The other day one of our maintenance guys, Bobby, brought a box up from the warehouse. It contained some personal effects of David Rufus Hill. Mr. D. R. Hill was superintendent of Spartanburg School District Five in the 1950’s, and D. R. Hill Middle School bears his name.
Apparently the Middle Tyger branch of the Spartanburg County Library wanted some information on Mr. Hill. First, they wanted to know what the initials stood for. Bobby remembered the materials and retrieved them, thinking they might shed some light on the man.
As I understand it, Mr. Hill was the last occupant of the Superintendent’s Home. Sometime in the past decade the house changed hands, and someone found Mr. Hill’s belongings in the attic and brought them to the district.
One of the most startling pieces of the collection was a “This Is Your Life” scrapbook.
The photo of Ralph Edwards on the inside made me think that this was actually from the television show.
The scrapbook was impressive, but I was wondering what in the world this guy did to warrant an appearance on the television show. Further investigation of one of the news clips told the real story – the citizens of Duncan put on a “This Is Your Life” styled show at Byrnes High School in 1956 upon Mr. Hill’s retirement from the district.
An official “This Is Your Life” album had been ordered for the event, but there was no television show.
That makes the discovery no less interesting. Mr. Hill was a 1924 graduate of Furman, and apparently his wife graduated from the Greenville Woman’s College.
Included in the Hill effects was an announcement and program from the 1924 graduation ceremony from Furman.
One of the things I found interesting was that one of Mr. Hill’s classmates was none other than DuPre Rhame, founder of the Furman Singers.
In addition to these materials there are several old framed photos of Duncan schools that predate Byrnes High School. One of these must have been taken in the early 20th Century, given the style of buses, perhaps when Mr. Hill was a young teacher.
Right now the district isn’t sure what to do with these materials. It has them stored and protected, but they need to be archived and curated. I personally think students from D. R. Hill Middle School should be given the opportunity to digitize the materials, then these should be donated to the state archives or some other archival agency. However, Bobby told me that they have tried, but when they first got them, no other parties seemed interested in the materials. Perhaps with the current push toward digital documentation the time is right, and this record of an educator’s life can be conserved and made available for others to see and study.
I think its cool now I finally know what D.R. Hill stands for.I would have never thought that it would stand for a persons name.
Its cool to know things about the school that I am in right now that happened years ago.
This article was very interesting i did not know that our school was the name of a teacher. I think you could have mentioned more about where the documents are and what why they were kept but other than that it was great.
every thing seemed straight i really liked and it was very informative now i know little bit of D.R Hill history…
I think that him mentioning the opportunity digitize the materials, then donate the documents to the state archives or some other archival agency is a good idea because it will protect the documents and make sure they are well kept so that many more people can get to know about them.
I learned new things that i didn’t know. I like how to put facts and pictures to prove your facts.
This article is written very well in how it includes specific and factual evidence for everything. However it may become more interesting if there was more information on D.R. Hill Middle School itself just because it was named after him.
3 cool things I found about my school was D.R Hill was his initials and was his name.Also Mr. Hill went to Furman University.Also they made a scrapbook of all the achievements what Mr. Hill made.
I think you did a exceelant jub althought I would use more vived words to describe himself.
It was very interesting to find out that D.R. Hill was named after David Rufus Hill
I think this article is very interesting to know about our history of the school I am in right now. Also the school being named after a teacher is pretty interesting.
In my opinion I think his belongings should be posted up on a school bulletin for all to see because he was an important man.
I was surprised they even found his things from over 93 years ago!
I did not even know that furman’s been around that long for him to graduate from there.
this article was really interesting and amazing, its cool to find all sorts of stuff from the previous owner of places and find out the origin of places. this was an amazing thing to write about. keep up the good work!
This was very informational about Mr. Hill and D.R. Hill
It’s honestly very odd that his wife went to another collage a womans collage in Grennville, while he went to collage at Furman University. He was the super attendent of the district five, But before that he was a princepal.
One interesting thing about the article is that I learned what the “D.R.” in D.R. Hill middle school mean and they mean David Rufus. He also worked in the District 5 office during the 1950’s. He went and graduated from Furman University in 1924. We found his old stuff in one of the attics.
You could have used more information on the pictures you found,but it was very interesting to find cool facts about D.R. Hill.
He was the Superintendent of the district. Also he was a principal at Byrnes High School after he was the Superintendent of the district. He graduated from Furman Colledge in the year of 1924.
He was the Superintendent of the district. Also he was a principal at Byrnes High School after he was the Superintendent of the district. He graduated from Furman Colledge in the year of 1924.
I think the document was really interesting. I think it was nice for y’all to dig up that information, because some of us did not know about it. Thank you.
Mr. Hill graduated to Furman in 1924. His intitals are our schools name. They also made a scrapbook of his achevements