Coach Rhodes remembered as the heart and soul of Clinton High School

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For 65 years, the students of Laurens School District 56 could count on one thing: Coach Rhodes would be there.

Bill Rhodes, 88, died Aug. 3, 2026, at NHC in Clinton. He was born Nov. 24, 1937, in Whitmire, the son of the late R.V. and Maggie Elizabeth Rhodes.

To thousands of young people across Laurens County, he was never Mr. Rhodes. He was Coach. The name followed him from a junior high classroom to a middle school hallway to the front office at Clinton High School, and it stayed with him long after the last whistle. Generations of students who are now parents and grandparents themselves still use it.

Coach Rhodes graduated from Newberry College and began his career with District 56 in 1960. He taught at Florida Street Junior High, then Bell Street Middle School, and finally at Clinton High School, where he became a fixture in nearly every corner of the building. He taught. He coached. He served as an administrator. Well into his 80s, he was still running the cafeteria register and keeping the headcount at lunch. He mentored anyone who needed it, whether they asked or not.

He had a reputation as a strict disciplinarian, and he earned it. Students knew where the line was. But those who knew him also describe the twinkle in his eye and a laugh that carried down a hallway. The discipline was never the point. The students were. He backed his teachers, defended his school and kept up with the young people who passed through it long after they graduated.

His daughter, Lawry Rhodes Sharp, followed him into the profession and teaches at Clinton High School. She said the size of his world never surprised her.

“I am incredibly proud to be his daughter and to have had him as my father, but I am just as grateful that I got to share him,” Sharp said. “He belonged to his students and his players and his soldiers and his community, and there was always enough of him to go around. So many people have told me over the years that he changed their life. That is the legacy he leaves, and our family will hold onto every bit of it.”

Athletics claimed 61 years of his life. As a key member of the Clinton High School football staff, he helped build teams that captured six Class AAA state championships and four Upper State titles. He coached baseball and softball at levels ranging from junior high to varsity. He also spent countless winter nights taking tickets at the gate for boys and girls basketball games and countless fall Friday nights working the concession stand, jobs that carry no trophies and that somebody has to do.

His service to the state began even earlier. Rhodes joined the South Carolina National Guard in 1955 as an infantry rifleman and rose steadily through the ranks, serving as an infantry squad leader and in other leadership roles. By the time he retired in 1997 after 42 years, he was command sergeant major of the 218th Heavy Separate Brigade, with responsibility for 4,500 soldiers across South Carolina.

Rhodes gave 28 years to the Clinton Exchange Club and served seven of them as club president. He and fellow members ran concessions at Presbyterian College football games as a fundraiser, with the proceeds cycling back to Clinton High School to support projects for students. The pattern repeated itself throughout his life. Whatever he raised, he sent back to the kids.

Away from school, he hunted, fished and followed the Atlanta Braves. In later years he and Lawry traveled the American West on birding and sightseeing trips with close friends Edith and Marion Clark.

The honors found him eventually. On Oct. 21, 2023, at halftime of a Clinton High School football game at Wilder Stadium, Rhodes was presented the Order of the Palmetto, the highest civilian honor South Carolina bestows. Created in 1971 by Gov. John C. West, the award recognizes a lifetime of extraordinary service to the state.

The crowd at Wilder went quiet as he walked to midfield, joined by Sharp; Sen. Danny Verdin of Senate District 9; Clinton Mayor Randy Randall; District 56 Superintendent Dr. David O’Shields; and Clinton High Principal Dr. Martha Brothers. The presentation was made by Rep. Doug Gilliam of House District 42, a retired command sergeant major of the 218th Infantry Brigade. It was a fitting scene. He received the state’s top recognition standing on the field where he had spent so many nights working, with a fellow soldier handing it to him.

“Bill Rhodes was Clinton High School to generations of people in this district, and I mean that literally,” said Dr. David O’Shields, superintendent of Laurens School District 56. “I have known him for most of my life and worked alongside him for decades. He was there before I got here and he outlasted every trend in education that came and went. Students knew he expected something of them, and they knew he was in their corner. That combination is rare, and you cannot teach it. Our district has lost something that cannot be replaced.”

Rhodes is survived by his daughter, Lawry Rhodes Sharp (Mike) of Clinton; his brother, Don Rhodes (Sonya); niece Rhonda Cantrell (Russ); and nephews Richard Rhodes (Melissa) and Kelly Jordan (Tonya). He was predeceased by his parents; his wife, Judy Irby Rhodes, who died in 2007; and his nephew Charles Rhodes.

A private funeral service will be held Thursday at Cross Anchor United Methodist Church. A celebration of a life well lived is planned for a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Bill and Judy Rhodes Scholarship Fund, c/o Arthur State Bank, P.O. Box 481, Clinton, SC 29325. The scholarship will be awarded annually to deserving Clinton High School students.

Condolences may be expressed online at the Gray Funeral Home website.

There is no way to count what a man like Bill Rhodes leaves behind. The championships are on record and the honors are documented, but the real measure is scattered across the state in the lives of people who were shaped by a teacher who never quit showing up. Clinton High School had a heart, and for 65 years it answered to Coach.

Rest in peace, Coach Rhodes. The lessons carry on in every student you taught, every player you coached and every young person who is better for having known you. Laurens County is grateful, and Clinton will not forget.

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