Dr. Tony Redd

Augusta, GA—Memorial Services and Celebration of Life for Dr. Tony N. Redd, 79, who entered eternal rest June 11, 2022, will be conducted Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock in the Posey Funeral Chapel with Dr. Roy Head officiating. The family will receive friends immediately following the service. Dr. Redd was born on 23 February 1943 in Aiken, SC. He was the son of Alma Hankinson Redd and Geddings E. Redd. He grew up in the Belvedere-North Augusta area and graduated as Valedictorian of the North Augusta High School Class of 1961. Dr. Redd continued his education at Furman University where in 1965 he also graduated at the top of his class. He pursued graduate study as a DuPont Fellow at the University of Virginia and as a NDEA Fellow at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Redd joined the English faculty at The Citadel in Charleston, SC in 1966, where he taught for the next forty years, retiring in 2006 to care for his beloved mother. While at The Citadel, Dr. Redd served for a time as Head of the English Department and won numerous awards for his outstanding teaching, including the Charles Daniel Award, the James Self Award, a Citadel Achievement Award, and two James A. Grimsley Awards as the best undergraduate teacher at the Citadel as selected by the members of the Senior Class. He was also honored in 1990 by a former student with the establishment of the Redd Lectures in The Citadel Honors Program. He was also twice the winner of the Governor of South Carolina’s Professor of the Year Award. He published articles on the poet Leonie Adams and on the novelist-critic Dame Rebecca West, with whom he developed a close friendship. Dr. Redd was also an acquaintance or friend with several of the leading authors of twentieth century Southern literature such as Eudora Welty, Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, Caroline Gordon, and Peter Taylor. He always claimed as his mentor Dr. Ashley Brown of the University of South Carolina English Faculty. During his Charleston years, from 1974-1976, Dr. Redd also served as the President of the South Carolina Poetry Society, which had been founded in 1922. After his retirement, one of Dr. Redd’s most joyous experiences was teaching a large adult Sunday School Class in his home church, Belvedere First Baptist Church. He also assisted his mother during the last years of her presidency of the church’s Golden Age Club and he worked for a time as a tutor at the Metro Augusta Literacy Center. Dr. Redd was preceded in death by his parents and by an older brother, Geddings “Eddie” Redd, Jr. He is survived by several cousins. He wishes to pay special thanks to his “three angels;” Sherry Holliday, Faye Edmunds, and to the late Barbara McDaniel; his caregiver from Just Like Family, Inc., Alexia Anderson and to the thousands of students at The Citadel he was blessed to teach. Dr. Redd gently trod the corridors of Capers Hall at The Citadel for 40 years. While his footsteps will no longer leave impressions on those floors and countless young minds, through the TN Redd Scholarship, the TN Redd English Wing memorial, and an upcoming book collection of “The Best of Dr. Redd” (working title), his spirit will there be forever found. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Col. Tony N. Redd Scholarship Fund, c/o The Citadel Development Foundation, 171 Moultrie St., Charleston, SC 29409 or to the charity or church of one’s choice. Posey Funeral Directors of North Augusta is in charge of arrangements (803-278-1181).

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Dr. Tony Redd

February 23, 1943 - June 11, 2022