Staff reports | Greenville native Richard W. “Dick” Riley, who served as S.C. governor and the nation’s longest-serving secretary of education, will be memorialized in sculpture by the city of Greenville.
A Greenville committee is working with noted sculptor Zan Wells to create an appropriate design, which portrays Riley reading a book to two children. A location has not been officially designated.
Riley became known as South Carolina’s “Education Governor” during two terms that started in 1979 With the involvement of 13,000 educators, parents, and business and community leaders, he led the state to enact the Education Improvement Act of 1984, which is considered one of the most comprehensive and successful education-reform packages in America.
Riley also is the longest-serving U.S. Secretary of Education in the nation’s history, with a full eight-year tenure during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Riley worked to raise academic standards for all children; support teachers; increase aid for students going to college; make the internet available to the nation’s public schools and libraries; and provide for quality afterschool programs.
Riley grew up in Greenville, graduating from Greenville High School and Furman. After military service as an officer on a minesweeper in the U.S. Navy, he graduated from the University of South Carolina School of Law.
Tax-deductible donations may be sent to the Community Foundation of Greenville, Riley Sculpture Fund, at 630 East Washington Street, Greenville S.C., 29601, or made online here.
In other recent news:
Mayors at the border. Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin led a coalition of mayors from across the country to a Texas-Mexico border town of Tornillo June 28 to protest the Trump administration policy that separated illegal immigrant parents from their children. While the policy was reversed as Benjamin and other mayors traveled, Benjamin live-tweeted his experience at the border using the hashtag #MayorsStand4All and saying he was “Fighting for the Soul of America.”
Metros dominate U.S. economic growth. Columbia produces the most goods in terms of dollars than any other metropolitan area in South Carolina, according to a new report from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In 2017, Columbia had $41.6 billion in gross product versus $40.7 billion in gross product by Charleston-North Charleston. The report warned that labor shortages could end the economic joyride, however (see our main story for how the state’s hospitality industry is facing a crisis).
- Read the report here.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
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