PRESS RELEASE
He has always been known as “Chester’s doctor” but he’s been Clemson’s doctor too and will honored for his work as both.
Chester County physician and community leader Dr. Samuel “Sam” Rogers Stone will receive the Clemson Alumni Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.
The Chester native earned a bachelor’s degree in pre-medicine from Clemson University in 1976 and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in 1980. He was chief resident at Anderson Memorial Hospital in Anderson for three years before returning to Chester, where he has practiced family medicine for more than 40 years.
He has been active in professional medical organizations for more than 35 years, including the American Medical Association, the South Carolina Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the South Carolina Academy of Family Physicians. He is a former president of the SCAFP and was its Family Physician of the Year in 2002-2003 and its Student Educator of the Year in 2019. His numerous other awards and recognitions include being named Champion of Rural Medicine in 2023 and Preceptor of the Year for Excellence in Student Clinical Education twice by VCOM-Carolinas, the Spartanburg-based campus of the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine.
He opened his current practice at MUSC Health — Lowrys Primary Care in 1989. He has served as chief of staff of the Chester Regional Medical Center and as medical director of the Chester County Nursing Center.
He co-founded the Good Samaritan Free Clinic, which provides medical care to people in need regardless of their ability to pay. He also serves as team physician for Chester County school athletics programs and has performed free athletic physicals at the county’s three high schools for more than 30 years.
His many community activities include being a former member of the Chester Rotary Club and Jaycees, holding several positions at the Chester ARP Church, and sponsoring Little League baseball, basketball, soccer and cheerleading teams. He has received the Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award, presented by the Chester County Chamber of Commerce; the Springs Close Foundation’s Fabric of the Community Award, which included a financial grant that he directed to multiple local charities; and Hospice Care of South Carolina’s Medical Director of the Year Award, which he has received twice.
For Clemson, Stone is a former president of the Clemson Alumni Physicians Society and a founding member of Tigers on Call, an alumni engagement program for students pursuing health-related careers. He mentors students interested in becoming physicians and offers opportunities for them to shadow him at this practice in Chester.
He and his wife, Beverly, provide university-wide scholarship support through the Dr. Sam and Beverly Stone Family Scholarship Endowment. They also created the Banks McFadden Scholarship, named for the legendary Clemson student athlete from Great Falls in Chester County and awarded annually to a Great Falls High School graduating senior headed to Clemson.
In further service to Clemson, Stone has volunteered to be the first aid physician on duty at almost every home football game for 43 years. He has been the Chester County chair for IPTAY, Clemson’s athletic fundraising organization, since the early 1990s.
The Stones have two sons: Marc, a 2001 graduate of Winthrop University, his mother’s alma mater; and Pete, who like his father is a Clemson graduate, class of 2003. Marc and his wife, Pam, have a daughter, Olivia. Peter and his wife, Katherine have a son, Henry, and a daughter, Annie Gray.
