B. Hugh Putnam Jr.

A memorial service for B. Hugh Putnam Jr., will be held Sunday, February 17 at 3:00 p.m. at Shandon Presbyterian Church. The family will receive friends in the church’s Davis Hall immediately following the service. Shives Funeral Home is assisting the family.

Hugh Putnam died Friday, February 15, 2008, at 93 years of age at Palmetto Baptist Hospital. Hugh is survived by a brother, William Thomas Putnam of Chapin; a sister, Mary Joe Anderson of Mt. Pleasant; a daughter, Page Putnam Miller of Fripp Island, SC; and a son, Bluford Hugh Putnam III, who lives in Connecticut; one grandson, David Putnam Miller of California; and two great-grandchildren, Bluford Daniel Miller and Calvin Franklin Miller; and many nieces and nephews.

Hugh married the late Dorothy Page Putnam of Clover, SC in 1934, and they were married for 63 years before she passed away in 1998.

Hugh was born in 1915, in Florence, where he spent his youth working in the summer in his grandfather’s roofing and sheet metal business. At Florence High School and later at the University of South Carolina, he played on the tennis team, won the Florence City Championship, and tennis remained a part of his life well into his 80s.

Hugh was first employed by the Federal Land Bank during the Great Depression, and in 1941, began his career at the United States Postal Service. He was a mail carrier for many years in Columbia in the Shandon area before joining management, and later moving to Atlanta in 1967. He retired in 1971, as Chief of the Performance and Appraisal Branch of the Atlanta Regional Office of the U.S. Postal Service. He and his wife, Dorothy Page Putnam, returned to Columbia in 1986, and lived in a cottage on the grounds of the Columbia Presbyterian Retirement Community. Hugh served as President of the resident’s council for three terms, built the first path on grounds down to the Saluda River complete with a bridge over a small creek, donated a putt-putt golf course, and ran golf and croquet tournaments for the residents.

Hugh was an active member of Shandon Presbyterian Church in the 1940s and 50s, serving as Sunday school teacher, youth group leader and elder. He and Dot enjoyed taking junior high students to Montreat every summer to climb Lookout Mountain or to go to Pisgah National Forest to swim at Sliding Rock.

Memorials may be made to Shandon Presbyterian Church, 607 Woodrow Street, Columbia, SC 29205 or the Presbyterian Home, 700 Devega Drive, Lexington, SC 29073.

Shives Funeral Home

(803) 754-6290