The Furman Oral History Project, which was previously restricted to current Furman students, faculty, and staff, is now accessible online to the general public. Created in June of 2010, the Furman Oral History Project contains video interviews and accompanying transcripts featuring legendary Furman professors, trustees, and alumni including: Frances Furman Hewitt, Max and Trude Heller, Charles Townes, President John E. Johns, and John Plyler Jr.
The oral histories were planned and recorded by History Department professor Courtney Tollison and her students.
Below is an excerpt of an interview with Frances Furman Hewitt, great-granddaughter of James C. Furman:
My great-great-grandfather was Richard Furman. Of course I never knew him. He was born in seventeen hundred and something. He was a founder of Furman. Then his son, James C. Furman, was the first President of Furman. I didn’t know him. He died in the late 1800s, and I was born in 1913, so I did not know him. But then his son was Charles M. Furman who was my daddy’s father. And grandfather went to Furman and later on he was a lawyer after he finished Furman. And some fellow went to him to be defended and my grandfather looked at him and he says, “You know you’re guilty.” He says “if it takes lying to be a lawyer that’s when I quit, right now.” He packed up his books, and he started teaching.