Clemson student killed in crash just days before graduation

Billy Gallien had hopes of becoming a forest ranger or camp director after graduating from Clemson University next week. But the 22-year-old was killed in a crash Wednesday, just days before he was supposed to accept his diploma.

The York County native died after Wednesday’s crash on Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County. He was traveling north on I-85 around mile marker 58, a few miles south of Spartanburg, when his Ford pickup crashed into the back of a Mack dump truck that was stopped, troopers said. He was wearing a seat belt but was entrapped and had to be extricated.

Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said Gallien died at the scene just after 10 p.m. Gallien, who hailed from Clover, was a student at Clemson and was scheduled to graduate next Friday, Clevenger said.

The dump truck was parked and had its lights flashing while the driver picked up debris, according to the Highway Patrol. That driver was not injured.

No charges will be filed in the crash, troopers said.

Gallien was pursuing a degree in Environmental and Natural Resources in Clemson’s Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, according to Clemson spokesman Philip Sikes. He was a member of FarmHouse fraternity and was named to the Dean’s List last fall.

Gallen had gained enough credit hours to be eligible for a posthumous degree, Sikes said.

At YMCA Camp Cherokee in Blacksburg, where Gallien spent every summer for 15 years, his camp family was reeling Thursday, said Erika Bell, chief operating officer of the Upper YMCA.

“The YMCA Camp Cherokee family is heart-broken over the loss of one of our own,” she said.

Gallien was scheduled to work this weekend at Camp Cherokee with an overnight group, Bell said.

In a post on the camp’s Facebook page from 2017 that called Gallien “the man with the plan,” Gallien said that in five years he hoped to work for a state or federal agency in parks and wildlife, or as a camp ranger or director.

Will “Happy” Gilmore, now camp director and once a fellow camper and counselor with Gallien, said in a statement that Gallien loved the outdoors.

“Billy loved the waterfront,” Gilmore said. “He loved to teach children how to sail, canoe and kayak. He taught countless children how to swim. He was a great counselor, and the children loved and respected him.”

At the YMCA camp, Gallien watched after and cared for campers ranging in age from 6 to 14 as a counselor before becoming aquatics director in 2017, he wrote on his LinkedIn profile.

His profile picture on Facebook shows him standing in front of a group of children, hula-hoops in hand, apparently in the middle of a demonstration.

In a 2017 YMCA in house interview, Gallien said that having a positive effect on young people was why he worked at the camp so long. He told Y officials he stayed connected to the Y “because the work environment and joy the experiences bring to my life.

“Also, knowing the impact I can have on someone’s life as a camp counselor,” he said.

This story was originally published May 2, 2019 at 12:08 PM with the headline "Clemson student killed in crash just days before graduation."