Alumnus Establishes Scholarship in Memory of His Father
Press Release
Date: November 8, 2023
Contact: lgarrett@tctc.edu
(By Lisa Garrett)
Alumnus Establishes Scholarship in Memory of His Father
PENDLETON --- Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Brock Lusk and his wife, Jill, sat down late last year, several months before the loss of his father, and made the decision to endow a scholarship at TCTC. When his father passed away in January, Lt. Col. Lusk decided to endow this scholarship as a way to honor his father while making a huge impact by financially assisting cadets transferring to Clemson University from TCTC.
“I had been one of those cadets,” said Lt. Col. Lusk, a first-generation college student who was accepted at Clemson University right out of high school but after one year dropped out due to financial constraints and enrolled at TCTC for general education classes. “The Clemson Corp endowment wasn’t available when I was a freshman in 1998. Now the endowment is in place for ROTC cadets who want to commit and serve. It’s the hand up I wish I and others had had,” he said.
“My wife and I talked about a way of honoring my father. We looked at our charitable donations and said, ‘Let’s go big.’” Because of his transformative experience at TCTC that included caring and compassionate instructors, he said, “Let’s see what it takes to make a scholarship happen at TCTC.”
Lt. Col. Lusk currently is chief of the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division, 854th Combat Operations Squadron, 960th Cyber Operations Group, JBSA Lackland, Texas. He leads a team of 18 intelligence professionals providing total force support to the 616th Operations Center, 16th Air Force. The 616th Operations Center coordinates operations of cyber warfare, electronic warfare, weather, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) units worldwide.
When he was in South Carolina in January, he stopped by the College and met with TCTC Foundation staff members to talk about his plans and to establish scholarship criteria. With the paperwork complete, he and his wife made the first donation to establish the Randall E. (Randy) Lusk Memorial Scholarship that will help a deserving cadet with a distinct need.
“Dad was a humble man. I know he would be touched by this. Now it is part of his legacy,” Lt. Col. Lusk said of his father, who passed away at age 68 in 2023.
Lt. Col. Lusk wants to debunk the myth that only the affluent can endow a scholarship. “That is not the case,” he said. “You can make a huge impact if you are willing to make the first step. TCTC’s Foundation makes it so simple.”
Higher education was important to Lusk’s father, a high school graduate who tried college but couldn’t make it work and dropped out and went to work at Steel Heddle, now Ulbrich Specialty Wire Products in Westminster where he was employed for 40 years until his retirement.
“It was my father’s dream for me to be the family’s first college graduate from Clemson,” said Lt. Col. Lusk, who in 2002 received a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in aerospace studies.
“When I graduated from Walhalla High School, I was supposed to go to the Air Force Academy but was medically disqualified,” he said. “While I was growing up, my father took me to Clemson from the time I was a baby, pointed to the buildings and would say, ‘one day, you’ll go to school here.’” That dream came to fruition and Lusk spent his freshman year at Clemson but struggled academically.
“I didn’t know how to study,” he said. “When I transferred to TCTC, I learned how to study and how to adapt to a college environment. It was a great pathway to higher education.”
He spent his sophomore year at TCTC, paying his way while working full time and living at home. “It was the best value for the dollar. As a student I needed help and the instructors were so helpful and approachable. I wasn’t in a lecture hall with 300 students so it changed how I approached education. At TCTC, I felt challenged. The textbooks were the same, but the classes consisted of 20 students and the professor knew my name when I asked for help,” he said.
“It made a difference in my grades,” he added.
After taking university transfer classes, he was back to Clemson on a ROTC scholarship his junior and senior years and served as Tiger Platoon Commander his senior year.
“My ability to rebound my second year --Tri-County’s role in my education is what made that possible,” he said.
He earned his undergraduate degree and received his commission through the Air Force ROTC program at Clemson in 2002. As a graduate student in the History Department, he reconnected with the ROTC commander at Clemson, became an instructor and served as Operations Officer and Assistant Professor of Aerospace Studies for the Air Force ROTC Det 770 from 2015 to 2019.
He is currently working on an MBA at Anderson University.
Early in his career, Lusk said a commanding officer told him something he has never forgotten. “He said, ‘In this line of work, the extraordinary can become an ordinary event.’ Endowing this scholarship is a dream -- a first-generation college graduate establishes a scholarship as a tribute to his father. I hate that Dad is not here to see it. We’re so proud to make this part of his legacy.”
About Tri-County Technical College
Tri-County Technical College, a public two-year community and technical college serving Anderson, Oconee and Pickens Counties in South Carolina, enrolls more than 9,000 students annually and offers more than 70 major fields of study, including computer technology, industrial electronics, mechatronics, nursing, and university transfer programs. Tri-County boasts the highest student success rate among two-year colleges in the state and ranks in the top one percent nationally for successful student transfers to four-year colleges and universities. To learn more, visit tctc.edu.
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