About The Donors
Bill Segars
Bill was born in Darlington County and has lived in the Kelleytown Community, just West of Hartsville, his entire life. He grew up on a family farm that was once part of Jacob Kelley’s Plantation. Land that has been in his family since 1820 and was once occupied by Union troops under the command of Major General John E. Smith in March of 1865. This background instilled a love and appreciation of history for him at an early age.
Even with a passion for history, Bill chose a career in building construction after receiving a degree in Civil Engineering. During his 46-year building career, Bill has found a way to combine his interest in history and his knowledge of buildings into historical restoration. He has been very fortunate to have worked on and restored many buildings that are presently listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
He views historical restoration as an interesting blend of sensitivity to historical elements of an old building with present-day conveniences that the building owners have grown to expect, thus saving buildings that may have otherwise been lost.
In 2003 he began a quest to find 185 old church buildings in South Carolina that were built prior to the War Between the States. Over the next 20 plus years he has found over 900 old interesting church buildings, all 46 county courthouse buildings and hundreds of beautiful old houses and public buildings in South Carolina. While photographing and researching these buildings and sites, he does it from a builder’s point of view - how they were built, who built them, what materials were used, etc. In 2016 he co-authored a pictorial book featuring the 13 churches in South Carolina that were burned during the American Revolution.
Along with continuing to search for these types of buildings, he is currently working with the SC 250 American Revolution Commission searching for American Revolutionary related historical roadside markers, monuments and related sites throughout South Carolina. Bill’s main objective with these projects is to share their exact locations so others can visit and enjoy them.
Guy Wallace
Guy and his wife have been married for 53 years. They have two sons, three grandsons, and five granddaughters (two sets of twins) and one great grandson. He’s always had an interest in history, especially military history based on his 34-year career in the US Army. “I think everyone should know who and where they came from”, stated Guy.
That question led to an interest in both genealogy and the American Revolutionary war. Guy is a member of the National Society Sons of the American Revolution, Mecklenburg Chapter, serving as the Chapter Historian and Patriot Grave Project chairman. To become a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR), Guy had to research and document his family history back to his 7th great-grandfather, Peter Luna who fought with the Virginia militia along with 10 cousins, and 3 uncles. Three of his cousins fought in the Battle of Kings Mountain.
Guy is also a board member of the Historic Mapping Congress whose goal is to locate and document as many historic locations, businesses, residences, churches, river crossing points and roadways within the SCAR states as possible. Guy has also been a fellow of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution (SCAR) since 2017.
Since 2019, Guy was a member of the SC 250th American Revolution Sestercentennial Commission as the Timeline committee chairman and the Historic Marker Project field researcher.
Guy served 6 years in the U.S. Army, 173rd Airborne Brigade with two tours in Vietnam and 28 years with the Florida Army National Guard, B Co 3rd Bn, 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne). His last four years he was a member of Special Operations Detachment Central assigned to Special Operations Command Central with extensive travel and deployments in Europe, North Africa, and the middle east. On retirement from the military, he was hired by L3 Communications as a global war on terrorism subject matter expert among other distinctions for 9 years assigned to Headquarters US CENTCOM, J3 Operations Directorate, Special Activities Branch, serving as the Branch Executive Officer, SharePoint Administrator, and Command FPPCO.
As a civilian, Guy was a Master Police Officer with the Orlando Florida Police Department for 26 ½ years. During his career, he served as a Patrol Officer, Evidence Technician, Property Detective, Tactical Squad member, SWAT officer, and a Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force Agent at the Orlando RO. The last four years on the department, he served in the department’s Airport Division as a Patrol Officer, Airport Containment Team member, and a Mountain Bike officer.
After retiring from the Police Department, Guy worked as a Landside Operations Supervisor for the Orlando International Airport Authority for 8 years. Also served as a manager in the Airport Emergency Operations Center.
Civilian education, Guy is a certified forestry technician and holds a Batchelor’s degree in Criminal Justice.
Additional Contributions By:
Jim Dunlap
Brett Bennett
Fritz Hamer
Fritz Hamer retired as museum curator in 2020 at the SC Confederate Room and Military Museum. Previous to that he had served twenty-five years as Curator of History for the South Carolina State Museum. He received graduated degrees from the University of South Carolina and a BA from Acadia University in Nova Scotia. During his museum career Fritz curated several exhibitions on topics ranging from World War I and II to SC college football. He has published several articles and books. The titles include “German POW Labor in SC, 1943- 46” and “Knights of the Air: South Carolinians in the U.S. Air Service, 1917-1919.” He also published a book with John Daye on the history of South Carolina college football.