Pam Prince was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina. At the age of five, she was run over by a transfer truck and lost the use of her right arm. As a child, she spent a lot of time at Shriners Children's Hospital in Greenville, South Carolina. She attended Landrum High School and Swofford Career Center, where she studied Graphics and Printing after being told she could not work in other fields due to her handicap. Her first job in printing was an internship at Copac Printing Company in Spartanburg. After graduating high school, she was hired full-time at Copac where she worked in various positions in the printing process. She eventually left Copac and worked briefly as a waitress before getting a job at Cross Country Printing Company. There she met a pressman she had previously worked with at Copac. He asked if she had ever thought about working in customer service because he thought she would be good at it. She had not but considered the opportunity a step up because she could do work where her handicap would not hold her back.
She was hired as a customer service representative and met Jim Harper there, who she describes as inspiring and uplifting. He became her mentor and lifelong friend. He took her under his wing and showed her how to navigate her new role and build her confidence. According to Pam, Cross Country was the best place for her as she had a very conservative childhood in a rural area. The company had a large LGBT community which she was exposed to for the first time. She feels that it helped open her eyes to all the different types of people in the world and boost her career. She is now the Lead Customer Service Representative at Emedia Printing Company in Greenville.
Interviewed by: Hollis Brown, USC Upstate
