Self family’s contributions to Greenwood
focus of TV documentary airing tonight

February 26, 2006

By MEGAN VARNER
Index-Journal senior staff writer

Local residents flipping through the television channels tonight might catch a glimpse of something they recognize.
The James C. Self family and its contributions to the Greenwood community during the past 60 years will be highlighted in a new documentary that airs at 7:30 p.m. on ETV.
“A Greenwood Legacy” features photographs and interviews with local leaders, including Self family members, historians Ann Bowen and Boykin Curry, state Sen. John Drummond, former state Rep. Marion Carnell and former Greenwood Mills executive Bill Whaley, to tell the story of James C. Self, developer of Greenwood Mills, and the legacy that follows him still today.
The documentary focuses on Self’s start as a bank cashier before his transition into textiles at the turn of the 20th century. Self’s son, Jim Self, gives viewers insight into his father’s dedication to the employees of the mills, which, under Self’s direction, began to grow into one of the state’s leading textile industries.
Jim Self also touches on his father’s commitment to the building of brick mill houses that, by comparison with other mill villages, were of exceptional quality.
When a tornado ripped through the Greenwood area in the 1940s, Jim Self created the Self Family Foundation to help build a more modern hospital, which was completed in 1951, said Frank Wideman III, president of the foundation. After the hospital’s creation, the foundation worked to bring a nursing program to Lander College, which would be used to supply nurses for the new hospital, Wideman said. The foundation later gave the hospital to Greenwood County.
“The Selfs have had an enormous impact on Greenwood,” Wideman said, adding that more than $60 million has been invested in the local community since the foundation was created. “From the hospital to the (Greenwood) Genetic Center to Wesley Commons — they are all places that would not be here if not for the foundation and the Selfs.”
Roger Stevenson, director of the Genetic Center, tells viewers of his first encounters with Jim Self and the conversation the two had about Stevenson’s vision for a genetics lab in Greenwood. That vision would later become a reality, bringing Greenwood to the forefront of genetic research and technology.
Greenwood Mayor Floyd Nicholson, former Greenwood Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Len Bornemann and Partnership for a Greater Greenwood County and Economic Alliance CEO Jeff Fowler also weigh in on the Self family.
They give viewers insight into how the family’s efforts during the 1980s, when the textile industry began to suffer major losses, helped keep jobs open for employees in the mills and helped the area transition from textiles to high-tech industries.
Fowler said the Self family was instrumental in helping open the doors to new manufacturing industries, such as Monsanto, which later became Solutia, and recently has been involved with economic development that is bringing diversity to the community.
He credited the capture of Tech-Wood USA, which recently announced plans to invest $150 million in a new facility that will bring hundreds jobs to Greenwood County, to Mat and Dixie Self, who, along with others in the community, got on board with the project.
“Without the two of them, we wouldn’t have gotten Tech-Wood,” Fowler said.
“The Selfs are deeply committed to Greenwood,” Wideman said. “This is where they live, this is where they’ve made their money, and that is why they want to give back to this community.”
In Greenwood, ETV is WNEH (Channel 2) on Northland Cable.

Opinion

Now is time to protect valuable water sources

February 26, 2006

It’s 7 a. m. in Greenwood, time to start the day. The coffee water is ready. We shave and shower. It’s all routine.
We seldom think about the supply of fresh water at our fingertips. It’s something that’s always been available and plentiful. We simply take it for granted. But, like fuel for our automobiles, water will eventually become a problem if we don’t act now to prepare for the future.
That’s why the timing is so right to get serious about protecting what we have. After expert study of Lake Greenwood and the rivers that flow into it, complete with all the factors that affect water quality, people with the organization “ Upstate Forever” are working hard to draw attention to what has occurred, what is occurring and what will occur that has and will have an impact on one of the things we definitely cannot do without.

IT’S NOT HARD TO EXPLAIN why water is a necessity. We all know that without it we could not survive, personally, industrially or any other way.
What goes on within the Saluda-Reedy Watershed and Lake Greenwood touches everyone, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, and numbers. If both of those areas aren’t protected, the day will come when we’ll wonder why there is a problem.
Since every one of us benefits from having a quality source of quality water, it is the responsibility of every one of us to help. We can spread the message of what’s being done and what’s needed. Support for those seeking to provide the necessary protection is paramount, whether as individual citizens or elected government officials.

NO ONE COULD DISAGREE with the goals. They are not options, they are necessities, and setting the rules for everything that affects water supply and quality needs to be accomplished before further damage is done to the watershed and the lake. If it takes governmental action, it should be forthcoming. If it takes other measures, they, too, should get a high priority.
More than anything else, though, it takes people who want to be good stewards of the resources we all share. Working together in a true spirit of cooperation, we can assure a future with all the respsources we must have, including good water for recreation, to be sure, but most of all, for consumption.
Support the “Upstate Forever” effort. Actually, we can’t afford not to.

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