“It had all been sitting right over our heads for 30 years after dad passed away.”Īs a second-generation Clemson graduate, Cline Jr. William Cline, a 1941 Clemson College graduate, in Clemson’s Special Collections and Archives office. Put together, the collection is a remarkable archive of one of the most significant times in American history.īill Cline Jr., Clemson University class of 1977 (ring on his right hand), holds a photo of his father, U.S. They were full of pictures his father took while serving in Europe in World War II. He dug through the contents of the boxes and pulled out one amazing discovery after another: his father’s Clemson graduation program, report cards, Christmas cards, a job recommendation letter from one of his father’s professors, World War II-era Clemson decals, military orders and two albums of letters Cline wrote to his parents from the battlefield.ĭownstairs in the living room, two albums of photographs that had been resting on a shelf for decades took on a whole new meaning. Several years ago, his son, William “Bill” Cline Jr., a 1970 Clemson graduate, discovered a stack of dusty boxes hidden in the shadows of his mother’s attic in their home in Greenville.

William Cline was a lot of things: husband, father, proud Clemson Tiger, war hero and – thankfully for future generations of Clemson students and researchers - a meticulous cataloger and avid photographer.

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