Tri-County’s Foundation Board Welcomes Five New Members

PENDLETON, SC – September 7, 2010 – Five community leaders havebeen elected to serve on Tri-County Technical College’s Foundation Boardof Directors.

Joining the Board’s current members are Jim Alexander and MarciaThrift Hydrick, both representing Oconee County Ann Herbert, of AndersonCounty, and Michael Fee and Craig Homan, of Pickens County.

Members of the Foundation Board raise money to supplement appropriationsthereby helping the College to meet the educational needs of thecitizens of the tri-county area.

As Director of Economic Development for Oconee County, Mr. Alexanderworks with the strategic economic planning process for the county andworks to retain existing industries and to recruit new businesses to thecounty.  He was instrumental in establishing Oconee County’s firstindustrial park and the county’s first industrial spec building.  He iscurrently working on the development of the 400-acrer Golden CornerCommerce Park near I-85.

He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and earned an MBA inproduction management from Syracuse University.  He and his wife,Martha, an adjunct faculty at the College, live in Seneca.

Mr. Homan is founder, president and CEO of CH Industries, Inc, which hestarted in 2003 with the purpose of acquiring manufacturing companies.  He has acquired two manufacturing companies, Easley Custom Plastics andGreenwood Metal Products.  He serves on the Community Bank Board forPalmetto Bank and is an active member of the local Christ@Work Groupthat he helped to organize in 2007.  He is a graduate of Ferris StateUniversity in Michigan.  He and his wife, Eileen, live in Salem.

 

 

 Mrs. Thrift Hydrick is President of Thrift Brothers Inc., a constructionbusiness founded in 1959 by her father, Tom, and her uncle, Sam Thrift,a former Foundation board member.  She also is individually licensed bythe State of South Carolina as a general contractor.

She serves on the board of directors for Seneca National Bank and is amember of Trinity Baptist Church, where she serves on the Building andPersonnel committees.  Through Thrift Brothers, she is a member of theAGC, Oconee Alliance, and the South Carolina Alliance to Fix Our Roads,an effort co-founded by the company.

She received a degree in business administration from Lander University.  She lives in Seneca with her husband, Tim.

Mrs. Herbert is a leader in community service in Anderson.  Her boardmemberships include the AnMed Board of Trustees, AnMed DevelopmentAdvisory Board, Bank of Anderson, the Anne T. Gambrell Foundation, andthe Anderson YMCA Development.  She is a mentor for the Anderson CountyUnited Way’s Leadership Next program.

Mrs. Herbert is a graduate of Columbia College, where she received adegree in library science.  She and her husband, Jim, live in Anderson.

 

 

 Mr. Fee is Vice President and owner of The Reliable Automatic SprinklerCompany in Liberty.  The company, which is a leading manufacturer infire protection equipment, has 20 locations in North America, includingthe corporate manufacturing facility in Liberty.  He is part of thethird-generation of leadership in this family-owned business, founded in1918.

He is an active supporter of community service efforts, including theAmerican Cancer Society, the Miracle Cancer Foundation, Habitat forHumanity, the Shriners Burns Institute, and the United Way.  He also is amember of the Adaptive Sports Foundation where he is a ski instructorfor the organization’s race team, as well as its summer water ski eventsfor wounded warriors.  He is a graduate of Boston College and holds anMBA in finance from New York’s Hofstra University.  He lives in Senecawith his wife, Melanie, and their six children.