Roy Pearce

Memorial service for R. Roy Pearce, 84, will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Eastminster Presbyterian Church. The family will receive friends at the church following the service. Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel, is in charge of arrangements. Memorials may be made to the R. Roy Pearce Scholarship Endowment, Clemson University Foundation, c/o Betty McClellan, 110 Daniel Drive, Clemson, SC 29634-5602.

Mr. Pearce, husband of Margery Ellison Walker Pearce, died Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004. Born in Columbia, he was a son of the late Tom B. and Anne Tribble Pearce. He was a graduate of Columbia High School where he served as president of the student body from 1936-1937, and an honor ROTC graduate of Clemson University where he was president of the junior and senior classes, and chairman of the Senior Council, 1940-41. He was a member of the Clemson football team from 1938 through 1940, playing on Clemson's Cotton Bowl team of January 1940.

Mr. Pearce entered active military duty on June 20, 1941, as 2nd Lieutenant of the 8th Infantry Division at Fort Jackson. He served in the European Theater of Operation, being decorated for participating in the invasions of Oran, North Africa; Gela, Sicily; Salerno, Italy; and Omaha Beach, Normandy, France. He was awarded four Arrowhead decorations for the invasions, and was decorated with the Bronze Star, and Oakleaf Cluster to the Bronze Star; his unit was awarded with the French Croix de Guerre. Mr. Pearce was discharged in 1945 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

Mr. Pearce began working for PYA/Monarch in 1941, and retired in 1978. From 1979 until 2001 he served as Chairman of the Board for Budweiser of Columbia, Inc., Budweiser of Anderson, Inc., and Budweiser of Greenville, Inc. During his business career, Mr. Pearce served on the board of directors of Sara Lee Corporation, SCN Bank and Wachovia (42 years), and Sonoco Products Company (20 years). He also served on the board of trustees of Providence Hospital Foundation for over 12 years, and was past chairman of the board of deacons of Eastminster Presbyterian Church of which he was a long-time member. Mr. Pearce also served as president of the Columbia Rotary Club.

Mr. Pearce was the recipient of the Clemson Distinguished Service Award (1963), an honorary doctorate of laws from Clemson University (1986), Clemson's President's Award (1988), the 1991 Thomas G. Clemson Medallion, and he received the Kirkman Finley Jr. Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts from the Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties on May 6, 1998. He was also presented both the Order of the Palmetto by Governor David Beasley, and the "Key to the City" of Columbia by Mayor Bob Coble on May 6, 1998. He was the recipient of the Jack Kraft Award for Excellence in Philanthropy by the Columbia Museum of Art (1998), the Distinguished Clemson University Alumni Award, the Columbia College Medallion (Nov. 1, 1999), the Columbia College James Milton Arial Society (Nov. 1, 1999), the Order of the Purple Medallion from Columbia College (November 1999), an honorary doctorate in Business Administration from USC (May 2000), and he was named 2004 Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year.

Surviving are his wife; daughters and sons-in-law, M. Walker Pearce and Jack Weatherford of St. Paul, Minn., Anne P. Baroody and Dr. Samuel Baroody of North Myrtle Beach, and Jean P. Rentz and Ronny Rentz of Mayesville; grandchildren, Walker P. Buxton and her husband, John Edward Buxton, of Charleston, Roy P. Maybank and his wife, Amanda Maybank, of Charleston, Drew B. Ridout, Pearce Ridout, John D. Snipes II and his wife, Ashley Snipes, of Dunn, N.C., and Margery P. Cohen and her husband, Jerod Cohen, of Apex, N.C.; great-grandchildren, Walker P. Buxton, J. Edward Buxton, E. Pearce Buxton, Jacob M. Ridout and J. Stuart Cohen Jr.; and brothers, James T. Pearce of Greenville and Phil E. Pearce of Charlotte, N.C. Mr. Pearce was predeceased by his brother, Thomas B. Pearce Jr.