Furman University

I first met Vince in 1969. I was a newly arrived freshman football player at Furman, and one evening during summer practice, Coach Bob King invited Vince to meet with the team in the dining hall. He introduced Vince as a ferocious competitor from Hackensack, N.J., who played each game as if it were his last.

Coach King told us Vince had been an All-Southern Conference player on Furman teams that had beaten Florida State, Wake Forest and West Virginia. Coach King added that Vince had served in the Marines and had coached at Furman before developing several successful restaurants in Greenville.

Such credentials were impressive indeed to a naive freshman, but what I distinctly remember is the last thing that Coach King said about Vince that evening. He declared that Vince has a heart as big as this room.

He did indeed. Over the years, Vince shared his boundless passions with us all. With Vince, what you got was what you saw, from your first encounter through a ripening friendship. Whatever the need, whatever the cause, Vince was the first to lend a helping hand.

Vince never met a stranger, and he used his gregarious personality and overflowing sincerity to build his successful restaurant business. Every evening, once the kitchen was humming, Vince would stroll through the restaurant or deli, greeting each person with a smile, a warm handshake and a funny story. He was even nice to Citadel graduates!

Such qualities endeared him to his customers and helped make him a celebrity in Greenville. And he often used his celebrity status on behalf of others. Vince helped lead the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way, the YMCA and the Palmetto Bank. He was largely responsible for the construction of Paladin Stadium on the new Furman campus. And he single-handedly organized the massive downtown parade when the Paladins won the national championship game in 1988.

A robust man with an engaging smile, firm handshake, ready wit and endless stories, Vince was a delightful companion and an inspiring presence. No one in Greenville had as much natural charm or charisma. No one displayed more relentless energy and unflagging enthusiasm. No one combined such toughness with such tenderness. Simply being near Vince lifted one's spirits, bolstered one's confidence and expanded one's waistline. He was a dynamo of energy, ideas and, above all, action.

Like Max Heller, Dan Joyner and Buck Mickel, Vince had a restless determination to build a better community for the benefit of all. His can-do spirit epitomized and reinforced Greenville's distinctive civic energy. And, of course, he was Furman's greatest cheerleader. Last week happened to be homecoming week at Furman, a time when alumni renew and deepen their love for their alma mater, a time when graduates converge from around the world to celebrate and recall their friendships together.

Homecomings excite the qualities that make us fully human: devotion, loyalty, spirit, fellowship and love. If Furman could choose one alumnus to represent all of the ideals and emotions represented by homecoming, it would be Vince. He was the radiant symbol of all that Furman holds dear.

Although we have lost Vince's hearty physical presence, his courage and charisma live on in our memories and in his beautiful family. His zest for life, his life of service, his love for humankind and his heartfelt religious devotion remain a vital example to us, pushing us to strive, to improve, to build and never to yield to indifference or more powerful opponents.

We will remember and admire him for the exuberant man he was no less than for all that he achieved on behalf of his family, his community and his college. May such be said for all of us.