The Pazdan family carries forward a tradition of service to the Greenville community
For Emilie and John Pazdan, giving back is part of their family legacy. Their commitment to the Greenville community started with John’s parents and Emilie’s grandparents, all devout Catholics who were involved with St. Francis Hospital from its early days.
John’s parents often involved him and his four siblings in the volunteer work they did. “When I was 10, the old McAlister Square had a fountain in the middle of the mall, into which people would toss coins,” he recalls. “During Christmas, the mall would donate the coins to St. Francis Hospital. One of the first volunteer jobs I had was putting on boots and wading into that dirty fountain to pick out the coins.”
Spirit of Philanthropy
The Pazdans’ ties to St. Francis continue today. “[The hospital] is very important to us,” says Emilie, who grew up helping her parents and grandmother with the Bon Secours St. Francis Festival of Trees—an event the family still supports—and who also helped establish the Jane & Cliff Roy Nursing Engagement Endowment in honor of her parents.
As part of a longtime family business where giving back was ingrained in the culture, Emilie and John both benefited from Greenville’s growth in their corporate lives and felt it was important, in turn, to be good stewards of the community. They did so through the company’s United Way campaigns, Camp Greenville scholarships, St. Francis mobile mammography unit visits, and walks benefiting United Ministries and other local nonprofits.
From setting up an endowment for the Achievement Center at Christ Church Episcopal School (all three Pazdan children and their parents graduated from the school) and contributing to YMCA Camp Greenville to Emilie’s longstanding work with Safe Harbor women’s shelter, the Pazdan family now spreads their private philanthropy across the Upstate. “We like to think in terms of what the needs of the community are,” says John, who will be rotating off the board of St. Francis Hospital at the end of this year and will chair the South Carolina Nature Conservancy board in 2027.
Giving back is second nature to Emilie and John, who have instilled that spirit of giving in their children, Sam (26) and twins Susannah and Mary Bradley (30). “We try to lead by example,” Emilie says. When the girls were young, she would bring them to Safe Harbor when she volunteered to help with holiday projects, while Sam built a bench and pergola there as part of his Eagle Scout project.
“We were raised to give to the community of our time and talents, and as time has gone on, we’re now in a position to do more than that,” shares Emilie. John seconds that sentiment. “Greenville has been very good to our family and with that comes the responsibility to give back so someone else has the same opportunity,” he says. “To me it’s just part of the fabric of how you were raised and how you want to raise your kids.”
