Giving the Gift of Service

Pat Conroy Literary Center office

“Pay attention to the people who perform.” – Pat Conroy – Beach Music

“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.” ― William Faulkner

The Center began in 2016 with abundant hope, a great dream and a bright vision for its future, but alas, with a small though devoted staff. While small in number, they are great in heart and ability.

So much has already been accomplished. In the Center’s first years of operation, it not only has attracted visitors from nearly all 50 states but also visitors from abroad. In its very first year it received recognition from the American Writers Museum as its first South Carolina affiliate, and it was named by the American Library Association as an American Literary Landmark.

Meet our current staff, below, who, supported by our volunteers, make so much possible, providing a variety of excellent programs, exhibits, festivals, classes and workshops throughout the year. We owe them deep gratitude for their service.

With the financial help of our friends in the months and years ahead we hope to see the size of our hardworking staff grow. There is so much yet to be done.

Pat Conroy Literary Center Staff

Jonathan Haupt

Jonathan Haupt is the executive director of the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, the founding director of the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival, and a past director of the University of South Carolina Press, where he created the Story River Books fiction imprint with his mentor Pat Conroy (1945-2016), named by Garden & Gun magazine as one of “the top ten things to love about the South.”

Under Haupt’s leadership, the Conroy Center has been recognized as South Carolina’s first affiliate of the American Writers Museum and second American Library Association Literary Landmark, and as winner of the Civitas Award for Tourism Leadership and five TripAdvisor Travelers Choice Awards.

Haupt’s book reviews and author interviews have appeared in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Post and Courier, Lowcountry Weekly, Beaufort Lifestyle, Savannah Morning News’ Beacon magazine, Southern Review of Books, and Southern Writers Magazine’s Suite T blog. He is co-editor of the anthology Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy (UGA Press, 2018), the winner of seventeen book awards and the subject of an art exhibition and a series of writers conferences.

He has served on the boards of the Friends of South Carolina Libraries and South Carolina Academy of Authors, and on the advisory committee of South Carolina Humanities. He is also a judge for the annual Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction and past judge of several other writing competitions.

The founding director of the Pat Conroy Literary Festival, Haupt has been a presenting author and author interviewer at the Southern Festival of Books, Decatur Book Festival, Bluffton Book Festival, Deckle Edge Literary Festival, Upstate Literary Festival, and the South Carolina Book Festival. He is also a frequent guest presenter at schools, libraries, writers conferences, lifelong learning programs, and book clubs. Annually, he is a guest presenter for all three of Beaufort’s leadership programs. He has appeared on SC ETV’s Telly Award-winning By the River author interview series as well as on CSPAN’s Book TV.

Haupt is also a co-mentor to the student leaders of DAYLO: Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, a student-led book club and pro-literacy community service group with chapters across South Carolina. As a model of pro-literacy youth advocacy, DAYLO has been featured on Nick News and in the documentary film Banned Together, profiled nationally in Education Week, Book Riot, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, as well as regionally in the Charleston Post and Courier and the Beaufort Island News. In 2024, DAYLO was recognized with a national commendation from the American Association of School Librarians, the Richard W. Riley Human & Civil Rights Award of the South Carolina Education Association, and an honorable mention for the Intellectual Freedom Award of the South Carolina Library Association.

In 2020, Haupt was recognized with the Doug Marlette Literacy Leadership Award presented by the Pulpwood Queens, the largest read-and-meet book club in the U.S.

Bruce Murdy

Bruce Murdy is the Director of Development for the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center.

Murdy is a senior level development and marketing executive, who brings over 40 years of significant experience in a variety of disciplines. For many years, Murdy focused his talents in the world of marketing, working with one of Florida’s largest advertising firms based in Tampa, as well as a global Top 10 marketing/advertising firm in Chicago. In 1987 he moved to Charleston, where he went on to lead a South Carolina powerhouse marketing, advertising and public relations firm, Rawle Murdy. Client industries included travel, sports, real estate and retail.

While at Rawle Murdy, Murdy began to feed the need to give back to the community with his time/talents/treasure, and began a longstanding commitment to serving nonprofit organizations.  He has served in board leadership positions for the Coastal Community Foundation, Lowcountry Council of Boy Scouts, Trident Technical College, Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, and others. Murdy also is a regular mentor and guest speaker at several colleges in our region.

Murdy sold Rawle Murdy to a fast-growing Washington, DC, firm a few years ago, and chose a related but new path for the next phase of his career. For a period of time, Murdy lived in South Florida and was Director of Development for The Atlantic Classical Orchestra. While at the ACO, Bruce helped significantly increase philanthropic support, was a creative force in programming, events and marketing, and helped set the Orchestra on a positive path for the future.

An avid reader and one of Pat Conroy’s many ‘biggest fans,’ Murdy is delighted to be able to use the talents he has honed to help continue and grow the powerful legacy of the author and of the Pat Conroy Literary Center.

Murdy has lived in the South Carolina lowcountry for over 35 years, and currently resides in Mt Pleasant, SC, with his wife Natalie, daughter Grace, and Winnie, their spoiled Springer Spaniel.

Printer Friendly Page