Blythe Jowers ‘27 is a biology major from Chapin, South Carolina. She grew up listening to stories about her grandfather, Ronald Gregory Jowers ‘73, and his time at Wofford College, but she had no idea just how similar their college experiences would be.
Ronald was a biology major just like Blythe, and he went on to pursue a medical degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, becoming a family doctor soon after.
Although Ronald died before Blythe was born, Blythe always knew that she wanted to be just like him and heard comments all the time about how similar the two were.
The most stark of these similarities came to Blythe completely accidentally: she moved into her grandfather’s old dorm during her first-year college move-in day.
“I randomly picked the room because it was my favorite number, and that was what was available,” Blythe said. “I had one of the last time slots and was (a little disappointed) because (I) had the oldest dorm and was complaining about it, like most people would.”
In the midst of this complaining is when found out that she would be sharing this piece of her college experience with her grandfather. She found out by connecting with Gregory’s old roommate, Sam Wheeler ‘73, after Blythe and her father realized that Marsh was around when Ronald went to Wofford.
“I asked (Wheeler) what dorm they were in, and he said Marsh and then my room number,” Blythe explained.
Wheeler said that the now infamous dorm was once the hottest commodity on campus and that everyone wanted to be placed there.
Blythe is experiencing this same feeling knowing that she is going home each day to a dorm room that once housed her grandfather and all of his memories.
This connection made move-in day on August 26 especially significant to her family and brought everybody together, as Blythe explained. She said that they often wondered while decorating her dorm how different the set-up was for her grandfather.
“I have never really seen my dad see a lot of emotion, but throughout this whole process, I feel like he has been so reflective,” Blythe said. “He’s had to reflect on everything. He obviously wasn’t alive when my granddad went to college, so he got to come in the dorm and see where he lived and went to class. I think that was really important to him.”
She said that the experience of living in the same dorm room, studying in the same classrooms and walking around the same campus has been surreal for her.
“I’ve never felt connected to him be-him before because I never got to meet him, but I feel so connected to him now,” Blythe said. “I feel like I’m learning a little bit more about him every day.”
“It’s a God thing. There’s no other way to explain it. I just know (my granddad’s) looking down on me smiling right now.”
