residency grounds. Edwards was elected the first Republican governor of the state since Daniel Henry Chamberlain in 1876. 1974 was otherwise a dismal year for Republicans nationally because of the Watergate scandal and lingering opposition to the Vietnam War, both of which may have contributed to the primary defeat of Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces during the late 1960s. Two of Governor Edwards's aides were Carroll A. Campbell, Jr., who was elected in 1986 as the second Republican governor in 20th-century South Carolina, and Bill Workman, son of Republican pioneer W. D. Workman, Jr., and later the mayor of Greenville. Workman served as Edwards's alternate to the Appalachian Regional Commission. He became involved with planning and economic development issues, which were key to his later political activities. Later career and death At that time South Carolina governors were not allowed to serve two terms in succession, so Edwards was unable to seek reelection in 1978. In 1981, U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan appointed Edwards Secretary of Energy. He resigned two years later to serve as the President of the Medical University of South Carolina, a post he held for 17 years. In 1997, Edwards was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame. In 2008, he endorsed former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts for his party's presidential nomination. As governor and thereafter, Edwards developed a close friendship with his Democratic predecessor, John C. West, whom he had earlier accused of undermining the Haynsworth nomination. In 1994, the state legislature renamed a portion of the Mark Clark Expressway that crosses the Wando River the James B. Edwards Bridge. In 2010, the new MUSC dental building and the dental school was renamed the James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine. Edwards died at his home in Mount Pleasant on December 26, 2014, from complications from a stroke. He was 87. References External links SCIway Biography of James Burrows Edwards NGA Biography of James Burrows Edwards SC Hall of Fame |- |- 1927 births 2014 deaths American dentists United States Navy personnel of World War II College of Charleston alumni Republican Party governors of South Carolina People from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina People from Hawthorne, Florida Reagan administration cabinet members 20th-century American politicians Republican Party South Carolina state senators United States Secretaries of Energy University of Louisville alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni University of South Carolina trustees United States Navy officers 20th-century dentists