Alumni

The Class of 2026, Wilson Hall’s 57th graduating class, joins a proud network of 3,245 alumni who remain an important part of the school’s story. Their continued connection reflects the lasting impact of a Wilson Hall education and the strong sense of community that extends well beyond graduation.

Many alumni choose to return to Sumter after college to begin their careers, raise their families, and stay connected to the school that helped shape them. That loyalty is especially evident in the number of graduates who choose Wilson Hall for their own children. Today, 335 graduates are legacies, and 150 current students are second or third-generation Barons.

Alumni support is also seen throughout campus life and school leadership. Wilson Hall graduates serve on the PTO Board of Directors, Board of Trustees, and Athletic Association Board of Directors, and 22 staff members are alumni. Through their time, leadership, service, and continued commitment, alumni help strengthen Wilson Hall for the next generation of students.

Bond & DuBose 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

Margaret Segars Bond ‘80 and Dr. Mayes DuBose ‘92 are the recipients of the 30th Wilson Hall Distinguished Alumni Awards. 

Margaret, a retired teacher who taught second grade at Wilson Hall where she was named the Teacher of the Year, is a philanthropist and active member of her community. She and her late husband, Steve, established the Margaret and Steve Bond Award for Teacher Achievement presented annually to an outstanding elementary teacher at Wilson Hall. Recipients receive a $7,000 travel stipend for a destination of their choice, which creates an educational experience to be shared in the classroom with their students.

She graduated from Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science in elementary education and continues to support the university. Margaret and Steve became major advocates for the university’s golf program and, along with others, established the Golf Paws program, which encourages financial support for the golf teams. For the past eight years, Margaret has continued to chair the program and support men’s and women’s golf. The couple also created the Bond Distinguished Athletes Award, which recognizes Clemson alumni athletes who demonstrate exemplary character, citizenship, and service to their alma mater, community and family. Margaret presents the award each year during Clemson’s homecoming football game.

In addition to her support for Clemson’s golf program, she is a supporter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, contributes to coach Dabo and Kathleen Swinney’s All In Foundation, and has served as an ambassador for Dabo’s All Access Training Camp for more than five years. She is also a mentor of the football program’s P.A.W. Journey personal leadership development initiative. Margaret is a member of Clemson’s Board of Visitors and is a major donor to academics as a member of the President’s Leadership Circle. Her generosity has benefited the ClemsonLIFE program, the Grace Clements Scholarship Endowment and the Samuel J. Cadden Chapel.  Margaret received the 2024 Clemson Alumni Distinguished Service Award which is based on three main criteria: personal and professional accomplishments; dedication and service to Clemson; and devotion to community and public service.

Margaret, who lives in Highlands, North Carolina, was active in the Sumter Junior Welfare League and chaired numerous projects benefitting the Sumter community and Sumter County. She was president of her Sunday school class at Trinity United Methodist Church in Sumter and later was an active member of Belin United Methodist Church in Murrell’s Inlet. Maragaret was a member of Alpha Delta Kappa, a sorority for women educators. 

Mayes practices in Sumter as a family medicine and geriatric medicine physician. He received his Bachelor of Science in biological sciences from Clemson University and his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. Mayes completed a family medicine residency at Palmetto Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia and a two-year geriatric medicine fellowship at the University of Connecticut Health Consortium in Farmington.

He has been recognized with a variety of medical leadership positions including being elected President of the Medical Student Association. He also received the Dean's Leadership Citation and the Lawrence Jowers Family Practice Award at his medical school graduation. Mayes was elected Chief Resident and awarded Outstanding Resident of the Year by the S.C. Academy of Family Physicians.

After completion of his training in Connecticut, Mayes returned to Sumter and started the first geriatrics-only practice in the area and became involved in various medical roles in the community. He also serves as clinical faculty and precepts both medical students and residents as well as nurse practitioner students.

Mayes has been able to sustain and grow his private practice, an increasingly difficult feat in American healthcare, and was an invited speaker at the Aging in America Conference at the Institutes of Medicine in Washington, D.C., with a presentation on the “Perspectives of a Private Practice Geriatrician.” He is joined in his practice, Carolina Concierge Care, by Dr. Trenton Shook, Laurin Gaymon Lee ‘04, FNP, and Kristy Bass, FNP, all of whom are proud parents of current Wilson Hall students.

He is passionate about the importance of physicians maintaining independence and autonomy in the current healthcare environment and is currently using his position as the President of the S.C. Medical Association to spread this message to medical students and residents. He has served as a SCMA board member since 2013.

Mayes is a member of the Wilson Hall Board of Trustees and serves on the long range planning committee. He met his wife, the former Randa Carole Edmunds of Sumter, while they were both living and studying in Connecticut. They have two sons who attend Wilson Hall, Edmunds ‘27 and Lucas ‘30, and a 100 pound  golden retriever, Murphy.

2024 Distinguished Alumni Awards

Mary Cothonneau Eldridge ‘08, John Patton Ford ‘00 and John Patrick Sears ‘14 are the recipients of the 29th Wilson Hall Distinguished Alumni Awards.  

Mary Cothonneau, an attorney, lives in Columbia where she works as a law clerk for a federal judge. She graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in English and history, and from the University of South Carolina School of Law with a Juris Doctor. In law school, Mary Cothoneau served as the associate editor-in-chief of the South Carolina Law Review and as historian of Phi Delta Phi legal honor society. She was a recipient of the Bockman Scholarship and a member of the Order of the Wig and Robe and Christian Legal Society. A member of the South Carolina Bar Young Lawyers Division, she serves as the Membership Committee Co-Chair and is a former Special Olympics Committee Co-Chair. Very involved in her community, Mary Cothonneau is an active member of the Junior League of Columbia. She is the co-vice chair of the 2023 Holiday Market, served as the Staging Committee Chair, and she was the Holiday Ball co-chair and Preview Party co-vice chair. A member of Junior Achievement of Greater South Carolina, she served as the Young Professional Auxiliary Committee Co-Chair. Mary Cothonneau is a former member of the Columbia Museum of Art Contemporaries Board of Directors, serving as vice president, and she was the Art Auction Co-Chair and Sponsorship Committee Co-Chair. She is a member of the Spooky Spirits Committee at Camp Cole, a camp and retreat for children, teens, and adults with illnesses, disabilities, and life challenges. Mary Cothonneau is a graduate of Leadership Columbia, and she is a member of First Presbyterian Church.  

John Patton lives in Los Angeles, California, where he is a writer and director. His most recent film which he directed and wrote, 2022’s Emily the Criminal starring Aubrey Plaza, received four nominations at the 38th Independent Spirit Awards, including Best First Feature, with John winning the award for Best First Screenplay. The crime-drama, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and reached the top 10 on Netflix, is a New York Times Critics Pick and earned a score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. John received a nomination by the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film, and he won the Best Feature Film and Best Director awards at the Annapolis Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Deauville Film Festival, and the Best Directorial Debut Award at the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle Awards. The National Board of Review named it one of the Top 10 Independent Films for 2022, and John and the film garnered an additional 15 nominations from 13 film and critic organizations. John has worked as a screenwriter for ten years, executing re-writes for Disney, Sony and Universal, and he has directed television commercials for brands such as Audi, Guinness and Tide. He is currently working on a new movie to begin filming in September in Toronto, Ontario. John graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts in media arts and from the American Film Institute with a Master of Fine Arts in directing. His student film, Patrol, premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.  
 

John Patrick is a professional baseball player with Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics in California where he is a starting pitcher. His MLB debut was with the New York Yankees in 2022. In his second start for the Yankees last June, he became the third pitcher in franchise history to throw at least five scoreless innings in each of his first two MLB starts. He exited the game to an ovation at Yankee Stadium. As one of the top pitchers for the A’s, JP had a strong showing in May with a 3.25 earned run average and 25 strikeouts in five starts. Out of college, JP was chosen by the Seattle Mariners in Round 11 of the MLB draft and pitched in its minor league organization. He was named to the Minor League Baseball All-Star Team in 2017. In late 2017, he was traded to the New York Yankees organization where he pitched for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, a AAA minor league affiliate of the Yankees in Pennsylvania. JP, who graduated from The Citadel with a Bachelor of Science in business, received numerous accolades while playing for the college. He was the Division I leader in strikeouts and held the individual game record for the most strikeouts (20) in 2017, and he was named the Southern Conference Pitcher of the Year. He was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association All-Atlantic Region First Team, the Collegiate Baseball/Louisville Slugger All-American Second Team, and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association All-American Third Team. JP was a four-time Collegiate Baseball/Louisville Slugger Player of the Week, a five-time Player of the Week, and a Player of the Month. He was named to the Media First Team, Coaches First Team, and the All-Freshman Team. JP’s home is in Mount Pleasant, and he is engaged to marry Aileen Twohig in December. 

2023 Distinguished Alumni Awards

Alvin Butler ‘03, Mary Franklin Harvin ‘06 and Jamie Rembert, MD, ‘92 are the recipients of the 28th Wilson Hall Distinguished Alumni Awards. 

Alvin is a Principal at Ares Management, a global investment firm, and is based in New York City. He graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in business administration and finance and a Master of Science in entrepreneurship. Alvin also studied at New York University's Stern School of Business and London Business School, earning a dual Master of Business Administration degree. He serves on the Board of Directors and Nominations Committee of the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Society of New York, a financial services forum and provider of professional education and career development to Wall Street. Alvin is also the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for Kids Creative, a nonprofit organization that teaches conflict resolution and peace education through creative arts programs for preschool to high school students. He is a past young executive board member for Behind the Book, a literacy nonprofit in New York City that brings accomplished authors into underserved public schools, and he is a past treasurer and member of the board of directors of Community Coordinated Care for Children, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides access to quality early learning and intervention programs. Alvin and his wife, Michelle, live in Short Hills, New Jersey, with their son, Dominic, and daughter, Lily.

Mary Franklin works as a producer and reporter for KQED which broadcasts the National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Systems radio and television stations in California. Her program is called The California Report and broadcasts statewide to an audience of three million regular listeners. For the station she serves as a fill-in editor for the Morning Edition segment, produces the tri-weekly longform news podcast, The Bay, and works as a feature producer for The California Report Magazine weekly broadcast. Mary Franklin has made numerous live radio appearances on KQED’s Forum and KPCC’s Air Talk. She established and co-edited a reporting partnership with the CalMatters College Journalism Network to create radio opportunities for student reporters across the state. Previously, Mary Franklin worked as a producer for KALW, a pioneering educational and community broadcast service licensed to the San Francisco Unified School District, as well as produced for The Kitchen Sister on National Public Radio. She graduated from the College of Charleston with a Bachelor of Arts in communications and the University of South Carolina with a Master of Mass Communication in communications management. Mary Franklin and her husband, Scott Andrews, live in California and divide their time between Nevada City and San Francisco. 

Jamie lives in Oakland, California, where he has been a practicing radiation oncologist since 2006.  He launched the stereotactic radiosurgery program at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center and has served as the medical director/chair of radiation oncology since 2015.  He is also affiliated with John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, California.  Jamie treats both pediatric and adult malignancies specializing in brain/spine tumors as well as prostate cancer.  He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry.  Prior to medical school, he worked at Massachusetts General Hospital as a research scientist focusing on xenotransplantation immunology.  Jamie then completed his Doctor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha national medical honor society and received the Merck Award for academic excellence.  He then completed his internship/residency at the University of California San Francisco where he served as chief resident.  He is a published author of numerous articles and book chapters on selected topics in radiation oncology, and he was also selected by his peers to be recognized in San Francisco magazine as one of the Bay Area's Top Doctors.