Photo courtesy Clemson University Flying ClubIn 1928, seven students at Clemson University, along with their faculty advisor, set out to build an airplane. Though "Little 372," as it was known, had a brief and fitful flying career, it is thought to be the first airplane built by college students in America. It now hangs in the state museum of South Carolina as an emblem of ingenuity and determination.

To the seven members of the 1928 Clemson Aero club, their advisor was a teacher and mentor. To my family, he was known simply as "Boppy."

Boppy taught at Clemson and ran the woodshop there for decades. His specialty was furniture, and pieces of his handiwork are scattered across the eastern seaboard among the members of my mother's family. And among my mother and her sisters' fondest memories is flying from the trees in airplane swings fashioned by Boppy. Though he died the year I was born, his impact even in my life has been profound in ways I am only now coming to understand.

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