G Profile: Drs. David and Susan Shi

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Drs. David and Susan Shi

▶Occupations: Outgoing president and first lady of Furman University

▶Community Involvement: David, outgoing president of Furman University, co-chair of Vision 2025, catalyst of Furman YMCA Interactive (FYI); Susan, United Way of Greenville, Greenville’s Alliance for Quality Education, and former chairwoman of the Community Foundation of Greenville

▶Recipients of G Magazine’s 2010 Lifetime of Giving Back Award

Susan Shi knows what you’re thinking. It’s usually something like, “Oh my goodness, I have to be on my Ps and Qs,” as she astutely identifies what many a visitor must feel crossing the threshold into White Oaks, the Georgian estate where she and Furman University’s president Dr. David Shi live—at least for now. The sixteen-year-long tenure of Furman’s tenth president is coming to an end (drawing “nigh,” he will say), and the magnificent setting of their home, as well as their campus life—will recede into the rearview. The impact of their shared legacy, both to Furman and to Greenville, however, will stand as solidly as one of the Corinthian columns inside the splendid home.

In the office of Furman’s president, boxes have begun to appear—harbingers of the imminent departure of Dr. Shi, though he’ll tell you that he prefers to be called by his decidedly less-formal first name, David. In fact, in all manner of ways, both he and his wife present the most refreshing of paradoxes: They have reached great heights while staying grounded. But then again, being rooted comes naturally, especially with regard to Furman, their alma mater, where they first met (he was a freshman, she was junior, and it was a blind date), fell in love, and came back as a couple. David’s initial position as vice-president for academic affairs and director of faculty, however, was surprisingly short-lived. Most surprisingly to the couple themselves. His predecessor, John E. Johns, had not mentioned to the Shis that he might retire so soon after they had arrived from Davidson College where David was chair of the history department. So soon, in fact, that Susan and David and their children, Jason and Jessica, had lived less than a year in the home they had built in Greenville before moving into White Oaks. “A lot of people assume that this was a set-up deal. That when they hired me to become the vice-president, that Furman and I knew that I was actually going to become the president,” he says, “when it was just the opposite.”

June 30 is his last official day, and beginning July 1, he’ll take a year off. There is a ten-day trip planned for a hike in the Redwoods and a visit to wine country in the Russian River Valley of Northern California, for him; an excursion to the Umbrian region of Italy with fourteen other female Furman grads from the classes of ’71 and ’72, for her. “We’ll do something together when we both get back,” Susan says. Most likely at their Brevard mountain home retreat that they built five years ago, or at the townhouse off Main Street in Greenville they’ve recently purchased—all the better to be able to see their three-year-old grandchild, Lily Marie, a photo of whom Furman’s president proudly shows off among the photos in his office, including his football coach from his days as a Furman co-ed, his three favorite professors from that time, two family photos, as well as a trophy from when he was coach of a Little League team, and books. Of course, the books. Books are an admitted addiction and a professional pursuit of David’s, as he is the author of several and plans to work on one long-dormant project begun sixteen years ago at Davidson on the epidemic of loneliness in American culture. This passion for books is shared by his wife, whose energy changes perceptibly at the mention of a few of her favorite reads—and, yes, his make the cut.

It is the narrative about Dr. Shi and what he has done for both the Furman and Greenville communities that one can learn most about who this cultural historian is. To him, it is fairly straightforward. “In essence, if I had to capture my career in a word, it’s storyteller,” he says. He has been involved in hundreds of projects and initiatives. His goal of securing a sustainable future for Furman, and thereby Greenville, is a defining hallmark of his administration. As such, Furman has been recognized as one of the country’s most environmentally conscious colleges and universities by KIWI Magazine and the Sierra Club. “I’ve always been personally oriented toward the ideas of energy conservation, energy independence, and environmental stewardship,” he says. His wife is of the same mindset. “You would not believe the amount of recycling that is hauled out of this house,” she exclaims. And if they can do composting at White Oaks, well, there’s hope for the rest of us.

David also co-chaired Vision 2025, a year-and-a-half-long effort to devise a long-range strategic plan for Greenville’s development, and implemented the partnership between the YMCA and Furman to create Furman YMCA Interactive (FYI) which hosts weekly “stimulating intellectual and cultural programming,” during the day in the same building the Y uses in the evening for programs for city youth. It is a focus on partnerships being used in a creative way that excites the president the most. “Much of my motivation to be an academic administrator,” he says, “comes from the opportunity it gives me to experiment, to think about new things to do or to imagine better ways to do old things that we’ve been doing.”

Susan’s singular focus, using her background expertise in education (she holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), has been on children and public schooling. Her involvement in that regard has included, but not been limited to, chairing the board of the Community Foundation, the United Way of Greenville, and Greenville’s Alliance for Quality Education, which awards grants to teachers to improve classroom effectiveness.

In Dr. Shi’s office there is a small candy dish, devoid of candy, inscribed with the saying: “Energy and persistence conquer all things.” It is fitting that Furman’s first couple, whose indelible mark on both the campus and the greater community, proved that to be the rule and not the exception. “My goal,” Susan says, “has been to make people comfortable in this magnificent setting—to take the edge off,” she explains, looking around the front room at White Oaks. “I hope we’ve accomplished that.” From their front door and beyond, they have done that, and much more.