grande finale
Campaign for Western Carolina
strikes the proper chord with
donors, students and faculty
western
carolina Winter
2010
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
Chancellor
John W. Bardo
Vice Chancellor Advancement
and External Affairs
Clifton B. Metcalf
Managing Editor
Bill Studenc
Associate Editor
Teresa Killian Tate
Art Director
Rubae Schoen
Chief Photographer
Mark Haskett ’87
Class Notes Editor
Jill Ingram MA ’08
Designer
Katie Martin
Staff Writers
Brandon Demery
Bessie Dietrich Goggins ’06 MA ’09
Randall Holcombe
Daniel Hooker ’01
Sarah Kucharski
Christy Martin ’71 MA ’78
Steve White ’67
Staff Photographers
Ashley T. Evans
Jarrett Frazier
Production Manager
Loretta R. Adams ’80
Circulation Manager
Cindi Magill
Winter 2010
Volume 14, No. 1
The Magazine of Western Carolina
University is produced by the
Office of Public Relations in the
Division of Advancement and
External Affairs for alumni, faculty,
staff, friends and students of
Western Carolina University.
Sections
6 News From The Western Hemisphere
16 Campaign Headquarters
26 WCU Athletics
34 Alumni Achievements
40 Class Notes
47 Calendar
On the Cover
Students such as Christina
Banner (with Brandon
Robinson ’05) are at the heart
of the recently concluded
Campaign for Western Carolina
Features
4 California bound
Alumni and friends are invited to join
the marching band at the Rose Parade
10 Returning to the origin
Renowned Darwin scholar leads a
tour of the Galapagos Islands
12 drama queen
Josefina Niggli is recognized
for her place in WCU history
32 island getaway
A New England artist foundation and
residency program has WCU links
34 secret of his sucess
Alumnus goes from bagging groceries
to CEO of a supermarket chain
4
westerncarolina
16 12
16
10
NICE SHOT
Student photographer Jarrett Frazier
captured junior guard Mike Williams in
early season action against Duquesne as
Western Carolina hosted sub-regional
rounds of the O’Reilly Auto Parts CBE
Classic. Williams and the Catamounts are
gearing up for the Southern Conference
Tournament, set for March 4-8 in Charlotte.
Ticket information
catamounttickets@wcu.edu
catamountsports.com
800.34.GOWCU
2 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 3
Alumni and friends are invited to join
the Pride of the Mountains Marching
Band at the 2011 Rose Parade
By BIL STUDENC
CALIFORNIA
BOUND
Taking part in the presentation
of the Sudler Trophy are (above,
from left) assistant band
directors Matt Henley ’93
MA ’95 and Jon Henson ’05
MAEd ’07; Paula Crider,
chair of the Sudler Trophy
committee; director Bob
Buckner ’67; past marching
band director Aaron Hyatt.
The alumni/band booster package trip includes:
• Five days/four nights at an Anaheim-area hotel
• Reserved parade seating
• Tickets to Dec. 30 Bandfest
• Parade float construction tour
• Hollywood/Los Angeles tour
• Airport transfers (if part of group flights)
• Local transportation to all package events
• Official Tournament of Roses program
The following meals/receptions:
• Welcome reception, Dec. 29
• Chancellor’s luncheon, at the
University Club of Pasadena, Dec. 30
• New Year’s Eve party for band,
alumni and friends
• Lunch during Hollywood/Los Angeles tour
• Breakfast, Jan. 1
• Post-parade lunch, Jan. 1
Cost per person – $999 (or less, depending
on hotel choice). Airfare not included.
Go With Us!
For more information about travel packages or
sponsorship opportunities, call 828.227.3052
or visit the Web site roseparade.wcu.edu.
Bob Buckner ’67, your Pride of the Mountains has just
won the Sudler Trophy, the nation’s highest honor for
collegiate marching bands. What are you going to do next?
“I’m going to Disneyland,” Buckner might reply, except
for one fact. Buckner and the 350-plus members of the Pride
of the Mountains Marching Band will be too busy getting
ready for – and participating in – the 2011 Tournament of
Roses Parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, Calif.
That doesn’t mean that fans of the marching musical unit
often referred to as “the world’s largest funk rock band” can’t
squeeze in a visit to the so-called “happiest place on earth.”
The university is organizing alumni and booster packages so
that family members and others can accompany the band on
the trip, set for Dec. 29 through Jan. 2.
Although details were still being ironed out at press
time, a variety of packages are in the works and are
expected to include accommodations for up to five nights
in a Los Angeles-area hotel, tickets to the band’s pre-parade
performance at Bandfest, tickets to the 2011 Rose Parade,
local transportation and evening special events.
The band is seeking sponsors to help defray the cost of the
trip, estimated at between $1,600 and $1,700 per student. “It
is a supreme honor for our band to represent our university
and our state on such a grand stage, and it’s especially
exciting to be invited to march in the Tournament of
Roses Parade the same year we’ve been awarded the Sudler
Trophy,” said Buckner, director of athletic bands at WCU
since 1991. “It is going to require a lot of effort on the part of
our students to prepare, and we need to raise some funds to
enable us to make the cross-country trip.”
In addition to travel and accommodations for band
members and staff, the university also must transport the
Pride of Mountain’s instruments and elaborate staging to
California. “It’s not going to be inexpensive to be able to
accept this invitation, but it will certainly be worth it for
the experience of a lifetime for our students and for the
international exposure it will mean for Western Carolina
University,” Buckner said.
Surprise announcement of the band’s invitation to take
part in the Rose Parade came during a ceremony recognizing
WCU as winner of the 2009 Sudler Trophy. Representatives
of the John Philip Sousa Foundation officially presented the
award – a prize that has been called the “Heisman Trophy”
of the collegiate marching band world – at halftime of
WCU’s home football game Oct. 24.
Band members were wearing yellow rose boutonnieres
with purple ribbons on their uniforms for the Sudler
presentation, thinking the adornments were representing
the university’s colors, when they learned of the Rose Parade
selection from the public address announcer.
“The Tournament of Roses has selected Western Carolina
University to participate in ‘America’s New Year’s Celebra-tion’
because of your band’s excellent musical talents, enter-tainment
value, performance skills, and your outstanding
directorship,” Stacy Houser, chair of the parade’s music se-lection
committee, said in a letter to Buckner.
The Pride of the Mountains is one of only 15 bands
from around the world invited to participate in the 122nd
Tournament of Roses Parade and the 29th annual affiliated
event known as Bandfest, joining six annual invitees for a
total of 21 bands taking part.
Called “the Super Bowl of marching bands,” the parade
is held annually on New Year’s Day in conjunction with
the Rose Bowl college football game, part of the Bowl
Championship Series. “The parade will be watched by
1 million people live, and an additional 1.5 billion around
the world on television,” said Jim Hahn, the parade’s master
of ceremonies and music adviser for the tournament.
4 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 5
Education and the environment were more than abstract
concepts to the late Genevieve Whitmire MAEd ’69 and
E.J. Whitmire, and results of the family’s devotion abound
at WCU. E.J. Whitmire contributed site preparation for
the football stadium, which bears his name, and was
instrumental in establishing natural resources as a course
of study. University faculty and students in that department
continue to monitor forested stands at the family’s 1,000-acre
Cherokee County farm (the majority now in a conservation
easement and owned and operated by son Steve Whitmire).
Over the years, three generations of the extended Whitmire
family have established three endowed scholarship funds
for students of education and contributed substantially
toward the sciences through support of programs and
a professorship.
E.J. and his daughter, Genevieve Whitmire Burda, also
demonstrated their commitment to the university through
service on the board of trustees. Burda retired in 2009 after
a decade, and according to Chancellor John W. Bardo, the
university has “never had a better trustee.” Burda “was
always there, was always prepared and could get people
excited,” said Bardo in October, when he presented her
with the university’s annual Distinguished Service Award.
Burda’s brother Steve Whitmire said his sibling “usually
can get what she wants with a little bit of charm and humor.”
As a trustee, Burda served on the board’s finance and
audit committee (including four years as chair) “during
a time when the committee had a lot of work to do,” said
Chuck Wooten ’73, vice chancellor for administration and
finance. That committee oversees architect selection for
construction projects, and primary was the university’s
$46 million, 160,000-square-foot health sciences building.
Scheduled for completion in 2012, the building is the first
facility to be constructed on approximately 350 acres the
university purchased on the west side of N.C. 107 and is
the cornerstone of a planned neighborhood focusing on
retirement, aging and health.
From the beginning, Burda lobbied for an architectural
firm with depth, but one with local ties that also was
experienced in mountain construction. “My interest was
definitely in having it fit with the lay of the land,” Burda said.
Ultimately, the committee selected Pearce Brinkley Cease
and Lee, an architectural firm with an office in Asheville.
The building will feature a number of sustainable
elements, including a rooftop garden that cleans water
runoff by filtering it through dirt and vegetation; passive
solar heat; natural light; and rooftop solar collectors that will
aid in heating water. The building will be WCU’s first with
LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council,
meaning it meets standards for environmentally sustainable
construction. “I was just stunned when I saw the initial
drawing,” Burda said. “It just fit into that mountainside
so beautifully. It’s a signature building, and that’s what we
hoped for.”
Burda and her husband, Larry, who are retired and live
in Mars Hill, have three daughters, Kathleen Wirth ’97
MAEd ’01, Cindy Burda and Carey Burda ’08.
force of nature
For Genevieve Burda, commitment
to WCU is part of a long, strong
family tradition
By JIL INGRAM MA ’08
“Students not only have to prepare a race car for competition
but also explain the design and cost considerations required
to produce the car,” said Bumgarner.
For Marshall Cannon, a freshman who wants to become
an automotive engineer, the project is a perfect fit. Growing
up near the Virginia International Raceway, Cannon
always liked cars and earned a diploma from the NASCAR
Technical Institute in Mooresville before enrolling at WCU.
“After working on cars, you see the flaws that they have,
and I want to make them safer and better,” said Cannon.
“For this project, we have to engineer everything from the
ground up. That includes the suspension geometry, the
frame, and figuring out how to put the motor in and install
the engine management program.”
This is a building year for the team. The University of
North Carolina at Charlotte’s automotive engineering
program has loaned the group a previous Formula One car to
use as an example. The group also has begun fundraising and
prepared a sponsorship packet to share with those interested
in making a tax-deductible donation to help with the cost of
tools, parts, materials, safety gear and travel expenses. Top
teams often have an annual $30,000 budget, said Bumgarner.
WCU’s race car will be taken to area autocross events and
the SAE competition in Michigan. Sponsor names and logos
will be placed on the constructed race car, which will be
displayed at campus and community events, as well as
national and possibly international competitions.
FAST TRACK
Students to design and build a
race car to enter in automotive
engineering competitions
By TERESA KILIAN TATE
Genevieve Whitmire Burda
waves to the crowd
in the stadium that
bears her father’s name.
Members of the WCU student
chapter of the Society of
Automotive Engineers examine
a Formula One race car from
the University of North Carolina
at Charlotte.
Ronald Bumgarner ’80 MS ’92 tinkered with a ’55 Willys
Jeep when he was growing up. These days, it’s an ’04 Wrangler
that Bumgarner, assistant professor of engineering and
technology at Western Carolina University, modifies. One
day he hopes to develop an electric commuting motorcycle
and build an airplane – possibly an old Warbird replica.
Bumgarner has a love for projects fraught with
engineering challenges, and that’s just one reason he’s
excited to work with the WCU students gearing up to design
and build a race car to enter in a national Formula One
racing series automotive engineering competition in 2011.
His other reasons are academic: The WCU student chapter
of the Society of Automotive Engineers offers another fun,
hands-on activity that would challenge students’ interest in
engineering and allow them to use the tools and skills they
are learning in their courses.
“We initially had intentions of building a rock crawler
as our first automotive project, but students this year
jumped all over the quarter-scale Formula One racing series
associated with SAE International,” said Bumgarner. In the
competition, originally called the “Mini Indy,” a fictional
manufacturing company contracts student design teams to
develop a small Formula-style race car. Teams are evaluated
at competition for their research, design, manufacturing,
testing, developing, marketing, management and finances.
For more information, send an e-mail to
CatamountRacing@wcu.edu or call
Ronald Bumgarner at 828.227.2157.
6 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 7
Student William Ritter doesn’t mind making the
cultural jump from portraying the “Fiddler on the Roof”
in a university theatrical production to sawing away on his
fiddle in WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center, if that means he
can participate in his newfound passion of old-time string
band music.
On any given Thursday during the fall and spring, about
5 p.m. or so, Ritter and other members of one of campus’s
newest student organizations, the Porch Music Club,
carry their stringed instruments into the museum’s lobby,
exchange a few greetings, then sit down and start playing.
There’s no Roberts Rules of Order here and no approval of
the minutes from the last meeting. There is a good bit of
string-tuning, followed by a suggestion of what song to play
first (“‘Soldiers Joy’…? Okay.”) Then the action begins.
Suddenly, the lobby is filled with live music that seems
to fit perfectly with the museum’s exhibits and artifacts.
The combination of sounds coming from guitar, fiddle and
banjo blend together to create something that sounds sort of
like bluegrass, but not really. Imagine bluegrass played with
more of a folkish, mountain-sounding rhythm. One big
difference is that the banjo is played in the traditional “claw-hammer
style” rather than with the three-fingered roll that
exemplifies bluegrass. Whatever it is, it works. Spectators
soon have grins on their faces, and the mountain folks in
the photographs on the wall would be clapping their hands
in time, if they could.
The formation of the Porch Music Club was sort of a
humorous accident. Ritter, a Bakersville resident, and
Andrew Payseur, a guitar player and entrepreneurship major
from Lincolnton, had been getting together to play old-time
string band music informally at the A.K. Hinds University
Center. One day, they saw some fraternity brothers pledging,
and joked that they should start an “old-time fraternity.”
That comment led to the idea of starting a real student
organization for fans of the music. They put fliers up to
attract other musicians, “but mostly we just got people’s
attention by sitting around the UC playing our instruments,”
said Ritter, a theater major who works as a shop assistant in
his program’s woodworking shop.
David Brewin, curatorial specialist at the Mountain
Heritage Center, invited the group to gather at the museum
for its weekly sessions. Brewin serves as the club’s unofficial
coordinator and has helped the students get several
performance dates off-campus.
When Thursdays roll around, they never know how many
musicians are going to show up. Once, 14 people gathered
to play, but a core group of four can usually be counted
upon – Ritter; Payseur; Patrick Brady, a banjo player from
Cullowhee and graduate student in anthropology; and
Benjamin Rudolph, a guitar player from Asheville majoring
in electronic and computer engineering. Sometimes local
residents not associated with WCU join in, which always is a
gratifying development, Ritter said. “One reason we started
this club was because of community outreach,” he said.
“This area is a hotbed of traditional music. We wanted to get
some songs from the real deal.”
A STUDENT
ORGANIZATION OF NOTE
The Porch Music Club fills the Mountain
Heritage Center with the rhythms
of the Southern Appalachians
By RANDAL HOLCOMBE
For George Frizzell ’77 MA’81, who grew up in Jackson
County near the WCU campus, history close to home has
become his life’s work. As the head of Special Collections
at Hunter Library, Frizzell oversees the collection and
preservation of an abundance of rare and unique materials
that provide researchers with a realm of possibilities. After
27 years, it’s a job he continues to enjoy.
“History and literature are great connectors that bring
people together. Regardless of where you were born or grew
up, you can develop great appreciation for a region,” he said.
Even after all this time, it is still exciting to see people
coming up with new and innovative questions and topics.”
The collections focus on a variety of areas, notably the
cultural and natural history of Southern Appalachia,
Cherokee Indian history and culture, literary works of
authors associated with the region, and – of course – the
history of WCU. Among the treasures are family papers,
organizational records, photographs, postcards, books and
ephemeral publications.
University students, faculty members, historians, literary
authors, genealogists and local residents are finding out
about and using the rare and unique materials on the
library’s second floor. Producers for the recent Ken Burns
documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,”
traveled to WCU to see the library’s historical photographs
of mountain life and the environment, choosing several that
appeared in the Great Smoky Mountains segment of the PBS
special. A selection from Special Collections of the work of
George Masa, who captured mountain scenes from the early
1900s in beautiful photographs, was exhibited last fall at the
WCU Fine Art Museum. Ron Rash, Parris Distinguished
Professor of Appalachian Culture, is among a growing list
of authors of historical fiction who have consulted Frizzell
and used the library’s resources. “George’s generous sharing
of knowledge was crucial as I did research for my novel
‘Serena,’” Rash said. Scholar Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez
used documents from the library in her 2007 biography
of Josefina Niggli, WCU theater instructor and Mexican-
American author. (See related story on Page 12)
The increased interest in Special Collections pleases
Frizzell and his assistant, Jason Brady ’99, who want to
spread the word about the historical resources available
to the public, both in the collection’s reading room and
online. In recent years, an expanding presence online has
brought the collections to the attention of a wider audience.
Digital collections feature an exhibit on the life and work
of Horace Kephart, an author and former librarian who
moved to Western North Carolina and helped establish
the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; the Cherokee
Phoenix newspaper, printed in the Cherokee language and
in English; letters from the Civil War period; photographs
of area schools; and a historical travel component of the
library’s Craft Revival Web site, a digital history of a
movement that started in the late 1900s to revive handcraft
among the mountain people.
“Ultimately, we are hoping to help preserve the collective
memory of the region,” said Frizzell. “We could not do
this without the generosity of those who have contributed
materials to the collection and the interest of the people who
use them in their research.”
HISTORY PAPERS
From documentarian Ken Burns to
local history buffs, Hunter Library is
becoming a valuable resource
By CHRISTY MARTIN ’71 MA ’78
The four stalwarts of the Porch Music Club – (clockwise from top)
Benjamin Rudolph, Andrew Payseur, Patrick Brady and William Ritter –
get in some outside picking time before a Thursday night meeting.
George Frizzell ’77 MA ’81
shows off some of the artifacts
preserved in Hunter Library’s
Special Collections.
8 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 9
A renowned Darwin scholar
leads a tour of the islands where
the famed naturalist made his
first evolutionary observations
By TERESA KILIAN TATE
The story of Charles Darwin and the Galapagos Islands
is often misunderstood, said Jim Costa, professor of biology
and director of Highlands Biological Station. When Darwin
observed the giant tortoises, mockingbirds, and other flora
and fauna on the islands in 1835, he did not grasp how
important what he saw would be to the work for which he
is known – “The Origin of Species.” It was months after
Darwin’s visit that, in retrospect, he connected the island
observations to the concept of evolution and, even later, to
natural selection – the mechanism for evolution presented
in his book.
“What’s interesting is to try to see the specific plants
and animals of the Galapagos through Darwin’s eyes at a
time when he didn’t realize their uniqueness or the lessons
they hold,” said Costa, who led a tour to the Galapagos this
fall at the invitation of the Harvard Museum of Natural
History in partnership with Lindblad/National Geographic
Expeditions. The trip was one of dozens Costa, a renowned
Darwin scholar who authored “The Annotated Origin,”
took near and far in 2009 to present at celebrations in
honor of the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth and the 150th
anniversary of the publication of “Origin.”
“I was extremely excited to see the Galapagos landscape
that Darwin memorialized so evocatively in his book
‘Voyage of the Beagle,’” said Costa. “I was keen to see some
of the places and, of course, the fascinating organisms that
Darwin saw during his visit and get a sense of the varied
landscape that Darwin experienced – from vast desolate
lava plains to lush mountaintop forests. In another respect,
I was excited to experience the Galapagos as remote island
archipelago. Oceanic islands are fascinating natural
laboratories for ecological and evolutionary processes.”
returning
to the origin
Jim Costa, professor of
biology and director of
Highlands Biological Station,
recently led a tour to the
Galapagos Islands, where
Charles Darwin recorded
observations of animals
and plants that proved to be
important in his book
“The Origin of Species.”
Pictured from his trip at left is
Pinnacle Rock on Bartolomé
Island, and at right, from
top, flamingos; Costa; marine
iguanas; Costa and fellow
naturalists; a giant wild tortoise;
and Bartolomé Island.
10 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 11
Josefina Niggli earns recognition
for her place in WCU history
By JIL INGRAM MA ’08
PHOTO CREDIT: North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill.
When Steve Carlisle ’73 arrived on the campus of Western
Carolina University from his hometown of Hendersonville
in the fall semester of 1966, he had his future mapped. “I was
a history major, wanting to go back to my local high school
and become a basketball coach and history teacher,” Carlisle
recounted. “That was my dream.”
An encounter with Western Carolina drama instructor
Josefina Niggli rerouted those dreams. Carlisle stopped
thinking of theater as a hobby and committed himself to
acting. More than 40 years later, Carlisle has worked with
Susan Sarandon, Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds, James
Garner and Jack Lemon, among others.
Niggli had that effect on people. Small in stature – perhaps
5-foot-2-inches in heels – Niggli arrived at Western Carolina
in 1956 as an established novelist, poet, screenwriter and
playwright. “Theater was a special thing to her, and she
made it a special thing to us,” said Luther Jones ’74 MAEd
’82, a former student who made a career in theater, film and
television; his movie credits include “Patch Adams,” “My
Fellow Americans” and “The Legend of Bagger Vance.”
A Woman of Many Roles
Born in Monterrey, Mexico, in July 1910 to parents of
European descent, Niggli earned her undergraduate degree
from Incarnate Word College in San Antonio in 1931 and
a master’s degree in drama from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1937.
She spent the 1930s and 1940s active in radio, television
and film, and writing plays, short stories, novels and
screenplays. A forerunner in the literature of Mexico, Niggli
wrote in English and revealed Mexican life from an insider’s
perspective. She once wrote: “When I was a young kid,
drama Queen
12 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 13
Niggli hapenings
Events and projects at Western Carolina University to commemorate author
and teacher Josefina Niggli include:
• A fall 2009 roundtable radio interview of former Niggli students, friends
and co-workers, hosted by Don Connelly, head of the communication
department, and intended to illuminate her personal side. The interview
aired on WWCU-FM and also is available online.
• A competition sponsored by the Fine Art Museum. The winner will create a
commissioned portrait of Niggli to hang in Niggli Theatre, and artwork from
all finalists will be displayed from April 1 to May 8 and again in July in the
Fine Art Museum.
• An original performance piece from students in the Theatre in Education
Program, inspired by Niggli and images invoking Mexico. Students of
Mark Mattheis, an assistant professor of broadcasting, will record the piece.
• A display of Niggli holdings by Hunter Library’s Special Collections,
on exhibit through Dec. 11 at the library.
• An alternative spring break to Niggli’s birthplace coordinated by the Center
for Service Learning.
• An oral history project from the department of history.
• A March 10 gender conference, sponsored by the Women’s Studies Program,
featuring author and Niggli scholar Elizabeth Coonrod Martínez as the
keynote speaker and including a screening of “Sombrero.”
starting out as a writer, I had a shining goal. I was going to
present Mexico and the Mexicans as they had never before
been presented.”
In 1945, Niggli published “Mexican Village,” a collection
of 10 short stories; parts of it were adapted into “Sombrero,”
a 1953 major motion picture from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
starring Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse. Niggli co-wrote
the screenplay, and two later novels also were well
received.
Education was important to Niggli. She was a graduate
of the Columbia University School of Journalism, received
radio training at New York University and studied acting in
Europe. She held positions at Chapel Hill and the University
of North Carolina at Greensboro before joining the faculty
of Western Carolina.
Cullowhee’s Grande Dame
Niggli, who taught journalism in addition to drama, made
a big impression at the mountain school. Chain-smoking
Marlboro cigarettes, clicking her fingertips like castanets,
offering stage direction from the seat of a red recliner po-sitioned
in the theater aisle, she was fascinating, imperial,
dramatic, magical, revolutionary.
Niggli introduced a climate of professionalism in WCU’s
theater program that allowed her students to graduate
highly trained and ready to work. Her classes studied
classical acting, dramatic structure, period and style. They
studied Shakespeare, Molière and Ibsen. They performed
contemporary Broadway hits. Niggli’s productions were
so popular that – despite a two-lane, winding road west of
Balsam – people drove from Asheville to attend.
Niggli retired in 1976 and remained in Cullowhee. She
died in 1983, leaving money, property and personal effects
to the university. To date, a theater arts scholarship Niggli
funded has awarded more than $126,000 to 128 students.
A Turn in the Spotlight
Now, WCU is formally recognizing Niggli’s
accomplishments. For the 2009-10 academic year, the
Office for Undergraduate Studies is coordinating a series of
interdisciplinary, campuswide events under the umbrella
title of “Josefina Niggli: A Celebration of Culture, Art
and Life.” University centers and academic departments
have committed to integrating Niggli into coursework
and coordinating projects in her honor (see sidebar). The
university also has named her the recipient of a posthumous
honorary doctorate.
For years, Jones, now the University Theatre’s designer
and technical director, and Carlisle, associate dean
of the Honors College, have discussed recognition
of Niggli beyond renaming the Little Theatre in her
memory in 1984. “I just thought it was time to recognize
her accomplishments,” Jones said. “I don’t think the
significance of her work was understood at the time she
was alive.” Agrees Carlisle, “She really was ahead of her
time, and we didn’t know how to appreciate her. It has
taken us 50 years to catch up to this woman.”
The effort took some time to gain momentum, but
ultimately the timing was perfect, said Glenda Hensley,
coordinator of first-year experiences with the Office
for Undergraduate Studies. The university already had
instituted its plan of engaged, cross-disciplinary learning,
and a committee had formed under the leadership of
Carol Burton ’87 MAEd ’89, assistant vice chancellor for
undergraduate studies, to expand the humanities. It was
Jones who approached the committee about honoring
Niggli. “We agreed this would be an amazing way to institute
a campuswide thematic year,” said Hensley. Although she
earned degrees in costume design and drama education
elsewhere, Hensley took several classes at WCU, and once
encountered Niggli as a guest speaker. “She was such a lady,”
Hensley recalled. “I remember somebody escorting her up
the steps of the Little Theatre, and she sat in the famous
wingback chair.”
The recognition comes during the 100th year since
Niggli’s birth and amid growing academic interest, with a
biography and two compilations of Niggli’s work published
since 2007. A January “celebration premiere” was intended
to “really kick up attention for the spring semester,” Hensley
said. It included an invited reception and a performance
by students and Kathleen Wright, professor emeritus of
communication. Wright, whose tenure briefly overlapped
Niggli’s, portrayed “Miss Niggli,” as her former students
still call her, in a costume created by Leeanne Deaver ’09.
Deaver, of Canton, studied costume design at WCU
with the help of a Josefina Niggli Scholarship. She lives
in New York and occasionally works for famed costume
designer William Ivey Long. She volunteered to design the
Niggli costume – a black-and-pink dress and “an elegant
little black shawl” – because she wanted to repay Niggli’s
generosity. “I was really thankful that I had the opportunity
to create the costume,” Deaver said. “A lot of students get the
scholarship, but not all the students get the opportunity to
show appreciation for it.”
While the yearlong program is primarily to demonstrate
Niggli’s ongoing legacy to current students – “We want to
keep learning front and center,” Hensley said – one event
is of special interest to alumni: a reunion and performance
planned for July 8-10. “Since the actual anniversary of her
birth is in July, we decided that was a good time to allow
alums and others who were devoted to Ms. Niggli to come
to campus,” Hensley said. The centerpiece of the weekend
will be a performance (the location is yet to be determined)
directed by Carlisle and featuring Niggli’s former students.
“This is going to be an inside look at how Josefina affected
the lives of her former students,” Carlisle said. “It’s going to
be a love-in – laughter, tears, hugging. These people are just
itching to get back here and honor her.”
Many participants learned of the event through the
social networking site Facebook. A link to that page can be
found on WCU’s Josefina Niggli site, niggli.wcu.edu. “The
Facebook page had more than 100 fans in less than two
weeks. People found it pretty quickly,” Hensley said. “We
have managed to create a terrific communication network.”
Calling Miss Niggli’s students:
Niggli’s former students and others
interested in learning more about the
July reunion should contact Glenda Hensley
of the Office for Undergraduate Studies at
ghensley@wcu.edu or 828.227.2786.
Among campus events
to celebrate the life of
Josefina Niggli (top left) are,
clockwise from top right, an
ongoing display of artifacts;
a performance by Kathleen
Wright, retired head of the
department of communication
and theater arts during
January’s celebration;
and a March screening of
“Sombrero,” promoted in a
movie poster held by Luther
Jones ’74 MAEd ’82.
14 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 15
Emily Collman, an elementary education and Spanish
major from the Gaston County town of Dallas, always knew
she wanted to go to college to learn how to be a teacher. What
she didn’t know was how she would pay for it, or if she had
what it took to achieve her goal. That is, until she received
the Taft and Malvery Botner Scholarship, which helped her
pay tuition and fees, and which enabled her to gain the skills
and self-confidence to succeed in the classroom, both as a
student and as a student-teacher.
“I have known since the time I was 12 years old that
I wanted to be a teacher,” said Collman, a senior. “Here
at Western Carolina, I have found nationally regarded
professors who care about me, not just as a student but
as a person. Receiving the Botner Scholarship was a huge
validation for me, because scholarships are not like birthday
presents that you get for surviving another year. Scholarships
are a pat on the back, an ‘atta-girl’ in recognition of your
perseverance and hard work.”
For Brandon Robinson ’05, the fact that a university
believed enough in the intellectual and academic ability of
a first-generation college student from Mocksville to award
him the History Excellence Scholarship gave him the self
esteem not only to earn a bachelor’s degree in history, but to
work toward a master’s degree in history at WCU en route to
the ultimate prize – a law degree.
“It’s obvious that receiving a scholarship helped me
financially be able to attend the university,” Robinson said.
“But it also signaled for me that point of confidence where
I knew that Western Carolina University – and specifically
the history department – had faith in me and my abilities,
and they believed that I could
come here and do great things
and actualize my ambition of
being a Renaissance man. You
can have a lot of dreams like
that when you come to college,
but if you’re a first-generation
undergraduate student like I
was, when you have Ph.D.s and
different committees and deans
willing to invest in you and your
intellectual abilities, that just
sealed it for me.”
Those are just two examples
of the types of stories heard
time and again across the
campus as students, faculty,
staff, alumni and friends
came together in October to
celebrate what Chancellor John
W. Bardo characterized as “a most historic day in the life
of our university” – the successful conclusion of the first
comprehensive fundraising campaign in the university’s
120 years.
After topping $51.8 million in contributions, the Campaign for
Western Carolina is producing dividends for students and faculty
By BIL STUDENC
Investment
in the Future
$ 5 1 , 8 2 6 , 915
Y O U ’ R E E X T R A O R D I N A R Y !
campaign
headquarters
Opposite page, counterclockwise
from top left: Campaign
volunteers are thanked for
their role in the fundraising
effort; Emily Collman, Taft and
Malvery Botner Scholarship
recipient, speaks to donors;
students line up to applaud
campaign contributors; Founders
Scholarship recipient Andrew
Blair practices the marimba.
Chancellor John Bardo presents
a WCU cap to musician Matt
Stillwell ’98, who performed at
the campaign celebration.
16 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 17
campaign
headquarters
Making a Difference in Student Lives
Thanks to the $51.8 million in contributions from
benefactors who helped the university shatter its goal
of $40 million in private support announced when the
Campaign for Western Carolina was launched to the
public in February 2007, more students like Collman and
Robinson will be able to pursue their dreams of getting a
college education, Bardo said.
“A university has never been a collection of buildings,
although it is in buildings where we do much of our work.
A university has never been a geographic space. A university
is about people. And the better the people of a university,
the better the university. No university is better than its
faculty members, and no faculty member can touch the
future unless he or she has the right type of students who
care about the future, who want to make a difference in their
world. That’s what this university is about,” he said.
It is for that reason that the Campaign for Western
Carolina did not focus on money for new buildings or land
purchases. Instead, it focused on endowed professorships,
endowed scholarship and programmatic support, Bardo
said. “This campaign was about extraordinary opportunities
for our faculty, for our staff and, most of all, for our students.
It was about making it possible to bring the very best minds
in the world to Cullowhee.” The competition for attracting
those bright minds has increased greatly, he said, and the
only way to get those best and brightest is through endowed
scholarships to bring top students to WCU and through
endowed professorships to attract the nation’s preeminent
scholars to teach those students.
That is why the majority of the dollars raised during the
campaign are directed to student and faculty endowments.
Thirty-four percent of contributions are earmarked for
faculty endowments, including commitments for 24 new
endowed distinguished professorships in fields ranging
from educational leadership to construction management.
Thirty percent of campaign gifts are directed to student
endowments, including scholarships, and to support
such wide-ranging student activities as travel abroad
opportunities, participation in skills-based competitions
against students from other universities, and internships or
master classes with world-renowned experts.
For example, Andrew Blair, a senior from Liberty majoring
in music education, was among only 30 students from across
the nation selected to participate in a prestigious percussion
class held in New York last summer under the direction
of the world’s foremost marimba virtuoso, Leigh Howard
Stevens. “It’s really a great honor as a musician and as a
percussionist to be selected to participate,” said Blair, who
performed selections on the marimba as part of the WCU
Foundation’s annual scholarship luncheon during the week
of campaign celebration activities in the fall. “I was studying
with the father of our modern marimba techniques.”
While The Campaign for Western Carolina was successful,
university leaders continue to seek outside support. For more
information, contact the Office of Development at 828.227.7124
(or 800.492.8496 toll free), or visit campaign.wcu.edu.
Thanks to the Honors College Study Abroad Fund, Max
DeGrove, son of WCU facilities management supervisor
Andy DeGrove ’83 MIT ’84, was able to spend a summer in
Shikoku, Japan, bicycling across the smallest of the nation’s
four “big islands” and immersing himself in the culture.
“It was truly a life-changing experience, one that I would
have never been able to have without the support of donors
and scholarships,” said DeGrove, a sophomore majoring
in engineering technology. “I think that study abroad is
something that every student should do. It gives you a sense
of maturity from being on your own in a foreign country. I
am certainly a better person because of it.”
Christina Banner, a sophomore majoring in musical
theater, said receiving scholarship assistance has meant she
has not had to take a part-time job to help pay expenses,
leaving time to focus on studies and on extracurricular
activities ranging from working backstage at theatrical
productions to involvement in student leadership groups.
“My scholarship definitely helped me financially. I have an
older brother and a younger brother, so I know my parents
definitely appreciated it,” said Banner, from Conover. “But it’s
also given me the opportunity to do more on campus. It has
really freed me up to be able to take advantage of the college
experience without having to worry about finances. I’ve been
able to take a full course load, plus be heavily involved in the
productions that the theater department does.”
The Honors College Study Abroad Fund enabled Max DeGrove
(above, left) to bicycle across a Japanese island. Scholarship
recipient and campaign donor Brandon Robinson ’05 (above, right)
relaxes in the stacks of Hunter Library, where he spends much of his
time reading for school and pleasure.
Professor Louis Buck,
scholarship recipients
Brandon Robinson ’05
and Christina Banner and
Wesley Elingburg ’78
discuss the benefits
of the campaign.
18 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 19
campaign
headquarters
It was just a few months ago that Wesley Elingburg ’78, a supporter of Western
Carolina’s Loyalty Fund for 18 years, issued a challenge to other donors, backing
up that challenge with an offer to match new and increased gifts of at least $1,000,
up to a maximum of $50,000.
Already, 23 people have taken him up on his challenge, making additional gifts
to the Loyalty Fund that, when combined with his match, have resulted in an
additional $73,283 to provide merit-based scholarships to WCU students.
Elingburg says he is pleased at the success of the Elingburg Challenge – and its
role in extending the success of The Campaign for Western Carolina. “I haven’t
quit smiling since I got on campus this morning,” the retired chief financial officer
with Laboratory Corp. of America said during a campaign celebration event in
October. “I am so happy to be here today, and it’s such a privilege to be able to
celebrate what has happened.”
Cynthia Hamilton Beane ’71 is among those who have taken up Elingburg on
his challenge. “I had given small amounts to the university each year for several
years, but have long felt that I need to give more to my alma mater, to reconnect
and to get more involved,” said Beane, a partner in the accounting firm Beane
Swaringen & Co. “Learning of the Wes Elingburg Challenge made me realize that
now is the time to do what I have always intended to do.”
Additional gifts made through the challenge are helping maintain the
momentum of the first comprehensive fundraising effort at WCU. Although the
campaign resulted in $51.8 million in contributions and pledges to the university,
additional needs remain. “Giving back to the campus and the community,
that’s what I want to do. I want to give back to afford opportunities to students
– opportunities that, without our help, a lot of deserving students won’t get,”
Elingburg said. “How can we help as donors? We can help by giving back to
institutions. Let’s think about writing that check. Think about the pleasure that
you get from knowing that when you write that check to this institution, you are
indeed helping a student.”
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
Donors are taking up an alum’s offer to match
their gifts to the Loyalty Fund
By BIL STUDENC
A significant slowdown in the construction industry
resulting from the nation’s lingering economic downturn
has led to the recent declaration of bankruptcy by a
benefactor in the Campaign for Western Carolina.
Contributions from Joe W. Kimmel and his company,
Kimmel & Associates, in 2005 led to the naming
of the Kimmel School of Construction Management
and Technology.
“For more than a decade, Kimmel & Associates has
been among the nation’s top firms in placing construction
managers in the U.S. construction industry, one of the
strongest segments of the American economy. Western
Carolina University anticipates that the company will
rebound as the national construction industry, among the
hardest hit segments of the national economy in the current
recession, returns to normal,” said Clifton Metcalf, vice
chancellor for advancement and external affairs.
“Delay in fulfilling commitments planned in the
Kimmel gift will mean that fewer student scholarships
and less program support – such as brochures and student
participation in conferences or competitions – will be
available during the interim,” Metcalf said.
Chancellor John W. Bardo expressed his sympathy for
the Kimmels, who are among a large number of business
men and women, and numerous U.S. companies, who are
suffering economically. “The Kimmels are wonderful people
with whom we have worked for a number of years and with
whom we have a great relationship. They and many among
the Kimmel & Associates leadership are close friends of the
university and of many of us in the university family,” Bardo
said. “Our current concern is for the Kimmel family and
their employees. As one does with family, we will take the
long view of this trying time. We wish them all the best. We
will stand by them in every way we can, and trust that there
will be a brighter day in the world economy soon.”
Financial downturn will slow support
for construction management
Students Give Us Hope
It was concerns about students being able to afford college
and about the quality of their educational experience that
led Wesley Elingburg ’78, retired chief financial officer with
Laboratory Corp. of America, to contribute before, during
and after the campaign. “It pains me when I hear stories of
students who want to go to school but struggle financially
to do so. I would like every student who wants to go to
college to be able to do so without the burden of debt,” said
Elingburg, whose gifts to the university during the silent
phase of the campaign led to establishment of the Wesley
Elingburg Professorship of Business Innovation, a position
now held by Louis Buck, a former executive at one of the
nation’s largest investor-owned energy companies.
“Western Carolina gave me the foundation that led me
through my adult life. When I came to the university, I did
not know what I wanted to do with my life. But there were
faculty here and faculty advisers who gave me that guidance.
For that, I will be forever grateful,” Elingburg said. “I’ve
given back to Western Carolina. Anytime Western Carolina
calls upon me, I am there, and I will always be there.”
And Elingburg continues to be a major contributor to the
university. In 2009, he issued a challenge to encourage
increased giving to WCU’s Loyalty Fund, which provides
scholarships and other support for WCU students, faculty
and programs (see Challenge Accepted on next page).
Elingburg is not alone in his desire to give back. Gifts
to the campaign came from 9,564 donors from 48 states.
Of those donors, 608 work at Western Carolina as faculty
or staff. The majority of donors – 59 percent – were WCU
alumni, with 5,661 individual alumni making contributions.
Another 34 percent of contributors are not alumni, but
are characterized as “friends of the university,” with
corporations, foundations and other benefactors making up
the remaining 7 percent. Four groups achieved 100 percent
participation in the campaign – the university’s board of
trustees, the WCU Foundation board of directors, the WCU
Executive Council and University Police.
Joan MacNeill, former chair of the WCU board of trustees,
said there is a reason why so many people from so many
walks of life from across the country were willing to give
to the Campaign for Western Carolina – a reason far more
important than tax deductions or naming opportunities.
“The secret is, for my husband and myself, we are the ones
who feel blessed,” said MacNeill. She accompanied Ashley
Shemery, the recipient of the Joan and Malcolm MacNeill
Scholarship, to a special lecture presented by the Jacksonville
sophomore’s favorite professor after a special luncheon to
thank scholarship donors. “For us, she’s really what it’s all
about. Ashley has expressed her gratitude and thanks to us
for the financial help she had received. But what she doesn’t
know is we really thank her. She and students like Brandon
and Christina have given us hope. They make us feel really
good about the future.”
From left, Ashley Shemery
and her scholarship
benefactors Malcolm and
Joan MacNeill attend a lecture
by a popular professor.
For more information on the Elingburg Challenge,
visit loyaltyfund.wcu.edu, or contact Natalie Clark,
at 828.227.3090 or nclark@wcu.edu.
photo credit: Will McIntyre ’76 and Deni McIntyre
20 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 21
campaign
headquarters
Fifty-two years. That is how
long I have been observing “The
Progress of an Idea,” the phrase
Dean W.E. Bird used to describe
the founding and progression
of a little academy on a small
plot of land in the woods of
Jackson County to a vibrant,
comprehensive university with
international influence on a
beautiful 600-acre campus in
Cullowhee, USA. While Bird’s
account of the development of
Western Carolina University does not extend beyond 1957,
the year I enrolled at Western Carolina, I have been blessed
by the extraordinary opportunity to observe up-close,
first as a student and then as an employee, the continued
“Progress of an Idea.”
I have witnessed a number of impressive events at
Western Carolina over those 52 years, but none has made
me prouder than the success of the university’s recent,
first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign: “Creating
Extraordinary Opportunities.” Perhaps I was especially
proud because of the historical perspective I brought to
the campaign, a perspective that included memories of
when the president of the college was the only person on
campus with ready access to a public address system, when
the cafeteria’s Sunday supper for students consisted of a
pimento cheese sandwich and an apple in a brown paper
bag, and when there was no store on campus where students
could purchase books to supplement their rented texts or
satisfy their desire for extracurricular reading.
The individuals responsible for directing the fundraising
campaign, which was publicly launched in 2007, insisted on
thinking big: $20 million was the initial, unannounced goal.
Conditioned perhaps by my 50-year knowledge of the need to
penny-pinch, I wondered if the university was campaigning
more for embarrassment than funds. Nonetheless, as the
campaign progressed, the $20 million target was reset three
times: $25 million, $30 million, and finally, a giddy $40
million. When WCU celebrated the results of its campaign
on Oct. 15, 2009, Chancellor John Bardo announced that the
campaign had generated nearly $52 million.
The astonishing success of the campaign confirmed
that WCU is capable of raising funds from private sources
to support the “idea” Dean Bird recounted in “Western
Carolina College: The Progress of an Idea.” Certainly, the
$51.8 million raised will help students and faculty improve
teaching and learning; and it will help the university attract
even stronger faculty and students, serve more effectively
the broader community, and enhance further the quality of
the institution’s academic and athletics programs.
But in the opinion of this appreciative alumnus and
recently retired 40-year employee, the most pleasing and
significant outcome of the campaign is confirmation that, in
the eyes of alumni, friends, corporations and foundations,
Western Carolina University is a vibrant, dynamic
institution that is realizing its goal of offering opportunities
to those who aspire to make a difference in their world, and
is therefore worthy of private fiscal support.
How much is this widespread sentiment worth to WCU?
Certainly, more than $52 million. And that bodes well
for the university’s future fundraising campaigns and the
continued “Progress of an Idea” that began way back in 1889.
Western North Carolina residents participating in an
aphasia support group are benefiting from the expertise of
a teacher and researcher who literally wrote the book on the
disorder. Nancy Helm-Estabrooks, one of the nation’s top
experts in adult neurological communication disorders,
was appointed WCU’s first Catherine Brewer Smith
Distinguished Professor of Communication Disorders in
July. The focus of Helm-Estabrooks’ research and writing
over the years has been aphasia, a communication disorder,
typically caused by a stroke or other brain injury, that is
related to understanding and producing language.
In addition to teaching courses in aphasia and
cognitive-communicative disorders, Helm-Estabrooks
trains graduate students to work with individuals affected
by aphasia who attend meetings of the Asheville Area
Aphasia Support Group. As part of that effort, she also
leads discussions for family members and friends who are
living with aphasia through a loved one. During weekly
meetings at CarePartners Health Services in Asheville, the
support group offers free individual and group therapy for
those who are no longer eligible for insurance coverage for
rehabilitation services.
Before coming to WCU, Helm-Estabrooks was a research
professor in the division of speech and hearing sciences in
the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, where she continues to hold an adjunct
position. She was a clinical investigator for 32 years with
the renowned Harold Goodglass Aphasia Research Center
in Boston, and is co-author of the highly regarded “Manual
of Aphasia and Aphasia Therapy.” Treatment methods and
tests developed by Helm-Estabrooks and her colleagues, are
now used by clinicians around the world.
Ruby Drew, retired associate professor of communication
disorders who helps lead the treatment program for the
Asheville support group, said Helm-Estabrooks has a
“special understanding of persons with aphasia” that is
well-received by family and friends. “Nancy is a dynamic
clinician and has intuitive knowledge about how the brain
has been affected by aphasia, and she is indefatigable in her
energy to assist those who have the disorder,” Drew said.
Department head Bill Ogletree calls Helm-Estabrooks a
“wonderful role model” for both students and faculty. “Her
scholarly and clinical impact has laid the groundwork for
future generations of researchers and practitioners, and
her international reputation in the area of adult neurogenic
communication disorders is simply second to none,”
Ogletree said.
A gift of $300,000 from the estate of the late Catherine
Brewer Smith provided funding for the distinguished
professorship in communication disorders. It was one in a
series of family contributions made to honor the memory
of Smith’s father, Albert Dudley Brewer, who attended
the university. A native of Marion, Ind., Smith owned and
managed a motel in Madeira Beach, Fla., for 26 years. She
maintained residences in Franklin and Yankeetown, Fla.
WCU combined $250,000 of Smith’s gift with matching
state funds to establish the $500,000 professorship, while
the remaining $50,000 was used to create an endowed fund
that supports activities of the department of communication
sciences and disorders.
An aphasia expert has joined the communication sciences and disorders
faculty as the first Catherine Brewer Smith Distinguished Professor
By RANDAL HOLCOMBE
A GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
Nancy Helm-Estabrooks
works with a member of an
aphasia support group.
EXTRAORDINARY TIMES
Thanks to the Campaign for Western Carolina,
‘The Progress of an Idea’ is climbing to new heights
By GURNEY CHAMBERS ’61
Fashions and hairstyles have
changed over the years;
what has not changed is the
university’s emphasis on student
success, at the heart of the
Campaign for Western Carolina.
Gurney E. Chambers ’61
is dean emeritus of the
College of Education and
Allied Professions and
served as chair of the
faculty/staff component of
the Family Gifts Division
during the Campaign for
Western Carolina.
22 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 23
Danna Harrell-Stansbury
’95 BA ’98 MPA
Asheville, N.C.
Director of marketing and administration,
Land-of-Sky Regional Council.
At WCU: Pi Gamma Mu international honor society
for social science; Political Science Club; Alpha Xi
Delta sorority; participated in intramural sports.
Formerly: Jackson County Extension 4-H agent,
1999-2004; member, National Association of Extension 4-H Agents, 1999-
2004; member, N.C. Association of Extension Agents, 1999-2004; Jackson
County Child and Family Council, 2000-04; volunteer, Jackson County Schools,
1999-2004; member, Webster Baptist Church, 2002-08; project administrator,
Science Applications International Corp., Atlanta, 2004-06.
Currently: Volunteer, Madison County Schools, 2006-present; member,
Rotary International, Madison County Chapter, 2006-present; Local
Government Volunteer Advisory Board, 2006-present; member, Mars Hill
Baptist Church, 2006-present; volunteer, Habitat for Humanity, 2007-present;
board member, State Employees’ Credit Union, 2009; member, N.C.
Association of County Commissioners, 2009; member, WNC Association of
City and County Managers, 2009; Public Executive Leadership Academy, N.C.
School of Government, UNC-CH, 2009; community emergency response team
training, 2009.
Jeffrey A. Davis
’92 BS ’01 JD Mississippi College
Cornelius, N.C.
Assistant district attorney, supervisor of
violent crime unit, 26th Judicial District,
Mecklenburg County.
At WCU: Pi Gamma Mu; Anthropology Club;
Outstanding Anthropology Graduate, 1992; WCU
Clean Campus Club; participant, WCU Research
Conference, 1991 and 1992.
Formerly: Member, Cornelius Transportation Advisory Committee,
2004-05; vice president, Mitchell County Chamber of Commerce, 1996-97;
volunteer, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools “Lunch with a Lawyer” program,
2008; volunteer, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools “Teen Court,” 2003.
Currently: Vice chair person, Charlotte Mecklenburg Zoning Board of
Adjustment; member, Mecklenburg County Criminal Courts Committee.
Dennis L. Howell
’73 BSBA ’76 JD UNC School of Law
Burnsville, N.C.
U.S. magistrate judge for the
Western District of North Carolina.
At WCU: Patrons of Quality Scholar; served on
the Chancellor’s Inauguration Committee; vice
president, Young Democrats Club; Alpha Phi
Sigma; Phi Kappa Phi; Law Club; Who’s Who in
American Colleges and Universities; WCU College representative to the North
Carolina Legislature, 1973; graduated summa cum laude; graduated first in
class rank.
Formerly: John Motley Morehead Fellowship in Law, UNC School of Law,
1973-76; class president, UNC School of Law, 1976; board member, Mitchell
County Economic Development Commission; president, Yancey County Youth
Football League; member of local board of directors, Southeastern Savings
& Loan Association; member, WCU Alumni Board, 1980-82; member, John
Motley Morehead District Selection Committee, 1982/1988; member 1986-90,
vice chairman 1988-90, Yancey County Board of Education.
Currently: Member, Mount Mitchell State Park Advisory Committee;
member, N.C. State Bar; member of the Bar, U.S. District Court for the Western
District of North Carolina and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit;
member of the Bar, 24th Judicial District of the state of North Carolina.
Tonya Wilson Reid
’88 BS
Statesville, N.C.
Lead school social worker, truancy court liaison,
McKinney-Vento district liaison, day treatment
liaison, Iredell Statesville Schools.
At WCU: Resident assistant, Helder Residence Hall;
member, WCU Inspirational Choir; member, WCU
Baseball’s Batgirl Squad; Alpha Phi Alpha Little
Sisters (an affiliation of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity).
Formerly: Statesville All-America City Steering Committee, 2009; 115
Corridor Gateway Project Committee; Statesville Police Department Assessment
Center for Sergeants; Rabbittown/Sunnyside Community Reunion Committee.
Currently: Chairperson, South Statesville Weed and Seed; member,
Statesville Police Department Citizen Academy Board; private sector member,
ICARE Inc.; community member, National Night Out Committee.
Paul T. Jones
’69 BSEd ’70 MAEd
Forest City, N.C.
Retired educator and coach,
Rutherford County Schools.
At WCU: Sports editor, Western Carolinian;
Physical Education Club; captain, WCU’s first track
and cross country teams.
Formerly: Coach for 15 years, WCU track
and cross country; NCAA II Cross Country Coach of the Year, 1974-75;
WCU Athletic Hall of Fame, 2002; former sports information director, WCU;
committee member, Catamount Club Auctions; committee member, Catamount
Club Bob Waters Golf Tournament; president, Catamount Club.
Currently: Member, WCU Catamount Club; member, Sunday school
teacher and member of various church committees, Florence Baptist Church;
lifetime member, Veterans of Foreign Wars; member, 1st Batallion 4th Marines
Association; combat veteran, Vietnam War; work with Forest City Florence Mill
Revitalization Committee; member, Forest City Owls Baseball Boosters Club.
Joan Knipe Walker
’71 BSEd
Hickory, N.C.
Owner, Providence Home Construction LLC.,
N.C. licensed general contractor.
At WCU: Student.
Formerly: Board member, Habitat for
Humanity; chairperson, Community Architectural
Review Committee; vice president, Women’s
Aglow Fellowship.
Currently: Member, WCU Catamount Club; contributor, WCU Loyalty
Fund; established Catawba County Christian Business and Professional
Scholarship Endowment. Married to Phillip D. Walker ’71; two children,
Jonathan ’99 and Melanie.
NORTH CAROLINA DISTRICT 1
NORTH CAROLINA DISTRICT 2
Alleghany, Alexander, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell,
Rutherford, Polk, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey counties. (Vote for one. The top vote recipient will serve a three-year term, 2010-12.)
Dana Jones
’99 BSBA
Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.
Territory manager, Sherwin-Williams.
At WCU: Student Government Association
senator; represented WCU in national collegiate
sales competition; InterFraternity Council executive
board; member, Pi Kappa Alpha; volunteer,
Mountain Area Hospice.
Current & Former Activities: Five-time consecutive winner,
Sherwin-Williams President’s Award (highest award given nationally);
member, Sherwin-Williams Southeastern Division Management Training
Quality committee; vice president, Bent Tree executive board; owner/member
manager, Stone Crest of the Carolinas; Brunswick County U6 soccer coach;
volunteer, Brunswick Boys and Girls Club; member, Liberty Baptist Church.
Married with two children.
Dale Sims
’78 BS
Franklin, Tenn.
Vice chancellor for business and finance,
Tennessee Board of Regents System.
At WCU: Student orientation leader, 1977; resident
assistant, Reynolds Hall, 1976-77; resident
director, Reynolds Hall, 1977-78; member, baseball
team, 1974-78 (lettered in 1977 and 1978).
FormerLY: Tennessee state treasurer, 2003-09; member, National
Association of State Treasurers, recipient of Jesse M. Unruh Award, served in
various association leadership roles; member, National Association of State
Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers, recipient of 2007 President’s Award,
member of executive committee; member, Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame
Board; member, Tennessee Higher Education Commission; Public Finance
Institute certification, Kellogg School at Northwestern University; Public Service
Professional of the Year, County Officials Association of Tennessee, 2007.
Currently: Member, National Association of College and University
Business Officers; member, Southern Association of College and University
Business Officers; member, finance committee member, Franklin First United
Methodist Church; contributor, WCU Loyalty Fund; member, Catamount Club.
Married to Debbie Davis Sims of Nashville, Tenn.; daughter, Jessica, and
grandson, Jay.
James A. Chandler
’94 BSBA ’97 MS ’98 PhD University of Tennessee
Greenville, N.C.
Associate professor, department of hospitality
management; lead faculty, food and beverage
management program, East Carolina University.
At WCU: Member, Mortar Board national senior
honor society; committee member, 1994 Mountain
Heritage Day; member, Beta Gamma Sigma honor
society; member, Alpha Mu Alpha honor society.
Current & Former Activities: International Council of Hotel,
Restaurant and Institutional Education; board-certified educator, International
Food Safety Council; board-certified educator, American Hotel and Lodging
Robin Parton Pate
’97 BSBA ’99 MA University of Alabama
Knoxville, Tenn.
Vice president of program planning, HGTV
(Home and Garden Television).
At WCU: Student orientation leader; membership
vice president, Alpha Xi Delta, 1995-97; Order
of Omega; member, Homecoming planning
committee; member, American Marketing
Association; Walt Disney World-College Program.
Formerly: Member, Atlanta American Marketing Association Research
Executives Roundtable; senior research analyst, Turner Broadcasting Networks
CNN, TBS and TNT.
Currently: Member, National Association of Television
Executives; executive member, 2009 Mentor Program, Women in
Cable Telecommunications; Mark Awards Judge 2009, Cable and
Telecommunications Association for Marketing; member, American Marketing
Association; volunteer, Special Olympics; volunteer, Meals on Wheels.
Association Educational Institute; National Restaurant Association Educational
Foundation; past president, Southeast Council of Hotel, Restaurant and
Institutional Education; N.C. Council of Hospitality and Tourism Educators’
Association; N.C. Restaurant and Lodging Association; N.C. Tourism Industry
Association; past treasurer and board of directors’ member, N.C. Tourism
Education Foundation; N.C. Chapter, Hospitality Sales and Marketing
Association International; Pitt County Muscular Dystrophy Association
Foundation; Pitt County March of Dimes; East Carolina University faculty
senator; past chair, ECU College of Human Ecology Faculty Council; faculty
and director, ECU Center for Sustainable Tourism; Kappa Omicron Nu national
honor society, UT and ECU chapters.
Donnie D. Rhodes
’71 BA
Colorado Springs, Colo.
Retired in 2002, Pfizer
Pharmaceuticals management.
At WCU: Member, Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity;
active in intramural sports; member, Society
for the Advancement of Management; Western
Carolinian campus newspaper, 1970.
Formerly: Past president, Broadmoor Rotary Club, Colorado Springs,
2008-09; member, Kiwanis, Wilmington, N.C., 1987-97; member, St. Andrews
Presbyterian Church, Wilmington; U.S. Marine Corps military service, 1966-69.
Currently: Member (2002-present), program chairman (2004-present),
Broadmoor Rotary Club; member, First Presbyterian Church; actively working
with and supporting the Wounded Warriors Program at Fort Carson, Colo.;
leading fundraising efforts for Citizens Soldiers Connection, a nonprofit benefit
for families of military veterans; member, Marine Corps League, Veterans of
Foreign Wars, and the American Legion.
OUT-OF-STATE
DISTRICT 5
NORTH CAROLINA
DISTRICT 4 Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Gates, Greene, Hertford, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir, Martin, New Hanover, Onslow,
Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Pitt, Tyrell, Washington and Wayne counties. (Vote for one. The top vote recipient will serve a three-year term, 2010-12.)
All states except North Carolina. (Vote for one. The top vote recipient will serve a three-year term, 2010-12.)
Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Caswell, Catawba, Cleveland, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Gaston, Guilford, Iredell, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Randolph,
Richmond, Rockingham, Rowan, Stanly, Stokes, Surry, Union and Yadkin counties. (Vote for one. The top vote recipient will serve a three-year term, 2010-12.)
Dennis A. Fox
’71 BSBA
Raleigh, N.C.
Vice president of market development,
Trailcreek Investments.
At WCU: Sergeant at Arms,
Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.
Formerly: Pi Kappa Alpha, Zeta Xi House
Corp.; member, WCU Alumni Association and
WCU Catamount Club; board of directors, Automotive Warehouse Distributors
Association, 1997-99; Distribution Advisory Council, Dana Corp., 1981-83;
Distribution Advisory Council, Ray-O-Vac Corp., 1991-92; management
certification, Duke University, 1995; Distribution Advisory Council, Wix Filter
Corp., 1995-96; volunteer, Special Olympics, 1999-2005; management
certification, Ohio State University, 2000; automotive parts professional,
University of the Aftermarket/Northwood University, 2003; volunteer, Habitat
for Humanity, 2003-05.
Currently: Married to Susan Dorato Fox; daughter and son-in-law, Mickkie
and Andy Pickle; two granddaughters, Catherine and Emily.
Robert W. Gibson
’87 BSBA
Raleigh, N.C.
Delivery systems manager, Local Government
Federal Credit Union.
At WCU: Chaplain, Pi Kappa Phi fraternity;
intramural sports; Push America volunteer; United
Methodist Youth Fellowship.
Formerly: Youth director, Wake Forest
Presbyterian Church; member, West Raleigh Rotary Club; member, Pi Kappa
Phi, Gamma Epsilon Chapter Alumni board of directors; member, WCU Alumni
Association board of directors, 2002–05; member, WCU Alumni Association,
Triangle Chapter; established the Dean C. Plemmons Memorial Scholarship
Fund at WCU; volunteer, Friends of St. Timothy’s School; member and
volunteer, Council for Entrepreneurial Development; volunteer, Eastern North
Carolina chapter, Multiple Sclerosis Society.
Currently: High school and middle school Sunday school teacher, St.
Timothy’s Church; secretary, St. Timothy’s Church Men’s Fellowship; member
and webmaster, Hurricane Region, Porsche Club of America board of directors;
member, WCU Catamount Club; volunteer, Habitat for Humanity; owner/
administrator, The Catamount Pride (a WCU-focused Internet discussion forum).
Paula Freeman Mangum
’82 BSN
Durham, N.C.
Manager, Rex Cancer Center of Wakefield;
Rex Healthcare.
At WCU: Orientation leader; resident assistant;
intramural sports; member, Organization of Ebony
Students; employee of campus day care facility;
Miss Alpha Phi Alpha, Homecoming Court, 1978.
FormerLY: Leader, Kenwood Estates Young Teens Community Group;
participant, Durham’s Ebony Debutantes; honoree, Eckerd Salute to Women;
recipient, UNC Hospital Plus Person Award; member, Clinical Cancer Center
Advisory Board; recipient, The American Cancer Society Lane W. Adams
Award; former combat medic/U.S. Army nurse.
CurrentLY: Director, Carriage House After School Program; Child
Evangelism Fellowship (ministry outreach to children); Durham Urban Ministry
Network; Notary Public.
NORTH CAROLINA DISTRICT 3 Bladen, Chatham, Columbus, Cumberland, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Lee, Moore, Nash, Northampton, Orange,
Person, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Vance, Wake, Warren and Wilson counties. (Vote for one. The top vote recipient will serve a three-year term, 2010-12.)
Board of Directors
election 2010
WCU Alumni Association Announces:
24 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 25
ATHLETES’ FEATS
Athletics 16 sports, 322 athletes one goal
Four former Catamounts with ties back as far as the 1950s
and a former coach who helped mentor athletes in three
sports are the newest members of the Western Carolina
University Athletics Hall of Fame following induction
festivities held in November.
Members of the five-person induction class, the 20th
all-time at WCU, are Bob Ray ’57 (men’s basketball), Steve
Spradling ’71 (football), Laura Echols Wellmon ’02 MPT
’04 (women’s basketball), Johnny Wike (football and golf
coach) and Steve Yates (football).
Ray played basketball for Western Carolina from 1951
through 1957, including a two-year break for military
service in the U.S. Army, before returning as an assistant
coach for seven years. The Buncombe County native, who
concluded his playing career ranked second on the school’s
career scoring chart with 1,187 points, still holds the 22nd
spot on WCU’s all-time scoring list.
Ray returned to Cullowhee in 1962 to become the school’s
first-ever full-time assistant basketball coach, a position
he held until 1969. He helped recruit and coach 17 all-conference
players while on staff. Following a distinguished
academic career at WCU, Ray went on to earn graduate
degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill and a doctorate from the University of Georgia. After
his coaching days, he served as head of WCU’s department
of health, physical education and recreation from 1982
to 1993.
Spradling was a three-year starter at wide receiver for the
Catamount football team from 1967 to 1970, helping WCU
compile a record of 19-8. The Pompano Beach, Fla., native
twice finished among the NAIA’s top 12 pass receivers,
including ranking fourth with 46 catches in 1969 – helping
him earn All-North Carolina Collegiate, NAIA and
Associated Press All-America honorable mention plaudits.
All told, Spradling hauled in 95 career passes for 2,023
yards in three seasons, which included 1,020 yards in 1969,
a mark that ranks sixth in the school’s single-season record
books. He also continues to hold the WCU record with
seven consecutive 100-yard receiving performances.
Wellmon, who played at WCU from 1999 to 2003 as
Laura Echols, finished her career as one of the most honored
players in Catamount women’s basketball history. The
program’s second-leading all-time scorer with 1,765 points,
she also ranks seventh on the career rebounding charts with
790 boards in her four-year career. Wellmon still ranks on
10 career statistical charts, including second on scoring
average (15.8 points per game), second on field goals made
(718), and third on field goals attempted (1,421).
A native of Conyers, Ga., Wellmon remains WCU’s only
three-time All-Southern Conference selection, garnering
first-team plaudits in 2000, ’01 and ’02. She also was a
three-time SoCon Player of the Week during her career and
earned Western Carolina’s Female Student-Athlete of the
Year Award in 2001-02. A two-time Verizon Academic All-
District Team selection in 2001 and ’02, she graduated from
WCU with honors, majoring in chemistry with a minor in
psychology, and also earned her master’s degree from WCU
in physical therapy.
Wike, a native of Mount Holly, spent more than 30 years
of his life in service to Western Carolina coaching football
and golf. He worked for 21 of those years as an assistant
football coach (1964-73, 1984-94), serving under four head
coaches and helping recruit several high-profile athletes,
including three who would go on to play in the NFL and
advance to the Super Bowl.
When Bob Waters arrived at WCU in 1969 as the head
football coach, he decided the Athletic Department needed
to reinstate its dormant men’s golf program. From 1971 to
1973, Wike held the dual role of assistant football coach
and head golf coach. Wike spent 1974 to 1977 as head
football coach at Carson-Newman College in Tennessee,
and afterward spent six seasons as head coach at Cullowhee
High School.
Wike returned to the WCU football staff in February
1984 as defensive coordinator, reprising his role as Waters’
chief recruiter. In 1991, he again took on duties as head
coach of the men’s golf team, a position he held through
2004. He retired from the football staff in 1995, the same
year he launched the women’s golf program. He retired as
head coach of the women’s golf team in 1998.
A member of the Catamount football team from 1971 to
1974, Yates was a two-time Associated Press All-America
selection, receiving second-team accolades in 1972 and
a first team nod in 1974. The Cabarrus County native was
one of three linebackers named to WCU’s 20th Century All-
Time Football team compiled back in 2000.
Called “the most intense football player I’ve ever coached”
by Bob Waters during the 1974 season, Yates continues to
rank 10th on the Catamounts’ career tackles charts with
306 total hits, including 191 solo stops. He was the leading
tackler on two teams that finished in the Associated Press
top 10, including WCU’s first NCAA playoff team in 1974.
The Catamounts posted a 25-9-2 record with him in the
lineup. His 25 quarterback sacks also rank him third on the
career ledger.
The 20th induction
class enters the
Athletics Hall of Fame
with four former players
and a longtime coach
By STEVE WHITE ’67
The newest members of the
Athletics Hall of Fame are
(from left) Bob Ray ’57, Laura
Echols Wellmon ’02 MPT ’04,
Steve Spradling ’71, Steve Yates
and Johnny Wike.
Winter 2010 | 27
COACHING THIRD
Keith LeClair’s legacy is the subject of
a book scheduled for release in March
By TOM HALEY
Lynn’s children were only 3 and 6 at the time and not ready
to say good-bye. He was placed on the ventilator and lived
until 2006 and the age of 40.
That’s one of the riveting stories in a book titled
“Coaching Third: The Keith LeClair Story,” written by
Bethany Bradsher. It will be released in early March to
coincide with the Keith LeClair Classic, a tournament that
will feature ECU, WCU, Illinois and West Virginia in March
in Greenville.
The book’s title is a reference not only to the fact that
LeClair always coached third base, but also to the fact that
being stricken with the disease caused him to reorder his
priorities and put God and his family first and second, and
coaching baseball third. An intensely religious man, LeClair
discovered that he had placed coaching No. 1 for a while,
said Bradsher. She was familiar with LeClair and his story
and thought his life would make an outstanding book.
After all, few people have touched as many lives and
accomplished as much in 40 years as LeClair. The ECU
Pirates play in Clark-LeClair Stadium, he has a tournament
named for him, his No. 23 uniform has been retired at
WCU, he is in halls of fame and his records are mind-boggling.
LeClair’s won-lost mark at Western Carolina was
229-135-2. He was 212-96-1 at ECU, guiding the Pirates to
three consecutive NCAA regional tournament appearances
before stepping down.
Despite the amazing record on the baseball field, it is his
battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease that is an important piece
of his legacy and that promises to make the book a great
read. “Even after he was unable to move or talk, he reached
so many people. He e-mailed devotionals to hundreds of
people,” Bradsher said.
LeClair’s relationships with Leggett and Raleigh
were special. Bradsher said the emotion that came from
Leggett was intense as he she sat in his Clemson office and
interviewed him for the book. “He (Leggett) looked at him
as a son,” she said. “Hearing his stories was gripping.”
After graduating from Fall Mountain Regional High
School in Langdon, N.H., LeClair became one of Leggett’s
top players at Western Carolina. After his college career,
LeClair signed with the Atlanta Braves but chose not to
report to the team’s minor league spring training, opting
instead to work as an assistant coach with Leggett in 1989.
When Leggett went to Clemson as an assistant in 1991,
LeClair succeeded him as the head man at Western Carolina
at the tender age of 25.
LeClair’s relationship with Raleigh was no less special.
After LeClair was housebound with the disease, Raleigh
made the six-hour drive across North Carolina from
Cullowhee to Greenville every February to visit him.
Raleigh, now the head coach at the University of
Tennessee, said even when the disease robbed LeClair of
his ability to talk or move, it could not take his sense of
humor. During one of Raleigh’s visits, the news broke about
ECU’s new baseball venue being named Clark-LeClair
Stadium. Raleigh told LeClair it should have been named
LeClair-Clark Stadium. But the William H. Clark family of
Greenville had donated $1.5 million toward the facility, and
LeClair quickly typed on his computer screen, “Money is
better than legacy.”
Those who knew Keith LeClair might argue otherwise,
and it is his legacy that is captured in Bradsher’s manuscript.
Entering his third season at Western Carolina University,
head coach Bobby Moranda begins a new era in Catamount
baseball for the 2010 season with the founding of the
1002 Club.
Representing the 1,002 miles between Cullowhee and
Omaha, Neb., home of the College World Series, the number
has a special significance in Catamount baseball. “Ten-oh-two
has always been a battle cry for Catamount players
and coaches,” said Moranda. “The club is being created
to help raise the necessary funds to complete the mission
and compete in Omaha. One-hundred percent of 1002
contributions go toward the WCU baseball program.”
Western Carolina has long thrived in collegiate baseball.
Currently Clemson’s head coach, Jack Leggett led the
Catamounts to five NCAA tournaments in nine seasons at
WCU. Former star player and head coach Keith LeClair ’89
made WCU history with a record 45 wins in the 1994 season.
In six seasons at the helm, LeClair guided the Catamounts
to four NCAA tournament berths and was the SoCon Coach
of the Year in ’92, ’94 and ’97.
With WCU’s impressive record in the American pastime
and a top-notch fleet of players in the pros (Brent Greer,
Corey Martin, Chris Masters, and Nick Liles were all
Catamounts selected in Major League Baseball’s 2009 first-year
draft), Moranda felt that WCU baseball was overdue for
an organization of the 1002 Club’s magnitude. “As a team,
we’re interested in first-ever achievements,” said Moranda.
“The support from the 1002 Club allows us to continue to
sign the best players and strengthens our program. The
Catamount baseball team has shown time and again that we
can compete with the big boys. The 1002 Club will help take
us to another level of competition.”
Impressed with WCU’s rich baseball tradition, Greg
Parsons, former senior vice president of Blockbuster
Entertainment, accepted Moranda’s request to be the 1002
Club’s inaugural president. “The dream of all Division I
baseball programs is a trip to the College World Series,” said
Parsons, who has close ties to longtime Catamount baseball
supporter Larry Stanberry ’68. “In order to make the
Omaha trip a reality, we need the help of fans and friends.”
Several current players say they have noticed the level of
support given to Catamount baseball.
“I knew Western Carolina was the school to play for if I
wanted to win,” said Ross Heffley, sophomore center fielder
and 2009 SoCon
Freshman Player of
the Year. “Having
all the support
from the fans and
alumni is awesome.
It’s easier to play
knowing that
everyone is rooting
for us and hoping
we succeed.”
Senior closing
pitcher Daniel Ottone agreed. “Until 1002, I had no idea how
many people really cared about our team. We have some of
the best fans in the region. Alums are still coming back to
watch games. It’s more than just a team here, it’s family,”
Ottone said.
“Tradition and our fans is what makes WCU baseball
special,” said senior center fielder Dylan de Graaf. “We are
by far the best-supported team in the SoCon. Our No. 1 goal
is Omaha. We have the support, and we’ll do whatever it
takes to make it there.”
The 1002 Club features five levels of membership:
SoCon, SoCon Tournament, Regional, Super Regional and
Omaha. SoCon-level members donate $100.02 per year for
four years of membership; SoCon Tournament members
donate $250.50 per year for four years; and Regional
members give $1,002 per year for four years. Super Regional
members make a one-time donation of $5,002 for a lifetime
membership, and Omaha-level members donate $10,002 for
lifetime membership. Membership benefits range from 1002
Club T-shirts to weekend all-access baseball trips. All levels
of membership are tax-deductible.
Brandon Demery is a senior at Western Carolina University
from Raleigh. He is majoring in English/professional writing
with a minor in social work and communication.
Athletics 16 sports, 322 athletes one goal
Reprinted in edited format from the Rutland (Vt.) Herald.
Todd Raleigh ’91 MAEd ’94 and Jack Leggett were
driving across North Carolina together, two Vermont
natives thinking they were going to say good-bye to a close
friend. It was April 2002, and East Carolina University
baseball coach Keith LeClair ’89 had just returned home
with his team from a baseball tournament in Charlotte
when he collapsed and became unresponsive.
LeClair had only been diagnosed in 2001 with Lou Gehrig’s
disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive,
fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in
the brain and the spinal cord. His wife, Lynn, had to make a
decision about whether to put him on a ventilator, a decision
that came much sooner than she expected.
Raleigh, the Western Carolina baseball coach at the time,
and Leggett, the former WCU coach who holds the reins of
Clemson University’s baseball team, were pretty sure they
were going to see their friend for the last time. But Keith and
Those interested in becoming 1002 Club members can
fill out the online application at CatamountSports.com
or call WCU baseball 828.227.7338.
OMAHA OR BUST
Coach Moranda begins a new era in WCU baseball
By BRANDON DEMERY
1002Club
Catamount B aseball
Keith LeClair ’89 signals
a player from his familiar
post at third base.
Bobby Moranda talks strategy
with his Catamount baseball
team, which he wants to
lead to a berth in the College
World Series.
28 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 29
HOOP DREAMS
Women’s basketball team draws
inspiration from a special ‘guest coach’
By BESIE DIETRICH GOGINS ’06 MA ’09
As the season began for Western Carolina University’s
women’s basketball team, players and coaches received
some extra motivation from one very special “guest coach
for a day,” Madison “Madi” Hornbuckle. A student at nearby
Cullowhee Valley Elementary School, Madi suffers from
glioblastoma multiforme, a common and aggressive type of
brain tumor.
Karen Clarke ’83 MAEd ’86, Madi’s school counselor,
said she developed the “guest coach” idea as basketball
season started because she saw how upset Madi was about
not being able to play basketball. “I wanted her to meet the
WCU basketball team and connect with them,” said Clarke.
One phone call to Coach Karen Middleton was all it took.
“Karen invited us to meet the players and be at a practice,”
said Clarke. “Then Madi could come to the game the
next night.”
When Madi attended the practice prior to the game, she
was named “guest coach for a day,” Middleton said. “Madi
is an inspiration to us all,” she said. “She always has a smile
on her face and is very enthusiastic and excited to watch and
follow our team.”
Among the players to connect with Madi was Jessica
Jackson, a senior guard. “Madi had a major impact on our
team during practice,” said Jackson. “We shot with her, and
she was able to be a point guard and pass the ball to another
player while she worked on her post moves. And our coach
even taught her how to shoot layups.”
Along with being in the huddles at practice, Madi
also received gear from the coaches. “When Madi did
play basketball, she wore No. 20, and that had a special
connection to our coach because that was also her basketball
number,” said Jackson.
On an early season game night, Madi was the team’s guest
of honor and had a special place on the bench. “We knew
that because of Madi’s condition, it was uncertain if she
would be able to come to our game on Friday, so we were
hoping that she had a special time at practice with the team,”
said Jackson. “When we arrived at the game and saw Madi’s
face, I was extremely happy to see her.”
And her presence at the game had a solid impact on the
team, which downed Wofford by a score of 71-65. “Seeing
Madi at the game just put life in perspective for everyone,”
said Jackson. “Madi’s character and personality has inspired
us all to work hard and enjoy each day we are able to play
basketball because we never know when it will be taken
away from us.”
Madi and Middleton share more than just a jersey number
– they share a mutual admiration. “Madi is a true winner
and is someone who has captured our team’s heart and
inspired us,” said Middleton. “She has an open invitation to
attend practice and any games she is able to come to.”
In the fall, students and faculty from WCU’s College of
Education and Allied Professions took part in a fundraising
effort to help with Madi’s treatment costs by folding
paper cranes out of dollar bills. The idea was inspired by
a nonfiction book in which a sick Japanese girl believes
folding paper cranes will help her recover.
Athletics 16 sports, 322 athletes one goal
Dr. Walter J. Durr, Western Carolina University
Athletics Hall of Fame member and longtime benefactor
of Catamount athletics, passed away at his daughter’s home
in Florida on Sept. 29. Durr, whose medical career spanned
more than half a century, was 97.
A native of New Jersey with degrees from New York
University and Long Island College of Medicine, Durr served
under Gen. George Patton during World War II before
moving to the mountains of North Carolina. He began his
involvement with Western Carolina when he responded to
public address pleas for a physician during a 1951 football
game. He went on the field that evening to assist, becoming
a fixture on the WCU sidelines as the football team’s official
physician and sage, as well as unofficial adviser to the
coaching staff, until the late 1990s.
“Dr. Durr touched the lives of so many student-athletes
here at Western Carolina University during his tenure,” said
Fred Cantler, senior associate athletics director who came to
WCU in 1978 and worked as an athletic trainer under Durr’s
supervision. “Not a year goes by that a former student-athlete
doesn’t ask me about Dr. Durr.”
DEVOTED DOCTOR
Remembering Hall of Famer and
football physician Walter Durr
By DANIEL HOKER ’01
For more information, contact the Office of Development at 828.227.7124.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Durr Scholarship Fund by
sending a check, with Durr Scholarship in the memo line, made payable to
the WCU Foundation at 201 H.F. Robinson, Cullowhee, N.C. 28723.
During his tenure in Western North Carolina, Durr
attended to the medical needs of thousands of WCU athletes
and faithfully supported the teams through his attendance
and financial assistance. Durr served as the chief of surgery
at C.J. Harris Hospital (now Harris Regional Hospital) in
Sylva in addition to operating his own practice.
Durr became a major benefactor to the football program
in 1986 when he endowed the Dr. Walter J. Durr Football
Scholarship, which is awarded annually. He also was part of
the Cullowhee Legacy program, which includes individuals
who have listed WCU as a charitable beneficiary in their
estate plans. Members are alumni and friends who have
made an ultimate and lasting commitment to WCU.
Durr was inducted into the WCU Athletics Hall of Fame
in 1991. He is survived by his daughter, Andrea Border, and
his three grandsons, Jay, Andrew and Daniel.
Two former Catamount standouts were recognized recently for their accomplishments handling a
basketball and handling questions from the news media.
Men’s basketball star Kevin Martin, who played at WCU from 2001-04, has been named to the
CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major All-Decade team for his outstanding performance during three seasons in
the purple and gold.
Martin became Western Carolina’s first-ever first-round draft pick when the Sacramento Kings selected
him with the 26th pick in 2004. He was the 14th college player selected overall that year.
The Zanesville, Ohio, native finished his three-year collegiate career ranked fourth on Western
Carolina’s all-time leading scorer chart with 1,838 points, averaging 23.3 points per game. A three-time
All-Southern Conference selection, Martin remains WCU’s top scorer the university become an NCAA
Division I program in 1976-77.
From the gridiron, Brad Hoover ’00 is the inaugural winner of the Tom Berry Good Guy Award, given to
the player who is most cooperative with the NFL Carolina Panthers media during the course of the season.
The award is named for a longtime, award-winning columnist and Panthers beat writer for the High
Point Enterprise who passed away Aug. 30. Berry also worked for Hoover’s hometown Thomasville Times
and for the Durham Sun, covering sports in North Carolina and the Southeast.
“Brad Hoover is the absolute perfect selection for this award,” said Pat Yasinskas, the NFC South
representative for the Professional Football Writers of America. “Brad symbolizes everything Tom Berry
stood for. He’s always been courteous and polite with the media and a true gentleman.”
Former Catamounts Martin
and Hoover earn honors
Madi Hornbuckle meets
Paws (top) and player
Jessica Jackson while
serving as “guest coach”
for the women’s
basketball team.
Team physician Walter Durr
was a fixture on the football
sidelines for decades.
30 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 31
A New England artist foundation
and residency program grows
under a professor’s guidance
By SARAH KUCHARSKI
Gaily colored petals of long-stemmed cosmos lilt along on
the sea-swept winds that blow across Great Cranberry Island,
off the coast of Maine, where Patricia Bailey, an associate
professor of art at Western Carolina University, directs
artist residencies and carries out other responsibilities as
president of the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation. Formed in
1993, the foundation is dedicated to the artistic vision of two
painters, John Heliker and Robert LaHotan, who made their
home on the island. After Heliker’s death, LaHotan charged
the foundation’s board specifically with forming a residency
program that would enable artists to continue coming to the
island to find inspiration and to create. And after LaHotan’s
death in 2002, Bailey, a longtime friend of both artists,
worked diligently as a leader on the foundation’s board to
open the Heliker-LaHotan home and studios to artists.
The foundation welcomed its first four residents in 2006.
In 2007, there were eight artists; 11 in 2008; and 14 in 2009.
Among them was printmaker Joseph Norman, who said
he came during a transitional period in his life to learn to
work again in silence and be comfortable alone and with his
thoughts. The self-proclaimed night owl would come alive
when the sun set against a low tree line, casting a warm pink
light across the tidal basin and filling the studio with the
glow of evening. In his first week alone he created 30 works.
The island studios offer a wealth of natural light, views of the
tidal basin and solitude on the private shore, which is what
Heliker and LaHotan wanted. “This place is so supportive of
uninterrupted work,” said Bailey.
The foundation has a growing relationship with WCU.
Tara Jones ’08 has served as Heliker-LaHotan facility
coordinator and Bailey’s assistant. The foundation’s Web
site, www.heliker-lahotan.org, is maintained by WCU
alumnus Andrew Kinnear ’06. In addition, the foundation
donated a 1989 Heliker painting titled “The Visit II” to
Western Carolina’s Fine Art Museum. The work, hung
in 2005 during an inaugural exhibition “Worldviews:
Selections from the Permanent Collection,” helps anchor
the focus of the collection, and will greatly strengthen the
museum’s teaching mission, said Martin DeWitt, founding
director of the museum.
“As we examine the beautiful work of Mr. Heliker, we
can discuss his early roots as a modernist, and trace his
extraordinary journey as artist and teacher, the influence
of which continues to this day,” DeWitt said. The Fine Art
Museum may in coming years become host to an exhibit of
some of Heliker’s works. In addition, DeWitt has a special
connection to the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation. Both his
brothers, each of whom is a painter, completed residencies on
Great Cranberry Island. The cultural round-robin also has
meant that artists such as painter and printmaker Norman
have appeared as visiting artists at WCU, and through this
connection learned about the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation
and its residency opportunities.
The artists’ vibrancy during residencies is contagious,
Bailey said. Dinnertime conversations welcome lively
discussion about academia, teaching methods and, of
course, art. After time spent on the island, Bailey, who
teaches drawing and painting, comes back to her WCU
classroom with a renewed sense of purpose. “I’m energized,”
Bailey said. “I’m energized by the artists I have the privilege
of working with.”
island
Clockwise from far left,
Heliker-LaHotan Foundation
artists in residence paint
“en plein air” and in the
studio; some of the foundation’s
buildings; WCU’s Patricia
Bailey, with a friend, directs
artist residencies at the
Great Cranberry Island,
Maine, retreat.
Photos courtesy
Heliker-LaHotan Foundation
32 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 33
alumni
Achievements
Jim Lanning ’80 got a job bagging groceries when he was
a teenager barely old enough for a work permit. Lanning
worked afternoons and weekends at a small grocery store
in the Skyland community only a few miles from his school.
By the time he got his high school diploma, the store also
had given him an education. He already knew more than
most boys his age about long hours and hard work. He also
had discovered his affinity for the retail environment, and
so he stayed on.
Lanning, winner of WCU’s 2009 Professional Achieve-ment
Award, is now the president and chief operating
officer of that supermarket chain, Ingles Markets Inc., the
Asheville-based company ranked by Forbes as one of the
400 Best Big Companies in America.
“We’re proud to see our president, Jim Lanning, receive
WCU’s Professional Achievement Award,” said Robert P.
Ingle, founder and CEO of the supermarket chain. “Jim
truly grew up in our business, working day and night
while completing his education at WCU. His leadership
has provided our company with the growth and direction
needed to succeed in today’s market.”
Lanning oversees operations in 202 stores, many of them
three times larger than the one where he started work in 1975.
In almost 40 years with Ingles, he has held key roles at every
level of management in several states. He has watched the
stores grow from 30,000-square-foot buildings providing
basic staples, meats and produce to giant one-stop shopping
centers with gourmet groceries, organic foods, pharmacies,
card and book sections, bakeries, floral departments, media
centers, delicatessens, coffee bars, self-checkouts and fuel
centers. Ingles, employing 19,000 people, has supermarkets
in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia
and Alabama. Annual sales top $3.5 billion.
“It’s wonderful to have such a strong leader for a boss,”
said Cindi Brooks, Ingles vice president for human
resources, who has worked with Lanning for many years.
“Jim is caring, extremely hard-working, inspiring and a
pleasure to work with.”
Employees in the six states where Ingles has stores admire
and respect Lanning, an Asheville native, who regularly
makes store visits during his long work week. He makes
time to talk with them and is interested in hearing not only
about their sales performance but also their personal lives.
“Getting to know the employees and their families was
a tradition started and cultivated by our founder, who
has always encouraged his store managers to know and
appreciate what’s going on in their employees’ lives,” said
Lanning. “And for me, when I’m in the stores, I’m amazed
when I talk to employees at how often I hear about WCU –
someone has a child there, or is going to school there, or a
family member has just graduated.”
Lanning has never worked for any company but Ingles.
Two years after he got that bagboy job, he was promoted
to stock clerk. He was grocery manager by the time he
graduated from high school. Others his age with a steady
job and opportunities for advancement might have decided
to forego college. “But for my mother and father, who have
been part of everything in my life, there was never a question
of if I would go to college. I was definitely going to college. It
was just a matter of where,” he said.
He kept working at Ingles, enrolled at WCU and, taking
advantage of as many night classes and extension offerings
as he could, managed to graduate with a bachelor’s degree
in business administration in less than four years. After
he graduated, Lanning kept moving up at Ingles. He was
continually challenged to take on larger stores, and he
showed results. In addition to Asheville, he held Ingles
positions in Gaffney, Sumter and Moonville, S.C.; and
in Winder and Hull, Ga., outside Athens, where he was a
district manager responsible for northeastern Georgia. In
2003, Robert Ingle named him president and he returned
to Asheville, where he lives with his wife Melody and their
son and daughter.
He provides support for pressing needs in Ingles’
hometown communities and helped organize the company’s
“Tools for Schools” program, which has donated more than
$7.9 million in educational equipment to schools. Lanning
also is involved with his company’s donation program to
food banks to help fight hunger among children and families
in the communities where Ingles stores are located.
His career advice for young people entering the job
market? “These may be tough times economically, but there
are always opportunities for people who are willing to start
small and work their way up,” Lanning said. “They need to
be flexible and willing to accept a position that may be a step
or two below what they may have envisioned for themselves.
But there’s light at the end of the tunnel, and if that’s where
they want to be, getting a good education and being willing
to work will get them there.”
From bagging groceries to leading one of Forbes magazine’s best companies in America
By CHRISTY MARTIN ’71 MA ’78
the secret of his success
“Jim truly grew up in our business, working
day and night while completing his education
at WCU. His leadership has provided our
company with the growth and direction
needed to succeed in today’s market.”
– Robert P. Ingle, founder, Ingles Markets
34 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 35
alumni
Achievements
When Errol Kilgore ’99 was a child growing up in
Asheville, college graduates were like multimillionaires: He
knew they existed, but had no personal relationships with
any. “I noticed that the adults I knew who had never left the
city didn’t have a college education,” said Kilgore. “For all I
knew, Asheville was the best place on earth, but I wanted to
have options, and going to college was something I knew I
wanted to do to give me greater opportunities.”
The first time he came to Western Carolina University
was orientation before his freshman year, and the campus
seemed daunting. It was his mother, Sylvia Kilgore, a
preschool teacher who had not gone to college herself, who
calmed him by simply telling him how proud she was. Four
years later, the sight of her had the same effect. Sad about
leaving his friends at WCU and wondering what the future
held, Kilgore saw his mother, grandmother and sisters
coming into Ramsey Regional Activity Center just as the
lights dimmed before commencement. “Those are very
special memories for me – like bookends,” said Kilgore.
Between them was hard work. In the classroom, he
studied toward a bachelor’s degree in industrial distribution
with a concentration in marketing. He volunteered as a peer
counselor for other African-American students and as a
leader with WCU’s chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the
nation’s first African-American Greek letter organization.
In addition, Kilgore worked 25 to 30 hours a week at Taco
Bell or jobs on campus. During the summers, he also took
on temporary jobs at factories or, once, digging ditches.
Landing his first job after college was work, too, including
arriving early enough to be at the front of a 200-person
line at a job fair. He was elated when the temporary job he
interviewed for with Johnson & Johnson was instead offered
as a permanent, full-time job in pharmaceutical sales.
“A week after I walked across the stage at graduation, they
called to offer me the position. My mom and grandmother
were there, and we were all very excited. I was the first
generation in my family to graduate from college, and I was
going to work for a Fortune 500 company.” He quickly racked
up accolades and national awards, including “Rookie of
the Year” and “Sales Excellence,” and promotions led
him to the Chicago area. Now he is a biopharmaceutical
representative in the Bone Health Division of Amgen
and plans to learn Spanish so he can serve even more
communities, perhaps abroad.
His success came as no surprise to his friends from
WCU. Stacy Morris ’98 describes Kilgore as consistent
and genuine, and Joseph Hyman ’01 as goal-oriented and
strong-minded. “He doesn’t just work hard. He works smart.
He’s always there when you need him,” said Hyman. “He
loves God and family, and is inspired by them.” Although
Kilgore’s mother, who died in 2001, could not be with him
at WCU this fall when he was honored with WCU’s Young
Alumnus Award, his older sister, his grandmothers, an aunt
and friends were by his side. “I am lucky to have such a large
and supportive family,” said Kilgore. “They played a major
role in helping me to develop into the man I am today.”
FAMILY GUY
Support from relatives helped
this first-generation college graduate
find his way
By TERESA KILIAN TATE
RYAN’S SONG
A renowned geologist traces
his career path back to
summer programs in Cullowhee
By CHRISTY MARTIN ’71 MA ’78
Jeffrey Ryan ’83 first came to WCU when he was
in elementary school and lived in Raleigh. For several
summers, Ryan attended The Cullowhee Experience, a
summer enrichment program for academically gifted
youngsters. Years later, his experience with “the Experience”
helped him make an important decision.
“When the time came to go to college, WCU was a
campus I already knew. It was far enough away from home
to make me feel like I was getting out into the world,” he
said. “I decided to come back.”
As a freshman, Ryan’s interests leaned toward science and
creative writing. He wrote short stories and became editor of
the student literary magazine. But in the classroom, it was
geology that won him over.
Led by professor Steve Yurkovich, Ryan and his classmates
went on field excursions out and about in the mountains.
Sometimes it seemed they also were going inside, around
and under them. It was a geological journey to the center
of the earth, of sorts, by way of the Southern Appalachians.
“We went to quarries and old copper mines. There were all
kinds of resources to investigate in the region. We were
always rooting around for rocks,” he said.
The rock-hounding of his college days was a stepping-stone
to his life’s work. He graduated from WCU with high
honors, earned a doctorate from Columbia University,
and landed a post-doctoral fellowship at the prestigious
Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Afterwards, he was quickly hired by the University of
South Florida and has been there since. One of the USF’s top
researchers, he also chairs the geology department.
“Jeff is an extraordinary person,” said Yurkovich. “As a
student, he was self-motivated and always exceptional.”
Ryan has won many accolades for his excellent teaching,
including Florida Professor of the Year. He brings his
undergraduate and graduate students together to work as
teams in the lab, and promotes science and science education
at every opportunity. His long-standing association with
Yurkovich and other WCU geology professors has benefited
many WCU students invited to Tampa to experience the
tools, equipment and technologies of a major research lab.
Geologists seek to understand Earth’s internal forces that
create earthquakes, build mountains or produce volcanoes.
Ryan’s work focuses on what happens miles below the
surface to trigger volcanic eruptions, the geochemistry of
mantle rocks and what happens at subduction zones, those
areas where tectonic plates converge. He also studies the
formation of lead, gold, silver, copper and zinc. His research
has received more than $2.2 million in grants, most of it
from the National Science Foundation.
Today, the recipient of the WCU Alumni Association’s
2009 Academic Achievement Award who once clambered
around the local mountainsides is being called much farther
afield. In the past year alone, his research has taken him to
Montana, Utah, Oregon, Switzerland, Romania, Hawaii,
Australia and New Zealand.
Errol Kilgore ’99, below left
and above center, credits family
members including, from left,
sister Nakia Lynch, aunt Earline
Morgan, and grandmothers
Annie Morgan and Barbara
Kilgore for his success in the
business world.
Jeffrey Ryan ’83 conducts geological field research at Mount Hood, Ore.
36 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 37
alumni
Achievements
During his long tenure as an educator, the venues for
Jack M. Campbell ’58 have included the classrooms of the
Knoxville, Tenn., school system, but also the fir- and spruce-crested
ridges of the high northeastern end of Great Smoky
Mountains National Park. Campbell’s job in the traditional
classroom ended with his retirement in 1987, but his
teaching work continues as he builds upon a 42-year career
as a seasonal ranger in the Smokies.
Raised in Maggie Valley, Campbell graduated from
high school in 1953 and enrolled at WCU. He completed
academic requirements to get his bachelor’s degree in
industrial arts education in December 1957 and began his
teaching career in Knoxville the following month, coming
back to Cullowhee later that spring to pick up his diploma.
Over the years, Campbell became known as a strict
disciplinarian as he taught industrial arts to legions of
Knoxville’s young people. He also built a reputation as a top-notch
teacher, including being named “Most Outstanding
Secondary School Teacher” in Knoxville City Schools in 1984
and one of the top 10 industrial arts teachers in Tennessee
in 1975. After 10 years of teaching in Knoxville, Campbell
began his second career as a seasonal law enforcement
ranger stationed in the Cosby area on the Tennessee side of
the park. “My wife, Sue, and I would move our family from
Knoxville to the Smokies and live in park housing for the
summer months,” Campbell said. “During the first 10 years,
the whole family would move for the season until our three
sons developed other interests.”
Campbell’s work at Cosby continued mostly uninterrupted
for 28 years, but since 1997 he has been working on the
North Carolina side of the park as manager of Balsam
Mountain Campground, the highest National Park Service
campground in the East. Located on a Smokies ridgeline
that separates the Cataloochee Valley to the east from the
Big Cove section to the west, he lives in a combination
office/home at the campground entrance from May through
October. His wife, who has a business in Knoxville, joins
him from time to time. There is no electricity in this remote
corner of the Smokies that is connected to civilization by 10
miles of paved road, so a propane-powered pump provides
water from a nearby well to the house and campground.
Propane also heats the water and runs the refrigerator and
cookstove. The fireplace provides warmth during the chilly
summer nights at 5,320 feet elevation, and oil lamps and
a couple solar-powered lights illuminate the house. Cell
phone service is available “occasionally.”
Campbell says he doesn’t mind the lack of modern
amenities. “We didn’t have electricity when I was a boy until
I was 10 or 11 years old,” he said. “I like not having TV up
here. I have to go through a transition when I leave and go
back to where there are modern conveniences.”
Just as he did back in the Knoxville classrooms, Campbell
runs a tight ship as he educates campground visitors
about park regulations meant to promote their health and
enjoyment while also protecting the park’s resources. But
the regulations are administered with a twinkle in the eye
as Campbell alerts campers about the bears and boars – and
the occasional elk that wander up from Cataloochee Valley.
Joe Pond, supervisory park ranger in the Smokies
and Campbell’s boss, says Campbell has a long-standing
reputation as a ranger “who goes the extra mile for every
park visitor he encounters.” Campbell doesn’t limit himself
to duties within the campground, either, Pond said, as he
also can be found ranging around the area, clearing trees
from roads, assisting stranded motorists, monitoring the elk
herd, and generally keeping a close watch. “Jack Campbell
represents to me a clear example of what public service is
truly about,” Pond said.
With his 42 years of seasonal work completed, Campbell
has served under 10 of the 15 superintendents who have led
Great Smoky Mountains National Park in its 75 years of
existence. During the park’s 50th anniversary celebration in
1984, Campbell served on the security team for Tennessee
Gov. Lamar Alexander. Campbell was back on duty this
past September for the 75th anniversary bash held at
Newfound Gap.
Campbell said he has enjoyed every aspect of his work in
the Smokies, and he plans to return to Balsam Mountain
Campground in May. Looking back over the years, “I can’t
imagine having two careers that I could have enjoyed more,”
he said.
SERVICE OF A HIGH NATURE
With 30 years of classroom teaching in the bag,
Jack Campbell continues to educate in the Smokies
By RANDAL HOLCOMBE
Jack Campbell ’58 patrols
Balsam Mountain Campground
(left) and greets a young
visitor from Louisiana.
38 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 39
1961
Linda Collins was the lucky
winner in a sweepstakes
to throw the first pitch in
a June game between
the Atlanta Braves and
the New York Yankees at
Turner Field. In front of
a 50,000-strong crowd,
Collins threw to Braves
pitcher Tommy Hanson.
“I felt really good about
my throw,” Collins said.
“It went straight to him. Of course, I was not on the pitcher’s
mound, but about halfway there.” An image of Hanson signing
the ball flashed to the big screen, and Collins spent the remainder
of the game watching with three friends from Turner Field’s posh
755 Club.
1963
Mel Gibson MAEd ’67 and Joanne Gibson MAEd ’67 participated
in the 2009 N.C. Senior Games state finals this fall in Raleigh.
Both participated in the 65-to-69 age group. Mel won gold in
the standing long jump and the running long jump, and silver in
basketball shooting. Joanne won silver in the standing long jump.
1964
Louise McTaggart MAEd, broker and owner of Louise McTaggart
& Associates real estate agency in Blairsville, Ga., has been
named 2009-10 chairman of the resources committee of the
community council of the Georgia Mountain Research and
Education Center. McTaggart will serve as liaison between the
volunteer annual campaign organization and the council.
Gary William Ramsey, retired from a career in retailing, has
published his first novel, “The Soul Dies Slowly,” and is at work
on a second. He and his wife, Susan, live in Kemah, Texas.
1972
W. Wat Hopkins MA ’73, a professor
of communication at Virginia Tech, was
named the Roy H. Park Distinguished
Visiting Professor in the School of
Journalism and Mass Communication at
the University of North Carolina for the
2010 spring semester. Hopkins is teaching
a course in communication law, working
with graduate students and presenting his
research during a colloquium series.
1973
Melody Jenkins has been a librarian for 34 years at the Moultrie-
Colquitt County Library in Georgia.
Michael A. Kollar MAEd ’74 has been re-elected as chair
of the South Carolina Board of Examiners in Psychology.
Kollar is a former recipient of the Outstanding Lifetime
Contribution to Psychology Award from the South Carolina
Psychological Association.
1974
Terry Bell MAEd ’83 retired as director of auxiliary services in
June after more than three decades with Macon County Schools.
Bell has worked at various schools in the system, including as
assistant principal at Franklin High School, his alma mater.
1975
Wanda Pate Jones was appointed regional attorney in the
National Labor Relations Board’s Denver office. She assists in
the enforcement and administration of the National Labor
Relations Act in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah and parts of
SHIRT TALE
Bernice Cowan Higdon ’41 has donated a shirt featuring the autographs
of a veritable “who’s who” of Western Carolina University to the Mountain
Heritage Center. Higdon, a Jackson County native who now lives in Yuba
City, Calif., performed embroidery over the signatures of professors and
friends, including student body president Charles McCall ’41 and Robert
Lee Madison, a founder of the institution that would become WCU. Earl
Irby ’40 drew the Catamount on the shirt back. It is on temporary display
at the Mountain Heritage Center.
Nebraska, Idaho and Montana. The NLRB investigates labor
practices and conducts elections to determine whether employees
desire union representation. With the NLRB since the beginning
of her legal career in 1979, Jones has worked in Hawaii, Las
Vegas and Atlanta.
1976
Jay Edwards has launched Green Collar K-9 Development
with three partners to train dogs for customers in the military,
law enforcement, security and search/rescue fields. Edwards
retired as a sergeant in the tactical division after 28 years with
the Greensboro Police Department. He and his partners, who
share law enforcement and dog training experience, raise the
puppies from 8 weeks old. “These dogs will go anywhere and do
anything,” Edwards said.
1977
Terry M. Fortner is vice president of industry relations and
market development for LKQ Corp., the largest nationwide
provider of aftermarket, recycled and refurbished collision
replacement products. Fortner is responsible for the development,
implementation and coordination of LKQ’s product offerings and
services to the auto insurance and collision repair industries. He
is married to the former Vikki Richards ’79.
Mitch Lowrey established Mitch Lowrey Construction in Winston-
Salem in 2000 and is a certified Energy Star builder. He was
named Builder of the Year in 2008 by the Home Builders Associ-ation
of Winston-Salem. He is married to Gloria Jennings Lowrey.
More than 40 university
alumni and friends gathered
in November at the home of
Bob Thomas ’70 and Pam
Thomas in Alpharetta, Ga.,
to celebrate the successful
conclusion of the Campaign
for Western Carolina. The
primary presenters at the
event were Kyle Carter,
WCU provost, who gave
attendees an update about
recent developments at
the university, and Phillip
D. Walker ’71, a senior
vice president with BB&T and chair of The Campaign for Western
Carolina, who talked about the fundraising effort’s theme of “Creating
Extraordinary Opportunities.” Also participating was Pat Blanton
Kaemmerling ’71, member of the Western Carolina University
Foundation board of directors, who is chairing an Atlanta-area regional
fundraising committee. Currently composed of seven members, the
committee will expand its membership in the coming months, and is
planning an organizational meeting in late February.
GEORGIA
POWER
Peach State
alumni and
friends gather
to celebrate and
plan next steps
classNOTES
40 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University Winter 2010 | 41
classNOTES
1979
Sue Lynn Ledford MPA ’06 is community health director for
Wake County.
1983
H. Lee Cheek Jr. MPA ’88 is associate vice president
of academic affairs at Athens State University in
Athens, Ala. Previously, he was vice president for
advancement at Brewton-Parker College.
The N.C. State Board of Community Colleges named
Sharon Morrissey MAEd the system’s senior vice
president and chief academic officer. Morrissey, the
president of Richmond Community College, will
begin her new role in March. She has worked in the
community college system for 10 years.
1984
Sandy Hunter, a professor of emergency medical care at Eastern
Kentucky University, served as a member of the national project
advisory committee that helped create the curriculum for a
cultural competency e-learning program produced by the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority
Health.
Sarah Lowell MAEd ’89 of Franklin was one of 100 semifinalists
in the 2009 Energizer Keep Going Hall of Fame. Lowell is an
elementary school physical education teacher and ultramarathon
runner who raises money for children with cancer and for
disabled athletes. Created in 2006, the Energizer Keep Going
Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who inspire others with their
perseverance and motivation.
Amy K. Smith, a tax and estate planning attorney of Bell, Davis
& Pitt PA, was named a “legal elite” in the January issue of
Business North Carolina.
1993
David Lamanno is finding success as
a photographer working with vintage
cameras. He had an exhibit of work
in September at the Looking Glass
Artist Collective in Salisbury, and a
photograph he took of Kure Beach
Pier won honorable mention in Our
State magazine’s 2009 annual reader
photo contest. Lamanno is largely
self-taught and performs his own
developing and printing. He and his
wife, the former April Arthur MA ’94,
have a daughter and live in Spencer.
1994
Scott Adelman has accepted a position with the U.S. Department
of Defense to teach band and chorus at the elementary and
secondary W.T. Sampson School in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
R. Parrish Ezell has joined the advisory board of WCU’s College
of Business. He is assistant vice president and senior financial
adviser for Merrill Lynch in Asheville.
1996
Debbie Blackman Cravatta and her husband, Chad, welcomed
son Joseph Thurman in August 2009.
1998
A series of acrylic
paintings by Paul
Nehring MA is featured
in the February 2010
issue of American Artist
magazine (shown here is
“Micromacro”). Nehring
teaches art at Western
Michigan University.
1999
Jeff Lovette has joined the advisory board of WCU’s College of
Business. He is vice president of product development for NetLert
Communications Inc. of Asheville.
Kevin Redding is executive director of the Piedmont Land
Conservancy.
2000
Bradley Wayne Northington MBA married Kelly Virginia Davis
in July in Taylors, S.C. Northington is manager of Internet
technology finance for Bi-Lo corporate offices in Mauldin, S.C.
2003
Mitch Hall became defensive line coach at Newberry College,
in Newberry, S.C., for the 2009 season. Hall came to Newberry
after serving as the defensive coordinator at North Greenville
University and coaching running backs and tight ends at
Presbyterian College. He was a graduate assistant at WCU in
2003-04 and played for special teams at the university from
1998 until 2002.
Stephanie Hunter MBA married Kevin Lee Cooke in the summer.
The Cookes live in Fletcher.
Jason Whaley, a former offensive linem