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UNCG 


ALUMNI  NEWS 


SPRING»1988 


WINTER  1988 


VOL.  76,  NO.  2 


INSIDE 


Our  Alumni  House 

Symbol  of  Perseverance 

by  H.  Elizabeth  "Lib"  Winston 
Sunmiell  '45,  '51  MS 
Homewood  and  the  Baltimore  Scene. 

by  jane  Webb  Smith 
It  Happened  in  the  Alumni  House . . . 

Roots  of  Southern  Architecture 

by  Charles  Richard  Gantt  '76  MFA 
Historic  Preservation  in 

North  Carolina 

by  John  Edward  Tyler  II 
Colonial  Revival  Architecture 

in  Virginia 

by  Mark  R.  WetJger 
18th  Century  Influence  on  Today's 
Architecture  and  Decorative  Arts. . . . 
by  Dr.  Jean  Gordon 

From  Dream  to  Reality 

by  Dr.  Richard  Bardolph 

Book  Review 

The  Musician 

On  Campus 

Spartan  Sports 

by  Ty  Biichier  '85 

The  Way  We  Are 

Association  Network 

Letters  to  the  Editor 


10 

12 

14 

16 

21 

22 
24 

26 
28 
30 


Alumni  Business 31 

Slate  of  Candidates  for  Officers  and 
Trustees  of  the  Alumni  Association. 

Members  of  the  Association  must  return 
ballots  to  the  Alumni  Office  by 
April  15, 1988. 


COVER 


Our  Alumni  House 


THE  ALUMNI  ASSOCIATION 

OFFICERS 

Cathy  Stewart  Vaughn  '49,  Montreat 

Prffhlt-nt 

Betty  Crawford  Ervin  '50,  Morganton 

PrffiJnil-Elect 

Betty  Lou  Mitchell  Cuigou  '51,  Valdese 

Firi^t  Vice  President 
Janie  Crumpton  Reece  '47,  Greensboro 

Second  Vice  President 
Susan  Broussard  Nolan  '71,  Greensboro 

Recording  Secretary 

Barbara  Parrish  '48,  Greensboro 

Executive  Secretary-Treasurer 
TRUSTEES 

Inza  Abemathy  '51,  Southern  Pines 
Christine  Freeze  Brown  '55C,  Statesville 
Rose  Holden  Cole  '53,  Holden  Beach 
Minnie  Lou  Parker  Creech  '39,  Tarboro 
Ashley  Holland  Dozier  '54  Winston-Salem 
Martha  Smith  Ferrell  '57,  Greenville 
Ada  Fisher  '70,  Oak  Ridge,  IN 
Blanche  Woolard  Haggard  '42,  Asheville 
Carol  Furey  Matney  '63,  Asheboro 
Jennifer  Cornell  Monges  '86,  Greensboro 
Carol  S.  Myers  '78,  San  Francisco,  CA     ■ 
Kathryn  Cobb  Preyer  '47,  Charlotte 
Catherine  Scott  '87,  Baltimore,  MD 
Evelyn  Easley  Smith  '43,  Houston,  TX 
Davis  H.  Swaim,  Jr.  '85,  Concord 
Anne  Hayes  Tate  '68,  Smithfield 
Eugenia  Ware  '46,  Kings  Mountain 
Susan  Whittington  '72,  Wilkesboro 
Gregory  S.  Greer  '80,  Davidson 

Alumni  Annual  Giving  Council  Chair, 

e.x  officio 
Bronna  Willis  '62,  Lynchburg,  VA 

Fimince  Committee  Chair,  ex  officio 
Debbie  Dixon  '82,  Greensboro 

Black  Alumni  Council  Co-chair,  ex  officio 
Marvin  Watkins  '84,  Greensboro 

Black  Alumni  Council  Co-chair,  ex  officio 
THE  EDITORIAL  BOARD 
Christine  Freeze  Brown  '55C,  Statesville,  Chair 
Maura  Canoles  '80,  Greensboro 
John  E.  Dubel  '72,  Greensboro 
Mary  Beth  Ferrell  Granger  '84,  Greensboro 
Carolyn  Nelson  Messick  '67,  Elon  College 
Jeanette  Houser  Mitchell  '54,  Greensboro 
Walter  M.  Pritchett,  Jr.  '83,  Greensboro 
Marion  Polk  Ross  '72  MM,  Greensboro 
Cathy  Brewer  Stembergh  '70,  Greensboro 
Richard  T.  Wells  '77  MLS,  Asheboro 
Jim  Clark  '78  MFA,  Faculty  Representative 
Cathy  Stewart  Vaughn  '49 

President  of  the  Association,  ex  officio 
Betsy  Suitt  Oakley  '69 

Immediate  Past  Cliair,  ex  officio 
Miriam  Com  Barkley  '74 

Editor  of  .Alumni  Publications,  ex  officio 
Barbara  Parrish  '48 

Executive  Secretary-Treasurer,  ex  officio 

PUBLICATION  STAFF 

Editor.  Miriam  C.  Barkley  '74 

Editorial  Assistant:  Susan  Manchester 

Staff  Writer  Charles  Wheeler 

Graphic  Designers:  Toni  Brown,  Jane  Vondy 

Photographer:  Bob  Cavin 


The  University  of  North  Carolina 
GREENSBORO 


ALUMNI  NEWS  is  published  three  times  a  year 
by  the  Alumni  Association  of  The  University  of 
North  Carolina  at  Greensboro,  1000  Spring  Gar- 
den Street,  Greensboro,  NC  27412.  Contributors 
to  the  Annual  Giving  Program  receive  Alumni 
Neu'S. 


50  Years  of  Elegance 


Our  Alumni  House 


She  is  dressed  for  company  every  day. 
Her  Corinthian  columns,  her  beaded 
pediment  with  its  tympanum  window,  her 
uncompromising  symmetry,  and  espe- 
cially, her  grand  marble  stairs,  daily  greet 
her  visitors  with  unchanged  dignity.  Her 
welcome  is  bid  faithfully,  but  bends  to  the 
disposition  of  her  guests  —  ardently  to 
graduates  at  Reunion,  exuberantly  to  revel- 
ers at  Homecoming,  hospitably  to  distin- 
guished university  guests,  and  solemnly  to 
those  on  academic  quests.  Her  beauty, 
enhanced  by  the  parade  of  seasons  re- 
flected in  her  face,  prompts  even  the  casual 
passer-by  to  sense  the  admiration  held  by 
those  who  claim  her. 

She  commands  a  certain  reverence  — 
borne  not  just  of  her  heritage,  but  of  her 
elegance,  her  style.  Gracefully  she  fulfills 
her  mission. 

Writing  in  Alumnae  Neius  in  1937,  Alumni 
Secretary  Clara  Booth  Byrd  '13  described 
what  the  Alumni  House  must  be  :  "...this 
House  should  represent  certain  great  ide- 
als: beauty  and  usefulness,  neither  exclud- 
ing the  other;  culture  and  adaptability;  dig- 
nity and  spirituality.  These  were  the 
quahties... which  our  House  must  embody; 
qualities  which,  blended  together,  might 
truly  interpret  the  College  Motto,  Service. 
Moreover,  we  would  build  a  House,  a 
home,  of  simple  elegance  —  not  an  institu- 
tional structure. ..  It  would  be  the  part  of  the 
architect  to  express  these  ideals  in  brick  and 
mortar  and  marble  —  as  the  composer 
translates  moonlight  into  sound,  into  a 
sonata,  for  the  keyboard." 

At  fifty,  the  Alumni  House  has  recap- 
tured the  attention  of  alumni  and  kindled 
an  interest  in  Southern  architecture. 


Vol .  lb  no.  Z 


Alumni  News 

Spring  •  1988 


II 


^ 


^^^B?at5»^_ 


♦ 


=?»■: 


f.f.     ^'    ^ 


^i.^ 


Symbol  of 
Perseverance 


by  H.  Elizabeth  "Lib" 
Winston  Swindell  '45,  '51  MS 


This  article  originally  appeared  in  the 
Greensboro  Daily  News  on  Sunday, 
October  25,1987. 


Noble  in  conception,  beauti- 
ful in  design,  lovely  in 
setting,  handsome  in  construction 
and  in  furnishings." 

This  was  Dr.  W.C.  Jackson's 
assessment  of  the  Alumnae  House 
on  the  campus  of  the  Woman's 
College  of  The  University  of  North 
Carolina. 

As  dean  of  administration, 
Jackson  spoke  those  words  on  June 
5, 1937,  at  the  dedication  of  the 
structure  designed  to  serve  as  a 
social  and  student  activity  build- 
ing and  headquarters  for  gradu- 
ates. At  the  time,  the  college  had 
its  largest  enrollment  —  1,937 
female  students. 

Much  has  changed  in  the  50 
years  since  the  colonial  building 
on  tree-lined  College  Avenue  was 
opened  formally  and  dedicated. 
WCUNC  is  now  The  University  of 
North  Carolina  at  Greensboro; 
Alumnae  House  is  now  Alumni 
House,  the  spelling  reflecting  the 
University's  coeducational  status; 
and  enrollment  is  at  an  all-time 
high  — 10,688. 

Few  can  dispute  Jackson's 
description  of  the  building  that 
brings  meaning  to  the  university's 
motto,  "Service." 

The  stately  and  elegant  building 
is  more  than  the  hub  of  alumni 


The  portrait  of  Clara  Booth  Byrd  '13  hangs  i 
the  Parlor  of  the  Alumni  House. 


functions.  It  is  the  site  of  university 
faculty  meetings,  lectures,  dinners, 
luncheons,  and  receptions. 

Guests  of  the  University  use  its 
bedrooms.  Civic  and  professional 
organizations  use  it  for  meetings 
and  programs.  Alumni  and 
students  find  it  appropriate  for 
weddings  and  receptions. 

The  Alumni  House  is  unlike  the 
67  other  buildings  on  the  169-acre 
campus. 

The  beauty  of  line  and  exquisite 
detail  of  workmanship  makes  it  a 
home  of  simple  elegance,  not  an 
institutional  structure.  Alumni 
Secretary  Barbara  Parrish  '48  says, 
"Students  see  it  as  being  different, 
and  it  is  different  from  anything 
on  the  campus." 

Alumni  House  is  the  result  of  the 
work  and  determination  of  many. 
It  stands  as  a  symbol  of  persever- 
ance. 

The  dream  began  in  1914  when  a 
committee  was  appointed  to 
arrange  for  a  permanent  home  for 
the  alumnae  of  the  institution  then 
known  as  the  North  Carolina 
College  for  Women.  Louise 
Alexander,  whom  students 
through  the  years  affectionately 
called  "Miss  Alex,"  signed  a 
contract  "to  do  her  best  to  raise  the 
money  by  whatever  method  may 
seem  best." 

The  necessary  funding  was 
amassed  through  the  efforts  of 
Alexander,  a  subscription  cam- 
paign by  alumnae  and  friends  of 
the  institution.  The  effort  was  led 
by  a  nine-member  building 
committee.  Dr.  Julius  I.  Foust, 


college  president,  and  Alumnae 
Secretary  Clara  Booth  Byrd  '13.  A 
grant  from  the  Public  Works 
Administration  provided  about  a 
fifth  of  the  funding. 

After  much  research,  it  was 
determined  the  building  was  to  be 
an  enlarged  version  of  Home- 
wood,  a  circa  1800  house.  Home- 
wood  now  stands  on  the  campus 
of  Johns  Hopkins  University  at 
Baltimore,  and  is  considered  to  be 
the  most  nearly  perfect  example  of 
colonial  architecture  in  America. 

The  bids  were  opened  Nov.  20, 

1934.  Price:  $117,400,  not  including 
electric  fixtures,  Venetian  blinds, 
furnishings,  equipment,  and  the 
garden.  Penrose  V.  Stout  was 
architect. 

The  groundbreaking  was  April  2, 

1935.  As  the  dirt  was  turned,  the 
building  committee  breathed  a 
sigh  of  relief;  they  had  faced  many 
obstacles,  including  the  great 
Depression,  bank  closings,  and 
Stout's  death.  (William  H.  Deitrick, 
a  Raleigh  architect,  was  hired  to 
complete  the  building.) 

Minutes  and  reports  from 
building  committee  meetings 
reveal  interesting  details  as 
construction  of  Alumnae  House 
progressed. 


H.  Elizabeth  "Lib" 
Szi'indell  is  a  staff  writer 
at  the  Greensboro  Daily 
News.  Site  is  a  former 
faculty  member  in 
UNCG's  School  of  Home 
Economics. 


Alumni  News 

Spring  •  1988 


13 


W''     u  ^  L 


m 

m 

The  Public  Works  Administra- 
tion decreed  skilled  labor  would 
be  paid  $1.10  an  hour  and  un- 
skilled labor  would  draw  45  cents 
per  hour.  It  was  said  a  representa- 
tive of  the  Secret  Service  in  Wash- 
ington was  on  hand  at  all  times. 
No  one  knows  why. 

Upon  completion,  the  Alumni 
House  was  one  of  seven  such 
alumni  buildings  in  the  country.  It 
was  the  only  one  built  from  funds 
raised  by  the  widespread  efforts  of 
female  graduates. 

At  the  1937  formal  opening  and 
dedication,  a  $3,500  bank  note  that 
was  satisfied  two  hours  before  the 
dedication  was  burned.  The 
building,  completed  and  furnished 
at  a  cost  of  $150,000,  was  delivered 
to  the  University  debt-free. 

The  charred  scraps  of  the  bank 
note  have  been  preserved  among 
the  permanent  treasures  of  the 
Alumni  Association. 

In  her  dedicatory  prayer, 
building  committee  member  Lillie 
Boney  Wilhams  '98  said,  "This  is 
no  mere  house  of  brick  and  mortar 
that  we  commemorate;  it  is  built  of 
ourselves.  All  we  know  of  beauty 
has  gone  into  its  making.  We  have 
put  our  egg  money  into  it.  We 
have  all  but  taken  the  clothes  off 
our  backs  for  the  rummage  sales 
that  have  gone  into  it.  We  have  put 
our  amazing  teacher  salaries  into 
it.  The  dimes  and  the  quarters  of 
the  maids  and  janitors  have  gone 
into  it." 


Built  of  handcrafted  brick 
laid  in  Flemish  bond,  the  co- 
lumned central  portion  of  the 
Alumni  House  is  joined  at  the  two 
ends  by  identical  recessed  wings. 

Georgia  marble  steps  lead  to  a 
portico  with  columns  crowned 


Julius  I.  Foust's  portrait  is  the  central  feature 
in  the  Library. 


with  the  capital  known  as  the 
Temple  of  the  Winds.  The  great 
oak  door,  guarded  on  each  side  by 
a  marble  plaque  of  Minerva,  the 
college  seal,  opens  into  a  vaulted 
entrance  hall  adjoined  by  the 
lounge,  or  living  room. 

The  $1,200  for  the  steps,  portico 
and  door  were  given  by  the  late 
Louise  Clinard  Wrenn  '05x  of 
High  Point,  an  alumna  and  mem- 
ber of  the  building  committee. 

Delicate  detail  of  beading, 
reeding,  dentils,  and  modillions, 
typically  Corinthian,  add  to  the 
exterior. 

The  pineapple,  symbol  of 
Southern  hospitality,  is  carved  in 
molding  above  the  entrance  hall's 
double  doors.  Those  doors  open 
into  the  spacious  Virginia  Dare 
Room,  which  takes  its  name  from 
murals  that  hang  above  fireplaces 
at  each  end.  The  fireplace  hearths 
and  mantel  are  of  black  and  gold 
Italian  marble.  Worked  into  the 
design  of  the  mantel  is  the  daisy, 
the  college  flower. 

The  room  is  made  more 
spectacular  by  the  thirty-two 
pilasters  around  the  walls,  large 
crystal  chandeliers  and  French 
doors  opening  onto  the  balcony 
that  overlooks  the  garden. 

The  right  wing  of  the  house 
contains  a  catering  kitchen,  living 
room,  and  four  bedrooms  with 
baths.  On  the  lower  floor  are  the 
university's  development  and 
publications  offices. 

Alumni  offices,  a  library,  and 
other  university-related  operations 
occupy  the  left  wing  of  the  main 
floor.  The  home-style  library 
contains  the  written  work  of 
alumni  as  well  as  other  significant 
books.  Rose  Kennedy,  who  visited 
the  Alumni  House,  donated  a  copy 
of  Profiles  in  Courage,  written  by 
her  son,  John  F.  Kennedy. 

On  the  lower  floor  of  the  right 
wing  is  the  Pecky  Cypress  Room, 


noted  for  its  unusual  wood  walls, 
and  now  the  office  of  the  vice 
chancellor  for  development  and 
university  relations. 

The  rear  of  the  house  is  two 
full  stories  and  is  accessible  from 
the  front,  inside,  or  the  flagstone 
terrace. 

Originally,  the  lower  floor  was 
headquarters  for  the  Student 
Government  Association,  offices 
for  student  publications,  and  a 
combined  committee  room  and 
class  headquarters  (known  to 
alumni  as  the  Judy  Board  or 
Horseshoe  Room).  These  activities 
moved  to  Elliott  University  Center 
in  1953. 

Although  the  Alumni  House  is 
owned  by  the  University,  a  stand- 
ing five-member  house  committee 
of  the  Alumni  Association  over- 
sees its  operation  and  manage- 
ment. 

The  dream  and  challenge  that 
took  more  than  a  decade  to  materi- 
alize is,  says  Barbara  Parrish,  a 
"link,  actual  and  sentimental, 
between  the  present  and  the 
beginnings  of  The  University  of 
North  Carolina  at  Greensboro." 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


15 


Homewood  and  the 
Baltimore  Scene 


Above,  a  black  and  white  patterned  floor  and  moss 
green  walls  decorate  the  front  reception  hall  of 
Homeicood  (below),  now  on  the  campus  of  Johns 
Hopkiris  University.  Photos  by  David  E.  Tripp. 


by  Jane  Webb  Smith 

The  twentieth  century  Colo- 
nial Revival  architecture  of 
the  Alumni  House  was  modeled 
on  Homewood,  the  Federal  period 
Baltimore  country  home  that 
Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton  gave 
his  son  for  a  wedding  present  in 
the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  At  the  time,  Carroll  was 
the  wealthiest  man  in  the  country. 

Johns  Hopkins  University,  on 
whose  campus  Homewood  stands, 
has  owned  the  house  since  1902. 
An  extensive  restoration  has  just 
been  completed.  The  house  is  now 
as  it  might  have  been  from  1806- 
1816,  the  ten  years  the  Carrolls 
lived  there  as  a  couple. 

Daniel  Carroll  emigrated  to 
Maryland  in  the  1750s  from 
Ireland.  Because  they  were  Catho- 
lic, he  and  his  descendants  were 
barred  from  political  office.  They 
put  their  energies  into  amassing 
one  of  the  largest  fortunes  in  the 
colonies.  Charles  Carroll  of  Car- 
rollton, the  signer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  was  the 
father  of  Charles  Carroll  of  Home- 
wood. 

In  1800  young  Charles  Carroll 


went  to  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Pennsylvania  state  court,  Benjamin 
Chew,  and  asked  to  marry  his 
daughter,  Harriet.  Though  Charles 
had  a  reputation  for  idleness,  he 
assured  Chew  that  his  father 
"would  give  us  the  money  for 
whatever  we  need."  For  a  wedding 
present,  Charles  Carroll  Sr.  gave 
the  newly  weds  130  acres  about  a 
mile  outside  Baltimore. 

Construction  of  the  house  began 
in  1801.  Charles  Jr.'s  reluctance  to 
keep  accurate  accounts,  his 
indecisiveness,  and  the  expensive 
tastes  of  the  young  couple  brought 
the  cost  of  Homewood  by  1808  to 
$40,000  —  over  four  times  what  the 
elder  Carroll  intended  to  spend. 

But  with  the  departure  of  the 
workmen  from  Homewood  young 
Charles  began  to  get  depressed. 
What  would  seem  to  be  the  begin- 
ning of  a  happy  life  turned  into 
tragedy  as  Charles  Carroll  of 
Homewood  turned  to  the  wine 
cellar  for  consolation. 

Charles,  Harriet,  their  son,  and 
four  daughters  first  used  Home- 
wood  as  a  summer  home  from  May 
to  October.  By  1811,  however,  they 
were  spending  most  of  their  time 
there.  Letters  from  Charles  Sr.  to 
his  son  at  this  time  had  these 
recurring  themes:  "Stop  spending 
so  much  money;  improve  your 
mind  and  keep  up  with  your 
accounts;  and  keep  away  from 
spicy  foods  and  wine,  take  a  bath 
in  the  morning,  work  from  9  to  5 
and  you  will  have  a  fine  life." 

All  this  was  ignored  by  Charles 
of  Homewood.  By  1813,  Charles  Sr. 
was  worried  about  the  welfare  of 
Harriet  and  the  children.  In  1814 
Harriet  took  the  children  to  Phila- 
delphia for  a  year.  By  1816  Harriet 


61  Alumni  News 
I  Spring  •  1988 


and  the  girls  moved  to  Philadel- 
phia permanently  and  their  son, 
Charles,  went  to  Europe  to  school. 
She  needed  to  move  to  "escape  the 
afflicting  scene  that  she  had 
witnessed  daily." 

A  Captain  Craig  and  his  wife 
came  to  live  at  Homewood  to  care 
for  Charles.  They  didn't  stay  long. 
From  1816  until  his  death  in  1825 
at  the  age  of  50  in  an  institution  in 
Annapolis,  Charles  Carroll  of 
Homewood,  alienated  from  his 
family,  moved  from  Homewood  to 
Annapolis  and  back  again. 

His  son,  Charles  —  now  24, 
moved  into  Homewood,  refur- 
nished it,  and  lived  there  until 
1832  when  his  grandfather  died. 
He  then  moved  to  Doughoregan 
Manor  and  took  the  name  Charles 
Carroll  of  Doughoregan.  Home- 
wood  was  sold  in  1839  to  the 
William  Wyman  family,  who  lived 
there  until  1850  when  they  built 
another  house  on  the  property. 
Homewood  was  closed  until  the 
1890s  when  the  Gilman  School,  a 
boys  boarding  school,  rented  it 
and  put  a  cupola  on  the  roof.  In 
1902  they  gave  it  to  Johns  Hopkins 
and  the  "Homewood"  campus  was 
built  around  the  house,  which  was 
used  as  university  offices  from 
1930  to  1980. 

Not  a  very  happy  story  for  such 
a  lovely  house. 

In  spite  of  the  $40,000  Charles 
Carroll  sunk  into  the  palace  for  his 
son,  Homewood  is  not  the  master- 
piece of  Federal  architecture  one 
might  assume.  It  is  a  typical,  rather 
conservative  adaptation  of  the 
neoclassical  style  and  completely 
in  the  vernacular  of  the  Georgian 
symmetry  style  that  was  occurring 
in  Baltimore  at  the  time.  Again 
there  is  inconsistency  in  the  fact 
that  Charles  Carroll  demanded  the 
finest  Europe  had  to  offer  in 
decorative  arts,  dress,  rugs,  and 
fabric,  but  after  great  expense  and 
indecision  he  ended  up  with  a 


conservative  Baltimore  country 
house.  It  was,  of  course,  these 
inconsistencies  and  instabilities 
that  brought  the  son  of  the  signer 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
to  such  a  ruinous  end.  This  inner 
turmoil  was  reflected  in  the  house 
which  obsessed  him  for  so  long. 

In  1983  formal  restoration  efforts 
began  with  archaeological 
excavation  which  turned  up  lots  of 
wine  bottles.  It  is  assumed  that 
what  Harriet  didn't  take  to  Phila- 
delphia in  1816,  Charles  Carroll  of 
Doughoregan  took  with  him  when 
he  left  the  house  in  1832.  The 
restoration  was  completely  paid 
for  by  the  late  Robert  Merrick,  a 
local  philanthropist  who  had  been 
at  Gilman  and  lived  at  Homewood 
as  a  boy  in  boarding  school.  The 
curators  have  put  nothing  into  the 
house  that  didn't  have  design 
precedence  or  documentation  as 
having  been  in  a  contemporary 
Baltimore  house. 

There  are  about  a  dozen  Home- 
wood  replicas  in  all,  including  the 
American  embassy  in  Nicaragua 
and  the  music  building  at  South- 
ern Baptist  Theological  Seminary 
in  Kentucky. 

The  restored  Homewood  opened 
as  a  museum  on  September  15, 
1987. 


]ane  Webb  Smith  is  an 
exhibition  curator  and, 
currently,  a  resident  of 
Baltimore  while  studying 
for  a  master's  degree  in 
American  Studies  at  the 
University  of  Maryland- 
College  Park.  An  alumna 
of  Hollins  College,  she 
has  also  studied  at  Boston  University.  She  is 
the  daughter  of  Bootsie  Webb  Smith  '47. 


The  fine  architectural  detad  m  the  home  built  (m/ 
Charles  Carroll  is  evident  in  this  doorway. 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


Pack  Your  Bags — 
We're  Off  to 
Baltimore 


To  continue  celebrating  the 
Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  the 
Alumni  House,  the  Alumni 
Association  will  offer  a  trip  to 
Baltimore  featuring  a  tour  of 
Homewood,  the  colonial 
mansion  after  which  the 
Alumni  House  was  patterned. 

Chartered  bus  service  will 
depart  on  April  6  from  Greens- 
boro; alumni  in  the  Richmond 
area  may  board  in  that  city.  A 
box  lunch  is  planned  in 
Historic  Halifax,  VA,  at 
Tarover,  the  country  home  of 
Virginia  Ford  Zenke  '46. 

Four  nights  accommodations 
are  booked  at  the  newly 
restored  Lord  Baltimore 
Clarion  Hotel.  Guided  tours  of 
Homewood,  Carroll  Mansion, 
Peabody  Library  and  National 
Aquarium,  and  a  visit  to  the 
Baltimore  Museum  of  Art, 
home  of  the  Cone  Collection, 
are  included.  Alumni  will 
enjoy,  too,  a  city  tour  of 
Baltimore,  featuring  the 
Federal  Hill  and  Otterbien 
neighborhoods;  lunch  that  day 
will  be  at  the  Engineering 
Society.  On  another  day, 
alumni  will  take  a  trip  to  Anna- 
polis to  the  Paca  Mansion  and 
the  Hammond  Harwood 
Mansion;  lunch  will  be  at  The 
Maryland  Inn. 

Even  with  all  that's  sched- 
uled, there'll  be  some  free  time 
in  Baltimore  to  shop  and  enjoy 
The  Inner  Harbor  (Harbor- 
place),  Antique  Row,  and  the 
Walters  Art  Gallery  and  in 
Annapolis  to  shop  or  to  tour 
the  Naval  Academy. 

The  whole  package,  includ- 
ing transportation,  hotel  ac- 
commodations, site  tour  ad- 
missions, and  the  lunch  stops 
mentioned  above,  is  reasonably 
priced:  $275  per  person/ 
double  or  $375  per  person/ 
single  occupancy.  A  package  is 
also  available  without  trans- 
portation. Additional  informa- 
tion about  the  trip  may  be  ob- 
tained from  the  Alumni  Office. 


It  Happened  in  the  Alumni  House 


Etude  in  BVD 

Bill  Welder  '86,  now  a  second 
year  medical  student  at  Johns 
Hopkins,  had  a  unique  experience  in 
the  Alumni  House  even  before  he 
entered  UNCG  as  a  freshman.  Bill 
sought  one  of  our  prestigious 
Competitive  Scholarships,  and  for 
the  weekend  of  his  interview,  was 
assigned  a  bedroom  in  the  Alumni 
House.  It  seems  that  Bill,  unable 
to  sleep,  decided  to  while  away  the 
wee  hours  by  playing  the  baby  grand 
piano  in  the  Virginia  Dare  Room  — 
dressed  only  in  his  underwear! 

Incidentally,  now  that  Bill  has 
moved  to  Baltimore  he  passes  by 
Homewood  every  day.  "It's  really 
eerie,"  he  told  us  recently.  "It's 
so  strange  to  see  our  Alumni  House  on 
a  different  site." 


Sneaking  Out 
of  the  House 

The  story  can  be  told,  now. 
After  forty-five  years,  Evon  Welch 
Dean  '42  no  longer  feels  the 
apprehension  that  she'll  be  chastised 
for  bending  the  rules  during  the  first 
year  she  worked  in  the  Alumni  House. 
Evon  was  secretary  to  Alumnae 
Secretary  Clara  Booth  Byrd  '13. 
During  times  when  the  Alumnae 
Board  met,  Evon  was  required  to 
spend  the  weekend  in  the  Alumnae 
House  to  tend  to  the  needs  of  the 
board  members  and  take  responsibility 
for  the  House. 

Sequestered  one  such  weekend, 
the  board  members  felt  sorry  for 
young  Evon  because  she  wouldn't  be 
able  to  honor  a  date  with  future 
husband  Willard  on  Saturday  night. 
Every  minute  with  Willard  was 
precious  because  he  was  to  leave  for 
service  in  the  Army  within  a  few 
weeks.  "In  Miss  Byrd's  absence,"  Evon 
recalls,  "those  darling  board  members 
conspired  to  send  me  out  anyway. 
They  promised  to  'cover'  for  me." 

When  Willard  came  to  call  on 
his  bride-to-be,  he  got  the  once- 
over from  the  elder  board  members. 
And  when  the  couple  returned  from 
their  date,  the  alumnae  were  waiting 
up  for  them.  Fortunately,  the  experi- 


ence didn't  scare  Willard  away. 

So  far  as  we  know,  no  one  ever 
tattled,  but  Evon  confesses  to  many  a 
frightful  thought  as  to  the  severity  of 
the  reprimand  Miss  Byrd  would  have 
tendered. 


Vital  Statistics 

The  Annual  Report  for  Alumni 
Affairs,  always  cleverly  crafted  by 
Director  Barbara  Parrish  '48, 
contains  a  section  about  the  use  of 
the  Alumni  House.  The  1986-87 
edition  reports  that  activity  in  the 
Alumni  House  was  brisk  and  assorted: 
There  were  21  group  breakfasts,  59 
luncheons,  and  39  dinners.  There  were 
200-1-  meetings,  lectures,  and  special 
programs;  28  university-related  recep- 
tions; 4  piano  recitals;  and  4  seminars. 
There  were  5  weddings  and  38  wedding 
receptions.  And  the  seven  beds  were 
made  575  times  during  the  year. 


A  Rose 
from  Miss 
America 

This  photograph 
ran  on  the  cover  of 
Alumnae  News  in  the 
fall  of  1961.  The 
cover  note  explains: 

"Kendall  Single- 
tary  is  the  three-year-old  daughter  of 
Chancellor  and  Mrs.  Singletary.  Her 
friend  is,  of  course,  Maria  Beale 
Fletcher  of  Asheville,  who  was  Miss 
North  Carolina  when  this  photograph 
was  made  and  who  is  now  Miss 
America.  It  happened  this  way: 
Kendall  was  visiting  in  the  Alumnae 
House  on  the  morning  that  Lelah  Nell 
Masters  '38,  assistant  public  relations 
director  for  Cone  Mills  Corporation, 
brought  Maria  Beale  over  to  make  the 
'official'  photographs  of  her  presenta- 
tion gown.  Kendall  watched  the 
goings-on  with  wide  eyes,  but  she  kept 
her  distance.  Finally  when  Maria 
Beale  offered  her  the  rose  which  she 
had  been  holding  for  the  picture- 
making,  the  two  were  in  lens-distance 
of  each  other.  Mrs.  Pat  Alspaugh  of 
the  College  News  Bureau  made  this 
photograph." 


8 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


Roots  of  Southern  Architecture 


by  Charles  Richard  Gantt 
76  MFA 

Our  Alumni  House  design  is 
a  fulcrum  in  the  change 
from  the  colonial  architecture  of 
the  young  republic  to  southern 
architecture,  which  has  its  back- 
grounds and  origins  in  the  seven- 
teenth, eighteenth,  and  early 
nineteenth  century.  It  represents 
American  taste  and  temperament. 

Southern  architecture  reflects 
much  variety  because  we  are  a 
nation  of  immigrants.  The  vagaries 
of  the  climate  also  play  an  impor- 
tant role. 

Appearing  in  the  Charlestown, 
SC,  Gazette  in  May  1751  was  this 
advertisement: 

"DUDLEY  INMAN,  CARPENTER 
and  Joyner,  lately  arrived  from  London, 
in  Capt.  Crosthwaite,  who  now  lives 
next  to  Mrs.  Finlay's  in  Church-street, 
Charles-Town,  undertakes  all  sorts  of 
carpenters  and  joyners  work,  particu- 
larly buildings  of  all  kinds,  with  more 
convenience,  strength  and  beauty  than 
those  commonly  erected  in  this 
province,  in  which  he  will  closely 
adhere  to  either  of  the  orders  of 
architecture  :  He  likewise  gives  designs 
of  houses,  according  to  themodern  taste 
in  building,  and  estimates  of  the  charge: 
And  hangs  bells,  in  the  best,  neatest  and 
least  expensive  manner. — A  good  taste 
in  building  is  a  talent  (as  all  others) 
brought  into  the  world  with  a  man,  and 
must  be  cultivated  and  improved  with 
the  same  care  and  industry  as  such 
others:  But  a  structure,  tho'  ever  so 
beautiful,  cannot  yet  be  perfect,  unless 
supplied  with  all  the  conveniences  nec- 
essary to  remove  the  disadvantages 
proceeding  from  great  heat  or  cold,  or, 
the  country  wherein  it  is  built:  Of  such 
there  are  but  few  in  or  near  this  town, 
tho'  put  up  and  finished  at  a  greater 
charge  than  if  they  had  all  the  conven- 
iences and  beautiful  proportions  of 
architecture. 

"All  these  shall  be  done  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  all  gentlemen  that  shall 
be  pleased  to  employ  Their  most 
humble  Servant, 

Dudley  Inman" 

This  newly-arrived  architect 


promises  that  he  will  build  in  a 
modern  style  yet  use  the  architec- 
tural resources  of  the  classical  past. 
He  will  take  the  climate  into 
consideration  as  well  as  the  nature 
of  the  architectural  taste  and  styles 
of  the  South. 

The  White  House,  built  in  1752 
and  then  again  in  1815,  showed 
such  a  blend  of  European  influence 
and  American  taste. 

Drayton  Hall,  built  near  Char- 
leston in  1740,  is  an  example  of 
Palladian  design  inspired  by  the 
Villa  Rotunda  in  Vienna,  circa 
1550.  It  is,  however,  highly 
adapted  in  plan  and  material  so 
that  it  is  a  practical  interpretation 
of  the  Palladian  ideal.  Drayton  is  a 
functioning  domicile  rather  than  a 
tribute  to  artistic  theory.  This  style 
was  spread  throughout  the  English 
world,  and  thus  the  South  by  the 
publication  of  Pallidio's  works 
in  English  by  Lord  Burlington. 
Burlington  and  William  Kent  were 
crucial  in  the  firm  establishment  of 
the  new  style  through  their  own 
architectural  works. 

The  Nathaniel  Russell  House  in 
Charleston  (circa  1809)  is  an  urban 
adaptation  of  a  Palladian-style 
double  house.  Its  end  was  to  the 
street  with  the  facade  oriented 
toward  the  garden.  The  house 
announced  one  thing  to  the  viewer 
but  had  an  element  of  surprise 
inside. 

Thomas  Jefferson's  Monticello 
(completed  in  1809,  the  year  that 
Homewood,  the  inspiration  for  our 
own  Alumni  House,  was  finished) 
is  a  combination  of  geometric 
shapes  that  are  interesting, 
unusual,  and  demonstrate  both  his 
individuality  and  his  debt  to 
tradition.  The  building  sits  as  an 
extension  of  nature.  It  is  an  ideal- 
ized landscape  in  the  manner  of 
Claude  Lorraine's  seventeenth 


century  paintings  as  well  as  a  func- 
tioning farm.  Both  principles  have  a 
classical  origin  in  The  Georgics  by  the 
Roman  poet,  Virgil. 

This  is  also  true  of  the  University  of 
Virginia  campus.  The  university  has 
been  called  a  "city  of  temples  within 
a  landscaped  environment." 

Then,  beginning  in  the  1820s, 
prominent  architecture  by  Robert 
Mills  (Washington  Monument,  1836, 
and  the  Treasury  Building)  showed  a 
rise  of  monumentality,  the  role  of  the 
state,  and  the  death  of  picturesque 
landscape.  The  Records  Office  in 
Charleston  was  a  fireproof  building 
with  emphatic,  severe  classical  detail 
and  columns. 

By  1865  Greek  Revival  had  replaced 
Palladianism  and  Jefferson's  monu- 
mental classicism.  This  became 
our  "notion  of  Southernness." 


Thomas  Jefferson 's  Monticello,  near  Charlotttesville, 
Virginia. 


§  Richard  Gantt,  a  lecturer  in 
UNCG's  Department  of  Art, 
is  an  alumnus  of  UNCG.  He 
earned  an  MFA  degree  in 
studio  arts  here  in  1976.  He 
is  presently  completing 
master's  study  in  art  history 
^^    ^  .^  at  UNC-Chapel  Hill, 

^^^^   Ki^    ,        where  he  plans  to  continue  as 
a  doctoral  student.  He  illustrated  the  late  Dr. 
Louise  Robbins'  book.  Footprints:  Collection, 
Analysis  and  Interpretation. 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


19 


by  John  Edward  Tyler  II 


Beginning  with  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh's  attempt  to  plant  a 
settlement  of  thatched,  wattle  and 
daub  cottages.  North  Carolina's 
history  can  be  traced  through  its 
architecture.  The  preservation  of 
this  architecture  is  a  link  to  our 
past. 

The  earliest  documentation  for  a 
particular  dwelling  is  found  on  a 
map  published  in  1657.  The 
Nathaniel  Batts  House,  located  in 
Bertie  County,  contained  one  room 
and  a  buttery.  The  earliest  existing 
residence  in  North  Carolina  is  the 
Newbold-White  House  in  Per- 
quimans County,  built  in  the 
1680s.  It  is  of  a  "hall  and  parlor" 
plan  and  was  restored  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Perquimans 
County  Historical  Association.  It  is 
the  cornerstone  to  any  survey  of 
the  history  of  our  state's  architec- 
ture. 

In  the  eastern  part  of  North 
CaroUna  the  "hall  and  parlor"  plan 
used  by  Virginians  was  prevalent. 
Central  European  styling  can  be 
found  at  Old  Salem  and  other 
Piedmont  areas  settled  by  the 
Moravians.  The  Quaker  floor  plan 
(three  rooms,  one  slightly  larger 
than  each  of  the  other  two)  was 
used  in  Perquimans  and  later  in 
Guilford  counties. 

An  enigma  exists  in  North  Caro- 
lina architecture,  however.  Many 
structures  seem  incongruous  to 
their  location.  Mulberry  Hill,  on  a 
plantation  in  Chowan  County, 
looks  as  if  it  had  been  lifted  from 
Front  Street  in  New  Bern,  where 
there  are  several  identical 
townhouses.  And  in  the  western 
part  of  the  state,  both  the  Carson 
House  at  Marion  and  the 
Smith-McDowell  House  in 


Historic  Preservation 
in  North  Carolina 


Asheville  have  a  tropical  influence 
common  to  the  coastal  areas  of  the 
region. 

Though  North  Carolina  is 
termed  a  "valley  of  humility 
between  two  mountains  of  con- 
ceit" in  architectural  circles,  some 
of  our  gems  are  the  rarest.  Tryon 
Palace  in  New  Bern,  designed  by 
English  architect  John  Hawks,  is 
acclaimed  as  the  most  handsome 
of  all  eighteenth  century  buildings 
ever  erected  in  the  American 
colonies.  And  George  Vanderbilt's 
"Biltmore"  near  Asheville  is  one  of 
the  grandest  private  residences 
ever  built  in  the  United  States. 

Historic  preservation  began  in 
North  Carolina  perhaps  as  early  as 
1904  when  the  Colonial  Dames 
rescued  the  birthplace  of  President 
Andrew  Johnson.  In  the  1950s  the 
State  Division  of  Archives  and 
History  began  its  Historic  Sites 
Program  with  projects  such  as  the 
Alamance  Batfleground,  the 
Governor  Aycock  birthplace, 
Bentonville  Battleground,  and  the 
Ireland  and  Barker  Houses  in 
Edenton.  Today  this  program  is 
greatly  expanded  and  part  of  the 
NC  Department  of  Cultural 
Resources. 

One  cannot  survey  the  historic 
preservation  movement  in  North 
Carolina  without  paying  special 
attention  to  the  restoration  at  Old 
Salem.  Though  on  a  smaller  scale, 
it  is  of  the  same  fine  quality  as  that 
found  at  Williamsburg.  The 
Museum  of  Southern  Decorative 
Arts  in  Winston-Salem  is  invalu- 
able in  preserving  this  phase  of  our 
heritage. 

Every  day  countless  historic 
buildings  are  lost  to  fire,  vandal- 
ism, indifference,  and  neglect,  to 


say  nothing  of  the  bulldozer.  The 
Historic  Preservation  Fund  of 
North  Carolina  financially  sup- 
ports efforts  to  save  structures 


important  to  our  heritage.  Historic 
preservation  is  vital  to  our  educa- 
tional, economic,  and  cultural 
growth. 


The  Newbold-White  House  (above)  is  the 
earliest  existing  residence  in  North  Carolina. 
Below  is  the  birthplace  of  President  Andrew 
Johnson,  saved  by  the  Colonial  Dames  perhaps 
as  early  as  1904.  Photos  are  by  the  North 
Carolina  Division  of  Archives  and  History. 


Jolui  Tyler  is  chairman  of 
the  board  and  former 
president  of  the  Historic 
Hope  Foundation,  which 
is  responsible  for  acquir- 
ing, preserving,  and 
maintaining  the  Hope 
Mansion  near  Windsor, 
NC.  He  is  past  president 
of  the  Historic  Preservation  Society  of  NC  and 
served  as  chairman  of  the  acquisitions  commit- 
tee of  the  Tryon  Palace  Commission. 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


111 


^M.Uh   ' 


I     I 


"^F=^ 


by  Mark  R.  Wenger 


By  exploring  how  America's 
architectural  past  inspired 
Virginia  building  during  1840- 
1940,  the  cultural  forces  which 
shaped  Alumni  House  will  be 
easier  to  understand. 

Since  John  Smith  produced  his 
chronicles  of  the  Jamestown 
settlement,  Virginians  have 
consistently  displayed  a  concern 
for  recording,  preserving,  and 
memorializing  their  past.  These 
sentiments  notwithstanding, 
antiquarian  interest  in  Virginia's 
past  exerted  little  influence  on  the 
development  of  local  architecture 
until  after  the  Civil  War. 

In  the  meantime,  Virginia's 
colonial  architecture  remained 
largely  unappreciated  apart  from 
association  with  famous  people  or 
events.  Mount  Vernon  was  one  of 
the  first  buildings  to  command 
widespread  attention.  1854 
marked  the  beginning  of  success- 
ful efforts  to  save  the  home  of 
George  Washington  as  a  shrine  for 
the  nation. 

There  did  exist  a  widespread 
interest  in  Virginia's  historical  and 
architectural  past  on  the  eve  of  the 
Civil  War.  However,  with  the 
coming  of  hostilities,  this  interest 
was  eclipsed  by  more  pressing 
concerns  about  war  and  its  devas- 
tating consequences.  Not  until  the 
end  of  Reconstruction  would  the 
South  again  build  on  a  grand  scale. 
And  not  until  then  would  South- 
erners again  look  to  the  past  for 
inspiration. 

Ironically,  it  was  the  northern 
popular  press  which  showed  the 


Thirty-two  pnlasten  grace  the  walls  of  the 
Virginia  Dare  Room. 


Colonial  Revival  Architecture 
in  Virginia 


way.  After  the  War,  northern 
curiosity  about  the  vanquished  foe 
spawned  an  outpouring  of  litera- 
ture treating  all  the  distinctive 
aspects  of  Southern  culture. 
Architecture  figured  prominently 
in  these  popular  writings.  The  war, 
of  course,  had  destroyed  much  of 
that  legacy.  But  it  also  introduced 
many  people  to  the  remains  of 
Virginia's  colonial  landscape  — 
the  homes  of  great  planters,  the 
sites  of  momentous  historical 
events. 

In  spite  of  its  devastating  effects, 
then,  the  Civil  War  was  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  promoting  an  aware- 
ness of  Virginia's  historical  and 
architectural  treasures.  Within  a 
few  years  of  the  war's  end,  travel 
accounts  and  illustrated  articles 
began  to  appear  in  popular 
journals.  The  pace  of  these  publica- 
tions accelerated  noticeably  as  the 
hundredth  anniversary  of  Amer- 
ican independence  drew  near. 

The  Centennial  Exposition  in 
Philadelphia  and  the  Yorktown 
centennial  received  extensive 
coverage  in  periodicals  of  the  day. 
An  explosion  of  popular  literature 
about  the  South  ensued  with 
interiors  of  Virginia  houses 
depicted  with  increasing  fre- 
quency. Both  the  dramatic  and 
decorative  stairway  and  the  tall 
grandfather's  clock  were  recurring 
bits  of  Colonial  Revival  imagery. 

The  restoration  of  Virginia's 
old  plantation  mansions  were 
another  aspect  of  the  Colonial 
Revival.  The  restoration  of  Carter's 
Grove  typified  what  was  happen- 
ing over  much  of  the  state  during 
the  period  1900-40.  Numerous  old 
homes  were  acquired,  modernized 
and  "restored"  by  affluent  north- 


erners. The  resuscitation  of 
Virginia's  old  estates  was  tied  to 
the  emergence  of  a  new  rural  elite, 
with  its  taste  for  the  pleasures  of 
country  life  and  its  cultural  identi- 
fication with  England. 

First  laid  out  in  1925,  the  Wind- 
sor Farms  suburb  in  Richmond 
was  envisioned  as  an  old  English 
village  on  the  banks  of  the  James. 
In  fact,  two  homes  were  purchased 
and  dismantled  in  England  and 
erected  in  Windsor  Farms.  In  its 
completed  form,  Windsor  Farms 
was  an  idyllic  evocation  of  old 
Virginia  and  its  English  roots  — 
with  "Anglo-Saxon  home  feeling." 
For  Americans,  this  quality  was 
best  embodied  in  the  domestic 
architecture  of  the  colonial  era  and 
a  sense  of  ethnic  and  cultural 
identity  with  England. 

Historians  also  suggest  that  the 
Colonial  Revival  was  a  reaction  to 
the  social  and  political  upheaval  in 
the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  In  the  face  of  these 
problems,  it  represented  a  reassur- 
ing affirmation  of  traditional 
values. 

Our  Alumni  House,  then,  shows 
us  a  very  proper  copying  of  a 
colonial  exterior  with  a  mixture  of 
periods  and  locations  inside  — 
mostly  eighteenth  century  with  a 
seventeenth  century  staircase. 

Most  of  us  think  of  the  Wil- 
liamsburg restoration  as  a 
beginning  —  a  first  step  in  modern 
methods  for  the  preservation, 
interpretation,  and  recreation  of 
our  past.  It  is  also  possible  to  see 
Williamsburg  as  a  conclusion,  a 
culminating  event  of  the  Colonial 
Revival's  "Golden  Age"  in  Vir- 
ginia. 

The  Colonial  Revival  has  never 


really  gone  away.  A  drive  through 
just  about  any  recent  neighborhood 
in  this  part  of  the  country  will 
confirm  that  it's  alive  and  well.  Each 
generation  returns  to  the  past  for  its 
own  reasons. 


Carter's  Grove,  the  River  Front,  located  m 
James  City  County,  Virginia,  ivas  restored 
hetiveen  1928  and  1932. 


Mark  Wenger  is  a 
research  architect  with  the 
Colonial  Williamsburg 
Foundation.  He  holds  a 
bachelor  of  design  degree 

L..     -vT*^      '  from  NCSU,  a  bachelor 
^^^r  <  of  architecture  degree 

•m     ^    •  from  UNCC,  and  a 
■  w    ^^-.  !  master's  degree  in 
architectural  history  from  the  University  of 
Virginia.  His  book,  England  in  1701:  The 
Travels  of  Sir  John  Perceval  and  William 
Byrd  of  Virginia,  is  being  published  by  the 
University  of  Missouri  Press. 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


113 


by  Dr.  Jean  Gordon 


A  room  from  Haivrhill,  Massachusetts,  whose 
furnishings  typify  an  early  nineteenth  century 
New  England  seaport  home. 


The  furniture  in  this  drawing  room  of  a 
Baltimore  house  built  before  1S12  shows  a 
strong  Sheraton  itjfluence. 

The  rooms  pictured  on  this  page  were  once 
reconstructed  in  the  American  Wing  of  the 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 


Why  do  twentieth  century 
Americans  have  such 
affection  for  eighteenth  century 
houses  and  furniture?  Considering 
the  differences  in  Hving  patterns  of 
two  hundred  years  ago  compared 
with  those  of  today,  the  enduring 
popularity  of  eighteenth  century 
styles  might  seem  paradoxical. 

Even  the  affluent  are  over- 
whelmingly informal.  We  call  hew 
acquaintances  by  their  first  names 
and  lounge  about  in  designer 
jeans.  The  eighteenth  century 
person  who  aspired  to  gentility 
spoke  in  polite  formulas,  dressed 
in  tight,  uncomfortable  clothes, 
and  moved  with  studied  grace. 
Eighteenth  century  houses  were 
classically  symmetrical  and, 
because  hand-made  objects  and 
textiles  were  expensive,  rooms 
were  sparsely  furnished.  What 
furniture  there  was  was  designed 
to  exemplify  the  taste  and  status  of 
the  owner  rather  than  to  provide 
comfort. 

In  the  early  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century  new-rich 
Americans  were  only  too  happy  to 
relegate  their  stiff  Queen  Anne 
chairs  and  high  chests  to  the 
maid's  room  and  acquire  whole 
ensembles  of  elaborate  French 
furnishings  for  their  spacious 
eclectically-styled  homes.  Only  in 
the  more  traditional  parts  of  the 
country  —  in  New  England  and 
the  Old  South  —  was  there  nostal- 
gia for  the  colonial  era.  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  used  her  novels  to 
celebrate  the  domestic  virtues  of 
the  New  England  kitchen,  and 
Prudence  Crandall  organized  the 
Mount  Vernon  Ladies  Association 
to  save  George  Washington's 
home  as  a  national  shrine.  Every- 


"1  /%    I  Alumni  News 
-1-^   I  Spring  ' 


1988 


18th  Century  Influence  on  Today's 
Architecture  and  Decorative  Arts 


one  else  concentrated  on  keeping 
up  with  the  Europeans. 

After  the  Civil  War,  industry 
flooded  the  country  with  mass- 
produced  furnishings  of  the  most 
elaborate  and  pretentious  kind. 
Perhaps  at  no  time  in  history  were 
so  many  households  inundated 
with  so  much  interior  decoration. 
Even  the  great  exposition  held  in 
Philadelphia  in  1876  to  celebrate 
the  nation's  first  hundred  years 
was  predominately  concerned 
with  exhibiting  the  latest  achieve- 
ments of  industry  and  technology. 
Only  a  few  exhibits,  including  that 
of  a  recreated  colonial  kitchen, 
reminded  visitors  of  the  earlier 
times  which  the  Centennial 
celebrated. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  1880s  and 
1890s  architects  like  Charles 
McKim  and  Stanford  White 
studied  and  documented  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  century 
New  England  houses.  At  the  same 
time  collectors  began  scouring  the 
countryside  for  blue  and  white 
china  and  stately  highboys.  But 
what  really  brought  the  colonial 
style  back  into  fashion  was  the 
discovery  that  the  relative  simplic- 
ity of  colonial  design  was  more 
compatible  with  the  changed 
society  of  the  new  twentieth 
century  than  the  oversized 
Eastlake  and  Renaissance  revival 
pieces  of  the  1870s  and  1880s.  In 
1900  families  were  smaller  and 
maids  hard  to  find.  The  woman 
who  did  her  own  work  could 
easily  become  a  slave  to  multi- 
layered  drapes,  wall  to  wall 
carpets,  and  dense  thickets  of 
furniture  and  knickknacks. 

For  those  of  the  plain-living, 
high-thinking  persuasion  there 


was  the  new  mission  style.  For  a 
time,  about  1910,  it  seemed  to  be 
sweeping  the  field.  But,  for  the 
average  taste,  mission  proved  to  be 
too  austere.  Golden  or  greenish 
pickled  oak  lacked  the  richness  of 
walnut,  and  boxy,  undecorated 
chairs  and  tables  could  be  boring. 
Eighteenth  century  tables  and  case 
pieces  not  only  were  elegant,  they 
were  small  enough  to  fit  into  the 
smaller  twentieth  century  rooms. 
And  even  though  some  eighteenth 
century  pieces  were  uncomfort- 
able, they  could  be  combined 
effectively  with  overstuffed  sofas 
and  lounging  chairs.  Designers 
like  Elsie  de  Wolfe  celebrated  the 
fact  that  the  eighteenth  century 
style  was  perfectly  compatible 
with  such  innovations  as  electricity 
and  modern  kitchens.  By  1925 
when  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of 
Art  opened  its  new  American 
Wing,  the  colonial  revival  was  in 
full  swing. 

There  were,  of  course,  other 
enthusiasms.  Some  people  liked 
the  Spanish  or  Mediterranean 
style,  and  eighteenth  century 
French  Provincial  had  a  large 
following.  During  and  after  World 
War  II,  academics  and  manufactur- 
ers tried  to  convert  Americans  to 
the  international  style.  But,  as  Tom 
Wolf  has  said,  Americans  usually 
preferred  "our  house"  to 
"Bauhaus."  Split  levels  and  blond 
furniture  might  be  more  conven- 
ient, but  people  still  loved  the  look 
of  colonial  Williamsburg.  The 
Bicentennial  merely  strengthened 
the  feeling. 

So  much  for  the  past.  What  about 
the  future?  Will  the  eighteenth  and 
early  nineteenth  century  styles 
always  be  with  us?  If  they  are,  it 


will  not  be  because  of  their  practi- 
cality or  their  unqualified  suitabil- 
ity to  modern  life.  The  symmetry 
of  the  Georgian  house  does  not 
necessarily  lend  itself  to  the  most 
efficient  and  pleasing  use  of  space. 
And  detached  houses  in  the 
suburbs  are  extremely  expensive 
in  terms  of  fuel  for  heat  and  trans- 
portation. As  for  furniture,  eight- 
eenth century  styles  require  scarce, 
expensive  woods  and  labor- 
intensive  craftsmanship  to  avoid 
looking  cheap  and,  as  they  say  in 
the  trade,  "boraxy."  Nor  were  the 
Queen  Anne,  Chippendale,  and 
Federal  styles  designed  for  an 
informal,  mobile  way  of  life. 
Still,  people  do  not  live  by 
appropriateness  alone.  Sentiment 
and  nostalgia  have  an  important 
role  in  what  most  of  us  like.  In  the 
future,  what  we  probably  can 
expect  in  terms  of  furniture,  if  not 
in  houses,  is  more  of  what  we 
have  had  in  the  last  two  genera- 
tions; that  is,  a  combination  of 
some  pieces  that  evoke  the  eight- 
eenth century  and  others  that  are 
more  modern  and  convenient.  Yet 
Elsie  de  Wolfe  was  undoubtedly  a 
bit  naive  when  in  1912  she  pre- 
dicted that  the  eighteenth  century 
would  always  be  the  preferred 
style.  Always,  after  all,  is  a  long 
time! 


Dr.  Jean  Gordon  is  an 
associate  pirofessor  in  the 
I  Department  of  History  at 
UNCG.  An  alumna  of 
Penn  State  University, 
she  did  her  doctoral  work 
at  the  University  of 
Wisconsin.  She  is  the  co- 
director  of  the  Graduate 
Summer  Institute  of  Southern  History  and 
Decorative  Arts,  a  joint  project  of  the 
Department  of  History  and  the  Museum  of 
Early  Southern  Decorative  Arts. 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


115 


From  Dream  to  Reality 


The  Teagne  property,  "titat  body  of  land  lying  betzoeen  Spring  Garden  Street  and  the  Southern  Railway. 


By  Dr.  Richard  Bardolph 


Because  1987  marks  the  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  the  formal 
introduction  of  the  Alumni  House 
as  a  resplendent  new  addition  to 
the  campus,  we  decided  to  prepare 
an  article  on  the  structure's 
background  and  early  develop- 
ment. 

One  hardly  knows  where  to 
begin.  The  remotest  origin  of  the 
impulse  to  plan  an  alumni  home 
are,  one  suspects,  forever  lost  from 
recollection.  But  a  search  through 
the  records,  particularly  the 
minute  books  of  the  Alumni 
Association  and  the  early  volumes 
of  the  Association's  quarterly 
magazine,  has  enabled  us  to  trace  a 
sequence  of  events  proceeding 
from  dream  to  reality  —  including, 
along  the  way,  some  false  starts, 
abrupt  reconsiderations,  gradual 
retreats,  and  the  discarding  of 
projects  and  plans  whose  initial 
high  expectations  were  prudently 


abandoned  under  the  promptings 
of  accident,  circumstance,  and 
sobering  experience. 

Indeed,  the  pre-history  of  the 
Alumnae  House  proved  to  be 
more  eventful  than  we  had 
supposed.  It  is  intimately  inter- 
twined with  the  early  history  of 
the  Alumnae  Association,  whose 
own  story  (which,  for  lack  of 
space,  we  reserve  for  future 
articles)  is  one  of  changing 
structures  and  shifting  concep- 
tions of  purpose  and  mission: 
developments  that  had  every- 
thing to  do  with  the  evolution  of 
the  physical  structure  and  the 
functions  of  the  Alumnae  House, 
even  before  the  notion  of  an 
alumni  building  had  occurred  to 
anyone. 

We  have  chosen  the  year  1914 
as  the  point  of  departure  for  the 
first  of  a  three-part  series.  It 
carries  the  story  to  1922;  the 


second  to  June  1937;  and  a  third  is 
planned  as  a  brief  history  of  the 
Alumni  Association  itself  from  1893 
to  1937  in  its  early,  and  sometimes 
discouraging  —  but  never  discour- 
aged —  struggles  to  achieve  its  per- 
manent form  and  to  define  its  role 
and  program. 

It  was  at  the  group's  annual 
meeting  on  May  25, 1914  —  when 
the  Association  had  fewer  than  200 
"members  in  good  standing"  who 
had  paid  their  annual  dues  of  one 
dollar,  and  had  less  than  a  hundred 
dollars  in  its  treasury  —  that  "a 
committee  on  arranging  a  perma- 
nent home  for  the  Alumnae  when 
they  visit  the  College  was  ap- 
pointed: Miss  Jane  Summerell, 
Miss  Ethel  Brown."  It  had  also, 
however,  oversight  of  approxi- 
mately $23,000  in  student  loan 
funds,  which  it  had  helped  accumu- 
late, a  small  portion  of  which  its 
members  had  themselves  contrib- 


1  /2   I  Alumni  News 
J.\J   I  Spring 


1988 


uted,  but  which  it  could  not,  of 
course,  use  for  its  own  purposes.  It 
is,  perhaps,  not  too  much  to  say 
that  the  Association's  primary 
purpose  at  that  time,  as  it  would 
be  for  several  more  years,  was  the 
fostering  of  student  loan  funds  to 
enable  financially  deprived 
apphcants  to  attend  the  College 
and  become  teachers.  A  secondary, 
though  not  unimportant,  object 
was  the  rallying  of  support  for  the 
College,  both  in  the  general  public 
and  in  the  Legislature. 

Beyond  the  brief  item  we  have 
quoted  from  the  1914  minutes,  no 
amplification  was  offered  at  the 
time,  and  apparently  no  discussion 
ensued.  A  few  months  later,  when 
the  secretary  recorded  the  Found- 
ers' Day  meeting  of  October  5, 

1914,  no  mention  of  an  alumnae 
home  was  made.  At  the  following 
year's  annual  meeting  in  May  of 

1915,  "Miss  Summerell  reported 
that  the  Committee  on  a  Home  for 
the  Alumnae  were  encouraged  to 
hope  for  some  such  place  on  the 
Campus  as  soon  as  it  was  practi- 
cable for  the  College  to  grant  the 
space.  The  Committee  continued." 
Then,  once  more,  on  May  22, 1916, 
the  annual  meeting  heard  from 
Miss  Summerell' s  committee  "that 
they  continued  to  stand  for  the 
idea  of  an  Alumnae  Home  and 
hoped  some  day  to  realize  that 
dream."  Again,  no  discussion  of 
the  proposal  was  recorded.  The 
brief  report  could  hardly  have 
been  a  surprise  to  the  alumnae 
who  were  present,  however,  as  we 
will  note  in  a  moment. 

By  1914,  when  the  Association 
had  been  in  being  for  twenty-one 
years  since  its  first  tentative 
beginnings  in  1893,  it  was  still 
little  more  than  a  federation  of 
loosely  organized  county  chapters. 
Its  activities  were  largely  confined 
to  an  annual  meeting  on  the 
campus  during  commencement 
weekend  and  another  sparsely 


attended  session  in  October  at 
Founders'  Day.  Otherwise  its 
agenda  reached  little  beyond  the 
promoting  of  student  loan  funds 
and  some  modest  exertions  (in 
which  few  members  participated 
in  any  visible  way)  to  stimulate 
interest  in  the  institution  among 
legislators,  the  general  public,  and 
prospective  students,  and  to  keep 
alive  the  loyalties  and  affections  of 
graduates  and  former  students  in 
the  growing  sisterhood. 

The  establishment  of  a  quarterly 
magazine  in  1912  provided  a 
promising  resource  for  promoting 
the  Association's  objectives.  Its 
pages,  as  well  as  the  official 
minute  books,  enable  us  to  trace, 
step  by  step,  the  movement  that 
led  to  the  dedication  of  the  Alum- 
nae House  in  1937.  Of  special 
interest  is  a  piece  by  Jane 
Summerell  '10,  '23  BA,  '78  LHD 
(still  a  member  in  excellent  stand- 
ing in  1987!)  in  the  April  1916 
Alumnae  Nezvs.  As  chairman  of  her 
small  Committee  on  the  Alumnae 
Home,  she  was  moved  to  push  the 
cause  in  the  Association's  periodi- 
cal in  an  article  that  is  interesting 
not  only  as  the  first  reference  in  the 
quarterly  to  an  Alumnae  building, 
but  also  because  it  illustrates  what 
that  generation  of  alumnae 
thought  such  a  building  might  be. 

She  began  the  piece  by  pointing 
to  the  need  of  a  location  on  cam- 
pus where  former  students  might 
come  to  visit  their  sisters  and  their 
college  friends,  or  even  to  intro- 
duce their  own  children  to  the 
school.  She  was,  in  fact,  talking 
about  a  sort  of  campus  hostelry  for 
overnight  (or  even  longer)  stays. 
Then,  she  continues: 

About  a  year  ago  the  Alumnae 
Association  decided  to  look  into 
the  matter  of  an  alumnae  home 
here  on  the  campus.  It  was  not  a 
difficult  task  to  single  out  the 
building  best  adapted  for  that 
purpose;  for  what  place  on  the 


hill  is  dearer  to  the  hearts  of 
us  all  than  the  Old  Infirmary. 
Since  the  sick  among  us  have 
been  transferred  to  the  new 
hospital,  why  not  let  those 
home-sick  for  college  away  from 
us  claim  this  building  as  their 
own?  Here  they  could  come  for 
several  weeks  to  refresh 
themselves  mentally  and 
spiritually,  or  to  give,  out  of 
their  experience,  helpful  advice 
to  their  younger  sisters 
struggling  with  the  increasing 
problems  of  our  institution.  At 
commencement  and  on  Founders' 
Day,  the  home  would  be  filled 
with  many  who  feel  a  little 
timid  about  staying  in  the 
dormitories,  or  who  would  prefer 
a  quieter  place  for  the  College's 
newest  grandchild.  .  .  Dr.  Foust 
is  much  interested  in  our 
plans,  and  would  like  to 
give  it  to  us;  but,  with  the 
crowded  condition  at  the 
College,  there  can  be  no 
immediate  assurance.  I-Jowever, 
if  the  alumnae  will  manifest  the 
proper  amount  of  enthusiasm  and 
interest  in  their  home,  and 
press  their  claims  upon  the 
College  authorities,  it  may  be 
ours  some  day. 


Three  years  later,  when  the 
proposal  had  not  yet  materialized, 
Laura  Coit  (at  that  time  the 
College's  secretary  and  an  officer 
of  the  Alumnae  Association)  wrote 
a  brief  paragraph  for  the  Alumnae 
News  which  reflects  much  the 
same  conception  of  an  alumnae 
home,  though  it  does  not  mention 
the  Old  Infirmary.  In  fact,  as  Miss 
Coit  may  have  known,  the  move- 
ment for  an  alumnae  building  was 
soon  to  take  a  new  turn. 

While  the  preliminaries  leading 
to  the  session  are  only  suggested 
in  fragmentary  evidence,  we  do 
know,  for  we  have  the  official 
minutes,  that  a  slightly  flustered 
quorum  of  the  Association's  Board 
(Miss  Summerell  was  among  those 
present,  as  was  Miss  Coit)  filed 
into  Dr.  Foust' s  office  on  the 
morning  of  May  11, 1918,  into  the 


Alumni  News  I  -t  ^ 
Spring  •  1988  I    J-  / 


presidential  presence.  After  a  few 
introductory  explanations  by  Dr. 
Foust,  the  voung  women  were 
shown  a  set  of  resolutions  in  which 
the  College's  Board  of  Directors 
recommended  to  the  North 
Carolina  General  Assembly  that  it 
grant  to  the  Alumnae  Board 
"specific  authority  to  purchase, 
and  also  request  the  General 
Assembly  to  make  specific 
provision  to  pay  for  the  purchase 
of  said  property."  The  land 
referred  to  was  the  Teague  prop- 
erty, "that  body  of  land  lying 
between  Spring  Garden  Street  and 
the  Southern  Railroad"  (where 
Curry  Building  now  stands, 
flanked  on  the  east  by  the  Fer- 
guson Building  and  on  the  west  by 
the  former  Curry  School  Gymna- 
sium). 

In  a  second  resolution  the 
College's  Board  "earnestly  re- 
quests the  Alumnae  Association... 
to  purchase  and  hold  the  property 
for  the  Institution  until  such  time 
as  the  Board  of  Directors  can 
legally  acquire  same,  and  provide 
funds  for  the  payment  thereof." 

Accompanying  documents  show 
that  the  property  was  to  be  pur- 
chased for  $50,000  by  a  down 
payment  of  $10,000  and  then  in 
$5,000  annual  installments  for 
eight  years  at  6  percent  interest; 
the  Alumnae  Association  would 
borrow  the  $10,000  required  for 
the  down  payment.  (Its  own 
treasury  at  the  moment  held  less 
than  $100.)  Further  stipulations 
indicate  that  when  the  College  "is 
in  a  position  legally  to  assume  the 
indebtedness,"  it  would  do  so.  In 
short,  for  the  present,  when  the 
College's  own  financial  resources 
were  overstrained  and  its  capacity 
to  borrow  was  severely  limited  by 
legal  constraints,  the  Alumnae 
Association  would  raise  the  funds 
and  purchase  the  land  so  that  the 
College  could  obtain  it  in  the 


future.  Agreeing  to  the  proposal, 
the  members  of  the  Alumnae 
Board  thereupon  signed  the 
instrument. 

Subsequent  events  were  to 
disclose  also  that  the  first 
structure  to  be  reared  on  the 
newly  acquired  Teague  Field 
would,  in  fact,  be  an  alumnae 
home.  Meanwhile,  of  course,  the 
earlier  suggestions  about  enlist- 
ing the  Old  Infirmary  for  the 
purpose  were  quietly  shelved.  A 
brief  item  in  the  minutes  of  the 
May  19, 1919,  annual  meeting 
relates  that  "The  Committee  on 
the  Alumnae  Home  reported  that 
the  plans  for  the  Home  would 
probably  take  a  new  turn  soon." 
Later  at  the  same  session,  Dr. 
Foust  addressed  the  meeting,  and 
after  sounding  his  usual  warning 
that  the  State's  appropriations 
were  seriously  inadequate  to 
supply  the  buildings  and  equip- 
ment that  the  rapidly  growing 
institution  desperately  needed, 
he  turned  for  a  moment  to  the 
subject  of  an  Alumnae  Home. 
"He  spoke,"  say  the  minutes,  "of 
the  need  for  an  Alumnae 
Building  to  be  used  as  a  home  of  the 
Faculty  at  present.  [Emphasis 
supplied  by  RB.]  We  look  for- 
ward to  the  time  when  post- 
graduate courses  will  be  de- 
manded by  the  Alumnae.  They 
can  use  the  Home  then  as  their 
residential  hall."  Moments  later 
Miss  Womble  "spoke  of  the  need 
for  the  Alumnae  Building  espe- 
cially for  use  as  a  Faculty  resi- 
dence. It  was  [then]  moved  and 
seconded  that  we  take  up  in  a 
business  way  the  erection  of  an 
Alumnae  Building  and  to  plan  if 
possible  for  ways  and  means  to 
erect  such  a  building  on  or  near 
the  campus." 

Then,  at  the  1919  Founders' 
Day  meeting.  Miss  Coit 


reported  that  the  Board  had  met 
earlier  in  the  day,  had  elected  Ethel 
Bollinger  '13  as  secretary  and 
treasurer  of  the  Association  and 
editor  of  its  quarterly  (at  a  salary  of 
$1,200)  and  had  instructed  her  that 
"her  first  work  should  be  the 
maturing  of  full  business  plans  for 
securing  the  erection  of  an  Alumnae 
Home  on  the  Campus  to  cost  not 
less  than  $100,000.  The  Home 
desired  is  to  be  used  as  Alumnae 
guest  rooms,  suites  and  rooms  for 
rent  to  Faculty  members,  an  up-to- 
date  cafeteria,  and  a  club  room  etc., 
where  clubs  from  town  might  hold 
sessions  or  joint  meetings  with 
Alumnae  groups." 

The  Committee  on  the  Home  was 
now  reconstituted  to  include  Etta 
Spier  '95  (chairman),  Jane  Summer- 
ell,  Laura  Weil  Cone  '13,  Laura  Coit, 
Clara  Booth  Byrd  '13,  '80  LLD 
(Hon.),  and  Mary  Robinson  '26. 

A  mere  half  year  later  Miss 
Bollinger's  first  annual  report,  on 
May  20, 1920,  gave  an  account  of 
her  work,  the  concluding  item  of 
which  coolly  announced  that  "Plans 
for  our  Alumnae  Building  have 
been  drawn  up  and  accepted  by  the 
[Alumnae]  Board. ..and  the  site  for 
its  erection,  the  Teague  Field,  has 
been  assured  us."  The  Building 
Fund  had,  at  that  moment,  about 
$4,000,  of  which  $3,000  was  in 
promissory  notes.  After  the 
secretary's  report  was  read.  Dr. 
Foust  "talked  to  us  about  raising 
funds  for  our  Alumnae  Building, 
and  urged  us  to  make  a  drive  for 
that  money  in  the  near  future." 

Although  these  rapid  develop- 
ments had  ended  all  thought  of  the 
Old  Infirmary  as  a  suitable  Home, 
the  Association  still  had  an  interest 
in  the  aging  structure  (which  stood, 
by  the  way,  where  the  Faculty 
Center  is  now),  an  interest  that  was 
to  have  a  significant  bearing  on  the 
more  ambitious  program  now  to  be 
launched.  The  same  session  at 


18 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


"Our  Proposed  Alumnae  Buihiiiig"  as  it  appeared  ih  the  April  1920  Alumnae  News  was  a 
duplicate  of  the  recently  constructed  Shaw  Donuitory. 


which  Miss  BoUinger  had  pre- 
sented the  foregoing  report  "took 
up,"  according  to  the  minutes, 
"the  most  important  question 
raised,"  that  of  establishing  a  tea 
room  "for  the  duration  of  the 
summer  session  and  longer,  if 
possible,  in  the  Old  Infirmary." 
The  proposal  was  approved,  and 
the  experiment  was  just  success- 
ful enough  in  the  1921  summer 
term  to  suggest  that  an  alumnae- 
operated  tea  room,  or  even  a 
cafeteria,  might  conceivably  be 
one  way  of  accumulating  a  fund 
for  the  proposed  Home. 

Within  a  matter  of  months,  the 
building  was  on  the  drawing 
board,  the  product  of  discussions 
involving,  among  others.  Dr. 
Foust,  the  Alumnae  Board,  the 
Committee  on  the  Alumnae 
Home,  and  a  local  architect, 
Harry  Barton.  Documentary 
evidence  of  just  how  matters 
proceeded  have  as  yet  not  been 
found  by  this  writer,  but  an 
architect/artist's  drawing,  looking 
very  much  like  a  photograph  and 
captioned  as  "Our  Proposed 
Alumnae  Building,"  was  con- 
spicuously displayed  on  the  front 
page  of  the  April  1920  Alumnae 
News,  accompanied  by  detailed 
floor  plans  of  the  projected  three 
stories  —  closely  mirroring  the 


conception  that  we  have  already 
encountered,  as  expressed  by  Miss 
Summerell,  Miss  Coit,  and  Presi- 
dent Foust. 

One  recognizes  instantly  that 
the  building  was  —  to  save  on 
architect's  fees  —  a  precise  dupli- 
cate of  the  recently  constructed 
Shaw  Dormitory,  except  for  the 
addition  of  three  stories  of  porches 
(those  on  the  second  and  third 
levels  designated  as  sleeping 
porches)  at  either  end  of  the 
building  and  also  at  the  rear.  The 
first  floor  was  to  contain  "club 
rooms"  and  offices  for  the  Associa- 
tion in  the  east  wing  and  a  kitchen 
and  cafeteria  in  the  west.  The 
second  and  third  floors,  including 
the  porches,  were  to  be  identical 
and  to  provide  more  than  thirty 
bedrooms  plus  a  guest  room  and 
baths. 

The  accompanying  article 
suggested  that  "if  each  alumna 
will  contribute  twenty  dollars 
during  a  period  of  two  years'  time, 
we  would  have  over  the  entire 
sum  to  be  raised  which  is  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars." 

These  hopes  were,  of  course,  too 
optimistic.  A  long,  hard  campaign 
for  a  period  of  years  would  be 
required  —  as  we  will  have  occa- 
sion to  relate  in  the  third  essay  in 
this  series  when  we  take  note  of 


the  highlights  of  the  Association's 
first  half  century.  But,  daunting  as 
the  fund  raising  promised  to  be, 
the  urge  to  move  forward  at  once, 
long  before  the  funds  could  be 
expected,  readily  prevailed. 

The  October  1920  issue  of  the 
Association's  magazine 
called  upon  the  alumnae  through- 
out the  state  to  accept  the  responsi- 
bility for  raising  their  county's  fair 
share  as  set  forth  in  a  table  headed 
"Suggested  Apportionment  of 
Funds  by  Counties  for  Building." 
The  schedule  listed  the  counties 
alphabetically  and  aggregated  a 
grand  total  of  $100,640  by  assign- 
ing specific  quotas  to  each.  The 
largest  assessment,  predictably, 
was  asked  of  Guilford  ($6,000); 
Iredell,  Mecklenburg,  and  New 
Hanover  were  asked  for  $3,000 
each;  Randolph  for  $2,500;  ten 
others  were  requested  to  raise  $200 
each;  and  all  the  rest  were  called 
upon  for  amounts  ranging  down- 
ward from  $1,800  to  the  modest 
$75  that  Graham  County  might 
assemble. 

The  alumnae  were  urged  to  work 
through  a  county  chairman  and  to 
give  either  cash  or  "notes  covering 
two  years'  time  and  to  be  met  in 
four  payments,  two  payments  per 
year,"  on  forms  already  prepared 
and  available  for  distribution  from 
the  Association's  office.  In  addi- 
tion, alumnae  were  exhorted  to 
solicit  "interested  men  and  women 
of  wealth,"  in  their  communities 
and  to  sponsor  "benefit  entertain- 
ments or  similar  outside  activities." 

Although  the  immediate  —  and, 
for  that  matter,  the  longer-term  — 
response  to  these  appeals  was 
disappointing,  the  alumnae's 
leadership  and  Dr.  Foust  were 
eager  to  make  a  speedy  beginning, 
prompted  in  part  by  a  new  consid- 
eration that  had  intruded  upon 
their  calculations. 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


119 


The  story  at  this  juncture  is 
best  told  in  a  full-page  editorial  by 
the  Alumnae  President,  Maud 
Bunn  Battle  '14,  in  the  October 
1921  magazine.  The  piece  was 
offered  to  explain  the  surprising 
action  at  the  recent  (1921)  Found- 
ers' Day  meeting  of  the  associa- 
tion, where,  with  relatively  little 
discussion,  those  present  voted  to 
approve  a  recommendation  by  the 
Board  that  the  erection  of  the 
proposed  alumnae  home  com- 
mence at  once. 

Earher  that  morning,  the 
Board,  taking  notice  of  the 
significant,  if  modest,  success  of 
the  summer's  experience  with  the 
tea  room  in  the  Old  Infirmary,  con- 
cluded that  the  experiment  had 
"encouraged  those  interested  to 
make  investigation  toward  estab- 
lishing a  cafeteria  near  the  campus. 
Since  the  West  Wing,  ground  floor, 
of  our  Alumnae  Building  was  to  be 
composed  of  a  cafeteria  and 
kitchen,  it  was  thought  wise  to 
consult  the  architect  and  find  out  if 
that  much  of  our  Building  could  be 
erected  without  injury  to  the  rest. 
Mr.  Barton,  after  careful  considera- 
tion, stated  that  this  could  be  done 
for  $15,000."  Then,  when  the  secre- 
tary reported  that  the  cash  and 
notes  in  hand  would,  by  June  1922, 
amount  to  nearly  $13,000  and  sug- 
gested that  the  remaining  $2,000 
could  be  readily  borrowed,  a 
decision  was  reached.  On  motion 
of  Mrs.  Cone,  the  Board  voted  to 
recommend  that  "we  begin  the 
erection  of  the  West  ground  floor 
wing  of  the  Alumnae  Building  [on 
the  Teague  Field],  which  is  to 
contain  the  cafeteria  and  kitchen." 

It  was  this  proposal  from  the 
Board  that  was  accepted  by  the 
somewhat  startled  alumnae  at  the 
afternoon  session,  after  they  had 
heard  from  Dr.  Foust  that  "he  had 
been  assured  that  morning  by  a 


prominent  businessman  and 
banker  of  Greensboro  (Mr. 
Vaughn)  that  it  would  be  possible 
to  borrow  between  four  and  six 
thousand  dollars  if  necessary  for 
our  Alumnae  Home  Fund." 

Miss  Battle's  editorial  in  the 
October  Alumnae  News  was 
offered  as  a  defense  of  what 
seemed  to  some  to  have  been  a 
hasty  action. 

The  situation  which  faced  the 
alumnae  gathered  at  the  College  to 
celebrate  Founders'  Day  called  for 
immediate  action  of  some  kind.  It 
was  learned  that  there  is  a  great 
demand  for  a  cafeteria  near  the 
College  for  the  use  of  students  and 
faculty  as  the  College  dirving  rooms 
are  inadequate.  This  demand  will  in- 
evitably be  greater  a  year  hence  at 
which  time  new  dormitories  will  have 
been  opened  while  no  new  dining  hall 
is  planned  for  until  later.  It  seems  that 
speculators,  learning  the  situation, 
were  at  work  to  press  the  starting  of  a 
cafeteria  near  the  College.  This  the 
alumnae  felt  is  absolutely  necessary  to 
forestall  as  it  would  most  seriously 
interfere  with  the  success  of  our  own 
proposed  cafeteria.  As  a  result,  the 
architect  was  consulted  with  a  view 
toward  getting  plans  for  the  building 
of  one  wing  only  on  the  Home,  this 
wing  to  contain  the  cafeteria  and 
rooms  necessary  for  its  successful 
operation.  The  architect  was  most 
encouraging,  reporting  that  the  wing 
could  be  erected  now  without 
changing  at  all  our  plans  for  the 
building  as  a  whole.  [Hence]  the 
motion  was  made  to  go  ahead.... This 
part  of  the  building  alone  will  cost 
$15,000,  and  the  equipment  will  cost 
around  $2,000.  A  good  part  of  this 
amount  we  have  on  hand,  some  we 
hold  notes  for  and  some  we  must 
raise.  It  is  hoped  and  expected  that  the 
cafeteria  will  be  ready  to  open  by 
summer  school  [of  1922]  as  it  will  be 
greatly  needed  then.  When  once 
in  operation,  the  cafeteria  will  be  more 
than  self-supporting,  and  herein  will 
be  one  source  of  income  for  use  in  the 
completion  of  the  building. 

Let  us  then  one  and  all  resolve,  in 
spite  of  the  financial  stress  of  the 
times  to  get  the  necessary  funds  so 


that  our  building  may  be  rushed  to 
completion.  Let  us  pay  our  twenty 
dollar  assessments,  work  to  make  the 
Christmas  bazaar  an  even  greater 
success  than  last  year,  and  do  whatso- 
ever else  we  can  to  secure  funds.  We 
must  have  our  Home  quickly  for  we 
need  it  greatly. 

Construction  —  as  we  plan  to 
report  more  fully  in  our  next 
article  —  was  begun  soon  thereaf- 
ter, only  to  encounter  new  difficul- 
ties (and  a  new  opportunity) 
which,  thanks  especially  to  the 
vision  of  Dr.  Foust  and  of  Clara 
Byrd,  who  became  Alumnae 
Secretary  in  1922,  served  to  con- 
vince the  Association  that  the 
partially  constructed  building  on 
the  Teague  land  should  be  di- 
verted to  other  purposes;  that  the 
alumnae  should  somehow  recoup 
the  money  they  had  committed  to 
it,  and  that  they  should  gird  for  a 
mighty  effort  to  mobilize  the 
greater  fund  that  a  more  appropri- 
ate edifice  would  demand.  No  one 
could  have  foreseen  that  fifteen 
years  would  pass  between  the 
decision  to  commence  the  ill- 
starred  venture  on  Teague  Field 
and  the  dedication  of  the  Alumnae 
House  that  now  graces  College 
Avenue,  on  a  site  which  in  1922 
(and,  indeed,  from  1893  until  1935) 
was  occupied  by  the  original 
Guilford  Dormitory  —  also 
known  as  Midway  —  a  large 
wood  anachronism,  which,  as  it 
aged,  was  becoming  an  increasing 
embarrassment.  ■ 


^  r\  I  Alumni  News 
^vl  I  Spring 


1988 


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REVIEWS 


Short  Story 
Transformation 

by  Fred  Chappell 

Eve  Shelnutt  has  established 
herself  as  one  of  the  most 
distinctive  writers  of  short  fiction 
now  practicing  in  the  United 
States.  The  Musician  is  her  third 
collection,  and  follows  The  Love 
Child  in  1979  and  The  Formal  Voice 
in  1982;  it  is  of  a  piece  with  the 
earlier  volumes,  but  it  also  marks  a 
subtle  loosening  of  intensity  and  a 
sense  of  comedy  beginning  to 
mellow  just  a  bit. 

But  the  perspicuity  of  her 
vision  and  the  brilliance  of  her 
technique  have  not  lessened  in  the 
least. 


Fred  Chappell,  a  poet,  novelist,  and  short  story 
writer,  is  professor  of  English  at  UNCC. 


She  was  always  determined  to 
transform  the  nature  of  the  short 
story,  and  she  has  done  so  to  large 
extent  by  choosing  strange  but 
believable  situations  to  depict  and 
by  treating  the  story  more  and 
more  as  a  plastic  object.  She  stands 
in  relationship  to  her  story  almost 
as  a  sculptor  might  stand  in 
relation  to  her  statue;  she  has 
abstracted  experience  to  a  minimal 
perdurable  essence  and  cut  its 
shape  as  much  in  negative  space 
as  in  tangible  stone.  The  designs  of 
her  stories  tend,  then,  toward  the 
abstract  —  yet  they  are  composed 
sentence  by  sentence  of  earthy 
detail. 

A  case  in  point  might  be  the 
story  called  "Purity,"  which  tells 
of  two  sets  of  identical  twins, 
"identical  twin-wise  and  set-to- 
set,"  who  were  born  just  nine 
months  apart.  It  is  easy  to  imagine 
how  in  hands  clumsier  than 
Shelnutt's  this  premise  would 
degenerate  into  a  complicated 
but  simple-minded  sitcom  of 
mistaken  identities.  "Purity"  is  a 
sentimental  comic  story  but  it  is 
not  simple-minded.  The  four  boys 
are  presented  as  a  vision  of 
supernal  beauty  which  is  given  to 
the  town  of  Hendersonville,  North 
Carolina,  as  a  sort  of  aesthetic 
apocalypse.  It  is  a  vision  which 
finally  disappears,  as  visions  do, 
but  it  has  left  its  mark.  "The 
townspeople  eventually  forgot, 
except  at  parades  they  would  feel 
unaccountably  wistful,  and  blame 
it  on  the  weather." 


Other  marks  of  Shelnutt's 
distinctiveness  are  her  suppression 
of  conventional  transitions  and  her 
stringent  economy.  Instead  of 
explaining,  she  shows,  often  in 
scenes  so  brief  they  consist  of  only 
three  or  four  sentences.  Narrative 
is  not  merely  fragmented,  it  is 
pulverized;  its  smallest  elements 
are  enlarged  and  those  tradition- 
ally regarded  as  necessary  are 
sometimes  disregarded  entirely. 
The  stories  move  forward  by 
means  of  a  series  of  emotion-laden 
shock  cuts,  and  every  sentence  is 
overstuffed  with  information  and 
implication.  It  is  possible  to  feel 
about  these  stories  as  her  friends 
feel  about  the  enduring  Claire  in 
the  story  called  "Setting": 

We  did  not  at  first  recognize  her.  We  held 
our  breaths  and  for  a  long  time,  it 
seemed,  we  thought.  Then  she  walked 
toward  us,  this  picture  of  love  and  perfect 
fury,  which  most  of  us  will  never  know.  M 

The  Musician.  By  Eve  Shelnutt. 
Black  Sparrow  Press.  179  pages. 

$15.95 


Eve  Shehmtt  73  MFA  is 

an  associate  professor  of 

English  at  the  University 

of  Pittsburgh.  She  will 

return  to  UNCG  as  the 

creative  writing 

program 's  fiction  writer- 

in-residence  March  21-25, 

1988. 


Alumni  News  I  ^  -t 
Spring  •  1988  I  A.  -L 


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CAMPUS 


At  Founders'  Day,  the  Readers  Theatre 
Ensemble  performed  Alumnae  House:  The 
Child  of  Our  Hearts. 

UNCG  Readers  Theatre 
Ensemble 

It  was  a  very  special  gift. 

One  by  one,  eleven  members  of 
the  UNCG  Readers  Theatre  En- 
semble filed  into  the  Virginia  Dare 
Room  of  the  Alumni  House. 
Scripts  in  hand  and  without  benefit 
of  set  or  costume,  the  readers  led 
the  audience  back  to  the  1920s  and 
1930s  when  the  seeds  were  sown 
from  which  the  Alumni  House 
sprang.  The  chronicle  of  events 
that  brought  the  House  into  service 
included  the  Dedication  Ceremony 
on  June  5, 1937. 

The  performance  was  a  gift  to 
alumni  in  celebration  of  the  50th 
anniversary  of  the  Alumni  House. 


The  audience  of  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  alumni  and  guests  were 
attending  Mclver  Conference,  a  one 
and  one-half  day  gathering  held 
every  year  to  coincide  with  Found- 
ers' Day. 

The  Readers  Theatre  Ensemble, 
begun  in  1986,  falls  in  the  category 
of  chamber  theatre.  Their  medium 
is  the  spoken  word.  "What  is 
paramount  is  the  text,"  said  the 
Ensemble's  founder,  Sandra 
Hopper  Forman  '66,  an  assistant 
professor  in  the  Department  of 
Communication  and  Theatre  at 
UNCG.  "We  pay  minimum 
attention  to  technical  aspects, 
letting  the  words  speak  for  them- 
selves." 

For  this  unique  performance,  the 
text  was  gleaned  from  reports  of 
the  Building  Committee,  of  Alum- 
nae Secretary  Clara  Booth  Byrd  '13, 
and  from  other  documents  of  the 
era. 

The  Alumni  Association 
commissioned  Ms.  Forman  to  write 
and  direct  Alumnae  House:  The 
Child  of  Our  Hearts. 

"I  chose  the  title  from  an  account 
found  among  the  papers  preserved 
about  the  building  of  the  Alumni 
House.  It  struck  me  as  a  fitting 
description  for  how  alumni  past 
and  present  feel  about  the  House." 


1987  SHEPERD  Awards 

The  School  of  Health,  Physical 
Education,  Recreation  and  Dance 
presented  its  SHEPERD  Awards  to 
three  alumni:  Patricia  Elaine  Barry 


'64,  David  W.  Moore  '81  MEd,  and 
Dorothy  Berea  Silver  '80  MFA. 
First  given  in  1985,  the  awards 
recognize  alumni  who  have  made 
significant  contributions  through 
scholarship,  leadership,  or  service 
in  career  and /or  civic  involvement. 

The  awards  were  presented  at 
the  annual  Ethel  Martus  Lawther 
Lecture  in  November. 

Patricia  Barry  received  her 
bachelor's  degree  in  physical 
education  and  her  master's  degree 
from  Florida  State  University. 
Since  1976,  she  has  served  as 
coordinator  of  secondary  physical 
education  and  athletics  in 
Montgomery  County,  MD.  In 
1984,  she  received  the  NASPE's  Joy 
of  Effort  Award. 

Receiving  his  master's  degree  in 
health  education,  David  Moore  is 
director  of  health  and  physical 
education  in  the  Moore  County 
Schools.  In  1986,  his  school  system 
received  one  of  twenty  "Healthy 
Me"  awards  given  nationally  by 
the  Metropolitan  Life  Insurance 
Company  in  recognition  of  out- 
standing programs.  He  is  an  EdD 
candidate  at  UNC-Chapel  Hill. 

Dorothy  Silver  received  her 
master's  degree  in  dance.  She 
retired  last  spring  from  the  Univer- 
sity where  she  had  been  artist-in- 
residence.  She  had  taught  at 
UNCG  since  1974  and  has  been 
performing  for  forty  years  with 
such  major  companies  as  those  of 
Martha  Graham,  Merce  Cunning- 
ham, and  Pearl  Lang.  Her  choreog- 
raphies have  been  presented  at 
American  College  Dance  Festivals. 


22 


Alumni  News 

Spring  •  1988 


Dr.  Walter  Beak  directs  the  Writing  Across  the 
Curriculum  p^rogram. 

Writing  to  Learn 

"There's  a  great  difference 
between  learning  to  write  and 
writing  to  learn,"  says  Walter 
Beale,  a  professor  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  English  and  chairman  of 
the  Writing  Across  the  Curriculum 
planning  committee. 

Writing  Across  the  Curriculum  is 
a  program  on  campus  which  is 
promoting  the  formation  of 
"writing  emphasis  courses" 
throughout  all  disciplines.  Gener- 
ally, there  is  a  perceived  need  for 
better  student  writing  skills.  But 
writing,  like  any  skill,  needs 
continuous  reinforcement  or  the 
ability  will  atrophy. 

"Writing  is  not  domain  specific," 
according  to  Dr.  Beale,  "but  can  be 
used  in  any  academic  context  as  a 
learning  tool.  The  more  you  write 
about  a  subject,  the  more  you  learn 
about  it,  and  the  better  able  you 
are  to  express  yourself.  Teaching 
by  writing  emphasis  forces  the 
instructor  to  get  involved  by  acting 
as  an  editor.  There  is  much  give 
and  take.  And  that's  important." 

The  definition  of  "writing 
emphasis  courses"  is  intentionally 
vague.  Those  who  are  teaching 
these  courses  vary  considerably  in 
their  approach  and  their  use  of 
writing.  Generally,  they  share  a 
recognition  of  its  importance  as  a 


tool  to  enhance  and  measure 
student  learning.  In  addition, 
students  enrolled  in  writing 
emphasis  courses  have  access 
to  the  consulting  or  tutorial 
services  of  the  English  Department 
Writing  Center,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Karen  Larsen  Meyers  '75 
MA. 

Begun  last  year  under  the 
auspices  of  the  College  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  and  Dean  Joanne 
Creighton,  the  response  to  the 
program  has  been  excellent.  About 
thirty  instructors  are  teaching  the 
courses  now,  and  fifteen  more 
attended  information  workshops 
last  fall.  A  Faculty  Development 
Grant  was  received.  The  goal  of 
Writing  Across  the  Curriculum  is 
to  involve  the  entire  University. 

Effective  writing  helps  people 
make  themselves  heard. 


Study  for  Success 

The  shock  of  those  first  semester 
grades  may  be  lessened  thanks  to  a 
new  program  begun  last  fall  by  the 
Office  of  Academic  Advising. 
Karen  Haley,  whose  official  title  is 
student  retention  coordinator,  is 
helping  students  —  especially 
freshmen  —  balance  professors' 
expectations  and  study  time  with 
the  independence  of  college  life. 

Her  "Student  Success  Series" 
offers  free  workshops  on  such 
topics  as  note  taking,  efficient 
textbook  reading,  study  tips  and 
techniques,  and  finals  survival. 
UNCG's  Counseling  and  Testing 
Center  is  assisting  her  with  sub- 
jects such  as  test  anxiety  and  time 
management.  For  convenience,  the 
sessions,  open  to  all  UNCG 
students,  take  place  in  the  late 
afternoon  or  early  evening.  Stu- 


dents can  attend  one  or  two  or  the 
whole  series. 

Ms.  Haley,  who  has  been  with 
UNCG  for  two  years,  began  the 
series  last  year  on  a  limited  basis. 
She  considers  this  year's  work- 
shops a  success.  "We've  helped 
many  people.  Next  year  I  would 
like  to  change  the  program  to  a 
two  or  three  session  format,"  she 
said.  "Then  I  could  reach  even 
more  students  and  begin  some 
type  of  assessment.  Ongoing 
contact  and  feedback  would  be 
very  valuable." 

In  another  capacity  with  Aca- 
demic Advising,  Karen  Haley  is 
doing  research  on  why  students 
drop  out  of  college  and  what 
problems  they  face. 

Academic  support  for  specific 
courses  is  available  through  the 
instructor,  of  course.  And  some 
departments  offer  general  tutoring 
labs. 

UNCG's  "Student  Success 
Series"  workshops  are  a  critical 
campus  resource. 


Art  on  Paper 

Alumni  artists  whose  works  were 
selected  in  the  1987  Art  on  Paper 
exhibit  in  the  Weatherspoon  Art 
Gallery  were: 

E.  Faye  Canada  Collins  '60,  '78 

(BFA),  '83  MFA 
Richard  Fennell  '82  MFA 
Judy  Smith  Henricks  '81  MFA 
Patricia  Marie  Kiblinger  '81  MFA 
Eric  Wayne  Lawing  '85  MFA 
K.  M.  Mullins  '85  MFA 
Michael  W.  Northuis  '84  MFA 
Janice  Burns  Peeples  '84,  '87  MFA 
David  Curtis  Smith  '80  MFA 
Linda  Perry  Tavemise  '84  MFA 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


123 


SPARTAN 

SPORTS 


A  Formula  for 
Champions 


by  Ty  Buckner  '85" 

Sports  Information  Director 


Py^^^ASsi'^-*  '^  p.,M  rrnwd  of 

neSvarW^s  '^f^'Xe^-^  tournament 


Winning  national  champion- 
ships requires  a  blend  of 
skill  and  luck,  and  most  of  all,  the 
ability  to  perform  best  when  it 
counts  most. 

After  capturing  its  fifth  NCAA 
Division  III  men's  soccer  title  in 
November,  UNCG  can  claim 
mastery  of  the  formula  for  cham- 
pionship success. 

Coach  Michael  Parker's  team, 
consisting  of  ten  freshmen  and  ten 
veteran  players,  won  just  eight  of 
its  first  fourteen  games,  dropped 
from  a  six-year,  top  10  national 
ranking,  and  failed  to  receive  an 
automatic  tournament  bid  for  the 
first  time  since  1980. 

But  the  Spartans  regrouped  in 
the  playoffs,  where  their  26-2 
record  in  seven  years  is  the  best  in 
the  history  of  NCAA  men's  soccer 
championships. 

UNCG  capped  its  title  run  and 


^A    I  Alumni  News 
^TX   I  Spring 


1988 


,  the  team's  top 
Willie  LOP/^' '  iMArnericfl 


departed  Division  III  competition 
with  a  6-1  rout  of  Washington 
University  (MO)  in  the  finals  at 
home  before  nearly  3,000  cheering 
spectators. 

It  was  the  most  lopsided  final- 
game  victory  in  NCAA  men's 
soccer  tournament  annals  and  left 
the  Spartans  trailing  only  ten-time 
Division  I  champ  St.  Louis  Univer- 
sity in  the  number  of  titles  won. 

"We  leave  Division  III  the  way 
we  should  be  remembered  —  as 
champions,"  boasted  Parker  after 
coaching  his  way  to  a  sixth  na- 
tional title  in  12  years. 

UNCG's  athletic  teams  enter  a 
new  era  of  scholarship  competi- 
tion as  Division  II  affiliates  this 
fall. 

For  now,  the  Spartans  are 
enjoying  their  final  Division  III 
campaign  and  leaving  a  lasting 
impression. 


^o-fPt'^ms  Car!  Flemmg,  left' 
If  Michael  Colanmnokplay 
^>l'^"''t'onalchan,f,,onsh,p  trophy 
«  a«„„//or  WUUam  E.Mora/ 
looks  on  proudly. 


Alumni  News  I  f^  C 
Spring  •  1988  I  AD 


THE  WAY  WE  ARE 


Touring  with  Cats 

Eight  times  a  week  last  summer 
and  fall  actress/dancer  Joanna 
Beck  '75  crawled  and  cavorted 
across  the  stages  of  America  as  a 
fehne  in  the  hottest  Broadway 
musical  of  the  decade  —  Cats.  Fea- 
tured in  the  third  national  touring 
company  of  the  hit,  she  played 
both  Jellyorum  (above,  right),  an 
"honest,  frank,  and  caring"  cat 
who  sang  ballads,  and  the  soprano 
Griddlebone,  the  opera  cat. 

Bom  and  raised  in  Asheville, 
Joanna  attended  the  Asheville 
Ballet  School  and  performed  with 
the  Asheville  Ballet  Company  and 
the  Asheville  Youth  Theatre.  She 
received  a  bachelor  of  music 


rating  opportunity.  But  perform- 
ing is  hard  physical  work,  and  a 
cross-country  tour  can  be  exhaust- 
ing." 

She  has  been  "in  the  business" 
for  ten  years  now.  She  plans  a 
career  change  that  will  concentrate 
on  television  commercials  and 
films.  She  concedes,  "There's  alot 
of  competition  for  this  lucrative 
work." 

But  Joanna  Beck  is  a  proven  pro- 
fessional, and  we  know  she'll 
succeed. 


degree  and  was  a  voice  perform- 
ance major  at  UNCG.  She  was  a 
cast  member  of  the  University's 
first  Summer  Repertory  Theatre  in 
1975. 

After  that,  she  headed  for  the 
bright  Ughts  of  Broadway  and 
never  looked  back.  Her  credits 
include  Showboat  with  Donald 
O'Connor  and  "As  the  World 
Turns"  on  CBS  TV.  Off  Broadway, 
she  appeared  in  The  Music  Man, 
The  Sound  of  Music,  Boys  from 
Syracuse,  Old  Fashioned,  and 
Candide.  She  has  also  performed  in 
Liberty 's  Song  at  the  Grand  Old 
Opry  House  in  Nashville. 

Joanna  has  toured  with  Cats  since 
September  1986.  She  says,  "It 
has  been  a  wonderful  and  exhila- 


i 

The  Annals  of  Time 


Every  day  J.  Stephen  Catlett  '74 

('76  MA)  studies  the  everyday 
lives  of  everyday  people  —  though 
they  aren't  living.  For  the  past 
year  and  a  half,  he  has  been 
archivist  at  the  Greensboro  His- 


26 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


torical  Museum.  He  works  with 
letters,  diaries,  and  public  records 
to  piece  together  history. 

He  chose  the  career  of  a  "social 
historian"  due  to  the  influence  of 
two  UNCG  history  professors  — 
Dr.  Ronald  Cassell  and  Dr.  Frank 
Melton.  Stephen's  original  major 
was  journalism.  He  became 
interested  in  manuscript  research, 
earned  bachelor's  and  master's 
degrees  in  history  at  UNCG,  and 
went  on  to  UNC-CH  for  a  master's 
in  library  science. 

Upon  graduation  in  1977,  he 
landed  a  "plum"  of  a  job  with  the 
oldest  learned  society  in  the 
United  States  —  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  in  Philadel- 
phia. It  was  founded  in  1743. 
Early  members  included  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Thomas  Paine,  and 
Alexander  Hamilton.  More  than  a 
third  of  the  Nobel  Prize  winners 
have  been  members.  For  five  years 
of  Stephen's  tenure  there  he  was 
manuscript  librarian.  In  1986  he 
became  assistant  librarian. 

He  returned  to  his  native  Greens- 
boro when  the  job  as  archivist  at 
the  local  museum  beckoned. 

As  archivist,  he  is  responsible  for 
the  records  of  the  city's  history  — 
old  documents,  letters,  maps, 
photographs,  newspapers, 
advertisements,  and  diaries. 
Stephen  is  intrigued  by  them. 

A  "tremendous  gift"  was  given 
to  the  museum  this  year  by  the 
descendants  of  Mary  Watson 
Smith  —  her  diaries  of  1904-1923. 
Her  husband.  Dr.  Jacob  Henry 
Smith,  was  pastor  of  First  Presby- 
terian Church  from  1859  to  1890. 
The  diaries  chronicle  life  and  life- 
style in  Greensboro  during  that 
period.  "They  are  an  important 
acquisition  and  a  most  valuable 
addition  to  our  collection,"  says 


Stephen. 

Stephen  is  also  a  newly  pub- 
lished author.  He  recently 
completed  the  420-page  A  New 
Guide  to  the  Collections  in  the  Library 
of  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
begun  during  his  employment 
there. 

At  the  museum  his  major  proj- 
ects include  designing  a  plan  for 
new  archive  space  to  be  con- 
structed after  1989  and  creating  a 
computer  database  system  for 
cataloging  and  reference. 


Gold  Medal 
Caliber 

Bringing  home  the  gold  from  St. 
Louis  last  summer  meant  just  as 
much  to  Mary  Henri  Robinson 
Peterson  '32  as  it  will  to  younger 
U.S.  Olympians  in  Seoul  in  1988. 
The  75-year-young  alumna  com- 
peted in  the  U.S.  National  Senior 
Olympics  from  June  27-July  2.  She 
won  two  gold  medals  and  one 
silver  medal  in  three  bicycling 
events,  and  placed  fourth  in  a 


breaststroke  swimming  contest. 
All  her  honors  were  won  in  the  75- 
79  age  class. 

Mary  Henri,  a  retired  music 
teacher  who  lives  in  Orange  City, 
FL,  earned  one  gold  medal  in  the 
half-mile  dash  cycle  race.  She 
earned  the  other  gold  in  the  5K  (3.1 
miles)  cycle  race.  Her  silver  medal 
came  in  the  lOK  (6.2  miles)  race. 
And  in  swimming,  she  took  fourth 
place  in  the  50  meter  breastroke. 

Once  in  St.  Louis,  Mary  Henri 
encountered  an  unexpected 
dilemma.  She  understood  that 
bicycles  would  be  provided.  That 
was  not  the  case!  All  competitors 
had  to  furnish  their  own.  She 
almost  panicked.  All  she  could 
find  to  rent  was  an  old  fashioned 
3-speed  bike  even  though  she  was 
accustomed  to  riding  a  10-speed.  It 
took  some  getting  used  to,  but  it 
obviously  didn't  slow  her  down. 

Making  the  cycling  competition 
even  more  difficult  for  the  Florid- 
ian  was  the  fact  that  she  qualified 
on  relatively  flat  terrain  at  the 
Golden  Age  Games  in  Sanford,  FL, 
while  the  course  in  St.  Louis  was 
hilly. 

Three  generations  of  Mary 
Henri's  family  are  graduates  of 
UNCG.  Her  mother,  Jennie  Tatum 
Robinson  '04,  died  in  1981  at  the 
age  of  99.  Her  sister,  Matilda 
Robinson  Sugg,  is  a  member  of  the 
Class  of  1931;  her  niece,  Elizabeth 
Sugg  Brand,  graduated  in  1959. 
And  Nancy  Henri  Peterson 
Goettelmann  '65x  is  her  daughter. 

She  gives  much  credit  for  her 
successes  to  her  devoted  husband, 
Jim,  who  accompanied  her  to  St. 
Louis.  "He's  my  trainer,  driver, 
and  cheerleader,"  she  said. 


Alumni  News  I  ^  ^ 
Spring  •  1988  I  ^  ' 


ASSOCIATION 


NETWORK 


New  York 
Times  Two 


Want  to  make  sure  you  have 
"something  for  everyone"  when 
you  plan  your  next  alumni  gather- 
ing? Schedule  two  receptions  on 
consecutive  nights  and  hold  them 
in  different  locations  within  your 
area.  Invite  your  guests  to  come  to 
either  or  to  both,  and  offer  a 
program  they  won't  want  to  miss. 

Sounds  ambitious,  but  it's  just 
what  the  New  York  Area  Alumni 
Chapter  did  last  October.  One 
reception  was  held  in  the  City  at 
the  Princeton  Club;  the  other  took 
place  the  following  night  at  the 
home  of  an  alumna  in  Essex  Fells, 
NJ.  Both  gatherings  featured  John 
FitzGerald  '84,  assistant  director  of 
admissions  at  UNCG,  who  brought 
news  of  the  campus.  Associate 
Director  of  Alumni  Affairs  Brenda 
Meadows  Cooper  '65  was  also 
there. 

Myma  Sameth  '66  serves  as  chair 
of  the  Greater  New  York  Alumni 
Chapter.  Cynthia  Wharton  '69 
secured  the  Princeton  Club  and 
handled  the  myriad  details  for  the 
October  7  meeting.  Ben  Nita  Black 
McAdam  '57  graciously  opened 
her  home  for  the  evening  of 
October  8. 


Pre-Game 
Receptions 

When  the  men's  basketball  team 
traveled  to  meet  two  of  its  out-of- 
state  competitors  early  in  the 
season,  UNCG  alumni  were  there 
to  cheer  them  on. 

In  late  November  the  Spartans 
traveled  to  Johnson  City,  TN,  to 
match  up  with  the  East  Tennessee 
State  Buccaneers.  In  early  Decem- 
ber, they  played  the  Patriots  of 
George  Mason  University.  Before 
each  game,  a  reception  was  held 
for  alumni  and  their  guests  where 
"shakers,"  Spartan  Sports  Sched- 
ules, and  complimentary  game 
tickets  were  given  to  those  attend- 
ing. 

Sharing  news  from  the  campus  at 
both  Pre-Game  Receptions  were 
Brenda  Meadows  Cooper  '65, 
associate  director  of  alumni  affairs; 
Bob  McEvoy,  men's  basketball 
coach;  Nelson  Bobb,  athletic  direc- 
tor; and  Debbie  Yow,  director  of 
the  Spartan  Athletic  Fund  and  as- 
sociate athletic  director. 

At  East  Tennessee  State, 
arrangements  were  made  by  Helen 
Russell  Caines  '55  of  Kingsport, 
TN.  Carol  Klose  Grouse  '63  of  Falls 
Church,  VA,  organized  the  Pre- 
Game  Reception  at  George  Mason. 


Down  East 

Earlier  last  fall,  Brenda  Cooper 
was  on  the  road  again  —  this  time 
with  Associate  Dean  of  Students 
Jim  Lancaster  '72  and  his  latest 
dazzling  slide  show.  Off  they  went 
to  the  eastern  parts  of  the  State  for 
gatherings  of  alumni  held  on  two 
consecutive  evenings. 

The  first  stop  was  Whiteville 
where  alumni  throughout  Colum- 
bus County  were  invited  to  the 
home  of  Charles  McCurry  '72. 
Alumni  in  that  area  hadn't  met 
together  in  some  time,  so  the 
evening  was  billed  as  the  "First-In- 
A-Long-Time  Gathering."  Dr. 
Lancaster  delivered  a  media 
presentation  on  student  life  at 
UNCG. 

The  "Brenda  &  Jim  Show"  was 
taken  the  next  evening  to  Sampson 
County  where  one  of  the  most 
active  alumni  chapters  met  for 
their  annual  dinner.  It  was  held  at 
Fussell's  Restaurant  in  Clinton, 
and  reservations  were  taken  by 
Emily  Teague  Johnston  '46, 
Eleanor  Southerland  Powell  '42, 
and  Faye  West  Warren  '4L 

The  event  in  Clinton,  alumni 
were  reminded,  was  a  repeat 
performance  for  Dr.  Lancaster.  In 
1973,  Jim  was  a  graduate  student 
in  history  at  UNCG  and  held  an 
assistantship  in  the  Alumni  Office. 
He  wrote  and  produced  a  media 


^  Q   I  Alumni  News 
^yJ   I  Spring 


1988 


presentation,  "Charlie  Mclver  & 
Friends,"  which  he  and  Brenda 
took  on  the  road.  They  visited 
CUnton  in  the  fall  of  that  year. 


Goin'  to  Ireland 
in  My  Mind 

by  Catharine  Brewer  '70 

In  the  midst  of  last  summer's 
lawn-scorching  drought,  there  was 
a  spot  of  green  at  UNCG.  Alumni 
College  '87,  held  June  21-25, 
conjured  up  the  emerald  shores  of 
Erin  for  thirteen  participants  and 
staff. 

Having  journeyed  with  previous 
Alumni  Collegians  across  the 
British  timescape  "In  Search  of 
Arthur"  and  slogged  through  the 
trenches  of  "World  War  I  To  End 
All  Wars,"  I  was  delighted  to 
abandon  my  husband,  children, 
dog,  cats,  hamster,  and  fast-wilting 
roses  for  "A  Terrible  Beauty: 
Modern  Ireland,  History  and 
Literature." 

My  knowledge  of  Ireland  prior 
to  this  course  was  limited  but 
colorful.  1  knew,  according  to  W.  B. 
Yeats,  that  it  is  no  country  for  old 
men.  I  also  knew  that  an  Orange- 
man is  a  Protestant  and  that  good 
Irish  Catholics  wear  green  sham- 
rocks on  St.  Patrick's  Day.  There- 
fore, not  wishing  to  offend  anyone, 
I  tactfully  attired  myself  in  shock- 
ing pink  for  the  registration  recep- 
tion on  midsummer's  eve. 

As  with  the  previous  Alumni 
Colleges,  the  site  for  "A  Terrible 
Beauty"  was  the  Alumni  House, 
one  of  my  favorite  places  to  spend 
five  days  of  intellectual  and  social 
indulgence.  I  find  these  interludes 
to  be  as  refreshing  as  a  sea  cruise 
on  a  luxury  liner  and  heartily 
applaud  the  move  toward  making 
them  an  annual  event. 


At  the  reception  and  throughout 
the  course,  Brenda  Meadows 
Cooper  '65,  Alumni  College 
Coordinator,  treated  us  to  a 
pervasive  and  whimsical  Irish 
ambience.  Our  pre-course  read- 
ings arrived  in  emerald  envelopes; 
we  wrote  in  green  notebooks; 
shamrocks  decorated  our  folders 
and  we  referred  to  class  schedules 
printed  on  green  paper;  we  drank 
Irish  breakfast  tea  in  the  mornings, 
sipped  Irish  coffee  after  dinner  and 
quaffed  Guiness  stout  to  down  our 
potatoes.  We  were  even  provided 
with  green  TicTacs!  Brenda's  flair 
for  detail  transforms  these  mini- 
courses  from  a  rewarding  educa- 
tional experience  to  Zing! 

Harp  lager  served  in  green 
souvenir  mugs  certainly  started 
the  week  with  spirit.  Not  that 
Alumni  College  participants  need 
much  spiriting  up.  Alumni  College 
is  addictive:  I  myself  have  at- 
tended all  three  of  the  mini- 
courses  and  confess  I  would  sign 
up  for  any  future  escapade  even  if 
the  topic  were  "Life  on  the  Under- 
side of  a  Carpet."  And  I  am  not  the 
only  aficionado. 

Alumni  College  has  begun  to 
generate  its  own  alumni.  Several 
veterans  of  World  War  I  returned 
for  this  year's  excursion  to  Ireland. 
Marilib  Barwick  Sink  '44  brought 
her  husband.  Jack,  along  this  time. 
And  as  on  any  college  campus, 
romance  flourishes:  Ireland 
alumni  Karen  Ljung  Myatt  '81 
(MA)  and  Christopher  Frost  were 
married  in  October  appropriately 
enough  at  the  Alumni  House. 

Even  the  professors  are 
returnees.  Dr.  Ronald  Cassell  of 
the  history  department  and  Dr. 
Keith  Cushman  of  the  English  de- 
partment, who  led  us  across  the 
battlefields  of  the  Great  War  in 
1984,  unravelled  some  of  the 
complexities  of  Ireland  for  us  this 
summer.  Ron  and  Keith  aug- 
mented their  lectures  on  Irish 


history  and  literature  with  films, 
poetry  readings,  recordings  of 
Yeats,  vintage  newsreels  and  en- 
tertainment by  a  true  Irishman 
singing  and  piping  traditional  Irish 
music.  The  sparkling  dialogue 
between  our  musician  and  another 
Irish  visitor  who  spoke  to  us  about 
the  Irish  language  was  as  enter- 
taining as  the  music. 

Mary  Tom  Hoffler,  a  retired 
Greensboro  schoolteacher,  credits 
this  diversity  of  experiences  so 
well  orchestrated  by  professors 
and  staff  as  the  key  to  "A  Terrible 
Beauty's"  success.  Ron  and  Keith, 
with  Brenda's  inspired  assistance, 
certainly  gave  us  a  well-balanced 
look  into  that  troubled  land 
focusing  on  the  last  century. 

Our  time  in  Ireland  ended  — 
how  else?  With  a  wake.  Ed 
Tweedy  '78  (MEd),  who  lived  for 
some  time  in  Ireland,  shared  a 
long-hoarded  bottle  of  Irish  mead 
with  us  at  this  last  gathering.  Good 
food,  good  drink,  good  company, 
loud  songs,  raucous  laughter, 
some  semi-original  poetry,  an 
occasional  tear,  and  then  Ireland, 
farewell. 


Alumni  Travel 
in  1988 

Trips  are  in  the  works  for  these 
destinations:  Kenya,  Mexico  City, 
Dutch  Waterways,  Bermuda,  Swiss 
Bavaria,  China,  and  Spain/Portu- 
gal. Write  the  Alumni  Office  for  in- 
formation. 


On  matters  pwrtaining  to  the  Alumni 
Association  and  its  programs,  write  to  the 
Alumni  Office.  To  contact  Alumni  News, 
write  to  the  University  Publications 
Office.  Both  offices  may  be  reached  at  this 
address:  Alumni  House,  UNCG  Campus, 
Greensboro,  NC  27412-5001. 


Alumni  News 

Spring  •  1988 


129 


LETTERS 


T       O 


THE 


EDITOR 


Dorothea  Phelps  Btiltnuiu  'IS.  third  hviii  ri^hl,  wa<  surrounded  In/  her  einssiiuites  one  tine  Suiulm/ 
in  1915  or  1916.  The  granite  pillars,  one  of  whieh  may  be  seen  just  behind  the  students,  still  mark 
the  entrance  on  College  Avenue  today. 


Dear  Editor: 

My  mother,  Dorothy  Phelps 
Bultman  '18,  found  some  pictures 
of  the  College  from  the  years  she 
was  there.  She  was  going  to  throw 
them  away,  but  I  told  her  I  would 
send  them  to  you. 

Mother  went  to  college  at  the  age 
of  fourteen  but  did  not  take  a 
full  schedule  of  courses  the  first 
year.  She  lived  in  North  Spencer 
one  year  and  worked  in  the  office 
of  Mrs.  King  who  was  in  charge  of 
student  activities. 

Mother  lives  in  Sumter,  SC, 
now.  I'm  going  to  ask  her  about 
other  remembrances  and  see  if  she 
has  other  photographs. 

Dorothea  Bultman  Wray  '44 

Gasionia,  NC 

Editorial  note:  We  are  grateful  to  have 

the  photographs  Mrs.  Bultman  kept  since  her 

days  at  UNCG  —  or,  for  her,  the  State  Normal 


and  Industrial  College.   We  cherish  such  photo- 
graphs, for  they  tell  stories  about  our  alma 
mater  that  we  learn  from  no  other  source.  I 
invite  other  alumni  to  submit  photography 
from  earlier  days,  too. 


Dear  Editor: 

No  other  time  has  ever  been  so 
exciting  for  The  University  of 
North  Carolina  at  Greensboro.  We 
have  a  gifted  faculty  and  top-notch 
students.  Our  graduate  and 
undergraduate  programs  are 
growing  and  achieving  national 
recognition.  Work  is  under  way  on 
the  building  of  a  new  Art  Center 
and  Physical  Activities  Complex 
and  on  the  remodeling  of  the 
cafeteria.  All  of  this  is  the  result  of 
the  caring,  commitment,  and 
generosity  of  the  entire  university 
community. 

The  legacy  of  UNCG  is  not  only 
superior  teaching  and  academic 


integrity,  but  also  an  involved  and 
committed  alumni.  As  alumni,  we 
can  make  a  particularly  significant 
impact  on  the  future  of  our  Uni- 
versity. That  is  why  I  am  urging 
alumni  to  increase  their  support 
for  UNCG.  As  our  University 
grows  in  its  ability  to  educate,  so, 
too,  grows  its  spirit  and  resolve  to 
prepare  tomorrow's  leaders  for  the 
demands  of  our  society.  These 
students  are  counting  on  us  to 
build  a  university  in  which  the 
finest  faculty  and  equipment  are 
readily  available. 

Many  alumni  have  answered  this 
challenge  and  expanded  their  gifts 
to  the  University,  and  I  wish  to 
thank  them  for  that.  Although 
alumni  giving  has  increased 
substantially  in  the  past  few  years, 
the  University  continues  to  have 
needs  which  remain  unfulfilled. 
Our  crucial  gifts  provide  for 
student  scholarships,  faculty 
development  initiatives,  laboratory 
equipment,  library  materials,  and 
campus  enhancements.  The  needs 
are  great,  and  our  willingness  to 
meet  these  needs  will  pave  the 
way  for  generations  of  students  to 
come.  I  ask  once  again  for  alumni 
to  support  UNCG  —  as  gener- 
ously as  circumstances  allow  — 
and  truly  make  a  difference  in 
UNCG's  tomorrow. 

Gregory  S.  Greer  '80 

Davidson,  NC 
Chairman,  Annual  Giving  Council 


Ori    I  Alumni  News 
JyJ    I  Spring 


1988 


ALUMNI 

BUSINESS 


RECORDING  SECRETARY 


KAREN  MCNEIL-MILLER  '80,  '81  MEd,  Greens- 
boro. Director,  The  Piedmont  School,  High  Point. 
"Young  alumni  perceive  that  their  input  and  involve- 
ment is  not  crucial.  This  is  an  inaccurate  perception  and 
one  that  must  be  changed."  Karen  has  been  a  member 
of  the  Black  Alumni  Council  since  1985  and  is  pres- 
ently co-chair.  She  is  a  member  of  the  interviewing 
committee  for  Competitive  Scholarships.  Previ- 
ously she  was  Black  Alumni  representative  to  the 
Alumni  Board  of  Trustees  and  a  member  of  the 
Alumni/Student  Relations  Committee.  From  1983- 
85  she  taught  at  The  Piedmont  School,  a  school  for  students  with 
learning  disabilities.  She  served  as  assistant  director  from  1984-86. 
She  is  a  member  of  both  the  Greensboro  chapter  of  the  Association  for 
Children  with  Learning  Disabilities  and  the  North  Carolina  chapter 
of  the  Council  for  Exceptional  Children.  A  cum  laude  graduate  of 
UNCG,  she  was  a  member  of  Golden  Chain  Honor  Society. 


SUE  ORMOND  SINGLETON  '59,  Wilmington. 
Owner,  The  Yardage  Shoppe,  Greenville.  "Serving 
on  the  UNCG  Alumni  Board  would  provide  an  opportu- 
nity for  me  to  repay  my  debt  of  gratitude  for  the  education 
I  received."  Sue  was  a  member  of  the  Prospectus  III 
Committee  for  Beaufort  County  and  an  officer  of  the 
Beaufort  County  Alumni  Chapter.  She  also  served 
as  the  Alumni  Scholarship  Committee.  After  gradu- 
ation, she  participated  in  the  International  4-H 
Youth  Exchange  Program  in  Panama  and  worked  as 
a  4-H  agent  and  social  worker  in  Washington 
County.  A  home  school  coordinator  with  Washington  City  Schools 
for  two  years,  she  taught  home  economics  at  Washington  Senior 
High  School  froml969-72.  From  1974-80,  she  was  a  regional  nutrition 
program  director  for  five  counties  in  eastern  North  Carolina.  She 
received  a  master  of  science  degree  from  East  Carolina  University  in 
1983.  An  international  Gideon  Auxiliary  member  for  the  past  ten 
years,  she  is  active  in  the  Southern  Baptist  Church. 


TRUSTEE:  DISTRICT  TWO 


ROZELLE  ROYALL  WICKS  '53,  Maysville. 
School-Community  Relations  Coordinator,  Jones 
County  School  System.  "The  broad  academic  require- 
ments and  opportunities  for  developing  leadership  skills 
are  just  two  of  the  many  things  I  appreciate  about  UNCG. 
1  would  like  to  serve  a  great  institution  that  had  such  a 
profound  influence  on  me."  After  graduation,  Rozelle 
taught  in  the  public  schools  until  1967.  She  was 
teacher/headmaster  at  Onslow  Academy  in 
Jacksonville  from  1968-83.  She  is  a  board  member 
and  past  president  of  the  Jones  County  Arts  Council 
and  the  Jones  County  Historical  Society.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Jones 
County  Interagency  Council.  She  serves  as  chairman  of  the  county 
schools  accreditation  unit  and  as  county  chairman  of  the  Morehead 
Scholarship  Committee.  A  section  leader  in  the  Craven  Community 
Chorus,  she  is  organist,  choir  director,  and  chairman  of  her  Presby- 
terian church  women's  club.  She  has  done  further  study  at  East 
Carolina  University.  Named  Teacher  of  the  Year  in  her  school  system, 
she  has  received  Governor's  Volunteer  Awards  from  the  Hunt  and 
Martin  administrations. 


JOHN  EDWIN  WILEY  '73,  '76  MA,  Greenville. 
Assistant  Professor  of  Pediatrics  and  Director  of  the 
Clinical  Cytogenetics  Laboratory,  East  Carolina 
University  School  of  Medicine.  "The  future  of  UNCG 
depends  upon  the  enthusiastic  and  generous  support  of 
its  alumni.  I  would  welcome  the  opportunity  to  increase 
my  contribution  to  the  University  by  serving  on  the 
Alumni  Board."  John  received  his  PhD  from  NC  State 
University  in  1981.  A  biomedical  research  associate 
at  St.  Paul's  College,  Lawrenceville,  VA,  from  1981- 
82,  he  was  an  NIH  postdoctoral  trainee  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin-Madison  from  1982-84.  A  diplomate  and 
member  of  the  American  Board  of  Medical  Genetics,  he  is  also  a 
member  of  the  Kiwanis  Club. 


Alumni  News 
Spring  •  1988 


31 


TRUSTEE:  DISTRICT  THREE 


RUTH  CROWDER  McSWAlN  '45,  Wilmington. 
Self-emploved  educational  consultant.  "As  a  past 
director  of  guuiaiice  scn^ices  at  a  North  Carolina  nigh 
school,  I  continued  to  see  the  best  students  selecting  my 
braitch  of  the  University  system.  I  continue  daily  to 
appreciate  what  UNCG  has  meant  to  me,  and  I  sincerely 
hope  that  I  have  transferred  tlmt  feeling  to  others.  It  would 
he  an  honor  to  serve  our  University  as  an  Alumni  Board 
Member."  Ruth  received  an  MEd  in  counseling  in 
1973  and  a  certification  in  supervision  in  1980,  both 
from  UNCC.  Previously,  she  was  a  member  of  the 
Reynolds  Scholars  Interviewing  Committee.  She  has  been  a  health 
educator  with  the  Charlotte  YWCA;  a  teacher  in  Raleigh,  Bertie 
County,  and  Rocky  Mount;  a  guidance  counselor  at  Rowan  County 
High  School  from  1969-79;  and  a  teacher/counselor  in  five  Piedmont 
counties  from  1979-82.  Presently,  she  is  future  issues  chairman  of  the 
North  Carolina  School  Counselors  Board  and  special  programs  direc- 
tor of  the  North  Carolina  Association  of  Counseling  and  Develop- 
ment. A  former  president  of  the  North  Carolina  School  Counselors 
Board,  she  was  a  recipient  of  their  professional  service  award,  now 
named  the  Ruth  C.  McSwain  Distinguished  Service  Award. 


EMILY  TEAGUE  JOHNSTON  '46,  '52  MEd,  Clin- 
ton. Retired.  "Our  local  alumni  chapter  has  focused  on 
recruitment  by  giving  a  tuition  scholarship  for  the  last 
twenty-one  years.  It  would  be  a  challenge  to  me  to  serve 
on  the  Alumni  Association  Board  to  help  other  local 
chapters  becotne  a  more  viable  force  for  UNCG."  Emily  is 
vice  chairman  of  the  Sampson  County  UNCG 
Alumni  Chapter  and  is  a  member  of  their  scholar- 
ship committee.  Previously,  she  was  chairman  of  the 
chapter.  From  1946-52,  she  was  a  home  economics  «., 

teacher  in  Albemarle  and  Goldsboro;  she  was  a 
home  demonstration  extension  agent  in  Sampson  County  from  1952- 
58.  A  guidance  counselor  with  the  Sampson  County  Schools  from 
1963-69,  she  was  program  administrator  for  exceptional  children 
there  from  1969-85.  She  is  an  elder  and  circle  chairman  at  Graves 
Memorial  Presbyterian  Church,  vice  president  of  the  Clinton  Garden 
Club,  and  a  member  of  the  Clinton  Woman's  Club. 


TRUSTEE:  DISTRICT  SEVEN 


Studies, 
istrative 
the  Year 
Teaching 


CAROLE  ANNETTE  AVERS  '68,  Pinnacle.  Teacher 
and  Chairman  of  the  Social  Studies  Department, 
Gentry  Middle  School,  Mt.  Airy.  "The  four  years  I  was 
a  student  at  UNCG  were  exciting,  challenging,  and  cul- 
turally enriching.  As  a  candidate  for  the  Alumni  Board, 
I  would  like  for  UNCG's  tradition  of  excellence  in  educa- 
tion to  contirnie  to  inspire  students  as  we  enter  the 
twenty-first  century."  Annette  has  been  a  teacher  in 
<mI  the  Mt.  Airy  Schools  since  graduation;  she  received 
her  MA  degree  in  1975  from  Appalachian  State 
University.  She  holds  membership  in  the  Surry 
NCAE  Advisory  Council  and  the  NC  Council  of  Social 
Presently  she  serves  as  treasurer  and  member  of  the  admin- 
council  at  Mount  Zion  Methodist  Church.  Named  Teacher  of 
at  Gentry  Middle  School,  she  also  received  an  Excellence  in 
;  Award  in  1987  for  Local  History. 


REBECCA  KASUBOSKI  COOK  '66,  Clemmons. 
Mathematics  teacher.  West  Forsyth  High  School, 
Winston-Salem/Forsyth  County  Schools.  "UNCG 
alumni  are  busy,  involved,  energetic  people  who  impres- 
sively manage  organizations  nationwide.  The  alumni 
continue  to  he  UNCG's  greatest  untapped  resource! 
Mobilizing  alumni  toward  actively  being  involved  in 
UNCG  causes  must  be  a  priority  goat  of  the  Alumni 
Board."  Becky  is  a  member  of  the  Century  Club,  of 
the  Advocates  Annual  Giving  Program,  and  the 
Chancellor's  Focus  Group  at  UNCG.  She  pre- 
viously served  as  chair  of  the  Nominating  Committee  of  the  Alumni 
Board  of  Trustees  and  on  the  Aubrey  Lee  Brooks  Scholarship 
Committee.  She  has  taught  in  the  Winston-Salem/Forsyth  County 
Schools  since  1970  and  has  studied  further  at  Wake  Forest  University 
and  UNCG.  Active  in  her  church,  she  is  the  first  woman  member  of 
the  Provincial  Elders  Conference,  Moravian  Church  Southern  Prov- 
ince. She  is  also  a  member  of  the  Provincial  Financial  Board,  the 
Board  of  Evangelism  and  Home  Missions,  the  NEA,  NCAE,  Forsyth 
Association  of  Educators,  and  the  National  Council  for  Teachers  of 
Mathematics.  In  1982-83  she  was  named  Winston-Salem/Forsyth 
County's  Teacher  of  the  Year  and  in  1983-84  the  Winston-Salem/ 
Forsyth  County  Outstanding  Mathematics  Educator. 


O  ^    I  Alumni  News 
^  ^    I  Spring 


1988 


TRUSTEE:  DISTRICT  EIGHT 


CAROLYN  HUNTER  WALKER  '61,  Hickory. 
Receptionist,  Gallery  of  Homes,  Hickory.  "Many  of 
us  feel  that  we  would  welcome  an  occasion  to  give  to  the 
University  something  other  than  a  check  once  a  year. 
Serving  as  a  trustee  certainly  affords  us  this  opportunity. 
To  me,  being  an  alumni  trustee  would  be  very  rewarding 
and  challenging."  Carolyn  has  been  a  member  of  the 
Nominating  Committee  of  the  Alumni  Association. 
She  was  a  teacher  at  Ravenscroft  School,  Raleigh, 
from  1960-61,  and  at  Hampton  Roads  Academy, 
Newport  News,  VA,  from  1961-63.  From  1977-81, 
she  was  a  realtor  with  Century  21-ChappeIl  Realty,  Hickory.  Pres- 
ently, she  is  altar  guild  chairman  at  Ascension  Episcopal  Church.  She 
served  on  the  task  force  to  establish  the  Hickory  Soup  Kitchen.  She 
was  a  member  of  the  Hickory  Community  Theater  Board  and  the 
Catawba  Memorial  Hospital  Auxiliary.  A  previous  member  of  the  St. 
Mary's  College  Parents'  Council,  she  was  membership  chairman  of 
both  the  Hickory  Service  League  and  the  Hickory  Community  Con- 
cert Association. 


ALICE  McDowell  TEMPLETON  '40,  Advance. 

Retired.  "Since  the  University  took  a  chance  on  me  in 
1936  when  it  accepted  me  as  a  student,  provided  me  with 
the  opportunity  for  a  good  education,  and  even  provided 
me  with  a  job  to  help  attain  it,  I  would  like  to  be  a  part  of 
the  future  of  UNCG.  As  a  member  of  the  Alumni  Board 
of  Trustees,  I  feel  it  would  be  my  duty  to  support  any 
program  that  ivould  benefit  the  University  so  that  it  zvill 
continue  togroivaud  improve"  Alice  is  serving  on  the 
gift  committee  to  commemorate  the  50th  anniver- 
sary of  her  class.  After  graduation,  she  was  a 
laboratory  technician  in  Lumberton,  Henderson,  and  Mooresville. 
She  owned  and  managed  an  apartment  complex  in  Asheville  from 
1970-86.  Alice  did  further  study  at  UNCA  and  participated  in  Elder- 
hostel  in  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  England.  Presently  vice  president  of 
Lutheran  Christian  Women  at  her  church,  she  was  active  in  the 
Asheville  Pilot  Club  International. 


TRUSTEE:  OUT-OF-STATE 


JULIA  ALEXANDER  KAUFMAN  '47,  Cam- 
bridge, MA.  Volunteer.  "An  important  role  for  board 
metnbers  is  to  be  alert  to  changing  conditions  and  needs 
and  energetic  in  pursuing  initiatives  to  meet  them.  As  but 
tali  one  example  among  many  (reflecting  my  own  interest 
t"  and  involvement  in  continuing  adult  education  pro- 
^  grams),  I  believe  that  the  Board  is  uniquely  suited  to  en- 
courage and  expand  programs  that  reinforce  our  under- 
graduate experience  and  strengthen  ties  to  the  Associa- 
tion membership  and  the  broader  community  to  our 
mutual  benefit."  Julia  was  a  secretary  with  Colonial 
Williamsburg  from  1948-52  and  an  administrative  assistant  with  The 
RAND  Corporation  from  1952-62.  In  1979  she  was  acting  executive 
director  with  the  Flaschner  Judicial  Institute  of  Boston.  Presently,  she 
is  president  of  the  Massachusetts  Council  for  Public  Justice,  a  member 
of  the  Flaschner  Judicial  Institute  Academic  Board,  and  a  member  of 
the  Supreme  Judicial  Court  Committee  on  Judicial  Evaluations.  On 
the  board  of  the  American  Judicature  Society  from  1978-86,  she  was 
a  member  of  the  Harvard  Law  School  Visiting  Committee  and  the 
Governor's  Working  Group  on  Alternative  Dispute  Resolution. 


CATHY  ELLEN  KRINICK  '75,  Newport  News, 
VA.  Assistant  Commonwealth's  Attorney,  State  of 
Virginia.  "Although  I  have  maintained  very  close  ties 
with  UNCG  since  my  graduation,  serving  as  an  Alumni 
Association  Board  Member  will  enable  me  to  strengthen 
those  ties  and  do  even  more  for  the  University.  Having 
organized  an  alumni  reunion  in  the  Tidewater,  VA,  area 
has  made  me  more  aware  of  how  many  alumni  are  living 
outside  North  Carolina  and  that  more  needs  to  be  done  to 
include  them  in  the  Association's  affairs.  I  feel  that  I  have 
the  perspective  of  an  out-of-state  alumna  yet  live  close 
enough  to  Greensboro  to  actively  participate  in  the  Association's  upcoming 
events.  I  look  forward  to  serving  on  your  Board  if  elected."  Cathy  has 
served  as  an  Alumni  Recruiting  Advisor  for  UNCG.  She  received  her 
law  degree  from  Wake  Forest  University  in  1978  and  has  held  her 
present  position  since  then.  Presently  she  is  a  board  member  of 
several  organizations:  Child  Sexual  Abuse  Task  Force,  Legal  Aid 
Society,  American  Lung  Association  (local  chapter).  Peninsula  Sym- 
phony, and  the  Junior  League  of  Hampton  Roads  Community  Advi- 
sory Board.  She  is  a  life  member  of  the  National  Council  of  Jewish 
Women. 


50 


'Years  Ago 

in  Alumnae  News. 


The  February  1938  issue  of  Alumnae  Nezvs  was  a  number  so  rich  in 
personal  notes  that  it  may  as  well  have  been  named  the  Woman's 
College  People  magazine.  So  full  is  the  issue,  that,  even  though  its  8  pt. 
tvpe  runs  margin  to  margin  for  21  pages,  only  three  short  articles  and  a 
book  review  break  through  the  achievements  of  faculty,  students,  and 
alumnae.  A  page  and  a  half,  interestingly,  lists  the  names  of  all  the  recent 
visitors  who  signed  the  Alumnae  House  Guest  Book.  Two  pages  are 
devoted  to  faculty  notes;  nearly  three  fall  under  the  heading  of  "The  Family 
Tree,"  in  which  alumnae  are  highlighted;  another  page  and  a  half  are 
reports  of  alumnae  chapter  meetings;  it  took  more  than  a  page  to  note  the 
whereabouts  of  the  most  recent  graduating  class,  the  Class  of  1937;  and 
seven  pages  are  reserved  for  class  notes  and  obituaries. 

These  nuggets  were  gleaned  from  the  February  1938  number: 

■  The  new  American  Women,  a  sort  of  separate  Who's  Who  for  women, 
includes  the  names  of  several  members  of  the  Woman's  College  faculty: 
Dr.  Helen  Barton,  head  of  the  Department  of  Mathematics;  Mary 
Channing  Coleman,  head  of  the  Department  of  Physical  Education; 
Bernice  Draper,  associate  professor  of  History;  Margaret  Edwards,  head 
of  the  Department  of  Home  Economics;  Harriet  Elliott,  Dean  of  Women; 
Dr.  Anna  M.  Gove,  physician  and  professor  of  Hygiene;  Minnie  L. 
Jamison,  counselor;  Nettie  Sue  Tillett,  associate  professor  of  English; 
Maude  Williams,  associate  professor  of  Physiology;  Dr.  Elizabeth 
Duffy,  professor  of  Psychology;  Mereb  Mossman,  associate  professor  of 
Sociology. 

■  The  first  issue  of  Chanteclere,  the  only  French  newspaper  in  North 
Carolina,  published  monthly  by  the  foreign  language  students  of 
Woman's  College,  will  appear  the  last  week  in  February.  You  are 
invited  to  send  your  subscription  (twenty-five  cents  for  the  semester) 
to  Miss  Wilma  Levine,  Business  Manager.  Rebecca  Price  is  Editor. 

■  Janet  Murphy,  freshman  from  Montclair,  New  Jersey,  is  the  one 
freshman,  out  of  534  new  girls  this  year,  who  passed  the  four  physical 
health  tests,  given  by  the  Department  of  Physical  Education,  to  be 
rated  as  "perfect."  The  tests  are  posture,  feet,  motor  skill,  and 
general  physical  condition. 

■  Julia  Blauvelt  ['26],  now  Mrs.  B.G.  McGrane,  is  a  poet.  A  decade  ago, 
she  was  editor  of  Coraddi  and  one  of  its  largest  and  best 
contributors.  She  was  also  a  top  Quill  Clubber....  So  it  isn't  any 
wonder  that  Julia's  work  is  accepted  regularly  —  in  fact,  about  ten 
good  publications  have  taken  her  verse  in  the  last  year.  The  last 

four  consecutive  numbers  of  The  Ladies  Home  Journal  include  her  work. 

MCB  '74 


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