bob and Kaye, who serves on the program’s advisory board. The Sue Stanzione Distinguished Professorship for ClemsonLIFE, established with a gift from the Stanziones, has been instrumental in the development and retention of leadership for the program and under-girded its significant growth.

The Stanziones also have made a $2.5 million Academic Cornerstone gift to Clemson’s College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences. The gift includes support for student scholarships, the Dean’s Excellence Fund and new faculty incentives and learning experiences in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Since joining the Clemson University Foundation’s board of directors in 2017, Bob has served on the Executive, Investment, Finance and Development committees. He also has been instrumental in the board’s restructuring and with the newly established Order of the Oak fundraising advisory board.

Bob and Kaye have three children. Daughters Marie Stanzione Anderson ’93 and Jennifer Stanzione Hanson are Clemson graduates. Son Robert Jr. (Bobby) attended Clemson before graduating from the University of South Carolina at Beaufort. Three of their 12 grandchildren – Emma, Owen and Alex – are current Clemson students.