Northeast Residence Hall renamed after Carl and Linda Tucker

The Tucker name will be familiar to multiple generations of Wingate University students and alumni, having adorned a residence hall and residential apartments over the years.

Soon, another residence hall will bear the Tucker name. Wingate is renaming Northeast Residence Hall after Carl and Linda Tucker, benefactors with a family history of Wingate support.

Carl Tucker is a Wingate trustee and owner and CEO of C.M. Tucker Lumber Company in Pageland, S.C. He also taught economics at Wingate in the early 1970s, before returning to the family business.

The Tuckers made a sizable investment in Wingate in 2024. A large tranche of the gift was "undesignated," with the rest going to support men's and women's golf and Julia's Community, a program in which people with intellectual and developmental disabilities live, study and work on the Wingate campus.

The Tuckers were merely following a family tradition by providing support to the University. Tucker's grandfather C.M. Tucker served as a University trustee and advisor for more than 40 years, and the original Tucker Hall, built in 1964, was named in honor of Tucker's grandmother Bess Hamilton Tucker, a Wingate graduate and longtime local educator. That dorm was torn down in 1990, but the Tucker name was revived as part of the Jefferson at Wingate residential apartments in 2000.

Carl Tucker followed in his grandfather's footsteps by becoming a Wingate trustee in 2022.

"The Tucker family has a long and special history with Wingate," says James Bullock, senior vice president for advancement. "It's our honor to be able to continue the tradition by naming Northeast, our newest residence hall, after such a generous family."

The newly renamed Tucker Hall, built in 2019, is home to 200 Wingate freshmen and is a highly coveted destination for first-year students.

Oct. 31, 2025