James B. “Jim” Holderman, 85, died last week.

The former University of South Carolina President’s controversial tenure ended with his 1990 resignation.

The Dispatch-News – now the Lexington County Chronicle & The Dispatch-News – unearthed the story of his misuse of university personnel and money.

He used his $2.3 million discretionary fund to buy and refurbish a home on a quiet Lake Murray cove a few miles outside Lexington University employees did much of the work, the newspaper reported.

The Dispatch-News received a tip that the university had destroyed records of Holderman’s lavish spending by dumping them in a Richland County landfill.

The Greenville News was working on the story, too. The newspaper had revealed that Holderman had misused his discretionary fund.

This included buying favors by giving confidential gifts as large as $1,000 to public officials and their spouses.

The Greenville News took the university and its foundation to the state Supreme Court to obtain an audit of Holderman’s misuse of state money.

A university official denied such records existed but secretly ordered them dumped.

The Greenville News sent 2 reporters to dig through 6 feet of trash to find the records.

Holderman was UofSC president from 1977 to 1990 when he was forced to resign

He was indicted a year later for mishandling university money.

The rest of Holderman’s life was equally controversial.

• In 1991 his ex-wife Carolyn accused him of physical and emotional abuse in 31 years of marriage.

• Several male students accused him of sexually harassing them on fundraising trips.

The students told the Charlotte Observer that Holderman gave them gifts includ ing purple bathrobes and made unwanted advances.

• In 1996, Holderman pled guilty to fraudulent bankruptcy charges and spent 9 months in prison.

Prosecutor Dick Harpootlian, now a state senator representing the Irmo-St. Andrews area, said Holderman was “not repentant.”

• In 2003, an FBI sting in Miami caught him and a former UofSC intern laundering $400,000 in drug money.

Holderman’s defense attorney claimed his client was mentally ill.

Toward the end of his life, Holderman lived in a Lexington retirement home.