Columbia College Presents Medallion Awards

Columbia College honored four people with the College's highest award, the Columbia College Medallion, at a dinner and awards ceremony on Thursday, October 27. Recipients of the 2005 Medallion include Helen Nelson Grant, Dr. Robert J. Moore and M. Edward Sellers of Columbia, and Elizabeth Johnston Patterson of Spartanburg.

Grant, an attorney/ businesswoman and a 1981 Columbia College graduate, currently serves as vice-chair and secretary of Grant Business Strategies, president of Trinity Business Solutions, and president of Grant Mortgage Services. She was previously Of Counsel to the law firm of Gergel, Nickles & Solomon, P.A., and a partner in the firm of Gergel, Nickles & Grant, P.A. In addition to B.A. degrees in both history and public affairs from Columbia College, she holds a J.D. degree from the Duke University School of Law. A former chair of the Columbia College Board of Trustees, her professional and civic affiliations also include the South Carolina Bar Association, the South Carolina Women Lawyers Association, the Duke University Law School Advisory Board, the Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties, the Richland County School District One Blue Ribbon Committee, the St. Stephen United Methodist Church Preschool Board, the Renaissance Foundation Board, the Richland Memorial Hospital Center for Cancer Treatment and Research, and the Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary School Educational Foundation Board. She is an active member of Bethel A.M.E. Church and has served on the Bethel Learning Centers Board of Education. Named one of "10 for the Future" by The Columbia Record in 1988, she received the 1994 Columbia College Department of History and Political Science Alumna Achievement Award and the 1996 Columbia Urban League Lincoln C. Jenkins, Jr. Achievement Award.

Moore joined Columbia College's department of history and political science in 1960, subsequently serving as chair of the department and as the Charles Ezra Daniel Professor of History until his retirement in 1999. He also chaired the College's curriculum committee, instruction committee, procedure and ethics committee, Speakers Bureau, and Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellows Program and served as coordinator of The Learning Community, adviser for Phi Alpha Theta honor society, a member of the Dean's advisory committee, and interim director of the Collaborative Learning Center. A Fellow of the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he is a former president of the S.C. Conference of the American Association of University Professors, the S.C. Council on Human Relations, the S.C. Historical Association, and Common Cause of South Carolina, as well as a former member of the National Governing Board of Common Cause. He is a native of Medina, Tenn., and holds a B.A. degree, cum laude, from Lambuth College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Boston University. His publications have included numerous historical articles and book reviews, as well as co-authorship of a recent book on South Carolina's first African-American U.S. District Court Judge, Matthew J. Perry (Matthew J. Perry: The Man, His Times, and His Legacy, USC Press, 2004). Active himself in South Carolina's civil rights movement, Moore details in the book the story of Perry's career as a civil rights lawyer.

Sellers is chairman, president and chief executive officer of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina and The Companion Group of Companies. Prior to coming to South Carolina in 1987, he was a senior vice president with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association in Chicago. His background also includes conducting corporate strategy studies with The Boston (Mass.) Consulting Group and serving as a health care project manager with Westinghouse Electric Corporation in Pittsburgh. He holds a B.A. degree in physics from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. A former board chairman and now trustee emeritus of Columbia College, he has served as chairman of the South Carolina State Chamber, The Palmetto Business Forum, the South Carolina Council on Competitiveness, the ETV Endowment of South Carolina, and the Palmetto Conservation Foundation; as vice chairman of The Palmetto Institute; and as a member of the boards of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Institute for HealthCare Management, Spoleto USA, the S.C. Governor's School for Science and Mathematics Foundation, the National Bank of South Carolina, and the Central Carolina Community Foundation. His awards include the 2002 South Carolina Business Leader of the Year, the 2002 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Living and Giving Award, and the 2005 Habitat for Humanity Corporate Citizen of the Year.

Patterson, a 1961 Columbia College graduate, was the first and only woman from South Carolina ever elected to the U.S. Congress, serving from 1987 to 1993 as a representative of the state's Fourth District. She also served as a member of Spartanburg County Council and the S.C. State Senate and was the State Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor in 1994. She has worked in the public affairs division of the Peace Corps; in the office of economic opportunity of VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America); as South Carolina's Head Start coordinator; as manager of the office of Congressman James R. Mann; as director of continuing education and Converse II for Converse College; and as an adjunct professor of political science at Spartanburg Methodist College. In addition to a B.A. degree in English from Columbia College, she earned a master of liberal arts degree from Converse College. A former trustee of both Wofford and Columbia colleges, and a former member of the Board of Visitors of Clemson University and the College of Charleston, she currently serves as a trustee of Spartanburg Methodist College. Among other honors, she is a recipient of the Columbia College Alumnae Association Career Service Award; was named Citizen of the Year by the Spartanburg County Board of Realtors and Spartanburg Kiwanis Club; was recognized as a Distinguished Citizen by the Wofford College National Alumni Association; and holds honorary degrees from Columbia, Wofford and Converse colleges. She is currently chair of the Spartanburg County Democratic party, a member of the Charles Lea Center Board and Foundation, and an active member of Central United Methodist Church.