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After graduating from Erskine College, Emma Reid Echols distinguished herself as a teacher, first in Charlotte, NC, then in Rock Hill, SC. Her husband, the Rev. Dr. W. Roger Echols, was pastor of the Neely's Creek ARP Church for over 30 years, and Emma was deeply involved in church service as the children's choir director, and teacher of the women's Bible class. She remained an active member of Neely's Creek ARP Church all her life, even attending Easter service the week before her death.

In 1950, with the help of the Junior Welfare League, she opened the Orthopedic Community School in Rock Hill for people with physical and mental disabilities, where she taught for a number of years. She also helped establish "Camp Joy" for children with disabilities at Bonclarken near Flat Rock, NC, where she served as the storyteller even into her mid-90s. She continued as a popular substitute teacher in the Rock Hill Public Schools until over age 90.

Emma was also closely involvement with the Catawba Nation. As a result of her friendships with the Catawba and knowledge of their history, she was commissioned by the University of Florida and recorded the oral history of the Catawba Indians on over 60 audio tapes and accompanying pictures.

Born in Rock Hill, S.C., Buck was one of five children born to the late Evans McClure George Sr. and Phoebe Messer George. He graduated from Rock Hill High School and attended Clemson University, where he was a football star and still holds some records as a running back. Buck also was drafted by the Washington Redskins. He was retired from Celanese. Buck was an Assistant Chief of the Catawba Indian Nation for 33 years and also served as the Chief. He played a significant part in the restoration of federal status for the Catawba Indian Nation. Buck was installed in the York County Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 and recently received the Key to the City of Rock Hill for his work in Parks and Recreation.

Catawba Master Potter.

Georgia Harris was born on 29 July 1905 in Lancaster County, South Carolina, not far from the Catawba Indian Reservation. Her father, James Harris was a county-paid ferryman on the Catawba River, and his ferry provided the only way to cross the river from York to Lancaster County. Georgia attended the Catawba School on the Reservation, and began learning pottery at the age of nine from her mother, Margaret Harris, and her grandmother, Martha Jane Harris. Pottery trade grew in importance to the family when James Harris died in 1912, and Georgia, her mother, grandmother, sister, and herself all worked clay and sold pottery. At age 21, Georgia married fellow tribal member, William Douglas Harris and reared 2 sons. Georgia continued to make pottery to sell while raising her family, and as the tribe's economic conditions improved, Georgia was able to make pottery simply out of joy. In 1952, a vessel by Georgia won first prize at the York County Fair. Beginning in 1975 Georgia began teaching pottery to other Catawba citizens, and, in 1977, Georgia joined fellow Catawba artists, including Frances Wade and Doris Blue to form a pottery association to promote the Catawba's traditional potter's craft among modern Catawba. In 1979, Georgia exhibited and demonstrated at the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery. In 1997, Georgia was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment of the Arts. Unfortunately, she passed away on 30 January 1997, before the fellowship could be awarded.

Jay Bender has built a national reputation as a lawyer for newspapers and broadcasters, and is regarded as South Carolina’s foremost authority on the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act. Bender represents the South Carolina Press Association, the South Carolina Broadcasters Association, and many of the members of those associations. Since beginning his media law practice in 1975 Bender has appeared in a multitude of trial and appellate courts, both federal and state, to advocate press-related cases. As a lobbyist for the South Carolina Press Association, Bender was instrumental in the adoption of amendments to strengthen the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act and the adoption of a reporter’s shield law. Bender has also published two books on South Carolina media law.

Bender holds the Reid H. Montgomery Freedom of Information Chair at the University of South Carolina where he is a visiting professor in the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies and a lecturer in the School of Law. Bender teaches courses in the law and ethics of mass communication in both schools and a course on constitutional limitations on commercial speech regulation in the law school. Bender’s students include undergraduates, law students and doctoral candidates.

In addition to his media law practice and his teaching Bender is a frequent speaker to press groups, lawyer organizations, judges and academic assemblies on access to courts, public records and meetings, and free speech issues. Bender is quoted regularly by reporters commenting on free speech and access controversies ranging from a police department’s refusal to provide a crime report to the arrest of protesters on the state capitol grounds.

Bender has prepared summaries of South Carolina media-related law for the Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press and the Libel Defense Resource Center. He has also written on media law issues for the South Carolina Bar magazine, his most recent publication being “An Outbreak of Prior Restraint in the Palmetto State” in the March 2012 issue of South Carolina Lawyer. Bender’s provocative speech on free speech at the inaugural Columbia TEDx talks received a standing ovation.

Between 1975 and 2006 Bender was an attorney for the Catawba Indian Nation and participated in litigation and negotiations leading to the settlement of a land claim that arose in 1840.

Away from his professional career Bender has been active in community service having been a “radio reader” on the South Carolina Radio Network for the Blind for 30 years and a frequent platelet donor for the Red Cross. In 2010 Bender received an award for service to journalism and the community from the University of South Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and previously was honored as an outstanding alumnus of that school.

Bender has been a vintage motorcycle racer (a reference to both the rider and his mount), a whitewater kayaker, marathoner and mountain climber. Bender has ridden a motorcycle from Key West, Florida to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and later to the “Four Corners” of the United States: Key West, Florida, San Ysidro, California, Blaine, Washington, and Madawaska, Maine. Bender’s more sedate hobby is collecting pueblo and Catawba pottery.