b'a B riefH istory ofg raDuatee Ducation anD tHeg raDuates cHool atc lemsonu niversity [Clemsons faculty] would engage in original and important research, by which knowledge would be increased, whilst the immediate objects . . . would be the diffusion of facts on all scientificsubjects. It would be vain to attempt to fix a limit to the benefits that would thus be conferredupon mankind and their effects upon society . . . T homasG reenc lemson 1In conceptualizing a high seminary of learning for South Carolina, Thomas Green Clemson know-ingly set the stage for graduate education to emerge as an engine of economic development in the state. Graduate education quickly became synonymous with the application of theory to improving the practices of education and agriculture. The analysis of fertilizer, a contracted activity of the chemistry department that began in the late 1930s, would help restore depleted South Carolina soils, increase agricultural production, and spur a rapid development in opportunities for students at Clemson College to study beyond the baccalaureate degree.Graduate coursework initially responded to the needs of veterans and to the interests of teach-ers wanting to improve their classroom skills, but alsofrom its inceptionattracted international students attention. On June 3, 1924, Patrick Hobson of Sandy Springs, South Carolina, earned the first masters degree awarded at Clemson. He used his degree in vocational education to serve as a high school principal and later as superintendent of schools in York County, South Carolina and Mitchell County, North Carolina. The third graduate degree, a masters in textile industrial educa-tion awarded to Ko-Chia Li from Mukden, China, on June 1, 1926, initiated an enrollment trend that has catapulted China to its status as the number-one sending country for international graduate students for many years. Mr. Li returned to China and taught as a professor of textile engineering at Peking University, and served as head of the construction department in LiaoBei Province.From 1938 until 1945, all aspects of graduate education (courses, programs, policies, procedures, admission, and graduation) developed under the auspices of the Committee on Graduate Instruc-tion, chaired by F. H. H. Calhoun, Dean of the School of Chemistry and Geology. Twice during these years, the Universitys attempts to formalize graduate education were thwarted because of the chal-lenges to the Committee to maintain the necessary standards of quality. Clemson faculty recognized early that to establish a graduate program that enabled Clemson alumni to enroll would require strengthening the undergraduate curriculum and courses to prevent knowledge gaps between the two.2On March 14, 1945, President Poole received the Committees resolution requesting the appoint-ment of a Dean of the Graduate School. It had been ascertained by that time that 19 courses could be offered immediately by the schools of agriculture, chemistry, engineering, textiles, and arts and sciences. On July 27, 1946, the Board of Trustees approved the Committees proposed graduate pro-gram of study and, that fall, formally admitted the first class of students into the Graduate School. However, it would not be until June 15, 1951, that Herbert J. Webb, Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Toxicology, was appointed as the first Dean of the Graduate School.Masterfully stewarded by President Poole himself and modeled initially after several prestigious southern institutions, Clemsons graduate programs grew cautiously but steadily, introducing the first doctoral degree, in plant pathology, in 1955. Today, the Graduate School proudly enrolls more than 5,000 graduate students and is committed to continued growth at both the masters and doc-toral levels.1. Holmes, A. and G. R. Sherrill. Thomas Green Clemson: His Life and Work. 1937, p. 129.2. Clemson University Library System archives. Minutes of the Committee on Graduate Instruction, 1945-1953, p. 7.6'