Clelia McGowan
(1865-1956)
A major force behind Charleston’s public library system and its interracial commission, McGowan was the first woman in South Carolina appointed to public office and one of the first two city councilwomen.
 Margot Freudenberg
(b. 1907)
One hundred years of selflessly doing for others
Freudenberg’s 100th birthday last August was the occasion for a grand party. To no one’s surprise, the gathering raised funds for a charitable cause, in this instance, the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge, a place where cancer patients can live while they undergo treatment. Freudenberg, a former physical therapist, founded the lodge—the first of its kind in America—in 1970.
Ever since she arrived in Charleston in 1940 as a survivor from Nazi Germany, Freudenberg has worked tirelessly for a seemingly endless list of charitable causes, from the Association for the Blind to the March of Dimes to the Heart Fund, where she was a record-setting fundraiser. She also developed the Chamber of Commerce’s literacy list and worked for the American Cancer Society and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra.
She has been receiving awards and honors for decades. She was the first naturalized citizen to be recognized by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution with its Americanism Award. With each accolade, she turns the praise around. “I really don’t deserve it,” she said in 1971, upon receiving the Service Above Self Award from the North Charleston Rotary Club. “It’s you and America who opened the door.”
 Philip Simmons
(b. 1912)
This “Keeper of the Gates”
has kept the tradition of
ornamental ironwork alive, instilling pride in Charleston’s decorative arts and history. His work is displayed throughout the city as well as at the National Museum of American History and the Smithsonian Institution.
 Anthony Toomer Porter
(1828-1902)
Porter’s name survives at Porter-Gaud, the school founded by this Episcopal clergyman, who left
behind his family’s plantation legacy to instead
minister to both black and white congregations.
 Christopher Gadsden
(1724-1805)
A believer in the common man, this rabble-rouser helped bring on the American Revolution by vocally opposing British tyranny at every opportunity.
 Richard H. Cain
(1825-1887)
After the Civil War, Cain founded Lincolnville and helped shape the AME Church in Charleston and throughout the South. Later elected to the U.S. House, he fought for the rights of freedmen.
 Reuben Greenberg
(b. 1943)
During Green-berg’s term as police chief from 1982-2005, the crime rate in Charleston dropped significantly. After Hurricane Hugo, his firm stand helped prevent widespread looting. Unfortunately, his innovative restructuring of the department was marred by his unceremonious departure from office.
 Burnet Maybank
(1899-1954)
As mayor during the Great Depression, Maybank retired the city’s debt and got New Deal financing for the Dock Street Theatre (below), a yacht basin, and low-income housing. He later served as governor and a U.S. senator.
 Frances S. Edmunds
(b. 1916)
As executive director of Historic Charleston Foundation for almost 40 years, Edmunds helped spur the preservation movement in the city while spreading the message around the country.
Jehu Jones, Sr.
(1769-1833)
A free person of color, Jones began the tradition of fine hotels that catered to the white elite in a city now given over to the hospitality industry.
 Septima P. Clark
(1898-1987)
Although her father was born a slave on Joel Robert Poinsett’s plantation, Clark went on to graduate from the
segregated Avery Institute in 1916. She spent the rest of her life, in one way or another, teaching
others, so that by the time she died Charleston was changed, along with the rest of the South and the country. Fired from local schools for being a member of the NAACP, she created Citizenship Schools that taught countless
disenfranchised blacks how to read and demand their rights. She also worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and has been called Charleston’s Mother of Civil Rights.
 Arthur Ravenel, Jr.
(b. 1927)
“Cousin Arthur” has represented Charleston in the State House and Senate, the U.S. House, and on the Charleston County School Board. He also delivered on his promise of procuring money for the bridge that now bears his name.
 James Shoolbred Gibbes
(1819-1888)
In Magnolia Cemetery, you’ll see his elaborate mausoleum built to last centuries. But there is a better and more
fitting memorial to him on Meeting Street. A scion of the Lowcountry, Gibbes
started out as a factor for planters. He lost much of his fortune in the Civil War but later recouped it, founding the People’s National Bank. His appreciation of art evolved during extensive travels to Europe, and he became a generous
supporter of the Carolina Art Association, which was founded in 1858 to encourage interest in the arts. His bequest of $100,000 for the “erection or purchase of a suitable building to be used as a Hall or Halls for the exhibition of paintings” led to the construction of the Beaux Arts jewel we know today as the Gibbes Museum of Art.
 John Gorrie
(1803-1855)
Although historians aren’t sure how much time he spent in Charleston, it was obviously for at least one summer. No doubt that season spurred this “father of refrigeration and air-conditioning” to invent the first ice-maker.
 John C. Frémont
(1813-1890)
After growing up and being educated in Charleston, Frémont became “The Great Pathfinder,” opening up the American West to exploration. On one of his journeys, he traveled with fellow Charlestonian Solomon Nunes Carvalho, whose images of the rugged beauty of the West helped spur the concept of Manifest Destiny.
 Emmett and Patricia Robinson
(1914-1988) (1923-1998)
The de facto founders of community theater in the city (the Footlight Players have been active for more than 75 years), the Robinsons, Charleston’s theatrical couple, met and married here. His productions and her plays influenced Broadway
composer Mel Marvin and actor Thomas Gibson.
 William J. Saunders
(b. 1935)
As a businessman (WPAL radio), community activist (he helped found the Committee on Better Racial Assurance and aided in the negotiations to end the 1969 Hospital Workers’ Strike), and a politician (chairman of the Charleston County Democratic Party), Saunders’ influence in both the black and white communities has been comprehensive.
 Francis Kline
(1948-2006)
As the abbot of Mepkin Abbey from 1990 until his death, Kline translated the abbey’s ancient traditions into a contemporary sensibility, welcoming visitors and championing the
natural environment.
 Jonathan Lucas
(1754-1821)
Charleston rose to riches
on the tides of rice, and this planter’s invention of tide- and steam-driven rice mills helped guide the economy of the Lowcountry for a century.
 John Bachman
(1790-1874) 
A Lutheran minister and collaborator with John James Audubon, Bachman raised the bar for science and natural history in the Lowcountry and the nation. Speaking against the scientists of his day, he insisted that all of us, black and white, are one human family.
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