Eddie Floyd, the longest-serving member and former chairman of the University of South Carolina board of trustees, has quietly retired. Floyd had served on the board since the early 1980s.
Gov. Henry McMaster has appointed Floyd’s daughter, Coleman Floyd Buckhouse, to fill his seat.
Publicity about Floyd’s departure and his daughter’s appointment has been kept to a minimum.
On the USC board of trustees’ website, Floyd’s photo has been replaced by a generic photo of the university Horseshoe lawn and his daughter’s name instead of his.
Her biographical information says, “12th Judicial Circuit | Physician | B.S., biology, USC, 1981 | M.D., Medical University of South Carolina, 1986 | Board member since 2024; current term, 2024-2026.”
Asked about Floyd’s departure, university officials and the governor’s office had no immediate comment.
Floyd, a former heart surgeon who lived in Florence, was also a tobacco farmer who at one time grew a sizable crop in the Pee Dee section of the state, an area known for tobacco cultivation. It was as much as 932,000 pound one year, according to reports.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in business from USC in 1956 and was first appointed to the board in 1982, serving as chairman from 1992 until 1996. The Floyd Football Building near Williams-Brice Stadium, which houses the staff and support team for the Gamecocks, was named for Floyd and his wife Kay.
Floyd most recently made news in 2017, when a State newspaper reporter revealed that he had a picture painted by Adolph Hitler, architect of the World War II Holocaust that killed six million Jews, hanging in his Florence house.
Floyd, an avid art collector who also displayed paintings by World War II leaders Winston Churchill and Dwight Eisenhower, said he was shocked to learn that people might be offended by his displaying a painting by Hitler. He apologized, took it down and said he was going to sell it.
After he acquired the Churchill piece some 35 years ago, and later the one by Eisenhower, Floyd said he bought the Hitler painting about five years ago from an auction house in England. In all, including commissions and shipping, the painting cost about $10,000, Floyd said.
The Churchill painting features a scene from Marrakesh; the Eisenhower, a snow scene. Over the years, Hitler’s paintings have sold between several thousand dollars and several hundred thousand dollars each. As a young art student in Vienna before World War I, Hitler made hundreds of paintings – no one knows exactly how many – mostly of street scenes and landscapes, to sell.
Between 300 and 600 are believed to have survived. Both Eisenhower (1890-1969) and Churchill (1874-1965) were amateur painters. Churchill painted most of his life; Eisenhower took up painting as a hobby on the advice of his doctors in the 1950s.
Floyd has been a prominent figure in the Florence area and South Carolina cultural and political life.
In his position as chairman of a wealthy local foundation, Floyd has sent millions of that charity’s money to Francis Marion University. He also funneled money to build a new county library, a museum, a county performing arts center and a university health science center that educates nurses and other health care professionals.
Over the years, he helped raise millions for Republican state and national presidential candidates.
But he also supported Democrats, such as Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.
Floyd — along with fellow board members Thad Westbrook, John von Lehe, Dorn Smith and Charles Williams — had been in danger of losing their seats in 2022 when a panel of state lawmakers refused to advance their candidacies to the General Assembly for a vote.
The board was embroiled in controversy at the time after multi-million dollar buyouts of former football coach Will Muschamp and former men’s basketball coach Frank Martin and the messy hiring of former university President Bob Caslen, who quickly resigned after a rocky, two-year tenure as USC’s top leader.
The five USC board members, who spent months in limbo, were eventually approved for another term in early 2023.
USC’s board of trustees, which traditionally has 20 members, still has three open seats.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
