Former Winthrop University accounting professor and chair of the Department of Accounting, Finance, and Economics, Dr. James Bond, passed away on Aug. 29 at 78 years old in Pineville, North Carolina.
Dr. Bond retired from Winthrop University in 2002 after 23 years. He earned multiple degrees from the University of South Carolina and was a professor of accounting at Pfeiffer College and Louisiana State University before coming to Winthrop. Dr. Gary L. Stone, a now retired Winthrop professor of 43 years who also served as the chair of the Department of Accounting, Finance, and Economics, worked with and knew Dr. Bond personally.
“I was a faculty colleague of Dr. Bond during his entire tenure at Winthrop. He was my department chair for a number of years. Jim was a quiet individual who was a quality friend and colleague.”
“Jim was an all-state basketball guard at Chester High School. We played together on a faculty-staff intramural team and it was clear he liked to put up long jump shots,” Stone said.
On top of the admirable work Bond did during his career at Winthrop, both his students and colleagues admired him for the vibrant and interesting life he led outside of campus.
“He took the wall out in his house and built this train room. Not only did he have the trains, but he built the landscape, so he built the station where the train was stopped and the mountains and the trees and the people and all this stuff and it was quite something to see it and so he was happy to have students come and see it or colleagues come and see it. That was just one of his hobbies,” Charles Alvis, a recently retired professor emeritus of Accounting for the College of Business Administration, said.
Dr. Bond often welcomed those he knew in the Winthrop community to come into his home and take a look at his marvelous model train layout. Additionally, he would welcome students and colleagues to go on boat rides at his house on Lake Wateree and ski.
“He had a boat and so he was also very receptive and supportive of having students go down there and have a picnic or a cookout or something down there, and then he’d get the boat out and he would let them ski and if they didn’t know how to ski,” Alvis said.
“He built some really good relationships with students. And I think there was a significant amount of mentoring and coaching that went on in a low-key fashion
between him and students over the years during these cookouts and boat outings,” Alvis said.
“I would go to various places all over South Carolina and Charlotte area and so forth to make presentations, and many times when I would come into whatever the venue was, somebody would walk up that was a Winthrop person and the first question they would ask was, ‘How’s Dr. Bond? Is he still there?’ So, he was extremely well known among the students who had passed through Winthrop,” Alvis said.
Dr. Bond is remembered by his students and colleagues for his teaching and for being a very generous and hospitable coworker and professor to the Winthrop community.
Another aspect of Dr. Bond that makes him so memorable to the Winthrop community was his name.
“Something that always ran a theme through his life was his name, James Bond,” Alvis said. “Once, at an academic conference on accounting, we spent the night at a hotel, and at the front desk, when he would put his credit card up there, the person working the desk glanced at that card and, of course, the card said, ‘James Bond.’ You’d see this amused look come over these people’s faces and they’d start saying, ‘Oh, yeah, right. This is James Bond. Yeah, you give us a real credit card.’”
“Another instance was back in the day in Boston at an academic conference when you had to place long distance phone calls and the operator would say, ‘who may I tell the party that answers the phone is calling?’ And he said, ‘tell them it’s James Bond,’ and that telephone operator absolutely just broke down and got hysterical. She just started laughing and had a hard time getting her composure before they could get the call completed,” Alvis said.
Dr. James Bond, during his entire career, served as a teacher, mentor and friend to his coworkers and students. Whether it be for his iconic name, excellent leadership or his generosity in opening his home
for various gatherings, Dr. Bond will always be remembered and admired for the significant impact he left on the Winthrop community.
