Rock Hill High School - Bearcat Yearbook (Rock Hill, SC)

Page 15 text:

Q' wif 3 Q. A 1 1 5 I , r f I 1 Z L w

Page 14 text:

W 1 4 ' 4 1

Page 16 text:

A SPECIAL TRIBUTE TO THE FATHER OF THE BEARCATS Dr. J GAB MAULDIN LESESNE When Dr. J. M. Lesesne tshown rightj, now President Emeritus of Erskine College, was teaching history at Rock Hill High School from 1921 to 1930, he also coached football. During this period he came to the conclusion that the football team A and the teams for the other sports, too - needed' an appropriate, descriptive sobriquet. Accord- ingly, he came up with the name BEAR-CATS. It was his idea to coin a term that would recall the ponderous strength of the bear and the agility of the cat. Doctor Lesesnels suggestion was adopted by the school adminis- tration and thus the athletic teams and the graduates - and even the yearbook - were named for all time to come. We salute Doctor Lesesne as 'SThe Father of the Bear- catsf, When he left Rock Hill, Professor Lesesne went to Greenville to teach history C1930-19401. From 1940 to 1954 he was head of the History Department at Erskine College, and from 1954 to 1966 he served as the eighth president of South Carolina's oldest four-year denomina- tional college. His wife is the former Henrietta Fennell C'Totsyl'D of Rock Hill. The Lesesnes have made their home in Due West since his retirement. A Tradition Continues . . . A career begun by Doctor J. M. Lesesne at Rock Hill High School sixty-two years ago has been expanded into two addition- al careers in liberal arts training through the lives of the Lesesnes' two sons. Dr. Joab M. Lesesne, Jr. tshown lefty, is now the president of Wofford College this father's Alma Materjg and William Wal- lace Fennell Lesesne fshown rightj, fnamed for his distin- guished grandfather of Rock Hilll is the dean of students of Erskine College. Rock Hill High School takes pride in its connec- tion with a proud South Carolina tradition.