SUSAN SHI

Susan: Well David became the President in the spring of 1994, and we move in at the end of that summer, in August. Our children, Jason and Jessica, Jason was to be in the 10th grade and Jessica in the 9th grade at Travelers Rest High School. Our dog Deanna, and two cats Blackie and Little Kitty and our Iguana all came with us to White Oaks.

Never had a young adult lived in this home, so it was not particularly set up for a family. So in the beginning, the first year in a half or so, we really did not have a family space. The children lived in the far wing of the house over the garage. The other bedrooms I felt we could move in to were on the other side of the house, so David and I moved into Mrs. Daniel’s room. We pretty much left it like it was. I’d wake up in the morning and look up at the little ivory statues. Then we’d trundle over through the middle of the house to get to where the kids were. The main house kitchen had to become our family kitchen as well so we ate on a card table in the kitchen. We did that for as long as we’d have to. We’d push it up against the wall when we weren’t using it and we’d pull it out and use it. That was life in the beginning. I had a little desk in butler’s pantry next to the kitchen. David would go up to his office to work, the kids would go upstairs, and I just sat in the middle and tried to catch people when they went by and chat with them. I literally sometimes had to call them on the phone to come to dinner because they were on opposite sides of the house and up.

            I didn’t want to change the footprint of the house, its too classically designed in my opinion and needed to be preserved. So what we ultimately decide to do was to take the three-car garage, which was directly under the children’s bedrooms, and we turned that into a family space. This included a family kitchen, a place to eat and a sitting area to watch TV and be together. And that became our home at White Oaks.

            Another funny story, in our home in Davidson there was always a window that you could get into the house if you got locked out. So that first fall, Jason assumed there had to be a window like that. He happened to get home after Barbara Kaminski, who was my right hand woman here, I inherited her from Mrs. Daniels, and she was a part of our family. It was after 5 and the house was locked and I hadn’t arrived home yet. So Jason and his buddy were going around the front of the house jumping up windows trying to find the one he knew would be unlocked. Well the neighbor across the street called the campus police, and so they came over here to arrest or stop these two young men who were trying to break into White Oaks. Thankfully, at the same time the director of Furman’s building and ground, a lovely gentleman named Tyler Seymour, he came pulling in and of course Tyler knew Jason very well and he was able to get Jason into the house and iron out the whole situation.

            So I was in charge of the renovation, I became responsible for the people who work here. Barb was here when we arrived and I immediately said please stay. At this point in time she was also the housekeeper but I quickly discovered she was a fabulous chef so we hired another woman, Dee Bunch, part time, to keep up with the house so Barb could spend more time actually preparing for events. Then I also developed a really lovely relationship with Jeff Drye, who is responsible for the grounds. Jeff too was responsible for the grounds, so I too thankfully inherited Jeff. Also Joe Berdine was outside with Jeff. So Jeff, Barb, Dee and I saw this as our domain. We really had a lot of fun together. We would have a cookout when it was anyone’s birthday, and just have a big celebration, take a couple of hours just to appreciate one another and what they were doing for Furman. Jeff Drye and Barbra Kaminski both loved this place.

            There was always something in bloom to bring inside: at Christmas the red berries and the magnolia. Through the years we would plant things out in the woods we knew we needed for decorating, like variegated holly. We’d buy a Christmas tree that was yucky that nobody wanted and just chop it up so we could do the natural greens that we wanted to do in the house. We got a system for decorating the tree and it got to the point where Jeff and Joe would just do it alone, and I became much more in and out. Actually, Jeff continues to decorate the house until this day and it still looks lovely. We could all disappear from the face of this earth and this house would still look lovely at Christmas.

 

Anne: Did you have any particularly notable events while you were here?
 

Susan: Oh my goodness, there were notable because of the individuals that were involved. Prince Phillip was in this house, following the Scottish games one year. (Prince Charles’ brother)

Peter Yarrow, of Peter Paul and Mary. We would have very informal events for him, the main events were on campus. We had a lovely evening one night in the family room: Peter with his guitar, David with his guitar, the kids, just having a lovely time. Sir John Templeton spent an evening here and of course we entertained him. Former governor of South Carolina and secretary of state Dick Riley- he and his wife Tunky would stay at White Oaks on occasion before he and his wife moved back to Greenville. That was always great fun. We actually learned how to use this house for fun with our own friends. That was daunting in the beginning. The first year we moved into White Oaks, by November I said “we have got to do something to get more comfortable here” so we had a house party. We invited 5 families from Davidson, who our kids had grown up with. We had kids all over this room in sleeping bags, we had adults paired off in bedrooms all over the house. We just had a wonderful time. Everything was fine! We didn’t move one thing out of the way for anybody. That was another thing I never did, anything that was part of the collection of this home was always available. Furman students would come frequently- I suppose those were some of our most memorable events. Every fall, freshman class would have their fall picnic here. This is still true today. The freshman would take over the house and the O-staff would organize tours,  and the wild tales that got developed in this house over the years were just incredibly funny. But with time I certainly developed a deep sense of respect for and love for the treasures that are in this home. I felt it was my job to preserve, tend, and restore- not change everything that came to me through White Oaks. That was my goal through the years: maintain the home as best we could, with the funds available, in a manner that the families closest to the home in Greenville would appreciate.

 

Anne: Did you have any other hobbies or interests that developed on account of the house?

 

Susan:  I learned to love live plants and flowers, and to relatively successfully arrange them.  I had never had access to a yard full of roses, camellias, and immediately I took to that. To this day I have fresh flowers in my home and I have tried to craft my personal front and back garden so I always shave something to cut and bring inside. I obviously have not been as successful as the guys here, always having something in bloom. I learned a lot about the plants that I do love. For example I used the porcelain in the house for flowers. The first florist I used in the house, I used a gentleman named Gary LeZarre, he said to me – don’t ever put up anything in this home. Use it. It’s too beautiful to put away. In the deep blue cobalt new vases we would put these enormous branches from peracamp bush with heavy red berries. So Jeff, Joe, and I would take those vases to the front steps, someone’s jobs was to hang on tight while the other two were arranging. We would often have beautiful breathtaking huge things on that fireplace. We could have red cherry blossoms in the spring, red berries at Christmas.

It is a treasure for Furman. It is treasured by many residents of Greenville, South Carolina. I think David and I, David particularly, felt that Furman has this incredible asset and were going to maintain it as best we can. As long as Furman owns it, and treasures it and invests in it, we need to use it relentlessly. So we used it as tool as best we could to welcome the Furman families, Greenville community and whoever was important to this school into our home. It was delightful to be able to share it with others , it was always clear it wasn’t ours. It was just a treasure to be able to open up to everyone who was appropriate to be here. It was a huge part of our lives when we were here. It was like a member of the family frankly. You had to work around and with this house just like you would a child. It took that kind of time ,that kind of consideration, that kind of planning, and that kind of investment. It was like this other family member that was very present in our day to day world.