Western : the magazine of Western Carolina University.

              western
carolina Winter
2013
t h e M a g a z i n e O f W E s t e r n C a r o l i n a U n i v e r s i t y
Santas cubed
convene in cullowhee
Marching band adopts
little drumer boy
‘Monday Night Football’
welcomes WCU alum
A new building’s
high-tech features
and community
spaces have the
campus abuzz
Health
Haven
winter 2013 | Volume 17, No. 1
The Magazine of Western Carolina University is
produced by the Office of Communications and
Public Relations in the Division of Advancement
and External Affairs for alumni, faculty, staff,
friends and students of Western Carolina University.
Chancellor
David O. Belcher
Vice Chancellor of Advancement
and External Afairs
Clifton B. Metcalf
Managing Editor
Bill Studenc MPA ’10
Asociate Editors
Jill Ingram MA ’08
Teresa Killian Tate
Art Director
Rubae Schoen
Chief Photographer
Mark Haskett ’87
graphic designers
John Balentine
Will Huddleston
Zack Keys
Staf Writers
Keith Brenton
Randall Holcombe
Daniel Hooker ’01
Leila Tvedt
Staf Photographers
Ashley T. Evans
John Witherspoon
production Manager
Ashley Beavers
Circulation Manager
Cindi Magill
Search for this icon throughout the
magazine for stories that feature
online extras – videos, photographs
and more, available ONLY online.
magazine.wcu.edu
western
carolina
The Catamount statue at the main entrance
of Western Carolina University, pictured last
winter, models the holiday sweater it received
courtesy of a WCU-based fiber arts group.
A colorful yarn
2 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Sections
4 Worth Repeating
5 Opening Notes
6 News from the
Western Hemisphere
12 WCU Athletics
36 Alumni Spotlight
40 Class Notes
48 Calendar
50 The View from Here
51 Last Look
FEATURES
17 A SANTA FOR AL SEASONS
Three real-bearded Santas meet in the ’Whee
for a jolly good time
20 LITLE DRUMMER BOY
The marching band’s percussion section finds
a kindred soul in a stick-spinning 5-year-old
22 A HIGHER CALING
A retired NFL referee has joined the
‘Monday Night Football’ team
26 HEALTH HAVEN
The first building on the West Campus promotes
collaboration, partnerships and service
CONTENTS
on the covers
Front Students and faculty are conducting research
related to mosquito-borne illnesses in Western North
Carolina, thanks to a secure insectary and lab in the new
Health and Human Sciences Building.
Back Campus is aglow with signs of the holidays, and
so is the Internet. Use the QR code on the back cover to
visit a website with this season’s holiday video greeting,
or visit seasonsgreetings2012.wcu.edu.
22 17 20 26
Winter 2013 | 3
Worth
repeating
“As hard as it
might be to think
about while
people are still
being plucked
from rooftops,
storms such as
Sandy represent
an opportunity
to reassess
and improve
future exposure
of coastline
communities to
storms and ocean
surges.” – Rob
Young and Andy
Coburn of WCU’s
Program for the
Study of Developed
Shorelines in a
guest op-ed in
USA Today after
Superstorm Sandy.
“Apparently I attend WCUofA.
Western Carolina University
of Alaska.” – Tweet from
WCU student Hayden Cairns
during the freezing weather
brought on by Superstorm
Sandy in October.
“Having participated in
well over 30 forums/debates
during the primary and
general election, I was very
impressed with the format and
professional manner in which
WCU conducted the debate.”
–Congressman-elect Mark
Meadows, commenting on a
debate hosted on campus by
WCU’s Department of Political
Science and Public Affairs and
the Public Policy Institute.
“We don’t care which party
you go to, as long as you look
good going.” – Tagline of
the photo blog “Party Chic,”
created by Paige Hogan ’12
and WCU student Jeff Wilber to
capture the competing street
style of attendees of the 2012
Republican and Democratic
national conventions.
“This is more
than a college
marching band.
It is a Broadway
production!” –
Online comment
to video of WCU’s
Pride of the
Mountains as part
of CNN’s Battle
of the Marching
Bands competition.
“Many games were
played in the rain,
sleet or snow. By
halftime the field
was very muddy,
and many times
our marching
shoes stayed
where we stood
momentarily and
we proceeded to
complete the show
in our socks!”
– Art Dingee ’73
MME ’76 of
Arlington, Texas,
a former member
of the marching
band, recalling
football games
in WCU’s old
Memorial Stadium.
4 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
management and human resources are ranked “best buys” in
terms of quality and affordability by the consumer advocacy
group GetEducated.com.
Of course, 2012 always will have a special place in my heart
because it is the year of my official installation as Western
Carolina chancellor. Susan and I truly feel blessed to be a part
of this extraordinary university and this wonderful community,
full of caring people and located in one of the most gorgeous
places on Earth. You have made us feel welcome, and we look
forward to working with you as we seize the opportunities
awaiting us in 2013 – and beyond.
Finally, while the holidays are a time for celebration
and introspection, they also are a season for giving. As I
mentioned in my installation address in the spring, Western
Carolina has made raising funds for endowed scholarships a
top philanthropic priority in order to enable us to meet our
time-honored commitments to student access and student
success. In this difficult economic climate, too many students
simply cannot afford the cost of higher education, even at an
institution as affordable as ours. I invite you to join others who
are giving back to the university, and to take advantage of the
tax benefits that come with year-end charitable giving – all in
support of the outstanding students who call Western Carolina
home. For more information, visit the website give.wcu.edu.
You are part of Western Carolina, and I trust that you share
my pride and belief in the future of our university.
Susan and I offer our best wishes for a wonderful
holiday season.
David O. Belcher
Chancellor
The holiday season offers everyone in the Western Carolina
University family an opportunity to spend quality time with
friends and relatives, to take a well-deserved break from the
rigors of our academic pursuits and work, and to recharge
our batteries before we head into the spring semester. The
approach of yet another January also prompts us to reflect
both on the highlights of the year that is coming to a close and
on the opportunities inherent in the year ahead. It is a time to
celebrate the positive differences the university makes in the
lives of our students, the strong connections we have forged
with our community and region, and the lasting relationships
we have built with our alumni and friends.
For Western Carolina, 2012 will go down in the record books
– literally – as a year to remember. Total student enrollment in
the fall topped 9,600 for the first time in WCU history, thanks
to an increase of nearly 3 percent in the size of the freshman
class and an uptick in our freshman-to-sophomore retention
rate. When the dust settled, our total headcount enrollment
was at 9,608. With more than 51,000 inquiries already pouring
in from prospective students for the 2013 freshman class and
with our plans for strategic enrollment growth, I am sure our
friends in the Office of Undergraduate Admission are among
those ready for the holiday break!
It’s not just about quantity, though. It’s also about quality.
The average high school weighted grade-point average for
fall’s freshman class is 3.63, up slightly from last year’s overall
freshman class GPA of 3.60. When students arrive better
prepared for rigorous academic pursuits, they tend to stay with
us – hence our improved retention numbers! We also have
received independent validation of our increasing academic
quality. The latest edition of the U.S. News & World Report
“Best Colleges” guidebook includes WCU among the top 15
public regional universities in the South. The Princeton Review
once again lists our College of Business among the nation’s
best schools at which to earn a master’s degree in business
administration. And our online graduate programs in project
Opening
Notes
Winter 2013 | 5
From the weathered copy of
“Robinson Crusoe” believed to be the
first book Horace Kephart ever owned
to a Christmas card from George Masa
dated 1930 – the last Christmas before
Kephart’s death – the artifacts in a recent
donation to Hunter Library are deeply
personal. They offer new insight into the
iconic Western North Carolina figure
who penned the classic “Our Southern
Highlanders” and with Masa helped
spearhead the movement to establish
Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“Kephart himself has been something of
a mystery, and this new collection will
offer one of the first glimpses of him
as a person,” said George Frizzell ’77
MA ’81, head of Special Collections at
Hunter Library.
WCU’s existing Horace Kephart
Collection, which features maps,
reference journals, drafts and other items
primarily linked to Kephart’s work, has
been one of the most sought-out from
the library’s Special Collections. Now
with the approximately 700 recently
donated items from the Kephart family,
the library will create a new collection
to be available in early 2013 called the
“Horace Kephart and Laura Mack
Kephart Family Collection.”
The pieces reveal more about
Kephart’s interests and who he was as
a “family man,” said Kephart’s great-granddaughter
Libby Kephart Hargrave,
in announcing the gift Friday, Sept. 28,
at Hunter Library. A Florida resident,
Hargrave said items in the donation were
so special to the family that she would
take them with her during hurricane
evacuations. She said she was glad to
entrust them to WCU to “keep this
treasure available, safe and respected,”
she said. “These items help complete
his life story.”
The collection includes a charter and
roster of the Missouri Sharpshooters,
a group that Kephart helped found
and that volunteered to assist with
the Spanish-American War. With
it is a target with bullet holes as well
as a handwritten note about windy
conditions for shooting, distance to
the target and type of gun. The bulk of
the new materials are personal letters,
including those Kephart exchanged
with his wife and his children, from
whom who he lived apart after coming
to Western North Carolina. “There’s an
intimacy in his correspondence,” said
Hargrave. “He was not as estranged as
some think he was. He loved his family.
Their marriage was unconventional, but
for them, it worked. They were devoted
to each other.”
Dana M. Sally, dean of library services
at WCU, said the library is honored to
receive the donation and noted that the
materials truly add a new dimension to
the history and biography of Kephart.
“This is a philanthropy of a very special
and unique type, and is truly priceless,”
said Sally.
-By Teresa Killian Tate
The Horace Kephart and Laura Mack Kephart Family Collection is in the process of
being catalogued and placed in protective enclosures. WCU will explore digitizing the
collection, which could include around 2,500 images, to build on Kephart materials
already available online at www.wcu.edu/library/digitalcollections/kephart/.
Libby Kephart Hargrave, great-granddaughter
of Horace Kephart, and her husband,
John, hold up a charter of the Missouri
Sharpshooters and a target that are part
of a recent donation to Special Collections
at Western Carolina University’s Hunter
Library. The couple visited the yearlong
exhibit “Horace Kephart in the Great Smoky
Mountains” at WCU’s Mountain Heritage
Center (pictured here) after announcing the
donation in September.
Artifacts donated to Hunter Library reveal more about personal
life of iconic Western North Carolina figure Horace Kephart
6 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
A longstanding relationship between
residents of the Macon County town
of Highlands and Western Carolina’s
Honors College reached a milestone
when the board of the Center for Life
Enrichment, an organization that
promotes lifelong learning, voted
to make an initial gift of $25,000 to
establish an endowment designed
to help the college’s students
compete for prestigious national
and international scholarships.
In addition, individual members of
the Honors College’s Advisory Board,
composed primarily of Highlands
residents, have given gifts totaling
$25,000 for the endowment, boosting
it to $50,000. Annual earnings from
the endowment will be used to benefit
students participating in the Center
for Life Enrichment Honors College
Scholars Program.
WCU’s Honors College initiated its
scholars program in 2005 to provide
support for exceptional students
who were interested in preparing
to compete for scholarships such as
the Goldwater, Truman or Rhodes.
However, state budget reductions linked
to the recession have eliminated the
support students were receiving, said
Brian Railsback, dean of the college
who also serves as WCU’s representative
on the CLE board. “These gifts are
resurrecting a program that was killed
A new endowment will
help groom Honors College
students to compete for
prestigious awards
by the recession,” Railsback said. “This
endowment will allow us to provide the
best mentoring possible for our highest-achieving
students.”
The Center for Life Enrichment is
currently celebrating its 20th year of
providing continuing education classes
and lecture opportunities for residents
of Highlands and the local area. CLE
President Ed Mawyer said Railsback
has been “an incredible asset” during
his five-year affiliation with the CLE.
“After learning more about the Honors
College, our board voted unanimously
to fund this worthy cause,” Mawyer said.
“Two of our board members, E.J. Tarbox
and Mark Whitehead, also serve on the
advisory board for the Honors College
and were instrumental in organizing
this endowment.”
Whitehead said WCU has provided
quality speakers for many CLE
programs over the years. The gift to
establish the endowment to benefit the
Honors College’s “best and brightest” is
a natural extension of the CLE’s focus
on education and lifelong learning,
he said.
Railsback said the gifts from the
CLE and individual members of the
advisory board are just the latest
example of the extensive support the
Honors College has received over
the years from Highlands. Over the
past seven years, Highlands residents
have donated more than $200,000 for
Honors College initiatives, including
funding to help WCU students from
a wide range of academic disciplines
attend the National Conference on
Undergraduate Research. The advisory
board established the college’s study
abroad fund, which has helped 45
Honors students enroll in universities
in countries such as France, India and
South Korea.
“The remarkable thing about this
relationship between the Honors
College and the people of Highlands is
that most of these individuals with the
CLE and advisory board are not WCU
alumni,” Railsback said. “What they
have in common is a desire to enhance
educational opportunities in their
community and the region. I know they
have had a lasting and positive impact
on our students.”
–By Randall Holcombe
Western Carolina University’s online master’s degree
programs in human resources and project management
have received high rankings in affordability and “best buy”
designations from the distance education information
clearinghouse GetEducated.com. The human resources
program ranked No. 3 among 40 online human resources
programs nationwide while the project management program
came in at No. 2 among 93 online master’s programs in
project management.
“WCU’s rating as a ‘best buy’ among distance degree
programs honors the university as a nationally ranked leader
in the field of online learning,” said Vicky Phillips, founder of
GetEducated.com. “Their online master’s in human resources
and online master’s in project management programs offer a
top-quality education to the citizens of North Carolina through
the innovative use of educational technology. Together, these
two programs provide an exemplary model for how public
universities can, with vision and determination, combine the
quality of a traditional residential university with cutting-edge
online degrees earn A Consumer Group’s ‘best buy’ honors
technology to better serve America’s business professionals,” said
Phillips, who in 2009 was called the “leading consumer advocate
for online college students” by U.S. News & World Report.
WCU has offered a master’s degree program in human
resources since 1984. Based out of the College of Education
and Allied Professions, the program allows students to earn
the degree by completing 12 fully online courses. The master’s
degree program in project management, based in the College
of Business, is a two-year program designed for project
management professionals with a minimum of two years of
work experience.
“We are proud that this independent nationwide review of
online programs indicates that our graduate programs in human
resources and project management provide both high quality
and high value for our students,” said Mimi Fenton, interim
dean of Graduate School and Research at WCU. “We think the
accolades earned by these two programs are indicative of the
exceptional quality and value that can be found throughout
Western Carolina University’s graduate offerings.”
Winter 2013 | 7
A contingent from Western Carolina University’s natural
resource conservation and management program recently
provided a helping hand as The Nature Conservancy began
work to restore a bald high in the Plott Balsam Mountains
of Jackson County. Four students and two faculty members
from WCU were among a group of workers who hiked to the
summit of Yellow Face mountain to clear vegetation from an
area that was once an open grassy area, said Megan Sutton,
stewardship manager for the conservancy’s Asheville office.
Sutton said the Yellow Face summit, which rises to 6,032
feet on the crest of the Plott Balsams about a mile southwest of
Waterrock Knob, includes an area that was historically cleared
and that has now grown up in high-elevation blackberry and fire
cherries. The area is part of 1,595 acres known as the Krauss-
Stansbury tract that The Nature Conservancy purchased in
1997. The property borders two miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
“The work was focused on reopening the bald and reclaiming
that area,” Sutton said. “Our hope is to clear a larger area every
year.” The Nature Conservancy will probably not try to restore
the entire bald, but “just enough of it to retain the view-shed
and to maintain some early successional habitat,” she said.
Peter Bates, director of the NRCM program and head of
WCU’s Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources,
said WCU NRCM students have been holding a workday each
fall for the past six years to help maintain the trail that extends
down the Plott Balsam ridgeline from Waterrock Knob to
Blackrock, a peak overlooking the town of Sylva. That trail
passes across the Yellow Face summit.
Natu ral resources students
and faculty help restore a
mountain treasure
A rededication ceremony held
in September to celebrate a $15.5
million upgrade to Harrill Residence
Hall represented more than just the
latest in a series of construction and
renovation projects to provide students
with contemporary on-campus living
quarters. It also represented a major
step in the university’s commitment to
sustainability.
The yearlong project reconfigured
Harrill Hall, a 71,367-square-foot, 400-
bed facility originally constructed in
1971, into a 77,296-square-foot residence
hall with modern suites of rooms for
354 students. The renovation included
a 6,000-square-foot addition with an
upscale meeting venue. The building
also now features a geothermal heating
and air-conditioning system that
transfers heat absorbed by the earth via
geothermal wells to heat the building,
provide warm water for showers and
power the air-conditioning system. In
addition, exterior wall insulation and
canopies to control sunlight entering
the building were part of the project.
In the lobby is an energy dashboard
and interactive kiosk called “Eco Screen”
that enables students to view real-time
energy and water use information
for Harrill Hall, said Lauren Bishop,
campus energy manager. The 52-inch
screen displays a breakdown by floor
of water, lighting, plug loads and
the heating and cooling system. The
system also offers weather and event
information, details about the building’s
green features, and energy-saving and
conservation tips. “Students love seeing
and touching something that can seem
intangible like energy,” said Bishop.
The alterations qualify the building
for Leadership in Energy and
Harrill Hall renovation includes upgraded
living quarters and ‘green’ features
Environmental Design certification
at the gold level. Harrill is one of two
campus buildings designed or renovated
to meet LEED standards. The new
Health and Human Sciences Building,
which opened in the fall on WCU’s
new West Campus, was constructed to
qualify for LEED certification at the
silver level.
Taylor Medford, a senior from
Waynesville majoring in elementary
education, said students are impressed
with Harrill Hall’s transformation.
“It’s hard to believe you are in the same
building,” Medford said. Keith Corzine
’82, director of residential living, said as
a staff member and as an alumnus that it
means a lot to see new life breathed into
Harrill Hall. “There’s something very
special about taking an older building
and rejuvenating and modernizing it,”
Corzine said.
Nearly 4,000 WCU students live on
campus, and rooms accommodating
2,000 of them have been part of new
construction or renovation projects
within the last eight years, said Sam
Miller, vice chancellor for student
affairs. “That’s an incredible amount
in just eight years – to take half of our
housing capacity and upgrade it to this
level,” said Miller. “This was designed to
be a space for students to live and learn
in for many years to come.”
Harrill Hall is named in honor of
W.B. Harrill, who was credited with
building WCU’s summer school and
public relations programs over a 19-year
span, from 1947 to 1966.
A new facade and a 6,000-square-foot
addition are part of the improvements to
a renovated Harrill Hall.
Photo by John Witherspoon
8 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
former poet-in-residence is named to the N.C. Literary Hall of Fame
Western Carolina University’s former
poet-in residence is among three noted
writers inducted into the North Carolina
Literary Hall of Fame during a ceremony
in October at the Weymouth Center for
the Arts and Humanities in Southern
Pines. Kathryn Stripling Byer, the former
N.C. poet laureate who still makes her
home in Cullowhee, was among a 2012
class of inductees that also included
best-selling poet and memoirist Maya
Angelou and 18th-century explorer and
naturalist John Lawson.
Byer served as the state’s poet laureate
– the first woman to hold that role –
from 2005 to 2009. She has published
six books of poetry, with a seventh due
from the Louisiana State University
Press this fall. In addition to her time
at WCU, she was previously poet-in-residence
at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro and Lenoir-
Rhyne University.
A native of Georgia, Byer sets most of
her poems in the mountains of Western
North Carolina. She lives near campus
with her husband, Jim, retired faculty
member and former head of the WCU
Department of English.
Even after her time as WCU poet-in-
residence, Byer has remained active
and engaged in literary activities at the
university, said Brian Gastle, head of the
Department of English. “It is extremely
fitting that Kay receive this recognition,
since – more than virtually any poet I
know – she gives voice and language to
these mountains and this region. Hers
is a vision at once regional and global,
personal and universal, and she was
an exemplary poet laureate for North
Carolina. We were extremely fortunate
to have had her as a poet-in-residence
in the 1990s, and we have continued to
benefit from having her as a neighbor
and friend of the department for so
many years.”
Byer has been instrumental in the
university’s annual Spring Literary
Festival and in providing support for
the university, including mentorship of
emerging authors, he said. “Her weblogs,
‘Here, Where I Am’ and ‘My Laureate’s
Lasso,’ have brought attention and
exposure to many N.C. authors,” Gastle
said. “Kay has earned this honor not
only for being ‘the preeminent mountain
poet,’ as the N.C. Writers’ Network
calls her, but for being a truly superb
poet – period.”
Byer’s poetry, prose and fiction have
appeared widely, including publication
in the Hudson Review, Poetry, The
Atlantic, Georgia Review, Shenandoah
and Southern Poetry Review. Her first
book of poetry, “The Girl in the Midst
of the Harvest,” was published in the
Association of Writers and Writing
Programs Award Series in 1986, followed
by the Lamont (now Laughlin) prize-winning
“Wildwood Flower,” from
LSU Press. Her subsequent collections
have been published in the LSU Press
Poetry Series and received various
awards, including the Hanes Poetry
Award from the Fellowship of Southern
Writers, the Southern Independent
Booksellers Alliance Poetry Award and
the Roanoke-Chowan Award.
The NCLHOF was founded in 1996
under the leadership of poet laureate
Sam Ragan and is a program of the
North Carolina Writers’ Network.
–By Bill Studenc MPA ’10
A book published by the Princeton Review lists the WCU
College of Business among the nation’s best schools at which
to earn a master’s degree in business administration. The
education services company included the WCU college in
the 2013 edition of its guidebook, “The Best 296 Business
Schools,” which is based on surveys of 19,000 students in
business programs around the world.
“We consider Western Carolina one of the best institutions
a student could attend to earn an MBA,” said Robert Franek,
Princeton Review senior vice president and publisher. “We
selected the schools we profile in this book – 280 of which are in
the U.S.A. and 16 are international – based on our high regard
for their academic programs and our reviews of institutional
data we collect from the schools.”
The guidebook’s profile of WCU’s College of Business
says it provides “solid preparation” for students in finance
and management. Student who commented for the survey
said WCU’s MBA program has established “a reputation for
not being an ‘assembly-line’ program” and students get a
lot of personal attention from the “excellent,
accessible professors with relevant professional
experience.” One student said WCU offers a
“quality MBA program with experienced,
grounded faculty at a great price.”
The Princeton Review has featured Western
Carolina as home to a top MBA program for
several consecutive years, said Darrell Parker,
a Buncombe County native who became dean
of the College of Business in July. “We are always
pleased to see external validation and recognition of
the quality and distinctiveness of our graduate programs.
With our new facility in Biltmore Park, we will be able to
continue to expand our master of business administration
and master of accountancy programs to serve the region,”
Parker said. “WCU’s College of Business is well-positioned for
further expansion. Our graduates and their employers know
that when students complete a business degree at WCU, they
are business-ready.”
Princeton Review gives College of Business high marks
Winter 2013 | 9
For the first time in university history, total student
enrollment at Western Carolina topped 9,600 this fall. A
total of 9,608 students were on the books for the University of
North Carolina system’s official census day, representing a 2.7
percent increase over fall 2011 enrollment of 9,352. The previous
enrollment record of 9,429 was set in the fall semester of 2009.
Driving the growth in enrollment was an increase of 2.85
percent in the size of the freshman class and an improvement
in the university’s retention rate. The number of first-time,
full-time freshmen at WCU this fall is 1,550, up from the fall
2011 freshman class of 1,508. The average high school weighted
grade-point average for the freshman class this year is 3.63,
up slightly from last year’s overall freshman class GPA of 3.61
The university’s freshman retention rate – the percentage of
first-time, full-time undergraduate students who return for
their sophomore year – is 73.67 percent, an improvement over
last year’s retention rate of 72.03 percent.
University officials also attribute some of the growth
in enrollment to increased student interest in several
undergraduate programs, including engineering, health and
the human sciences. James Zhang, dean of the Kimmel School
of Construction Management and Technology, said that the
number of entering freshmen who have declared a major in
engineering or have signed up for pre-engineering courses
has doubled since fall 2011. Although some of those students
will change majors before officially entering the program, that
level of growth in one year signals that students are interested
in WCU’s new stand-alone engineering program, Zhang said.
The fall semester marked the first cohort of entering freshmen
since the UNC Board of Governors in February authorized
Western Carolina to offer the bachelor of science degree in
engineering with a concentration in electrical engineering.
WCU had previously partnered with UNC Charlotte to jointly
offer the bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering.
In addition, total enrollment in programs in the College
of Health and Human Sciences grew by 11 percent over the
previous year’s enrollment, with a 12.5 percent increase in
undergraduate enrollment. Students in those programs, which
were located across four buildings, are now studying in WCU’s
new Health and Human Sciences Building, a $46 million,
160,000-square-foot facility that features technologically
advanced clinical and laboratory spaces. (See related story
on page 26.)
WCU enjoys record enrollment with more than 9,600 students
There’s one less item on the “to-do list” for WCU’s new
provost, Angi Brenton, who came to campus in August faced
with the task of filling several top academic leadership positions
among her most-pressing priorities. Brenton announced in
October the appointment of James Zhang, who had been
serving as interim dean of the Kimmel School of Construction
Management and Technology since August 2011, as the school’s
permanent dean.
James Zhang named dean of the Kimmel School
“James Zhang is not only a respected leader on all parts
of the WCU campus, but also is a rising leader nationally
in the field of engineering education with the project-based
educational model he has championed,” Brenton said. Associate
dean of the Kimmel School since 2008, Zhang fills a vacancy
created by the departure of former dean Robert McMahan, who
was named president of Kettering University in Flint, Mich.,
last year. Zhang joined the WCU faculty in 2003 with more
than 10 years of industry experience in electrical engineering
research, development and management. From 2009 to
2010, he also served as interim head of the Department of
Construction Management.
“We are not the only university who sought James as a
leader, and we are extremely fortunate that he has chosen
WCU. I am confident that he will lead the Kimmel School
and the Center for Rapid Product Realization to even greater
achievements in the future,” said Brenton, who has named
search committees to help find the next permanent deans of
the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Health and
Human Sciences. Interim leaders also are serving as deans for
the College of Education and Allied Professions, Graduate
School and Research, and Division of Educational Outreach.
10 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Coastal storm surges – the rise of
water above sea level caused by high
winds – are responsible for the greatest
amount of casualties and property loss
from hurricanes, and Western Carolina
University faculty, staff and students are
collaborating on a website and mobile
app to record and help predict storm
surge severity. The project began when
Rob Young, director of WCU’s Program
for the Study of Developed Shorelines,
was considering the aftermath of 2005’s
disastrous Hurricane Katrina and how
to better predict and contact the public
about storm surges.
“It’s hard to believe that nobody was
compiling all the relevant data in one
place,” Young said. Information about
storms, especially meteorological/
weather data and post-storm flooding,
was being collected by agencies within
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and many other sources,
but there was no central collecting
point. Young and his students set about
building one, a relational database to be
hosted eventually by NOAA’s National
Climatic Data Center in Asheville.
One of those students was Katie
McDowell Peek ’07, who went on to
complete graduate studies and return
to PSDS as a research scientist. “Katie’s
done an incredible job in creating the
database from a complicated dataset,”
Young said. Storm landfall information
was imported from NOAA’s database;
water-level data was collected from more
than 30 sources. Then PSDS calculated
and added more from that information:
storm track straightness or curvature,
WCU’s shorelines program develops
a website and mobile phone app to predict
the impact of coastal storms
A committee tasked with conducting a rigorous examination
of the university’s Millennial Initiative and developing a
road map for how the regional economic and community
development effort should move forward has completed its
work and issued its final report. Among the recommendations
of the Millennial Initiative Select Committee, appointed by
WCU Chancellor David O. Belcher, is the appointment of “a
strong and energetic leader” whose sole task will be to manage
further development of the initiative.
The committee’s recommendations include selecting only
future private business and industry partners that are “a good
fit for the university,” stressing the importance of faculty
involvement in the initiative, and linking WCU student
learning to the activities of private partners.
“Of particular significance from my perspective is the
committee’s clear (and welcome) statement that the Millennial
Initiative must be grounded in the academic mission of the
institution with buy-in from the faculty if the endeavor is to be
as well as speed and angle of impact
on the shoreline. Records as far back
as 1928 yield information about 4,900
high-water marks associated with 40
hurricanes, “from Maine all the way
down to Texas,” Peek said.
The trick then became making
the raw data more useful, not only to
scientists, but to the general public as
well. “After Hurricane Katrina, we began
to realize there was a need to improve
how we predict and contact the public
about storm surges,” Peek said. “Our
challenge was to reach the average
person; get the information out to the
public in the best way.”
The answer was an interactive website
using Google Maps to display high-water
marks, pinpoint storm landfalls and plot
their tracks to shore. The site, called
the Storm Surge Viewer, was built by
mathematics and computer science
students Brian Lenau, Russell Gaskey
’11, Cristina Korb ’12, Brad Proctor
’11, Chris Blades ’11 and professors in
cooperation with WCU’s Information
Technology department. Still in beta-testing,
the site will grow in time as more
data – including information from the
recent Hurricane Isaac – are added.
Viewers can search for a particular
hurricane or storm by name or by
location and area radius, then select
surge/high-water marks and/or path.
“Our hope was that the website would
make it easier for coastal residents,
emergency planners and land developers
to have that information,” Peek said. To
make storm surge information even more
accessible, a team from the Department
of Mathematics and Computer Science is
working on a mobile phone application
for the Android operating system. PSDS
researchers plan to add even more
information to help make accurate surge
predictions. “I’d like to team up with
modelers of storm processes to address
open questions like why a big storm
sometimes produces a small surge,
and vice-versa,” Young adds. “In the
past, weather forecasters would simply
estimate storm surge based on the
category of the storm. We’ve found no
direct correlation from that by itself.”
–By Keith Brenton
Task force issues recommendations on Millennial Initiative progress
successful,” Belcher said. “This guidance resonates with my own
vision for our Millennial Initiative efforts, and I look forward
to digesting this report and exploring appropriate next steps
in order to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunity
that our Millennial Initiative affords us.”
Belcher had charged the committee, which first met in
January 2011, with three tasks: evaluate and propose strategic
uses and objectives of the Millennial Initiative, paying special
attention to its mission and Western North Carolina’s
opportunities, challenges and strengths; recommend a process
that will engage the institution and outside constituents in
considering and evaluating Millennial Initiative possibilities;
and propose both short- and long-term goals. Asheville attorney
Steve Warren ’80, former chair of the WCU Board of Trustees,
chaired the select committee, which consisted of 10 other
regional business, industry and education leaders.
The entire report can be found at the website millennial.wcu.edu.
Winter 2013 | 11
Catamount ATHLETICS
Three former student-athletes
representing four varsity sports were
welcomed into Western Carolina
University’s Athletic Hall of Fame
on Saturday, Nov. 3, becoming the
23rd induction class in WCU history.
Football’s Bill Stanley ’69 MAEd ’72,
two-sport star Eric Johnson ’04 and
Laura Tieszen Kamarainen ’05 of
women’s track and field were honored
during a variety of activities.
Stanley, a member of the Catamount
football from 1964 until 1969, enjoyed
a solid four-year career as both an
Three former
student-athletes are
welcomed into the
Athletic Hall of Fame
By DANIEL HOKER ’01
INDUCTIVE REASONING
offensive and defensive lineman under
head coach Dan Robinson ’50. Stanley
was a part of three consecutive teams
from 1964 through 1966 that finished
the year with a record above .500.
Playing for WCU in the old Carolinas
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference,
in 1967 he became the first, and only,
Catamount to win the Kirkland
Blocking Trophy.
The post-season accolades continued
in 1967 as Stanley was named to the
NAIA District 26 squad and was tabbed
All-NAIA along the offensive front. He
also received All-Carolinas Conference
kudos as a defensive tackle, becoming
the last Catamount to earn honors on
offense and defense in the same season.
Stanley went on to a career in
education, including a 27-year stint at
Halifax Community College in Weldon.
He began as the evening director in
1973, quickly progressing to serve as
Eric Johnson ’04, Laura
Tieszen Kamarainen ’05
and Bill Stanley ’69 MAEd
’72 display their Hall of
Fame plaques.
Bill Sta nley
12 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
with a team-best 118 tackles in 1998. In
2000, he was named a defensive back on
WCU’s 20th Century Football Team.
On the diamond, Johnson was a
first team All-SoCon selection in 1999,
pacing the squad with a school single-season
record 83 runs scored on 100 base
hits. Once on base, the speedy Johnson
remained a threat, collecting a school-record
46 stolen bases in 1999 – sixth in
the SoCon record books. Johnson is fifth
in program history with 59 combined
stolen bags. He was a two-time SoCon
All-tournament team honoree, in 1998
and 1999.
He was drafted by the Cleveland
Indians following the 1999 season,
selected in the third round with
107th overall pick – the highest for a
Catamount baseball player since 1993.
He remained in the Indians organization
for three years, progressing to the Class
A Kinston Indians before going back
to the gridiron, making the practice
squad with the Chicago Bears as a
defensive back in 2001. He returned to
the diamond in 2003-04 with the Boston
Red Sox organization, progressing to
the Sox’s Double-A affiliate in Portland.
A track and field standout from
2002 through 2005, Kamarainen
captured 13 All-Southern Conference
accolades during her four-year career,
winning in the pole vault, javelin and
the pentathlon/heptathlon events. She
was a six-time SoCon champion in the
women’s pole vault, including three
individual crowns split equally between
the indoor and outdoor seasons, also
claiming individual championships in
the outdoor heptathlon and the indoor
pentathlon in 2005.
Kamarainen, who continues to hold
both the league and school pole vault
record set in the 2004 SoCon outdoor
championship, was a three-time SoCon
Most Valuable Field Performer, earning
the recognition in both the 2004 indoor
and outdoor championships and again in
the 2005 outdoor championships. Also
during the 2004 outdoor championship
event, she collected a runner-up finish in
the college’s associate dean of evening
programs, dean of continuing education
and, in 1989, vice president of the
college. In 1999, Stanley was honored as
the college’s “administrator of the year.”
Under his direction, Halifax
Community College established a small
business center and industrial training
programs. He launched firefighter
training programs and provided
leadership to the campus in a statewide
restructuring and reengineering process
mandated by the North Carolina
Community College System. One of
his most-recognized accomplishments
was the organization and successful
implementation of the college’s pulp and
paper technology program - the only
one of its kind in the state community
college system.
Johnson was a two-sport athlete at
Western Carolina, playing both football
and baseball for the Catamounts from
1995 through 1999. A two-time All-
America selection, in 1997 and 1998,
Johnson is one of just two former
Catamount football players to earn
consensus first-team All-America
accolades, joining Kerry Hayes ’96,
who did so in 1993.
Johnson also was a two-time All-
Southern Conference first-team
selection on defense for the Catamounts,
while also garnering first-team league
plaudits in baseball. He is one of only five
student-athletes in Southern Conference
history to be named first-team All-
SoCon in football and baseball in the
same year. Additionally, as a rookie,
the Shallotte native was named to the
SoCon All-Freshman team.
Johnson remains tied for third
in WCU career history for tackles,
amassing 326 total hits including 219
solo stops. He holds two of the top
10 single-season tackle totals, and is
fourth with 128 hits in 1997 and ninth
the 2004 javelin throw en route to being
named field MVP at the meet.
A native of Rapid City, S.D.,
Kamarainen dominated the SoCon’s
indoor pole vault competition from 2003
through 2005, winning the event three
consecutive seasons. She additionally
competed in the pole vault at the junior
national level as a true freshman in
2002. Also, she held WCU’s record in
the indoor pentathlon from 2004 until
2010, collecting 3,102 points.
Combined, Kamarainen was a
three-time SoCon Athlete of the Week
selection between the indoor and
outdoor seasons, while also garnering
numerous Student-Athlete of the Week
honors recognizing her performance
both athletically and in the classroom.
She was also tabbed the league’s track
and field athlete of the month in
February of 2005.
“These three former student-athletes
are outstanding additions to our Hall
of Fame,” said Randy Eaton, director
of athletics. “Their accomplishments
in the athletic arena, in the academic
environment and in society exemplify
what it means to be a Catamount.”
Laura Tieszen Kamarainen
Eric Johnson
Winter 2013 | 13
Catamount
ATHLETICS
JERSEY? SURE!
A freshman gets the OK to
wear a legendary player’s
retired number
By TYLER NORIS GODE
Erika Joseph’s request was certainly bold. It even could be
considered a bit presumptuous. But the only person whose
opinion matters actually thought it was pretty darn cool that
the incoming freshman sought permission to wear the lone
retired jersey in Western Carolina women’s basketball history.
“I’m a coach, so I understand that numbers are special to
kids,” said Jayne Arledge ’79, an Enka High School graduate
who played at WCU from 1976-79. She’s starting her 34th
season as coach at North Greenville (S.C.). “If they feel like
that number is like a Superman’s ‘S’ on their chest, and if
that’s the number they feel like they can play their best in, I
say, ‘Go for it.’”
A 6-foot forward from Lilburn, Ga., Joseph has worn No.
25 since she began playing recreation league ball at age 8. She
sought permission from Arledge via email and formal letter
to continue wearing it and said she was ecstatic when Arledge
gave her the O.K.
The quest to put that number back in circulation ultimately
led to Joseph getting a crash course on WCU women’s hoops
history. “I now know (Arledge) is the all-time leading scorer
at Western,” said Joseph, who will be the first WCU women’s
player to wear 25 since it was retired in 2006. “She’s in the
(WCU) Hall of Fame, and she was the first female athlete to
get an athletic scholarship to Western Carolina.”
Arledge’s scholarship only covered roughly one-fourth of
her education, and she remembers being happy about getting
a pair of shoes in which to play the game. She scored all 1,928
career points before the NCAA offered championships in
women’s basketball.
Joseph acknowledged most women’s basketball players these
days don’t have a proper appreciation for what players like
Arledge endured. “I think it’s kind of lost on our generation,”
Joseph said. “We take for granted what people before us had to
work for and the barriers they had to knock down in order to
get where they were. We’re just blessed to have those barriers
knocked down for us.”
The first time Arledge wore No. 25 for the Catamounts,
she helped WCU beat Tennessee (77-72, Jan. 14, 1976, in
Cullowhee). Besides the all-time scoring mark, she holds three
other career records and tops a trio of single-season categories
at WCU. Her “retired” jersey hangs from the Ramsey Center
rafters alongside the uniforms of legendary WCU men’s players
Ronald Rogers, Henry Logan and Mel Gibson ’63 MAEd ’67.
Only time will tell what impact Joseph might have on
WCU’s program, but she is a “special talent,” said Coach Karen
Middleton. “She’s a tremendous rebounder,” Middleton said.
“She’s versatile. She’s crafty. Even though she’s not real tall for
a forward, she finds a way to get it done.”
Arledge certainly has high hopes for the young woman
who’s bringing No. 25 out of retirement. “It would suit me just
fine if by the time she’s done, her name hangs right up there
below mine,” she said.
Reprinted in edited format with permission of the Asheville Citizen-Times.
“It would suit
me just fine
if by the time
she’s done, her
name hangs
right up there
below mine.”
-Jayne Arledge ’79
Freshman Erika Joseph is wearing the once-retired
No. 25 of Jayne Arledge ’79 (inset).
14 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Former Catamount basketball
standout Kevin Martin is now a
member of the NBA’s Oklahoma City
Thunder after a multiplayer trade with
the Houston Rockets in late October,
just days before the beginning of the
regular season. The Thunder acquired
Martin, fellow guard Jeremy Lamb, two
first-round draft picks and a second-round
draft pick in exchange for
Houston’s James Harden, Cole Aldrich,
Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward.
In his ninth season as a professional,
the 6-foot-7 Martin has been one of the
most effective scorers in the league,
first with the NBA’s Sacramento Kings
and later with the Rockets. He has
averaged 18.4 points, 3.5 rebounds
and 2.1 assists per game for his career,
THUNDERSTRUCK
Former Catamount joins Oklahoma City’s NBA team
and is one of only two active NBA
players, along with Dwight Howard,
to average at least 18 career points
per game on 13 or fewer field goal
attempts per game.
“(Martin) is one of the most efficient
offensive players in the NBA over the
last several years,” said Sam Presti,
general manager of the Thunder. “He’s
a guy that draws fouls at an incredibly
high rate. He is a guy that has a great
feel for the game, understands how
to score and knows the league. Our
coaching staff has some history with
him and knows him intimately. They
were confident and excited about
having him.”
Oklahoma City advanced to the
NBA championship series last season,
falling in five games to the Miami Heat.
“I’m coming to an organization and a
team that is building a great tradition
with a great supporting cast and
community,” Martin said in a story
on the Thunder’s website. “I just think
they have the right makings for any
player to want to come play for them.”
After arriving in Cullowhee from
Zanesville, Ohio, Martin needed only
three seasons to rack up 1,838 career
points – and to catch the eyes of NBA
scouts. Following his junior season,
Martin was drafted by the Sacramento
Kings as the 26th selection in the
first round of the 2004 NBA draft,
becoming the first Catamount ever
selected in the first round of any
professional draft.
Photo by Richard A. Rowe / Oklahoma City Thunder Winter 2013 | 15
Catamount
ATHLETICS
On the heels of the inaugural “Catamounts Unite Tour” that ventured across
the region during the winter of 2012, Western Carolina’s athletics department has
announced plans for the second annual – and expanded – tour coming next spring.
Director of Athletics Randy Eaton, Head Football Coach Mark Speir MAEd ’95
and Head Men’s Basketball Coach Larry Hunter, as well as several other Catamount
coaches, will travel across North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, reaching
out to members of the Catamount Nation.
“It has become apparent to me over the course of my first year as AD that we in
athletics have not done a real good job in the past reaching out to our supporters.
Not only has this left many feeling neglected, but we have been unable to share our
story about the great young people we have wearing the purple and gold,” said Eaton.
“My hope is that these tour stops will allow us again to share our vision of today,
tomorrow and beyond, while adding to the tremendous energy that currently exists
within our fan base. Only by getting everyone recommitted to our success will we
be able to meet our goals in the future.”
The 2013 version of the Catamounts Unite Tour series of receptions is designed to
allow Eaton, Speir and Hunter – as well as other Catamount coaches – to meet with
WCU alumni, supporters and Catamount fans as they craft together the vision and
direction of Catamount Athletics.
The two-month, 12-stop tour is scheduled to kick off Wednesday, March 27, in the
Piedmont/Triad of North Carolina in Greensboro and culminate with a Tuesday,
May 21, stop in the Upstate of South Carolina. Along the way, the tour includes in-state
visits to the Catawba Valley region, as well as Raleigh, Charlotte and Shelby.
The tour will reach Catamount fans in Western North Carolina with stops slated
for Andrews, Franklin, Asheville/Hendersonville, Haywood County and Sylva. The
tour also will make an April 5 visit to Atlanta.
UNITED KINGDOM
Plans are in the works for this spring’s
second annual athletics department tour
By DANIEL HOKER ’01
The Western Carolina men’s
basketball team created an instant
classic when it took heavily favored
Davidson down to the wire before
losing in double-overtime in the finals
of last year’s Southern Conference
Tournament in Asheville. With the
team’s run in last year’s tournament
and the event returning to Asheville in
March, Catamount fans eagerly await
the 2012-13 season.
From pregame gatherings at a
popular downtown restaurant and
brew pub through the crowd-pleasing
SoCon basketball tourney returns to Asheville in March
2013 Catamounts Unite Tour
March 27 – Greensboro
March 28 – Raleigh
April 4 – Andrews
April 5 – Atlanta
April 11 – Catawba Valley
April 18 – Haywood County
April 19 – Sylva
May 1 – Shelby
May 6 – Charlotte
May 14 – Franklin
May 16 – Asheville/Hendersonville
May 21 – Greenville, S.C.
(Subject to change)
For more information or to RSVP, contact Stefanie Conley ’08, director of corporate
sponsorships and special events for WCU athletics, at 828.227.2335 or by email
at slconley@wcu.edu.
halftime performances of WCU’s Purple
Thunder drumline and dance team,
Catamount fans painted the city purple
for the duration of the tournament.
The Catamount athletics department
is making plans to recapture the magic
of 2012, as the 2013 SoCon men’s and
women’s basketball championships tip
off in Asheville on March 8-11.
All men’s games will be played at the
6,500-seat US Cellular Center. The first
two days of the women’s tournament will
be played at UNC Asheville’s Kimmel
Arena, with the semifinals and final
To purchase tickets or
for more information,
call the Catamount
athletics ticket office
at 800.34.GOWCU
or 828.227.2401.
Stay up-to-date at
catamountsports.com.
being played in conjunction with the
men’s tournament at the US Cellular
Center.
General admission tickets are
available now through the WCU
athletics ticket office. All-session passes
are on sale for $90 each, for admission
to every men’s and women’s session
during the tournament. Fans who
purchase the first 50 all-session passes
also will receive wristbands allowing
them sit behind the team bench for all
Catamount men’s games. Single session
tickets also are available for $18.
16 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Winter 2013 | 17
Santa James “Jim” Lewis ’77
When he’s not at the North Pole: Asheville.
Santa since: 1978, when he was stationed at Naval Medical Center in San Diego and served as an
impromptu Santa at a staff party.
Gigs at: The Biltmore House and Grove Park Inn; corporate parties and private events.
Memorable moment: “Being able to visit a 6-year-old girl with a terminal disease. She was so
excited to see me that a visit scheduled for 30 minutes lasted more than two hours. When I called
her mother in January to see how the little girl was, she had passed away four days after our visit.”
Santa fact: Lewis believes that a big part of being Santa is helping parents recall their own happy
memories of childhood.
SANTA John A. “Tony” Chapin ’69
When he’s not at the North Pole: Durham.
Santa since: 2003. The following year, he turned professional after a close friend treated him to a
class at Michigan’s prestigious Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School.
Gigs at: Brier Creek Commons shopping center in Raleigh, Hope Valley Country Club in Durham
and Crossroads Plaza in Cary.
Memorable moment: “When a child’s face lights up at an unexpected sighting of Santa.”
Santa fact: His business cards feature him in his red suit and the words “I met Santa!”
Santa James “Jim” Hastings ’69
When he’s not at the North Pole: Durham.
Santa since: 2007, when he retired after 30 years as a special education teacher and trainer with
Durham Public Schools.
Gigs at: Company, community and family parties; the Streets at Southpoint shopping center in Durham.
Memorable moment: “I became a Santa after a small child thanked me for her Christmas presents. From
then on, I had to be THE man in the red suit.”
Santa fact: Wife Barbara Hastings ’69 handmade her husband’s custom red wool suit.
es, Catamounts, there is a Santa Claus.
In fact, there are at least three of them. Tony Chapin ’69, Jim Hastings ’69 and Jim Lewis ’77
all are real-bearded professional Santas who work year-round spreading the holiday spirit.
In July, they broke away from Santa conventions and Claus committees for some R&R in
Cullowhee, where they toned up, cooled down and swapped stories before the busy season.
And what a jolly old time it was.
18 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
A Santa’s got to eat, you know. At top
left, the Santas talk, toast and get crumbs
in their beards at an eatery along the
Tuckaseigee River in Cullowhee.
Before Christmas with all the
trimmings, there’s pre-Christmas
trimming (middle left). The Santas shape
up (and perform a few team-building
exercises) with laps in WCU’s Campus
Recreation Center.
It’s hot in the ’Whee! When broiling
summer temps threaten to wilt the
Santas – more accustomed to the North
Pole’s frigid climes – the flagging fellows
revive by dipping their toes
in Cullowhee Creek.
Way to keep cool, Santas!
BY JILL INGRAM MA ’08
magazine.wcu.edu
Winter 2013 | 19
Drummer
BOY
Little
Elijah McMeans and
his mother, Heather,
watch the Pride of the
Mountains perform
(above); Justin Holmes
lets Elijah play a
few beats as Matt
Henley ’93 MA ’95
and members of the
drumline cheer him on
(below, left).
When Heather McMeans noticed the signs advertising a high
school marching band competition near her home in the Enka
community of Buncombe County earlier this year, she saw it
as yet another chance to support her son in a musical interest
he has enjoyed for the majority of his young life. Little did the
single mother know that the event would spark a friendship
between her 5-year-old boy, Elijah, and members of WCU’s
Pride of the Mountains Marching Band drumline.
“Elijah has been drumming on anything and everything
since he was 2,” McMeans said. “Having nothing to compare
it to, I didn’t realize there was really something there with his
interest and skill level until we started drum lessons recently.
I just recognized my son had a passion for something so, as
his mom, I wanted to present opportunities for him to explore
that interest more.”
It was with that goal in mind that she took Elijah to the
local marching band festival where the Pride of the Mountains
was performing in exhibition. “My son brought his drum
sticks – some kids have a blankie, we have drumsticks – so he
could play ‘air drums’ along with the bands,” she said. After
the WCU band’s performance, which McMeans said left her
son “mesmerized,” several members of the drumline noticed
the little boy holding drumsticks and came over to talk to the
fledgling percussionist. One bandsman let Elijah play a few
beats on his drums. “These guys were so kind to my son,” she
said. “My son even showed them how he can flip his sticks,
too. It was just an awesome experience for a little 5-year-old
drummer who has big dreams.”
Elijah’s awesome experience did not end there, however.
The Pride of the Mountains invited him and his mother to
attend the annual Tournament of Champions invitational
competition hosted at WCU in October. There, prior to the
band’s exhibition show, Elijah become an honorary member
of the Pride’s drumline, receiving a certificate of membership,
Lo-fi tumblr
helvetica
semiotics,
gastropub Austin
artisan pop-up
wayfarers.
official WCU drumsticks, a drumline T-shirt and, perhaps
most meaningful, a pendant featuring a metal “W” made
from a cymbal once played by a drumline member. “He’s one
of us. We were all like Elijah, 4 or 5 years old and drumming
on things,” said percussionist Victor Perez, a senior from
Spartanburg, S.C., majoring in music education. “With the
‘W’ pendants, we all carry a piece of our past with us every
time we play. And now so will he.”
Matt Henley ’93 MA ’95, assistant band director
and drumline leader, presented Elijah with the honorary
membership. “We were lucky enough to run into this little guy,
this aspiring 5-year-old drummer, who has become a buddy of
ours,” said Henley. “As members of a university music program,
we try to inspire young people to get excited about music, to
get excited about drumming. Hopefully, we lit a fire under
this kid and one day he’ll be standing up here like these guys.”
That “one day” actually proved to be just a few minutes
later, when Elijah banged out several beats as members of the
drumline whooped and hollered their approval. Afterward,
WCU drummers spoke of their musical connection to the
5-year-old. “I hope we have inspired him, but what he probably
doesn’t know is that he inspires us,” said Hunter Black, a senior
music major from Enka. “Sometimes you forget why you do
this, why you put in the long hours of practice. Things like
this, like meeting Elijah, make us feel good, make us feel like
we’re doing something that matters.” Ryan Hill, a sophomore
music major from Morganton, echoed that sentiment. “Elijah
reminds me of me. I was in a car seat banging everything in
reach when I was a child. I can see a bright future if he keeps it
up,” Hill said. “This has made us feel like we are actually giving
back to the community and influencing someone else’s life.”
That’s what has meant so much to Elijah’s mom. “Very
seldom do people stop and acknowledge another person.
We’re a busy society and often do not want to be bothered.
Here, the opposite happened,” she said. “These guys stopped,
they dropped what they were doing, and they made a little
5-year-old boy feel like he was one of them. The dreams that
seem to be planted in my son’s heart were nurtured and the
impact these guys have made is absolutely priceless. This is an
experience my son is old enough to remember the rest of his
life.” Elijah refers to the WCU drummers as his “new buddies,”
she said, and “he can spot a WCU magnet or decal on a car
a mile away now.”
For Henley and his drummers, their encounter with little
Elijah is another example of the band’s philosophy of “pay it
forward.” Or, perhaps the group’s overarching viewpoint is
best summed up by the title of the Pride of the Mountains’
2012 field show, “How We Roll,” McMeans suggested. “If that’s
how these guys roll all the time, they will be great examples
to younger generations and will do well in life,” she said.
The marching band’s percussion
section finds a kindred soul in a
stick-spinning 5-year-old
By BIL STUDENC MPA ’10
magazine.wcu.edu
Winter 2013 | 21
R
34
Gerald D. Austin ’64 MAEd ’69 felt like he had been on the receiving end of a very personal foul a few
years ago after a letter from the National Football League arrived at his Summerfield home informing
him that his days as an NFL game official were over. Austin, who was then 67 and the senior official in
the league experience-wise, wasn’t surprised at being taken off the field and put out to pasture after
26 years of officiating NFL games, including 18 years as a referee – the head official. But that didn’t
make it any easier. He had been officiating sporting events for more than 50 years. “I got a great deal
of satisfaction and enjoyment out of being an NFL official,” he said. “When I ran out of that tunnel and
onto the field, there was no place I’d rather be.”
But, after sitting out four seasons as a league retiree, Austin
is back making calls during the current NFL season – not down
on the field but up in the broadcast booth. He’s been traveling
to a game each week to work as an on-air “rules analyst” beside
announcers Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden during the ESPN
network’s “Monday Night Football” broadcasts.
Austin’s life in striped shirts started when he was a 10th-grader
at Erwin High School near Asheville and began
officiating basketball games for seventh- and eighth-graders.
After earning education degrees at Western Carolina and his
doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro,
Austin embarked on a 31-year career in education that began
with him teaching in Buncombe County and included stints
as a high school principal and associate superintendent of
schools in Guilford County.
As a game official, Austin worked his way up through
the ranks from high school to college. He served nine years
as a football and basketball official for the Atlantic Coast
Conference before getting the call to move up to the NFL
in 1982. His years in the league wearing the striped shirt
and No. 34 included three Super Bowls (one as side judge
and two as the referee), six conference championship games
and three Pro Bowls. In 2005, Austin received the NFL’s Art
McNally Award, given to a game official who exhibits exemplary
professionalism, leadership and commitment to sportsmanship
on and off the field. He was inducted into the N.C. Sports Hall
of Fame two years later, and his other honors include the WCU
Alumni Association’s Award for Academic and Professional
Achievement (he currently serves on the association board)
and selection earlier this year as the NFL Referees Association’s
A retired NFL referee has joined
the broadcast team for ‘Monday
Night Football ’
Photo courtesy of Gerald D. Austin
Gerald D. Austin ’64 MAEd
’69 (center) pals around with
ESPN booth buddies Jon
Gruden (left) and Mike Tirico.
By RANDALl HOLCOMBE
Winter 2013 | 23
“2012 Annual Honoree” in recognition of his on-field work
and support for that organization.
Austin has served as coordinator of officials for college
football’s Conference USA for 12 years, and it was through
that affiliation that doors opened for him to join the “Monday
Night Football” crew. For every college bowl game, Austin
said, the NCAA requires the network broadcasting the game
to have in the broadcast booth a representative from the
conference that is providing the game officials, to interpret
college rules for announcers who often come from an NFL
background. Conference USA provided the officials for last
January’s Outback Bowl, and Austin served as rules analyst
for Tirico and Gruden as they worked the matchup between
Michigan State and Georgia. “Two weeks later, producer Jay
Rothman called me about being the rules analyst for ‘Monday
Night Football,’” Austin said. “I told him I’d love to do that.”
Having an on-air rules analyst available to assist NFL football
announcers is a trend that started in 2010.
The MNF season began with an exhibition game Aug. 7
(which happened to be a Tuesday) and ends with Atlanta at
Detroit on Saturday, Dec. 22. Austin, part of an ESPN crew of
150 people who travel to game sites each week, said he wasn’t
nervous before the first broadcast, adding that football officials
are typically so intently concentrating on managing the game
that they don’t get antsy about being in front of television
cameras. But still, “I told myself before the first game that if
I screw up now, everybody’s going to know about it,” he said.
Tirico discussed the talents of his new booth-mate on the
ESPN blog “Front Row.” “To have as great an expert as Gerry
Austin, with his on-field experience, to pop in when something
happens to clearly and concisely explain what is going on is
a great addition to our ‘Monday Night’ team,” Tirico said.
Comparing his current duties in the booth with his work
on the field, Austin said the concentration that he gives each
play during the MNF broadcasts is similar to what he had to
do as an active official. He has to be prepared to analyze calls
and interpret rules any time a flag is thrown. When he is called
upon to provide on-air input, sometimes fans at home see
Austin in the booth, while other times they just hear his voice.
Throughout the game, whenever a flag hits the field, Austin
uses body language to let Tirico and Gruden know when he
believes a questionable call has occurred.
The eyes of sports fans across the nation became more
focused than ever on NFL officiating as the current season
began, with the league using “replacement refs” to officiate
games for the preseason and first three weeks of the regular
season during a league lockout of unionized officials. Austin
was in the booth for the broadcast of the now-infamous Green
Bay Packers-Seattle Seahawks matchup, when the game ended
with what many saw as a botched call, giving Seattle a 14-12
win. NFL junkies were outraged by that call and others around
the country, clamoring for the dispute between the NFL and
regular officials to end. Even the nation’s president weighed
in on the matter. “That was just the end of the game,” Austin
told the Greensboro News & Record. “There was any number
of calls throughout the game that were ruled incorrectly. That
was just the one everybody’s going to remember.”
Austin worked a total of 525 games during his days as an NFL
official, so being on the road for the 20-game MNF broadcast
season is nothing new for him. “I enjoy being in whatever city
we’re in, even though usually all you ever see is the airport,
hotel and stadium,” he said. Austin’s wife, Sylvia, has traveled
with him several times this fall, and the two have stayed over
in some cities for several days after the game.
Austin said he has enjoyed working with Tirico and Gruden,
“terrific people who go out of their way to accommodate fans
when they ask for autographs or photos,” and is gratified to be
back at the NFL games, where his goal remains “to get the call
right.” But this grandfather of eight and great-grandfather of
seven still feels the tug of the striped shirt. “I can tell you that
the fire still burns in me,” he said. “I miss the camaraderie
with other officials and being out on the field. If the NFL
called me today and told me to start officiating again, I would
be ready to go.”
“I told myself before the first game
that if I screw up now, everybody’s
going to know about it.”
Austin patrols his turf during his days as a National Football
League referee.
Photo courtesy of Gerald D. Austin
Hard work and determination coupled with a million-dollar
smile have helped land Beth McDade ’02 right in the spotlight.
A communication major at Western Carolina who scored an
internship with ABC affiliate WLOS-TV in Asheville while
a student, McDade certainly has put in the hours behind the
camera. Earlier this fall, years of effort put her in front of the
camera as she made her debut with the “Worldwide Leader
in Sports” as a college football sideline reporter through the
ESPN network’s online streaming outlet, ESPN3.
“My degree from Western Carolina has opened up so many
doors for me,” McDade said. “Coming from a small town, WCU
really changed my life. Without so many people’s love and
support – the professors, sorority sisters, WCU alumni – I’m
not sure I would have made it to where I am today.”
Originally from Trinity, near Greensboro in Randolph
County, McDade comes from a football family. Her father,
David McDade, signed to play football at Clemson in the late
1970s. Younger sister, Madison, is a kicker on her middle
school football team.
McDade said that her longing to become a broadcast
journalist began at a young age. Growing up in the Piedmont,
she spent a lot of time with her grandparents. During the
1980s, the family purchased its first video camera. Little did
they know that it would plant a seed that would later grow
into a profession.
“Having that video camera was a big deal,” said McDade.
“My grandfather bought it and was so proud of it. When I was
4, he would go into the den and set up one of those old metal
TV trays. He would take a note card, bend it in half and write
‘Channel 8’ – our local TV station – and Granddaddy would
videotape me pretending to do the news.” Those childhood
“broadcasts” would generally follow the same script, she said.
“The weather today is … and I love my granddaddy because ….”
Several years after those living-room recordings, McDade
became involved in dance and theater, taking summer classes
at the North Carolina School of the Arts throughout her time
at Trinity High School. Following graduation, she chose WCU
for the next step of her life. But that major leap to further her
education in the mountains was not an easy one. Many in her
family believed that instead of attending college more than
four hours away from home, she needed to join the work force
right after high school. But she wanted to go to college and
ultimately made the decision to come to Cullowhee. Through
her four years, determined to stay in school, McDade worked up
to three jobs at one point while enrolled as an undergraduate.
“I was as stubborn as a mule,” she said. “Getting the degree
was all I could think about.”
While at WCU, she rekindled her desire to work in journalism.
She pursued an internship at WLOS, where she worked alongside
Mike Bettes – the station’s chief meteorologist who now is
employed at The Weather Channel in Atlanta. Bettes, who
remains a mentor for McDade, described her as “a go-getter”
and someone “driven by her passion to be a great journalist.”
“Beth has a great personality that the camera adores and she
has always liked sports, so she’s a natural for ESPN,” Bettes said.
“I can see her being there for a long time. I could also see her
branching out into other sports, too. She’s a big NASCAR fan.”
After graduation, McDade was offered a position with WLOS
starting out on weekends. Faced with a fork in the road, she
declined the job offer and chose a different path, taking a
position with a pharmaceutical sales company. Yet on the
side, she continued taking occasional broadcast jobs. Being
in front of the camera was never far from McDade’s mind. “I
would always think about that TV tray and my granddaddy,
who was so proud to film me,” she said.
In 2011, McDade’s career path took a drastic turn. A
celebrity photographer from the West Coast took some
professional pictures of McDade, which started her back on
her journey in the broadcast world. She landed several stints
in Las Vegas conducting celebrity interviews, working with
camera equipment and gaining
more knowledge, experience and
contacts within the industry.
“I remember when she called me
and told me she wanted to get back
into broadcasting. I thought, ‘Oh
boy! You’re crazy,’” said Bettes. “It’s
a cutthroat business that is so tough
to make inroads. Honestly, I thought
about talking her out of it, but she
was determined to make a go of it
– and she did. I had my doubts but
can say she proved me wrong and I couldn’t be more proud.”
From the deserts of Las Vegas back to the East Coast,
McDade continued to pursue her dream of working in broadcast
journalism. She worked on other projects and built a portfolio
until a fateful outing in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
McDade was reporting a golf story at Kiawah Island titled
“The Basics of Golf.” The right people saw her report, which
channeled her to ESPN. From there, she worked her way into her
broadcast position, making her professional debut on ESPN3
during the William and Mary versus Maryland game.
“I guess I always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up,
yet I never realized how important it was to follow your heart
until I got older. Being a journalist was all I ever wanted to
do,” McDade said. “I am proud to represent Western Carolina
University in my position on the sidelines with ESPN3.”
Bettes, who has witnessed his share of WCU alumni entering
the broadcast profession, said he is glad to see McDade pursuing
her dream. “All of her successes wouldn’t have been possible
without the solid foundation she got at WCU. She’s a shining
example of what every Catamount should be,” he said.
“Honestly, I thought about talking her
out of it, but she was determined to
make a go of it – and she did. I had
my doubts but can say she proved me
wrong and I couldn’t be more proud.”
– Mike Bettes of The Weather Channel
BROADCAST
NEWSBy DANIEL HOOKER ’01
An ESPN sideline reporter’s career path goes
back to make-believe newscasts in the family den PhPhoottoo ccoouruterstye osfy B eotfh MBceDtahd eMcDade
Winter 2013 | 25
By TERESA KILIAN TATE
26 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
The state-of-the-art labs, classrooms and community
spaces in the first building on WCU’s West Campus promote
collaboration, partnerships and service
Outside, metallic sunshades stretch like giant blinds across the Health and Human
Science Building’s walls of windows – letting in natural light while regulating heat in an
energy-efficient way. Inside, students use computers at tall café tables in a multistory
atrium, gather with study groups or professors in nooks and crannies throughout the
building or take a break on the rooftop garden. Deeper inside, they work together and
exchange ideas in dozens of high-tech laboratories, classrooms, seminar rooms, study
areas and clinical spaces – all designed to offer extraordinary educational experiences
and support a range of new, interprofessional collaborations.
Winter 2013 | 27
Physical therapy and
nursing students learn how
their respective disciplines
work to assess and
mobilize patients.
ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES: Three
years after the $46 million building’s
official groundbreaking, the four-story,
160,000-square-foot facility nestled into
a mountainside has opened to more than
1,000 students, faculty and staff from
WCU’s College of Health and Human
Sciences. Now under one roof are
colleagues in nursing, physical therapy,
communication sciences and disorders,
social work, athletic training, emergency
medical care, environmental health,
nutrition and dietetics, and recreational
therapy programs.
“The possibilities in the new
building are endless, especially for
collaborative work involving students
and faculty from different programs,”
said Marie Huff, interim dean of the
College of Health and Human Sciences.
“Professionals in health and human
sciences fields do not work in silos.
They work more efficiently and more
effectively when they collaborate to
help a patient or client. Whatever we
can do to encourage learning from an
interprofessional perspective is only
going to be better for our students and
everyone they will serve.”
The facility, which opened this fall
and will be dedicated Thursday, Feb.
28, already has won over students.
Despite spending almost every day
for eight weeks in the new Health and
Human Sciences Building, athletic
training student Kyra Dodson said
she still can’t say enough good things
about it. “First of all, the classrooms are
amazing,” said Dodson. “The labs are
huge. We can spread out. Everyone is
together instead of working separately
with some of us in the hall or different
classrooms. The whole building enables
more collaboration. We would have
study groups meeting in the lobby and
other places. During our lunch breaks
we would go outside to get some fresh
air. The rooftop garden is one of my
favorite parts. It just brings so much
personality to the building, which is
so more than just a ‘normal’ building.”
“WCU will be on the leading edge of educating
the next generation of health care professionals.”
–Bruce D. Thorsen, President, Missi on Healthcare Foundation
28 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
A secure insectary and research lab in the new
Health and Human Sciences Building is helping make
it possible for students and faculty to fill a need for
research related to mosquito-borne illnesses in Western
North Carolina.
Legislative budget cuts in 2011 led to shuttering of
the N.C. Public Health Pest Management Section of
the North Carolina Department of Environment and
Natural Resources “This has created a significant void
in the state that left many other state and local agencies
scrambling to coordinate control activities related to
mosquito control,” said Brian Byrd, a public health
biologist and assistant professor of environmental
health. “This is an area where I feel WCU may play
a vital role in the education of local environmental
health professionals and provide resources and lab
capacity to enhance local response and education
efforts. To work with mosquitoes safely, we needed an
appropriate laboratory infrastructure and protocols to
prevent them from escaping.”
The focus of the new laboratory is to address needs
for surveillance, prevention and response of La Crosse
encephalitis, the most common human mosquito-borne
disease in North Carolina. La Crosse encephalitis
can cause brain swelling, seizures, coma and even
death. Features of the new lab space include a secure,
two-door entry in which a whoosh of air blows down
as visitors enter and exit to prevent any mosquitoes
from leaving the premises. The facility will expand the
capabilities of WCU students who have, since August
2008, presented related research at 25 national, regional
and state venues.
Currently, Tyler McKinnish, a senior from Canton
majoring in biology, is using molecular methods to
examine the validity of methods to indentify two
similar-looking mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus.
McKinnish said he is particularly grateful for the extra
storage and bench space. “That has been the greatest
thing for my project – the ability to spread out a bit
and to easily and efficiently access the reagents that I
use,” he said. For Michael Riles, a senior from Miami,
the lab has made it easier to complete his work
investigating where particular types of the mosquitoes
capable of carrying the virus lay their eggs and
examining methods to distinguish two closely related
species of the mosquitoes.
THE BUZZ: the study of mosquito-borne
disease benefitS from
insectary and lab
Chairs equipped with tables for laptops or books enable students to study and work in the
building’s multistory atrium.
GOING WEST: The facility is the first
to be constructed on WCU’s West
Campus, 344 acres across N.C. Highway
107 from the main campus acquired in
2005 as part of the Millennial Initiative.
A comprehensive regional economic
development strategy, the Millennial
Initiative promotes working on campus
with private industry and government
partners to enhance hands-on student
learning and collaborative research. The
initiative already is coming to life in the
new building in such ways as making
space available within the building’s
interdisciplinary clinic on the first floor
for a sports medicine clinic in which
physical therapy and athletic training
students will get hands-on experience.
The mission of the interdisciplinary
clinic is to offer specialized diagnostic
and rehabilitative services that address
needs in the community in a way that
enhances and emphasizes student
education and training. Already
operating there is WCU’s nationally
recognized Speech and Hearing
Clinic, which serves clients from the
community and involves students
studying communication sciences and
disorders. Bill Ogletree, head of the
communication sciences and disorders
department, said the new space offers
more treatment rooms, more ability to
observe sessions and more opportunity
to collaborate with the physical therapy
and recreational therapy programs.
“The new clinic allows us to expand
the solid interface we have between
the academic side and the clinic side,”
said Ogletree. “Our students are getting
a rich experience, and it’s only going
to get better and better as there are
more interprofessional opportunities.”
Another space will be used for a Balance
and Fall Prevention Clinic expected to
open this spring. In addition, WCU is
exploring partnerships, including one
that could enable a free community
medical clinic to serve patients at the
HHS building.
Meanwhile, the second floor of the
building hosts an atrium with floor-to-
ceiling windows that look out on
the mountains, a community seminar
room with the capacity to seat 175
people, a 100-person auditorium and a
coffee shop/restaurant. Just outside is a
rooftop garden featuring native plants
indigenous to the region, an element
of the energy-efficient design that is
positioning the building for certification
at the silver level in LEED, or Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design,
from the U.S. Green Building Council.
For athletic training student Nichole
Eads, the space offered a sense of
sanctuary during the eight weeks of
intensive coursework before going
to a clinical site. “It was pretty in the
morning walking up and seeing the
mountains,” said Eads.
Throughout the building are faculty
offices, study spaces, classrooms,
seminar rooms and 21 specialized labs.
They include a secure insectary, which is
a laboratory for the study of live insects,
Winter 2013 | 29
Meghan Colescott,
a student in an
etiology class within
the environmental
health program, looks
at a sample under a
microscope.
complete with double-door entry and
fans at the entrance powerful enough
to prevent any specimens from escape.
The measures are needed to allow for
safe research of mosquitoes that carry
illnesses such as La Crosse encephalitis.
They also include facilities such as a
quantity foods lab that enables nutrition
and dietetics students to get experience
on campus that they previously had to
go off campus to acquire. In the lab,
students use industrial-grade equipment
such as ovens, mixers and skillets to
learn about preparing quantities of
food for hospitals, nursing homes or
schools where there are a range of special
diet considerations, said Wayne Billon,
director of the nutrition and dietetics
program. “When our students go
into food service management, they
are expected to know how to use this
equipment,” said Billon.
HIGH-TECH TOOLS: Some of the most
heavily used labs are the simulation
laboratories in which students work with
mock patients or mechanical patient
simulators, including a “SimBaby,”
in settings from hospital rooms to
apartments. Macey Bright, a nursing
student from Forest City, said those
experiences were valuable. “We did a
respiratory assessment on the manikins
in the lab, and our professors set them to
have rales, rhonchi, wheezes and other
abnormalities that we would be assessing
for in our patients,” said Bright. “After
hearing these sounds in the manikins, I
was much more comfortable going into
the clinical and doing assessments on
my patients. We also were able to see
some of what the SimBaby could do,
such as turning blue, swelling of the
tongue and what happens when a baby’s
lung collapses.”
The building also has specially
designed features, such as space
for environmental health students
returning from gathering samples
in muddy, wet environments and an
ambulance pad built into the back of the
emergency medical care lab. In addition,
a hydrotherapeutic pool donated by
MedWest – Harris is on-site for teaching
and performing aquatic therapy. The
pool features jets that create current,
an underwater treadmill and video
cameras to record clients’ movements.
The features are particularly useful for
people such as injured athletes who need
a safe way to train and older adults who
have balance and fall issues and need
help improving their gait, regaining
their strength and expanding their range
of motion. The pool will enable athletic
training, recreational therapy and
physical therapy students to learn about
30 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
From left, Brenda Marques, associate professor, and Laura Parker, nutrition and dietetics student,
work in the quantity foods lab.
GOING GREEN: LEED certification
sought for new building
Daylight bounces into the interior corridors of
the new Health and Human Sciences Building while
the reflective surfaces of the roof and rooftop garden
keep heat absorption at bay. Such details position the
building designed by Asheville-based architects with
Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee to meet the U.S. Green
Building Council’s standards for Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design, or LEED, at the silver level.
Its “green” features include:
Overall design – To minimize impact on the site,
the building’s footprints respond to existing contours
of the mountainside.
Reduction in copper – The use of hydroelectric
power and electric heat system enabled a reduction
in the amount of copper piping needed.
Natural light – The orientation of the windows
and the pattern of the exterior sun screens allow for
natural light to enter and reduce lighting needs while
supporting heating and cooling efforts.
Roof and rooftop garden – A 20,000-square-foot
rooftop garden reduces the amount of heat the
building gives off back to the atmosphere. Reservoir
cups resembling a giant egg crate catch stormwater to
be absorbed by plants.
Stormwater filters – Sand filters and bioretention
ponds reduce the amount of runoff and increase the
quality of water that does run into nearby streams.
Regionally made materials – Brick and precast
concrete panels are manufactured within 500 miles
of WCU, and wood used in the building is certified
by the Forest Steward Council for the renewable way
it was grown and harvested.
Low-emitting materials – Building materials have
a low volatile organic compound (VOC) content, often
emitted as gases with potential adverse health effects.
Occupancy sensors – The lighting system uses
occupancy sensors that turn lights on when someone
enters a room and off when unoccupied. A control
system in the atrium also assesses the amount of light
needed based on sunlight.
Reduced water use – With low-flow toilets, pint-flush
urinals and select sinks and plumbing fixtures,
the building is expected to use 41 percent less water
than a typical building of the same size.
Individualized temperature control – The
mechanical system offers more control of temperature
settings within groups of offices, a measure expected
to result in a 20 percent reduction in energy use.
aquatic therapy and benefit community
members whom the students work with,
said Jay Scifers, director of the School of
Health Sciences and professor of athletic
training. “This is the only therapeutic
pool of its kind in the region, and it
will provide some great benefits for
members of our community as well as
our students,” said Scifers.
Another highlight is the building’s
technology features, which range from
video capabilities in the interdisciplinary
clinic that allow patients, health care
providers, faculty and students to review
sessions, to vast telecommunication and
videoconferencing capabilities. Guest
speakers off-site are able to meet live
– virtually – with students, faculty or
classes. Earlier this year, epidemiologist
Richard Wilkinson delivered a lecture
live from England to 75 students,
faculty and community members
at the Health and Human Sciences
Building as well as participants at Wake
Forest University and the University
of Tennessee. The technology enables
events in one classroom, seminar
room, clinic or community area to be
streamed to other rooms in the building
or recorded for review at a later time.
The capability enhances WCU’s ability
to serve distance learners or host large
community or continuing education
events at the building.
The sheer amount of space available
in the new building is something faculty
members say has enhanced the quality
of education for students. Athletic
training has almost twice as much lab
space, said Jill Manners, director of the
program. Twice as many hospital beds
for nursing students are available as
were in Moore Hall, previous home for
nursing students, said Judy Neubrander,
director of the School of Nursing. The
additional space also made it possible to
return the senior pre-licensing nursing
students to campus after several decades
of being located in the Asheville area.
“Bringing the senior year of the pre-licensure
program back to Cullowhee is
a true homecoming,” said Neubrander.
“It will give our senior nursing students
the true college experience all four years
and provide for a seamless educational
nursing experience.” Katlyn Moss, a
nursing student from Hayesville, said
nursing students appreciate being in the
same building and are using the many
group study spaces. “I have definitely
seen a community being built between
the nursing cohorts,” said Moss.
“The possibilities in
the new building are
endless, especially for
collaborative work
involving students and
faculty from different
programs.”
–Marie Huff, interim dean
Winter 2013 | 31
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: An
asheville hospital system’s
gifts are HELPING students in
health-related majors
Twenty-four students who are enrolled this
academic year in several of the bachelor’s, master’s
and doctoral programs offered by the College of Health
and Human Sciences are attending the university
thanks to a $250,000 gift from Mission Health System
of Asheville. The Asheville-based hospital system is
providing $50,000 annually over a five-year span
to WCU to be used for scholarships for students in
health-related disciplines.
The gift, announced last fall is providing financial
assistance to students from Western North Carolina
who want to study in health-related programs at
WCU. In announcing the gift, Chancellor David
Belcher commended Mission for its ongoing
commitment to the education of the next generation
of health care providers.
“This gift, which represents the latest in Mission’s
long history of support for Western Carolina’s
educational efforts in the area of the health sciences,
will provide critical financial assistance to students
who might not otherwise be able to afford to attend
the university, with the hope that these students
will graduate and serve the region as health care
professionals,” Belcher said. “It’s a prudent investment
by Mission, which through its generosity also is
helping ensure that it continues providing the
highest quality health care to the people of Western
North Carolina.”
Mission Health System previously has contributed
significant financial support to help establish
WCU’s physical therapy program and its program
in certified registered nurse anesthesiology, joining
other regional hospitals, medical centers and
health care organizations comprising the WNC
Health Network in efforts to address a shortage in
those professions.
“One of the goals of Mission’s community benefits
committee is to ensure we are investing in our region.
We felt there was no stronger investment than in
helping motivated young people from this part of the
state get interested in health careers at Western
Carolina by providing them scholarships,” said Cindy
Shivers, chair of the committee. “We feel this is a very
wise and well-placed grant and will pay many rewards
to the region.”
COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT: The
community is strengthened further
by the interprofessional collaborations
tying different disciplines together. In
addition to the collaboration between
nursing and physical therapy that has
occurred this semester, Anne-Marie
Jones, assistant professor of nursing and
undergraduate team coordinator, said
they hope to build future collaboration
with other professions in the college.
Nursing students could work with
colleagues from communication
sciences and disorders to enhance
communication with patients as well
as work with patients with swallowing
issues, from social work to improve
collaboration in accessing resources
available to patients, and from
emergency medical care to learn about
the critical communication that needs
to take place between nursing and
emergency medical personnel.
Already this fall, physical therapy
and nursing students worked together
in several interprofessional collaborative
lab experiences, including one in which
they assessed medical status, history and
medications of a simulated patient – a
59-year-old recovering from cervical
fusion surgery. Together, they discovered
how and what to communicate to make
sure the patient received the best possible
overall care from both: nursing students
shared what the physical therapy
students needed to know about the
patient before beginning therapy, and
the physical therapy students advised
what kind of mobility assistance a patient
might need. Hannah Helfer, a graduate
student from New Mexico studying
physical therapy, said she valued hearing
from nursing students. “As a physical
therapy student, I tend to focus on the
patient’s movement capabilities or lack
thereof. The nursing students brought
an entirely different perspective to the
situation and helped me think about
other aspects of the patient’s recovery,”
said Helfer. Meanwhile, Bright, a
nursing student, said it was helpful to
practice sharing findings. “If we didn’t
understand each other’s terminology
or charting abbreviations, we were able
to figure that out in the lab and learn
about them before going into the clinical
setting,” she said.
Bruce D. Thorsen, president of
Mission Healthcare Foundation and
40-year veteran in the health care
field, underscored that the teamwork
required to care for patients is one of the
most important aspects of health care
today. Mission Health System, which
contributed significant financial support
to help establish WCU’s physical therapy
and nurse anesthesiology programs,
in September announced a $250,000
gift to provide financial assistance to
students who will study in health-related
programs, many of whom are
participating in studies in the new
building.
“The beauty of the new WCU Health
and Human Sciences Building is it will
provide the space and the atmosphere
for the various health disciplines to
study and interact together,” said
Thorsen. “That, coupled with its high
technology both in its simulation
laboratories and in teaching students
how to use electronic medical records,
means WCU will be on the leading edge
of educating the next generation of
health care professionals.”
Students in an emergency medical care course enjoy the technological capabilities of a lecture
hall at the Health and Human Sciences Building.
32 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
GLOBAL REACH: A professor’s commitment to people who have
fluency disorders such as stuttering leads him to an international
leadership role
As a person who stutters, David A. Shapiro swore an oath
that if he could find a way to talk, then he would do all he could
to help others. With loving acceptance and support, Shapiro
did find a way and in turn has served others for more than 35
years as a speech-language pathologist. As Western Carolina
University’s Robert Lee Madison Distinguished Professor of
communication sciences and disorders, he also works with
aspiring speech-language pathologists and with colleagues
and clients around the world. His service has extended to the
International Fluency Association, whose members presented
him the Award of Distinction for Outstanding Clinician in
Dublin, Ireland, in 2006 and recently elected him president in
Tours, France. The organization is composed of researchers,
speech scientists and speech-language pathologists from more
than 30 countries on six continents.
“One of the most exciting developments is that WCU has
become the hub for dialogue related to fluency disorders among
professionals and consumers around the world,” said Shapiro.
In his first three months as president, Shapiro assembled
a leadership team from across the world, held elections,
completed a survey of more than 1,500 constituents, established
a committee to revise the bylaws and develop a strategic plan,
and was offered space in the most recent and subsequent
issues of the Journal of Fluency Disorders to summarize IFA’s
activities.
“To serve as IFA president is a dream come true for me,”
said Shapiro, who has engaged in teaching, clinical service
and research on six continents. In 2004, concerned with the
unavailability of clinical services for people who stutter in
developing countries, he collaborated with Margaret Wahlhaus
in Australia to introduce a concept to the International
Stuttering Association called the International Speech Project
– Stuttering. “Similar to Doctors Without Borders, the project
is now bringing information and coordinating self-help/mutual
aid projects where they otherwise did not exist in remote
corners of the world,” said Shapiro.
His professional presentations number more than 150
and include “A Multinational Investigation of Stuttering
Intervention,” which represented the collaborative work of
17 co-authors from 15 countries. His publications include
more than 60 articles, some of which have been published
in six languages, and his book, “Stuttering Intervention: A
Collaborative Journey to Fluency Freedom,” incorporates
international perspectives that cross disciplines and cultures in
its examination of ideas, practices and strategies for assessing
and treating people of all ages who stutter.
David A. Daly, professor emeritus of speech-language
pathology at the University of Michigan, said Shapiro’s book,
now in its second edition, captures the unique sensitivities
and deep feelings experienced by many people who stutter.
“In my opinion, Dr. Shapiro’s understanding of the problem
of stuttering and his thoughtful organization and presentation
of the vast research and clinical information on this topic is
unparalleled,” said Daly.
To Shapiro, it is more than a textbook and reference
work; it is a love story. “It is hard to imagine the challenges
people who stutter incur on a daily basis as well as the joy
that communication success brings,” said Shapiro. “It is the
birthright of every person to be able to use speech and language
freely and to enjoy communication freedom. Success is more
than fluency. It is life-altering and freeing in many ways.
Helping someone visualize dreams and work toward achieving
them is such a special and empowering experience.”
J. Scott Yaruss, professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said
Shapiro has truly carried his message throughout the world and
touched countless lives. “His international accomplishments
are unparalleled in our field – he is a model to us all,” said
Yaruss. Shapiro has helped people who stutter in places as far
away as Africa, and Moussa Dao, a pharmacist in Burkina Faso
and coordinator of the Federation of African Associations on
Stuttering, said he and many others are forever grateful. “He
has changed the life of so many persons of my country and
other African countries,” said Dao. “He will remain in our
mind forever. “
Locally, Shapiro and his colleagues provide service to clients
through WCU’s nationally recognized Speech and Hearing
Clinic, part of the interdisciplinary clinic in the new Health
and Human Sciences Building. For more information about
stuttering, including treatment and self-help groups for people
who stutter and their families, contact Shapiro at 828-227-3291
or shapiro@wcu.edu.
| By TERESA KILIAN TATE
Winter 2013 | 33
Explore and celebrate the new Health
and Human Sciences Building at a
dedication ceremony to be held at
10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 28.
Two physical therapy
labs offer students hands-on
experience with state-of-the-art
equipment.
In two human anatomy
laboratories, students
participate in traditional,
cadaver-based instruction.
ADAPTIVE DEVICES such as special bicycles
provide opportunities for students to get hands-on
training on therapeutic equipment they will
use with patients facing a variety of physical and
developmental challenges.
In three simulation
laboratories, students
practice assessment skills
with lifelike manikins that
mimic body functions such
as breathing. Students practice
CPR, dress wounds and collect
vital signs such as heart rate
and oxygen saturation.
TAKE A TOUR
For more information
call 828.227.7271 or email
healthandhumansciences@wcu.edu
34 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
In the mosquito insectary
laboratory – the only mosquito
containment lab in Western
North Carolina – faculty and
students use incubators and work
areas to study the basic biology
and physiology of arthropods in
connection with the assessment
and prevention of viruses such as
La Crosse encephalitis.
instructional space includes 11 technology-rich
classrooms and seminar rooms spread throughout the
building and offers unique furniture configurations
that promote active learning and team problem-solving
activities. Live, off-campus guest speakers
can meet virtually with students, and events in one
room can be broadcast live to other venues or recorded
for later viewing.
The environmental health laboratory serves
students and faculty involved in research related
to environmental problems. The state-of-the-art
equipment provides technical and analytical support
through the analysis of chemical and microbiological
sampling of air, water and soil quality.
An interdisciplinary
clinic on the ground floor
hosts the nationally recognized
Speech and Hearing Clinic
and space for specialized
clinics related to physical
therapy, nursing, social work,
nutrition, athletic training and
recreational therapy. A Balance
and Fall Prevention Clinic is
expected to open this spring.
The human movement
laboratory is dedicated to
the investigation of movement
and musculoskeletal disorders.
Students analyze human
movement using data gathered
through eight video cameras
mounted on four walls and
pressure-sensitive plates set into
the floor. Students, professors
and professionals can see a three-dimensional
video reproduction
of movement and develop a
comprehensive analysis.
Winter 2013 | 35
alumni
SPOTLIGHT
A creative candy man is savoring sweet success
with his confectionary concoctions
By LEILA TVEDT
WILLY WONKA
WCU’s
36 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Photo courtesy of GGB of Raleigh
25-pound bear with a concave belly that serves as a candy dish.
“We call it the Party Bear,” Salvatore said, and it is selling well.
Still to come – a 15-pound, two-color gummy snake. “It’s an
awesome product,” said Salvatore, who is planning to dub it
the Party Python.
In addition to the energy and enthusiasm he brings to
his business, Lawson has a passion for encouraging others,
especially recent college graduates. “The time to step out is when
you are young. You have less to lose and fewer responsibilities.
Why not go all in?” he said. “You can’t be afraid to try or to fail.
I failed at several things before I found the thing that works for
me. You can’t find out what works for you if you are afraid to
fail. Try. There’s no magic to it. If you walk enough beaches,
you’re going to find the perfect shell.” In fact, Lawson said, if
he could he would make a “fearless candy” – one that would
make everyone step out and try.
When he’s not promoting giant bears or imagining new
products, Lawson donates time and money to the Raleigh
chapter of Autism Speaks. For an annual Walk Now for Autism
event, he sponsors a float carrying youngsters who have been
diagnosed with autism. “You just want to reach inside these
kids and bring out the best in them. Sometimes you can do
that,” he said. “That makes all my hard work worthwhile. There
has to be a deeper reason for success than making money.”
The brothers recently opened their second manufacturing
facility in Raleigh. They are about to launch a new creation that
morphs two candies into one. Lawson is not yet ready to talk
about that product. But could this creative candy man make
a giant gummy Catamount? That’s a sweet idea he is willing
to sink his teeth into.
Derek Lawson ’91 is having a blast. He talks exuberantly
about the fun of being creator and maker of large gummy
bears – not just slightly oversized gelatin-based candies, but the
world’s largest, weighing in at 5 pounds apiece. What began as
a class project became a joke and now has turned into serious
business for Lawson and his older brother, Brett.
As a WCU student, Lawson wrote an essay, “Twenty-Plus
Ways for College Students to Make Money.” “I cringe to
remember what some of those ideas were,” he said, but they
were interesting enough to attract the attention of his professor,
Mary Anne Nixon, who urged him to get involved in a new
program in entrepreneurial studies. “I was one of the first
to dive into that,” said Lawson, majoring in communication
at the time. “It shaped my later success.” Nixon said she is
touched to learn of her former student’s success. “To know
that something you said has had such a positive impact is
extremely gratifying,” she said.
Shortly after Lawson’s graduation, the brothers started
working with a family that managed candy stores. “We got the
entrepreneurial bug and took over their store in Wilmington,
N.C.,” Lawson said. It didn’t take long for the Lawsons to realize
they could not compete in sales of existing candy with giant
chain stores, so they began to create their own sweet things. “We
were the first to make vitamin-enriched chocolate – chocolate
infused with B12,” Lawson said, but other companies had
greater success with that idea, too. “Out of utter frustration,
as a joke, I said to my brother, ‘Let’s just make giant gummy
bears, as big as two fists.’ He loved it.”
And so they got started. It was just for fun at first, but friends
who saw the big bears wanted them. “We sold two to make four
and sold four to make eight, and now we’re making thousands
every day. We aspired to and have become the definitive name
in giant gummy bears,” Lawson said. “A lot of people are vying
to make gummy bears, but we took it a step farther.”
The brothers branched out into gummy worms, bunnies
and bottles and began making specialty gummies for sports
teams and celebrities. For New York sportscaster Michael
Kay and his fiancé, they made a gummy bride and groom.
For songwriter Wayne Coyne, they made a life-size gummy
skull that holds a seven-pound gummy brain. Inside the edible
brain is a flash drive of music by Coyne’s band, The Flaming
Lips. The skull-and-brain gummy was featured in an Esquire
magazine article, and some of Lawson’s other creations have
appeared on The Food Network, History Channel, “Modern
Marvels” and “Ripley’s Believe it or Not!”
As the giant gummy bears and body parts began to catch
on, friends such as Jennifer Wollan ’91 started calling Lawson
“a real life Willy Wonka” after the eccentric confectioner of
children’s literature. “I think it’s exciting that something so
creative and fun has grown into something so big and been so
successful,” said Wollan. “I wish Derek all the best and much
more success in whatever he decides to do or dream up next.”
Also watching for new ideas is Allison Rubin, brand manager
for IT’SUGAR, a confectionary entertainment company
specializing in unusual apparel, accessories and candy, with
more than 30 retail stores nationwide. “Our campaign is ‘go big
or go home,’” Rubin said, and the giant gummy bears fit right
in. She is open to other gummy products, as well. “Derek brings
us stuff he is working on. He is very creative and innovative,
always up for a challenge. He has a very creative mind,” she said.
Jamie Salvatore, owner of VAT19, an online store for novelty
items, agreed. Five years ago, Salvatore began promoting the
giant gummy bears on video. “As soon as it got up on YouTube,
it started getting tons of attention,” Salvatore said. Eventually,
he asked Lawson to make an even bigger model. “His eyes went
wide, and he started thinking about it,” Salvatore said. “Derek
came up with a product he calls Big Old Bear, or Bob.” It’s a
A modern-day Willy Wonka of sorts, Derek Lawson ’91
gives a thumbs-up to his gummy bear creations, made
in two manufacturing facilities (opposite page).
Photo courtesy of GGB of Raleigh
Winter 2013 | 37
alumni
SPOTLIGHT
Gaither Keener ’72 had always wanted to attend law school.
He achieved his goal in 1977 when he graduated from the Wake
Forest University School of Law. Joining the firm of McElwee
Hall McElwee in North Wilkesboro, Keener tried civil and
criminal cases in state and federal courts, even arguing a case
before the Supreme Court in 1987, the same year he transitioned
to Lowe’s as the company’s first in-house attorney. Keener,
recipient of WCU’s 2012 Professional Achievement Award,
now is chief legal officer of the Fortune 50 retailer and in 2011
was recognized by his peers, as published in Business North
Carolina, as the state’s best business lawyer and deserving of
an “elite lawyer status.”
But before all that, the self-described “boy from the
mountains” had to learn how to think. Keener remembers the
day he arrived on WCU’s campus after a five-hour drive from
Newton with his brother. “There were no four-lane highways,
we went a little bit on the interstate, then a three-lane highway
and two-lane highway,” Keener recalled during his acceptance
remarks at an October ceremony. “It took forever. I remember
getting here – they dumped me off and they left.”
Engaging in a liberal arts education, the young man soon
found his way. “The most important thing about being a history
major and political science minor at Western was the fact that
they taught you how to think,” Keener said. His professors
“tried to mold you and your thinking processes. Not telling
you what to think, but challenging you on what you thought.”
From Brian Walton, an Englishman, Keener learned the
LEGAL ACTION
A philanthropic attorney hopes others will learn to think for themselves
By JIL INGRAM MA ’08
importance of knowing his country’s history. From John
Bell, he learned the love of North Carolina history. “Gerald
Schwartz and Andrew Baggs made me think through the idea
of socialism,” Keener said. And from Curtis Wood, history
professor emeritus, Keener learned “the love of common law
and the constitutional history of England.”
“I believe that education is the most important thing to bring
somebody above their means,” said Keener, who credited his
WCU experience with preparing him for law school. In that
spirit, Keener and his wife, Beverly Bogle Keener, who live
in Mooresville, recently announced their intent to endow a
scholarship for education majors who are members of the
Honors College, with the first scholarship planned for the 2013-
14 academic year. It is the second such gift from the Keeners. In
2010, the couple endowed a scholarship to support one WCU
track or cross country runner each year in recognition of the
late Terry Helms ’73, a standout runner and Keener’s college
roommate and longtime friend.
Raising funds for endowed scholarships to make a university
education accessible for capable students is a priority for
Chancellor David O. Belcher, who was enthusiastic at news of
the gift. Keener is among those who “have taken from Western
and given back extraordinarily to this institution,” Belcher
said. “What we are experiencing is a real tide of engagement
from our community, the community that hosts us, and from
the alums and friends of this institution.”
Learning to think
as an undergrad
has helped Gaither
Keener ’72 achieve
success as a corporate
attorney for Lowe’s.
Photo courtesy of Chris Keane
magazine.wcu.edu
38 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Most freshmen arrive on campus with new bedding and
a window fan. Lori Ann Mauney ’11 arrived in 2008 with a
machine to process credit cards and $5,000 worth of cosmetics
inventory that she kept stashed under her bed in Scott Hall.
Mauney entered WCU as a marketing major with a clear goal:
To carve a career in Mary Kay, one of the largest direct-sell
companies in the world – it operates in 39 global markets
and records annual sales in the billions. “I never changed my
major,” said Mauney, who at the beginning of each semester
would hand professors a list of days she planned to be absent
from class on Mary Kay business.
For some of that business, she never left campus. Kellie
Angelo Monteith, WCU’s assistant vice chancellor for student
affairs, met Mauney when she set up a Mary Kay table at a start-of-
semester Valley Ballyhoo. “I love that talented young lady,”
raved Monteith, a loyal customer. “I just received something in
the mail yesterday.” Lip gloss, mascara, skincare products – “I
kept girls happy,” Mauney said. “Boyfriends would buy from me
too – I had perfumes and things. I would meet people in the food
court or library or whatever and get them set for Christmas.”
She even met her best friend at WCU, fellow undergraduate
Olivia Lynch ’11, who also sold Mary Kay.
Mauney’s introduction to Mary Kay came early. At 9 years
old and suffering from acne so severe she was on a powerful
prescription medication to treat it, Mauney began a Mary Kay
skincare regime recommended by a family friend. Her acne
cleared up and Mauney was hooked. She counted down the
days until she turned 18, the requisite age to begin selling the
products. Her mother bought her a starter kit for her birthday.
While selling cosmetics is the way to enter Mary Kay,
recruiting motivated salespeople, or consultants, is the way
to advance. In this, Mauney excels, traveling extensively to
develop her network and, in an unusual step, putting potential
consultants through an interview process. “I’m very, very
cautious about who I bring in,” said Mauney, noting that her
own future depends on it. While she still maintains several
cosmetics customers, these days Mauney, 22, spends most her
time managing 33 consultants and is on track to become a sales
director – a title claimed by only 2 percent of those working in
the company – in December. By spring, she plans to be driving
a famed pink Cadillac.
Mauney, described by those who know her as an
entrepreneurial and self-motivated young woman, considers
Mary Kay an opportunity for autonomy, helping others and
perks including worldwide travel. She even credits her work
with the company for helping boost her feelings of self-worth.
“I had zero, zero confidence before Mary Kay,” said Mauney,
who works from a home office and at the time of this interview
was planning a move from Arden to Charlotte to be nearer her
top producers. The move also brings her closer to Lincolnton,
where she grew up and where her parents, Debra and John
Mauney, still live.
While Mauney is “working her business at a very high level,”
she is part of a larger trend in Mary Kay, said Pam Tull, a sort
of mentor for Mauney who, in her 37 years with the company,
has risen to its highest echelons. Women 24 to 35 are the fastest-growing
demographic in the company, Tull said. “These young
women are very capable, very talented, decisive and they want
to be challenged,” she said. “They know what they want, and
they want to be part of something big.”
IN THE PINK
A career with Mary Kay brings out a young alumna’s best side
By JIL INGRAM MA ’08
Lori Ann Mauney ’11 is
on the road to a custom
Mary Kay pink Cadillac,
which she plans to be
driving by spring.
Still, jumping all in to Mary Kay is a “faith walk,” Mauney
said. In fact, after graduating, she bowed to pressure from those
around her to pursue a job in corporate America and found
employment doing sales with Verizon. Within six months she
had left the position and recommitted to Mary Kay. “People
say, ‘You went to college and you’re doing Mary Kay?’ They’re
always surprised by that because they think a girl who wants
a college degree wants a corporate job, and I had that and I
walked away from that,” Mauney said.
According to Grace Allen, WCU associate professor of
finance, it’s a matter of sales: Some people are naturals, others
hate it. “Lori Ann knew early on that she was very good at
sales,” Allen said. “She has a really outgoing personality, she’s
very self-assured and she’s very motivated. She found her
niche very early and she’s just run with it.” Could Allen ever
imagine encouraging a student to pursue a career in Mary
Kay? “Probably not, but I don’t think that many people can be
as successful in it as Lori Ann,” she said. Mauney is successful
enough that she managed to recruit her former professor. Allen
herself is now a Mary Ann consultant, buying products for
her daughter in hopes that the sales role will help develop the
13-year-old’s confidence.
Winter 2013 | 39
class
NOTES
1954
Dorcas Howell Love and Charles H. Love
Jr. ’55 celebrated their 59th wedding
anniversary in 2012. Charles retired from
IBM and Dorcas, who was a stand-in
for Susan Hayward in the 1951 film “I’d
Climb the Highest Mountain,” retired from
teaching. The couple has two children and
four grandsons.
1958
Longtime educator Charles “Tommy”
Koontz MAEd ’61 has had a Buncombe
County School named in his honor.
Charles T. Koontz Intermediate School
opened in 2012 to ease overcrowding in
the southern portion of the county.
1966
Charles McConnell MAEd ’69 received
a 2012 Governor’s Medallion Award for
Volunteer Service, presented annually to
the state’s top volunteers. McConnell has
been volunteering in Jackson County for
20 years and is the chief fundraiser for
Jackson County Neighbors in Need, a
program that improves the homes of those
who cannot afford to do so themselves.
A former superintendent of Haywood and
Jackson County schools, he started the
New Century Scholars Program, which
guarantees full scholarships to four
years of college to qualifying students
in Jackson, Macon and Swain counties
and has so far benefited approximately
750 students.
1967
Carroll E. Emery MAEd was a 2012
inductee into the South Carolina Athletic
Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Emery
coached baseball for 38 years at T.L.
Hanna High School outside of Anderson,
S.C., where he racked up 427 wins before
retiring in 2006. He also coached Hanna
High football for 35 years. He and his
wife, June, live in Anderson.
1969
Gerald “Skip” Almond Jr. and Ken Beck
’97 are members of the Elderly Brothers,
a band that performs a range of music
from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s as well as
originals and beach music. The band,
whose recording of “I Wanna Be Your
Rock” is included on a Carolina beach
music compilation titled “Judie’s Patio
Party,” performed at the WCU Purple and
Gold Reunion dance.
In October, James Thomas ’02 (background) and Laura Myers Ernst ’06 MBA ’11 (foreground, an employee
of WCU’s OneStop) participated in the Carolinas Spartan Beast race in Winnsboro, S.C. The two friends, whose
spouses – Jennifer Gordon Thomas ’03 MEd ’06 (a WCU financial aid counselor) and Anderson Ernst ’04
– cheered from the sidelines, stuck together for the entire grueling 13.5-mile obstacle course and finished
in just more than four and a half hours. The couples, all experienced competitors, had planned to enter as a
quartet in the race, which benefits an organization that builds homes for veterans, before injuries sidelined half
of the better halves. The Thomases, of Whittier, and the Ernsts, of Sylva, have set their sights on two other
obstacle competitions this spring.
SLAYING THE BEAST
Photo courtesy of Nuvision Action Image
40 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Betty Jamerson Reed MAEd EdS ’82
EdD ’00 is the recipient of an Award of
Merit from the American Association for
State and Local History’s Leadership in
History Awards for her publication “School
Segregation in Western North Carolina, A
History, 1860s-1970s.” The award, in its
67th year, is recognition for achievement
in the preservation and interpretation of
state and local history.
Jim Taylor MAEd ’70 was among the
first round of inductees to the Franklin
High School Athletic Hall of Fame for
his athletic accomplishments at Franklin
High and contributions to athletics on the
collegiate level and beyond. At Franklin,
Taylor played football and ran track. He
played football for Gardner-Webb and, as
a transfer, at WCU. He went on to coach
high school football, netting 10 conference
titles and two state championships while
at Shelby High School. Since 2005, Taylor
has served as the county athletic director
for Cleveland County Schools. Taylor
also is one of this year’s inductees into
the North Carolina High School Athletic
Association Hall of Fame.
1970
Roger E. Jones has received the 2012
Distinguished Alumni Award from Brevard
College, where he attended for two years
when it was a junior college. Jones
transferred to WCU, attending on a