Hillyer Rudisill III

Hillyer Rudisill III was born on February 15, 1935, in Charleston, S.C. He was the only son of the late Hillyer Rudisill, Jr., B.S., M.D., F.A.C.P., F.A.C.R., radiologist (1902-1949), and the late Helen Isabell Heard Rudisill, B.S., R.D. (1906-1990), registered dietitian.

After being graduated from Porter Military Academy (now Porter-Gaud) with a classical diploma and numerous honors, he attended Swarthmore College and graduated in 1957 from the University of South Carolina with a double major in German and English. While at U.S.C., he reactivated a long dormant chapter of Chi Psi national fraternity. He was also an officer in the Euphradean Literary Society and rebuilt the pipe organ in Rutledge Chapel.

Professor Rudisill earned his master's degree and specialist certification from U.S.C. and did further graduate work at the University of Kentucky, the University of Georgia, and Emory University.

Professor Rudisill taught at Porter Military Academy (Porter-Gaud) and at other private schools in South Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky, and was the founding headmaster or headmaster of twelve independent schools. He was the corporate secretary of the S.C. Independent School Association for twenty-five years. He also taught evening classes for colleges at the Naval Shipyard and the Air Base. He was the founder and president of a real estate company. He was an organ builder and an organist. For ten years prior to retirement, he taught honors and advanced placement courses at Garrett and Stall high schools. After retirement, he taught philosophy for nineteen years at Trident Technical College, the Daniel Island Library (Berkeley County Library System), and the Mt. Pleasant Senior Center.

While Professor Rudisill lived in Summerville at 627 West Richardson Avenue with his family, he restored the house to single family. He founded the Summerville Academy on Orangeburg Road (now Pinewood Preparatory School). With Beth Mcintosh he, as vice president, cofounded the Summerville Preservation Society. He was the president of the Timrod Library when its existence was threatened. He was a lay-reader and sometime organist at St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

He was the founder and director of the Olde Pipes Recorder Consort at the Low Country Senior Center on James Island, which he led for ten years, and was a member of the American Recorder Society. He was a member of the Rotary Club in Moncks Corner and Summerville. He belonged to the S.C. Historical Society, the Preservation Society, the Charleston Library Society, the Huguenot Society of S.C., the South Caroliniana Society, the National and S.C. Education Associations, Early Music America, and the St. Cecelia Society.

Professor Rudisill was a former vestryman of St. Michael's Church of Charleston and Trinity Church of Pinopolis, South Carolina. For many years he was the assistant organist at St. Michael's and the Church of the Holy Communion, and the organist for the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul in Charleston. For decades he serviced the bells and clock at St. Michael's Church. Also, he was the first master of acolytes and sometime master of ceremonies at St. Michael's.

As a youth, beginning at age 11, he worked in the summer for E. H. Pringle and Co. Investment Bankers, the Carolina Savings Bank, and the Department of Medical Illustration at the Medical College of South Carolina. In the early days of the Historic Charleston Foundation, he helped Mrs. S. Henry (Frances) Edmunds sell tickets to the House Tours by showing silent color movies of historic houses to the guests at the Fort Sumter Hotel.

His hobbies were photography, collecting Packard Cars, writing family genealogy, and playing and teaching the recorder. In his sixty-seven years of teaching, he taught German, Latin, Spanish, art, music, real estate, history, English, and philosophy at the secondary and collegiate levels.

He is survived by his wife, Martha Susan Thomas Rudisill, daughter, Mary Harden Rudisill, both of Daniel Island, Charleston, daughter, Susan Reeves Rudisill Myers and her husband, Lt. Col. (retired) Andrew Herbert Myers, PhD., grandsons, Thomas Jesse Benjamin Myers and William Joseph Rudisill Myers, all of Spartanburg, S.C., a sister, Cecily Preston Rudisill Langford of St. Simons Island, and three nieces, several grandnieces and a grandnephew.

The family will receive visitors Thursday, March 9, 2023 in the J. Henry Stuhr, Inc., Mt. Pleasant Chapel, 1494 Mathis Ferry Rd. from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm. The graveside funeral service will be held Friday, March 10, 2023, at Magnolia Cemetery, 70 Cunnington Ave., Charleston, at 10:00 am.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to further Alzheimer's research: Alzheimer's Association, 2090 Executive Hall Rd.,#130, Charleston, SC 29407. 

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