western
carolina Summer
2011
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
Meet Chancellor-Elect
David O. Belcher
Think you supported a Catamount?
Actually, your generosity created a Catamount.
Each time you give to the Loyalty Fund, you provide scholarship support to our students,
ensuring another student has a chance to become a scholar, a leader, a Catamount.
Summer 2011
Volume 15, No. 2
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.
Chancellor
John W. Bardo
Vice Chancellor
Advancement and
External Affairs
Clifton B. Metcalf
Managing Editor
Bill Studenc MPA ’10
Asociate Editors
Teresa Killian Tate
Jill Ingram MA ’08
Art Director
Rubae Schoen
Chief Photographer
Mark Haskett ’87
graphic designer
John Balentine
Staff Writers
Erik Freitas ’11
Randall Holcombe
Claire Karriker ’11
Christy Martin ’71 MA ’78
Staff Photographers
Ashley T. Evans
Jarrett Frazier
Calendar Editor
Laura Huff ’03
Production Manager
Loretta R. Adams ’80
Circulation Manager
Cindi Magill
communicator
Leader
Scholar
psychologist
Catamount
 To make a gift to WCU, you can use the enclosed envelope
in the magazine or go online to give.wcu.edu
Sarah Sheehan ’14
Loyalty Fund scholarship recipient
Search for this button throughout the
magazine for stories that feature online
extras – videos, photographs and more,
available ONLY online.
magazine.wcu.edu
western
carolina Table of
Contents
Sections
8 News from the
Western Hemisphere
28 WCU Athletics
34 Alumni Achievements
40 Class Notes
46 Calendar
Cover story
PERFECT HARMONY
David Belcher is ready to make
beautiful music at WCU
16
Features
The Natural
A Cullowhee native digs in to restore her
family’s farm and reclaim her heritage
Bright Lights
Students turn to Atlanta-area
alums for career insight
THE HOMEFRONT
Marking the 150th anniversary
of the Civil War
4
12
22
16
12
4
24
The Nat ural A Cullowhee native digs in to restore her
family’s farm and reclaim her heritage
By JIL INGRAM MA ’08
Growing up in Cullowhee’s Tilley Creek community,
Vera Holland Guise MPA ’91 longed to leave home. “I
was one of those little mountain girls who couldn’t wait to
get away from here,” recalls Guise, who at 25 settled near
Asheville. Married and raising four children, Guise made
regular trips to Cullowhee to visit her parents, and it was
after the death of her mother that she began to feel a tug.
“I had been in the same house in Arden for 25 years, and I
started to feel like I didn’t belong there,” Guise said. “I felt
like it was calling to me, and I needed to come back home.”
So she packed it in, returning to Cullowhee in 2002.
The move allowed her the opportunity, along with her
husband, Don, to care for her father, the late Claude Holland,
a WCU cafeteria employee in the 1970s, in the last years of
his life. It also presented Guise with a cause: to restore a
historic family farming homestead dating back nearly 200
years. The original homestead, on the line between Jackson
and Macon counties, was on land once held as hunting
grounds by the Cherokee Indians. The state acquired it by
treaty in the 1800s and subsequently granted it to Guise’s
ancestors, the Adams and Bennett families. In 1835, Guise’s
4 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
great-great-great-grandparents, John and Cynthia Bennett,
built a cabin there, raising 12 children. Then 225 acres of
land, it stayed in the family for generations, but by the
middle of the 20th century, in bits and pieces, it had largely
fallen from family hands. According to Guise, the last parcel
was sold in 1952 for $300 and a cow.
In 2005, with a $250,000 grant, Guise orchestrated the
purchase of a 52-acre parcel of the original homestead.
(Two years later, the Guises added another 14 acres slated
for condominiums.) The farm, adjoining National Forest
Service land and remarkably unspoiled, includes the chimney
– still standing – where Bennett built his cabin, and a portion
of a chestnut log barn. Named the Appalachian Homestead
Farm and Preserve, the entity operates as a nonprofit with
the mission of re-establishing the land as a traditional
working farm and inspiring, by example, the preservation
of mountain farmsteads, landscapes and culture. Now in its
fourth season, the farm operates on sustainable practices,
and the Guises and a team of volunteers have reclaimed and
replanted fields with fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers
made available to area residents through a limited number
of farm-shares. Conservation easements with the Land
Trust for the Little Tennessee ensure that the farm will never
be developed and that the headwater streams and plant and
animal habitat are protected. With help from Catch the
Spirit of Appalachia Inc., the farm hosts annual summer day
camps for children focused on gardening, heritage arts and
outdoor education.
As president and founder of Appalachian Homestead
Farm and Preserve, Guise – experienced in community
organization around such issues as mental health, aging
and Alzheimer’s disease, and natural resource conservation
– works tirelessly to re-establish the farm while remaining
committed to its role as a place to learn. One morning in
mid-April found her in a field, hat on head, hoe in hand,
teaching a family of home-schooled children how to plant
corn. “She puts a lot of heart and soul into everything
she does for the farm,” said Krista Robb, former resident
manager at the farm and a parks and recreation management
major at WCU. “She is so determined to make this farm into
her dream of what it could be.” Robb met Guise through
an Appalachian studies class, which led to the yearlong
manager’s position. Her responsibilities included caring for
livestock, pruning fruit trees and tending the gardens, and
for Robb, who plans to graduate in August and wants her
own farm, the residence was instrumental. “I’ve learned a
lot that I can take with me and keep building on,” she said.
While most don’t gain Robb’s depth of experience, WCU
students are a big presence at the farm – it’s among the
most popular of the university’s more than 100 community
agency partners, said Jennifer Cooper, interim director of
WCU’s Center for Service Learning. Part of the attraction
is the farm’s proximity to campus (a mere four miles),
its availability (volunteers are welcome Saturdays and
throughout the week) and its flexibility. As Robb puts it,
Guise welcomes “anyone who wants to get their hands dirty,”
from individual students to groups, across curriculums and
interests and for projects that take a few hours or a semester.
Beyond that, “Vera is just very personable and enthusiastic
and devoted to what they do at the farm. She’s good to work
with in that sense,” Cooper said. “She always takes the time
to orient the students so they know why they’re up there
and how what they’re doing fits in with the mission of her
agency.” WCU contributions at the farm include a GIS
mapping and a forest management plan by geosciences and
natural resources students, garden art and summer camp
instruction by art students and faculty, hikes led by faculty
botanists and dozens of hours from members of fraternities,
Sigma Chi in particular, toward setting fence posts and
cutting trails. The Guises share a reciprocal commitment to
the university. She is a visiting professor in undergraduate
studies and a fellow with the Coulter Faculty Commons.
He works part time as a driver for Cat-Tran, the campus
shuttle service.
Guise has a simple perspective on the farm’s attraction
to students: “We praise them and we feed them,” she said.
But digging deeper, as farmers will, she believes students
are drawn to the farm’s history, natural setting and mission.
“They understand the long-term project we’re trying to
build here,” she said. “They’re proud of being a part of that.”
Vera Holland Guise MPA ’91
believes small-scale agriculture
is Appalachian heritage worth
fighting for. Below right, Guise
and pup Freckles stand by a
chimney marking her family’s
original homesite in the Tilley
Creek community. Center,
WCU student and former farm
manager Krista Robb says
tending the homestead’s sheep
helped her realize she’d like to
keep livestock on the farm she
plans to one day own.
Summer 2011 | 5
Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson
MATHE MATI CAL EXPRESSION
6 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Rob Jackson ’95 MSA ’00, recognized as a team-builder and innovator, in
May was named the 2011 Wells Fargo North Carolina Principal of the Year.
State Superintendent June Atkinson (with Jackson, above) commended
Jackson, principal at Waxhaw’s Cuthbertson High School in Union County,
saying, “Rob exemplifies what it takes to be a great leader: dedication to his staff’s
success, genuine interest in each student, faithfulness to community involvement
and a driving commitment to academic achievement.”
Jackson said he believes all students are capable of success, regardless of their
background. “One of my greatest joys to date has been the graduation of three of
my juniors last year who were told by their former schools’ principals that they
were too far behind to graduate with their peers,” Jackson said. “These students
didn’t give up, and their teachers didn’t give up. Through a lot of hard work by
all, they were able to graduate on time. Students are worthy of our very best.”
The honor was a repeat of sorts for Western Carolina University. Jackson
succeeds Jan King ’92, last year’s winner and the principal at Glenn C. Marlow
Elementary in Henderson County. “The College of Education and Allied
Professions is proud of its stellar, nationally recognized programs and the
successes of its students,” said Perry Schoon, dean of the college. “Rob exemplifies
everything Western Carolina believes in.” Marcia Perry MSA ’00 EdS ’03,
principal at Haw Creek Elementary in Buncombe County, also was among the
eight finalists for the award.
Parents and staff say Jackson rallies people. When he was named the first
principal at a new elementary school in 2002, he organized parent committees to
raise money and have a playground built in time for the start of school. Michael
Roark, an English teacher at Cuthbertson High, praised Jackson as “an incredible
community-builder.”
Jackson has a record of academic excellence. Cuthbertson High opened in
August 2009, and that year it earned the state’s highest grade in the state testing
program. He has led Cuthbertson into the global realm, co-chairing a committee
to promote and recognize global education in all district schools. Cuthbertson
participates in a Danish school partnership, and earlier this year, when Jackson
was named Union County Principal of the Year, the awards ceremony was
conducted via Skype because Jackson was in Denmark, participating in an
educational exchange program.
Jackson, who is completing work on a doctorate from Nova Southeastern
University, served in the U.S. Navy and as a school secretary and teacher before
moving into administration. As the state’s Principal of the Year, Jackson will
receive $3,000 for his school, $3,000 for personal use and a scholarship for a 10-
day educational tour of China. He also will advise the State Board of Education
and will chair the selection committee for the 2012 Principal of the Year.
An article by Steve Lyttle of The Charlotte Observer contributed to this story.
WORLD CLASS
Rob Jackson wins the top N.C. honor for principals
From Staff Reports
President Obama presents a
May graduate with an award
for excellence in teaching
By JULIE BAL
Students of fifth-grade teacher Amanda Northrup
MAEd ’11 don’t always realize they’re learning.
Northrup uses fun activities that guide her pupils to
figure things out for themselves, and that approach to
teaching helped earn Northrup the Presidential Award
for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching in April.
Northrup, 29, teaches at Riverbend Elementary, with a
few more than 300 students, in the town of Clyde. One of
85 math and science teachers from around the country
receiving the award, Northrup won $10,000 and traveled
to Washington in May for a White House reception and
a chance to meet the president. “A big thing it means to
me is recognition for Haywood County schools,” she
said. “I really think Haywood County has one of the best
school systems in the state of North Carolina.”
Northrup learned she was a finalist for the award last
fall. She was a student in her final semester in the WCU
master’s degree program in educational administration
when she received an email – the week before spring
commencement ceremonies – notifying her that she had
won. Carol Douglas ’86 MAEd ’98 EdS ’03 EdD ’11,
human resources director for Haywood County
schools, said Northrup’s energy sets her apart. “She is
very innovative in the classroom,” Douglas said. “I’ve
watched her teach [and] she’s just a natural.”
In an announcement on the White House website,
President Barack Obama said the winners “have
demonstrated uncommon skill and devotion in the
classroom, nurturing the young minds of tomorrow’s
science and math leaders. America’s competitiveness
rests on the excellence of our citizens in technical
fields, and we owe these teachers a debt of gratitude
for strengthening America’s prosperity.” A panel of
scientists, mathematicians and educators selected the
winners. The other winner from North Carolina was
Zebetta King of Wake County Schools in the science
teaching category.
A North Carolina Teaching Fellows scholarship
recipient who earned her bachelor’s degree at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Northrup
is in her eighth year at Riverbend, where she began as
a third-grade teacher. “I didn’t plan to be a teacher,”
Northrup said. “[The Teaching Fellows program]
requires four years of teaching service. When my four
years were over, I loved teaching.”
Reprinted in edited form with permission of the Asheville
Citizen-Times.
Amanda Northrup MAEd ’11, a math teacher at Riverbend
Elementary in Haywood County, earned $10,000 and a trip
to Washington. President Barack Obama, with Northrup to his
right, greeted award recipients in the East Room of the White
House in May.
Photo courtesy of Union County Public Schools
Summer 2011 | 7
POPULAR PLOTTS
This exhibit from the Mountain Heritage
Center is no dog-and-pony show
By RANDAL HOLCOMBE
The Plott hound dog is famous for its tenacity and
willingness to stay on the hunt for days, and an exhibit
focusing on the breed that was developed by the staff of
WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center is showing it also has
the power to last. After a six-month run at the university
museum, where it was viewed by more than 2,500 visitors,
“Our State Dog: North Carolina’s Plott Hound” went on the
road for display at museums in Elizabeth City and Old Fort.
Beginning in September, the exhibit will be shown for a year
at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh.
The exhibit’s development in 2009 was a collaborative
effort of the Mountain Heritage Center staff, which was
led in the project by then-curator Trevor Jones, said Scott
Philyaw ’83, museum director. Framed panels of text and
photographs explain the history and origins of the Plott
hound and describe how the dogs are used to hunt bears,
boars and raccoons.
Historians of the breed say the original stock of dogs now
called Plott hounds was imported to America by Johannes
Plott around 1750. The Plott family and their dogs settled in
Haywood County about 1800, and as the years passed, the
hounds gained notoriety for their ability to pursue game and
they became part of the cultural fabric of Western North
Carolina. The Mountain Heritage Center staff worked with
the National Plott Hound Association, the Jackson County
Coon Hunters Association, and local bear and boar hunters
in putting together the exhibit. Many of its aspects are based
on research conducted by two Plott hound historians, John
Jackson of Boone and Bob Plott of Statesville. Bob Plott, a
descendant of Johannes Plott, is author of “Strike and Stay:
The Story of the Plott Hound.”
The exhibit has proven so popular that the Mountain
Heritage Center staff has created a second full-size version
on vinyl that can be rolled up and shipped in a large
mailing tube and displayed for short periods of time in
nontraditional venues, said current museum curator Pamela
Meister. That version recently completed a four-month run
in Rosman and is scheduled to be shown at the Franklin
Folk Festival on Saturday, July 16.
As both exhibits travel across the state and the ranks of
Plott hound fans grow, the Mountain Heritage Center is
selling Plott hound T-shirts and posters that were designed
by John Balentine of the creative services staff in WCU’s
Office of Public Relations. Proceeds from the sales are used
to help fund museum programs.
For more information about Plott hound T-shirts
and posters, go to www.wcu.edu/2391.asp.
Information about obtaining the vinyl version of the
exhibit for display is available from Pam Meister at
828.227.3192 or pameister@wcu.edu.
Panels from the Mountain
Heritage Center’s Plott hound
exhibit have gone on the
road, including a stop at the
Mountain Gateway Museum
in Old Fort (above). Inset,
former curator Trevor Jones
puts the final touches on an
MHC display of Plott hound-related
artifacts.
8 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
WORLD PIECE
Public policy students publish work
on Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia
By TERESA KILIAN TATE
Institute, incorporated participation into his course as
a hands-on way for students to understand, analyze and
communicate public policy. “When students post something
on Wikipedia, people respond,” said Cooper, who will
share WCU’s experience this summer at an invitation-only
Wikipedia in Higher Education Summit. “The students have
to defend their position and craft their case in a way that
is true, honest and palatable to readers. It ends up being a
laboratory for democratic debate.”
His students selected a range of topics to update on
Wikipedia. Anne Cortes, a breast cancer survivor caring
for a husband who has an inoperable brain tumor, chose
to research patient-centered outcomes. Another student,
Billy Schweig, chose “post-detection policy” – procedures
centered on how to respond in the event of contact with
intelligent alien life. “It isn’t exactly the most pertinent issue
when it comes to contemporary policy debates, but if it were
to happen, you can bet that about 6 billion people would
want to know NASA’s policy pretty quickly,” Schweig said.
Baker estimated the time it took to research and publish
his article about U.S. nuclear policy took at least 55 hours.
In addition, he spent about 25 hours on Skype calls with
his mentor to make edits, format sources, write text and
script HTML. “This was like no project I have ever worked
on before,” said Baker. “The level of accuracy required blew
me away. Every line must be cited. Any information that
is biased will get your paged marked as ‘The neutrality of
this article is disputed.’ When you realize that thousands of
people will be viewing your page a month and many of them
are highly knowledgeable on your topic and can change it,
then you start to evaluate the validity of your sources in a
different light.”
Earthquake damage to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power
plant ignited global interest in nuclear policy, and those
who searched Wikipedia – the free online encyclopedia
that anyone can edit – discovered U.S. policy information
compiled by Western Carolina University student Kasey
Baker. As a student in a graduate-level policy analysis
course at WCU, Baker was required to research and write
an article for Wikipedia as part of an initiative to improve
the quality of public policy content on the public site. “I
felt it was necessary to compile a complete list of all the
nuclear policy and legislation in America, and this was
prior to the Fukushima incident, which only added to the
need for this article,” said Baker, whose “Nuclear Policy
of the United States” article was recently featured on the
Wikipedia homepage.
Western Carolina was one of 21 universities from
Harvard to Berkeley selected to participate this spring
in the Wikimedia Foundation’s grant-funded Public
Policy Initiative. Through the initiative, students author
a Wikipedia article on public policy topics while working
with experienced Wikipedians who guide them in citing
only reliable sources such as scholarly articles or books.
Chris Cooper, associate professor of political science
and public affairs, and director of WCU’s Public Policy
Professor Chris Cooper
(center) involves students,
including Josh Purdy and
Anne Cortes, in a nationwide
project to improve public
policy content on Wikipedia.
Summer 2011 | 9
Deciding to give enough to have a brick paver engraved
for the Catamount Legacy Walk, which supports a WCU
student emergency fund, was easy for Katie Spear ’03.
Deciding what message to have engraved was not. Spear
struggled with how best to, in the 4-by-8-inch paver’s two
16-character lines, honor someone who meant a lot to her –
Rickey Gandy, who played basketball for WCU from 1999
to 2001 and died in 2003.
“Given the character limitations, it was a challenge.
I decided I want the brick to say ‘For Rickey Gandy with
love KS,’” said Spear, executive assistant to Martha Stewart.
“That I might be able to help a WCU student – the reason
for the Legacy Walk – by honoring a friend compelled
me to give. Emergency funds are incredibly important,
and I was certainly aware of students who could have
benefited from access to an emergency fund while I was
attending WCU.”
Each $125, tax-deductible donation to the walk will be
honored with a reddish-orange brick paver engraved with
a message of the donor’s choice and installed on campus.
When enough donations are received for the walk’s first
300 pavers, they will be engraved and installed as a group
near the Alumni Tower. In addition, donors will receive a
commemorative certificate for each paver commissioned.
MEMORY LANE
Donors commission bricks for the Catamount Legacy Walk
to benefit a student emergency fund
By TERESA KILIAN TATE
Eighty percent of each donation goes directly to the
WCU Division of Student Affairs Student Emergency Fund,
with the remaining amount used for maintenance of the
walk and Alumni Tower. The fund offers limited financial
assistance to full-time students unable to meet immediate,
essential expenses because of temporary hardship resulting
from an emergency that would otherwise prevent them
from continuing their educations. Although the assistance
provided to students by the fund is not a loan, recipients
are encouraged to repay the fund if possible so that other
students also may benefit.
“Students have crises. We all have crises,” said Jane
Adams-Dunford, assistant vice chancellor for student
affairs. “This emergency fund can do so many wonderful
things, and I hope it intervenes at the right moment so
students still feel valued and supported to pursue their
educational goals. Also, when students, alumni, faculty,
staff and friends support the fund by commissioning a brick
to honor student achievements or remember someone, they
write a piece of the WCU history that will be preserved on
this walk and leave a legacy for students to come.”
For more information,
visit legacywalk.wcu.edu.
10 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
UPHILL CLIMB
Faculty and students test an
outdoor legend’s energy theory
By RANDAL HOLCOMBE
Backpackers who take on the steep mountain trails near
WCU’s campus can confirm that hauling a pack uphill is
much more difficult than carrying one on level ground,
and some faculty members and students recently put that
notion to the test. A study that involved 24 volunteers
carrying a pack while walking on a treadmill set on an
uphill grade was used to test the “energy mile” theory first
proposed by the late American mountaineering and outdoor
education legend Paul Petzoldt. Overseeing the project was
Maridy Troy, assistant professor in the health and physical
education program, and Maurice Phipps, professor of parks
and recreation management, who also knew Petzoldt as a
friend and mentor.
Phipps first met Petzoldt and learned about his energy
mile theory in 1982, when Phipps, a young immigrant from
England, went on a Wilderness Education Association
training trip in Wyoming’s Teton Mountains led by the
renowned outdoorsman.
Petzoldt proposed his theory in his 1976 book “Teton
Trails” to help backpackers plan trips and calculate their
energy needs on mountain trails. “Petzoldt defined one
energy mile as the energy required to walk one mile on the
flat. He recommended adding two energy miles for every
1,000 feet of elevation gain, so a person hiking one mile and
1,000 feet upward would use the equivalent of three energy
miles,” Phipps said. The theory had never been tested in
a laboratory before the study began in WCU’s exercise
physiology laboratory in the spring of 2010.
To determine the validity of the theory, the study
measured the energy cost and perceived exertion for
walking on flat ground, with and without a 44.5-pound
backpack, and up an elevation gain of 1,000 feet, with and
without the backpack, through the collection of metabolic
data. As the study continued last fall, results showed that the
additional energy cost for ascending 1,000 feet ranged from
1.34 to 2.02 energy mile equivalents, for an average of about
1.6 miles, compared with Petzoldt’s use of two energy miles
for each 1,000 feet. Weight difference among volunteers
accounted for the range, Phipps said.
“It is remarkable that Petzoldt’s energy mile theory is so
close to the actual energy cost measured during our study,”
Phipps said.
Phipps said the energy required for hiking up steep
mountain trails would vary for individuals and groups,
and the variables of the trail also would factor in, but he
recommends that backpackers stick with Petzoldt’s idea of
adding two energy miles for every 1,000 feet of elevation
gain when planning trips. An article detailing the study
titled “The Validity of Petzoldt’s Energy Mile Theory”
has been published in the Journal of Outdoor Recreation,
Education and Leadership.
Paul Petzoldt (top) surrounded
by students including WCU
faculty member Maurice Phipps
(far left). Petzoldt developed
his ‘energy mile’ theory in
Wyoming’s Teton Mountains
(below), and it was tested for
the first time in WCU’s exercise
physiology laboratory, where
Maridy Troy (left) monitors a
research volunteer.
Summer 2011 | 11
Bright Lights,
Big Opportunity
For many students, the mountain setting and outdoor
options surrounding Western Carolina University are a
primary draw. But when it comes to launching a career, a
metropolitan area has its own attraction. So on an early
morning in March, 16 students from WCU programs across
the spectrum – from criminal justice to sport management,
from music to financial planning – boarded two university
vans and headed to Atlanta for a day they hoped would
provide experience and opportunity. Waiting to meet them
was a contingent of WCU alumni who had volunteered to
serve as hosts and career mentors for the day.
This inaugural “alumni and networking day” was planned
collaboratively by WCU’s offices of Career Services, Alumni
Affairs and Development and funded in part by a grant
from the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan to support
engaged learning. It was inspired by a similar, multiday
event hosted by the Ohio University Alumni Association
in the Charlotte area, which attracts large numbers of that
university’s graduates. That event, nearly a decade old,
attracts approximately 100 students annually. For WCU, a
history of involved alumni in the Atlanta area, along with
its size and location, was a key factor in the decision to stage
similar activities there. The university has approximately
2,000 alumni in the Atlanta area, said Marty Ramsey ’85,
director of WCU alumni affairs, and the Western Club of
From Coca-Cola to the Fulton County Courthouse, WCU students
gained experience and career opportunity in March with a trip to
Atlanta to shadow Western Carolina alumni. Opposite from top left,
Nate Hunzaker ’11 spent the day learning about Coke’s business
side; Rebecca Lautier sat in on a popular morning radio show; and
T.J. Eaves (left) and Jeremiah Mosteller got an up-close look at the
courts with attorney Jim Beddingfield ’67.
Students turn to Atlanta-area alums for career insight
By JIL INGRAM MA ’08
12 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Georgia, based in the greater Atlanta area, is an active one,
hosting four or five events a year. Robert Thomas ’70 leads
that club and hosted two students for the networking event.
“Atlanta is home to some of our most loyal and dedicated
alumni,” Ramsey said. Said Chris Mueller, executive director
of resource development, “We thought the event would be a
way to connect and reconnect alumni to the university, and
specifically to our students.”
Students, who were chosen based on a faculty nomination
and a letter of application, spent the day literally following
in the footsteps of their alumni hosts. For criminal justice
majors Daniel Barnes ’11 and Rebecca Oates, whose host,
Col. Milton H. Beck ’88, is a division commander with
the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office, this meant touring the
Cobb County Jail – the second-largest in the state – from
the inside and participating in a 360-degree “shoot or don’t
shoot” electronic training scenario that overwhelmed
their senses and challenged their instincts. For Anthony
“T.J.” Eaves, a business administration and law major,
and Jeremiah Mosteller, a political science major, who
shadowed Jim Beddingfield ’67, a semiretired attorney, it
meant experiencing real-life courtroom drama in the trial
of an Atlanta gang member ultimately convicted of felony
murder. The experience inspired Mosteller to “be a part of
something that makes people’s lives better,” he said.
“You don’t always know which way your career is going to go. You think you do, but you don’t.
Don’t worry about the job you’re going to get, worry about the job you have. You will find your
spot, it will happen. Sit back, enjoy the ride, and find what you enjoy and stick with it."
— Bruce Clayton ’71
Summer 2011 | 13
The alumni, with their experience, expertise and offers
of help, made an impression on the students. Zachary
Rumble ’11, a psychology major, paired with Robert
Folsom ’66 MAEd ’68, a college recruitment specialist
with Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Ga.
“The warmness and friendliness that Bob showed all day
to students and employees – he never stopped smiling,”
Rumble said. “To me, that was really something.” Rebecca
Lautier, a commercial and electronic music major, spent
the day with William “Cadillac Jack” Choate, the host of
a popular morning show on Atlanta country radio station
WKHX-FM, KICKS 101.5. Lautier called the experience “a
good opportunity for learning outside of the classroom.”
She was struck by the level of intensity a radio program
demanded and about work behind the scenes in promoting
the program to different markets.
The student enthusiasm was matched by that of the alumni
hosts. “This was as much an opportunity for us as it was for
the students,” said Bruce Clayton ’71, senior vice president
of human resources for Genuine Parts Co., a distributor
of automotive replacement parts, industrial replacement
parts, office products and electrical/electronic materials in
Atlanta. Clayton hosted Rene Gamez, an accounting major,
and Shannon Owen ’11, a financial planning major. “It was
really a pleasure to interact with the students. It’s refreshing,
and I wish we did more of this,” he said.
Nate Hunzaker ’11, a computer information systems and
marketing major, recognized “great value in connecting
with alumni.” His host was Keith Harris ’83, director of
business services with the Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta. “I
really look forward to being able to do something like this
when I’m an alum,” Hunzaker said. That’s good news to Pat
Kaemmerling ’71, vice chair of the WCU Foundation board
of directors, who helped coordinate the event and spoke to
participants at a dinner afterward. “You can bring so much
to the university” with gifts of time, talent and treasure,
said Kaemmerling, co-owner and chief financial officer of
Access Computers Inc. in Norcross, Ga., a business she runs
with her husband, David. Recalling Chancellor John Bardo’s
message urging students to make a difference in their world,
she said, “If every student who graduates from Western
Carolina can be the best in their world, the cumulative effect
of that would be amazing.”
Alumni and students said they hoped the networking
event was the beginning of something more, and that’s the
plan, said Michael Despeaux, career services coordinator
and counselor who oversaw the student selection process and
helped coordinate the day. A survey Despeaux conducted
after the event showed that students overwhelmingly
considered the day in Atlanta a positive experience and one
that provided insight into future career plans. Beyond that,
several students were exploring job possibilities connected
to the event. “We definitely want to build on this,”
said Despeaux.
“See the world while you can. Do some fun, adventurous things before you
have a mortgage, a spouse and children. When you have those, you can take
two weeks and go to Europe, but you can’t spend six months in Paris and get
a job selling flowers on the corner.”
— Pat Kaemmerling ’71
Above left, William Choate,
‘Cadillac Jack’ on KICKS
101.5, went out of his way
to offer help, said Rebecca
Lautier. The event helped
Nate Hunzaker ’11, with
Keith Harris ’83, understand
the value of connecting
with alumni.
14 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Sixteen students and 11 alumni participated in WCU’s first
alumni networking day in the Atlanta metropolitan and
outlying areas.
Anthony Ballard ’11, an accounting and financial planning
major, and Stephen Kummer ’11, business administration
major, paired with Robert Thomas ’70, president and
chief executive officer of EIS Inc., a supplier of products to
electrical equipment manufacturer and related industries
in Atlanta.
Daniel Barnes ’11, a criminal justice and psychology major,
and Rebecca Oates, a criminal justice major, paired with
Col. Milton H. Beck ’88, a division commander with the
Cobb County Sheriff’s Office in Marietta, Ga.
Anthony “T.J.” Eaves, a business administration and law
major, and Jeremiah Mosteller, a political science major,
paired with Jim Beddingfield ’67, a semiretired attorney
in private practice, at courthouses in Rockdale County
and Atlanta.
Christina Foster, a criminal justice and psychology
major, and Ashley VandenHeuvel ’11, a forensic science
major, paired with Clay Cox ’91, president of Professional
Probation Services, a private probation provider with the
courts of Georgia and located in Norcross, Ga.
Rene Gamez, an accounting major, and Shannon Owen ’11,
a financial planning major, paired with Bruce Clayton ’71,
senior vice president of human resources for Genuine Parts
Co., a distributor of automotive and industrial replacement
parts, office products and electrical/electronic materials
in Atlanta.
Nate Hunzaker ’11, a computer information systems and
marketing major, paired with Keith Harris ’83, director of
business services with the Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta.
Rebecca Lautier, a commercial and electronic music major,
paired with William Choate, the morning show host
“Cadillac Jack” on WKHX-FM, KICKS 101.5, a country-format
radio station in Atlanta.
Brittany Lysik, a sport management major, paired with Colby
Allen, a manager with Drayer Physical Therapy Institute in
Peachtree City, Ga.
Michael McLamb, a management major, paired with Scott
Christian ’89, a wealth management adviser with Merrill
Lynch in Alpharetta, Ga.
Zachary Rumble ’11, a psychology major, paired with Robert
Folsom ’66 MAEd ’68, a college recruitment specialist with
Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Ga.
Benjamin Ward ’11, an engineering technology major,
paired with Matt Magnus ’04, an engineer with Conditioned
Air Systems, an all-service residential, commercial and
industrial heating, ventilating and air conditioning company
in Gainesville, Ga.
ME AND MY SHADOW
A who’s who of students and their professional partners
“People who survive hard times are people
who are contributing. Make sure you’re
making a valuable, tangible contribution.”
— Robert Thomas ’70
Making the trip to Atlanta
were (from left) Michael
Despeaux of career services,
Chris Mueller of development,
students Rebecca Lautier,
Ashley VandenHeuvel ’11,
Daniel Barnes ’11, Christina
Foster, Brittany Lysik, Rebecca
Oates, Michael McLamb, Rene
Gamez, Nate Hunzaker ’11,
Anthony Ballard ’11, Benjamin
Ward ’11, Shannon Owen ’11,
Stephen Kummer ’11, Zachary
Rumble ’11, Jeremiah
Mosteller and Anthony ‘T.J.’
Eaves, and Marty Ramsey ’85,
director of alumni affairs.
Summer 2011 | 15
Perfect
Harmony
Chancellor-elect David Belcher is ready to
make beautiful music – and a little magic –
with the rest of the WCU family
By BIL STUDENC MPA ’10
Back in November, University of North Carolina
President Tom Ross had one simple requirement for
the committee charged with helping find a successor to
Chancellor John W. Bardo – deliver him a superhero. David
O. Belcher may not leap tall buildings in a single bound,
but he already has exhibited the ability to leap seamlessly
from the music performance stage into the spotlight of
academic administration.
Such a leap is not nearly as large as some might think at
first blush. In fact, an examination of the job descriptions
for top leadership positions in both fields reveals some
striking similarities. Take the position of music conductor,
for example. The primary tasks are to provide clear direction
to a wide array of individuals who make up the ensemble,
to bring together the diverse talents of various players, to
establish the tempo, set the pace and maintain rhythm, and
to listen with a keen ear so that adjustments can be made to
create harmony.
That reads a lot like the job of a university chancellor,
someone who must channel the disparate energies of faculty,
staff, students, alumni and other supporters, building a
sense of unity so that all are striving for the greater good
of the organization, and listening at all times to sounds
emanating from all corners of campus – and beyond. That
explains why Belcher is equally at home in both worlds.
Provost and chief academic officer at the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock since 2003, Belcher is classically
trained in piano performance, and he has amassed more
than two decades of academic and leadership experience
at highly respected public universities, Ross said as he
placed Belcher’s name in nomination to the UNC Board
of Governors, which was unanimous in electing him
WCU’s 11th chief executive officer April 8. “At each step
along the way, he has proven himself to be an energetic
and effective leader who encourages strategic thinking,
promotes collaboration and inclusiveness, and makes
student success a universitywide responsibility,” Ross said.
16 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
“He also has earned a reputation for great integrity, sound
decision-making, and a strong commitment to community
engagement and outreach. I am convinced that Dr. Belcher
has the right mix of experience, skills and passion needed to
take Western Carolina to the next level.”
Although Belcher does not officially become chancellor
until July 1, he already is hard at work immersing himself
into the campus culture, including an April two-day
whirlwind of get-acquainted meetings, a campuswide
welcome assembly and a “meet the press” session that
inspired Smoky Mountain News reporter Quintin Ellison
to describe how a classic pianist is equally well-equipped in
the art of leadership. “When a pianist accompanies a soloist,
a delicate give and take must occur. Listening, adjusting,
assisting and leading — all this, and more, must happen
for the performances to succeed, and for beautiful music
to result,” Ellison wrote. “Those same skills — listening,
adjusting, assisting and leading — are evidenced in Belcher’s
leadership style. “
In his meeting with the press, Belcher pointed out that
all university administrators come from a specific academic
background. “It’s my expertise that I bring to the table.
Every single chancellor or president of a university brings
something. It’s going to be English here, physics here,
psychology or political science here. Mine just happens to
be music,” he said.
Belcher is accustomed to being asked how his experience
as a musician has prepared him for a leadership role. “Here’s
the way I explain it: When I walk out on stage to perform a
solo piece of music, I channel a synthesized understanding of
both music theory and musical style gleaned through years
of study through an athletic physical apparatus, infusing the
performance of a piece someone else wrote with a singularly
original interpretation – all from memory, live in front of an
audience. Performance is not for the faint of heart,” he said.
“This performance scenario is not terribly different from
what an academic administrator must do. As an academic
administrator, I have to make a compelling case in various
forums in front of a wide variety of audiences for higher
education and the institution I serve, working hard to make
sense of the sometimes opaque world of higher education
and its interconnectedness to quality of life, economic
development, community development and so forth.”
magazine.wcu.edu
David O. Belcher takes the
stage with wife Susan (above)
to applause from search
committee members including
Steve Warren ’80 (left) and
Carol Burton ’87 MAEd ’89.
Opposite page, from left, the
chancellor-elect addresses
the campus community;
the Belchers meet Paws,
the Catamount mascot; and
Susan performs as a student
at Northwestern University,
sharing the stage with William
Martin, now an associate
professor of voice at WCU.
Summer 2011 | 17
OPENING NOTES
The oldest of four children, Belcher grew up in the rural
South Carolina town of Barnwell, son of a Baptist minister
and a public schoolteacher. “Many of the people in Barnwell
claim him as their child. That is one of the advantages of
living in a small town. The town will keep you abreast of
what your child is doing – or not doing,” said his father, the
Rev. Posey Belcher. “Now, it will sound like I am bragging,
but David was a very obedient child. He was responsive and
responsible, with a good personality. From infancy on, he
was very much involved in the church. Of course, he didn’t
really have much choice, with my vocation.”
Belcher was born to be a leader, his parents say, although
his mother, Jean Belcher, recalls that during his youth
her son had his eyes set on a slightly different leadership
position. “When he was a little boy, he would hang up
on his bedroom walls flags of all the states, and he would
make maps in the shape of all of the states,” she said. “He
drew them, cut them out, put in the state capitals and put
them on his wall. He said, ‘I’m going to be president of the
United States someday.’” Appropriately, his new office is in
the building commonly known on the WCU campus as “the
White House.”
At an early age, Belcher demonstrated an aptitude for
academics and music, his mother said. “David was a good
student all the way through school. He was in a large
number of plays beginning in kindergarten on through high
school,” she said. “He started taking piano lessons before the
age of 6. I know a lot of people frown upon that as being too
young, but we had a piano in the house, and he decided he
was going to play it one way or the other. We thought it was
best for him if he learned to play it the right way. I think it
worked out all right.” As a high school student, he began
giving piano lessons to two or three students in the family
home, an experience his folks are convinced set him on dual
career paths of music and education.
Belcher’s parents have always stressed the importance of
education. “The second classroom was our kitchen table,”
Jean Belcher said. “It was our policy that the children had
to get their homework and studies done before they could
go out for ball-playing or other activities with friends. We
gave them a short break after school, but they had to get
their school work completed before playtime.” The Belcher
family also made it a point to incorporate education into
family vacations by being sure they visited the historic sites
wherever they went, including Boston, Texas, Louisiana,
Alabama, Florida, New York and Washington. “The children
enjoyed it. They learned, and it was fun,” Posey Belcher said.
That emphasis on education did not end with high school
graduation, he said. “We promised all of our children that
we would support them in getting a college education up
through a master’s degree. If they wanted to go farther
than that, they would have to do it on their own. With four
children, and on a pastor’s and teacher’s salaries, we really
could not do more than that. It was a stretch to do so, but
we felt it was important, and we didn’t know we were poor.
We believe in education that much. We have always felt that
education is key to our future,” he said.
The 53-year-old chancellor-elect graduated from Furman
University in 1979 with a degree in piano performance. After
receiving a master’s degree in 1981 in piano performance at
the University of Michigan, Belcher studied in Austria on a
Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship before earning his
doctorate in 1989 at the University of Rochester’s Eastman
School of Music. Belcher began his academic career in
1988 as an assistant professor of music at Missouri State
University. During his 15-year tenure at MSU, he rose
steadily through the academic and administrative ranks.
After serving as coordinator of keyboard studies in MSU’s
music department (1989-92) and assistant dean of the
College of Arts and Letters (1993), he was named dean of
the College of Arts and Letters in 1994. He left Missouri
in 2003 to join UALR as provost and vice chancellor for
academic affairs.
His brother, Philip Belcher, 50, president of the Mary
Black Foundation in Spartanburg, S.C., also is a graduate of
Furman, where he was a history major. He has a seminary
degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
and a law degree from Duke University and will complete
a master’s degree in creative writing at Converse College
in June. Sister Elizabeth Mixon, 46, is testing coordinator
for Northwestern High School in Rock Hill, S.C. She has a
bachelor’s degree in voice from Furman, a master’s degree in
choral conducting from the Eastman School of Music and
a master’s degree in education from Winthrop University.
Youngest sister Miriam Ponder, 42, has a degree in art
history from Furman and a master’s degree in art history
from the University of Maryland. Ponder works as an order
analyst for American Tire Distributors in Huntersville
and formerly worked for the Computer Science Corp. in
Rockville, Md.
From left, David Belcher at
nearly 3 years old; at right,
in family photo with siblings
(counterclockwise from top)
Philip, Elizabeth and Miriam;
in high school graduation
regalia; and with wife Susan
in the office of UNC President
Tom Ross.
18 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
When told of the UNC system president’s request that
Western Carolina’s next chancellor be a superhero, the
patriarch and matriarch of the Belcher family chuckled
softly as they shared some of David Belcher’s “superpowers,”
including a sharp sense of humor and an amazing knack for
recalling names and faces from his past. “He still stays in
touch with friends at all the places where he has been, and he
has a Christmas card list that would amaze you. He keeps up
with all his friends from all across the country and from his
travels abroad. I’ve never seen anything like it,” his mother
said. “He still sends a Christmas card to his seventh-grade
teacher,” added his father.
“His superpower is his ability to listen and to hear, his
ability to think things through and analyze, and not make
decisions too hastily,” Posey Belcher said. “When he speaks,
you know that he has thought it through. There is not going
to be much off-the-cuff decision-making. He can stand
his ground. He is not mean, but he is firm.” Like many
superheroes – and all musicians – he has a sensitive ear, Jean
Belcher said. “He is very willing to listen. He is not one of
those people who say, ‘It’s my way or none,’” she said. “He
is willing to give the other person a right to his or her own
opinion. He may not agree with the opinion, but he is willing
to give the other side a chance to be heard.”
DYNAMIC DUO
Ross may not have realized it at the time, but when he
endorsed Belcher to the UNC Board of Governors, he
actually was recommending a can’t-break-the-set, two-for-
the-price-of-one package deal. But this is no Batman
and Robin situation; it’s more akin to Superman and
Wonder Woman. The chancellor-elect describes his wife,
Susan Brummell Belcher, as “a full partner in a leadership
team” and credits her with grounding, challenging and
supporting him. “Western Carolina is not just getting a
new chancellor. The university is getting a team,” he said.
“Cullowhee, you are going to love her. I want you to know
that. That’s not a directive. That’s just clairvoyance.”
Like her husband, Susan Belcher comes from a
performing arts background. She earned a bachelor’s
degree in theater from Missouri State University and a
master’s degree in vocal performance from Northwestern
University. She completed her professional opera training
with the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists,
and she has experience ranging from professional musical
“Western Carolina is
not just getting a new
chancellor. The university
is getting a team.”
– David O. Belcher
Summer 2011 | 19
theater, opera performance and directing to teaching,
nonprofit arts administration, education outreach and
community service.
Although she taught voice as a member of the music
faculty at UALR, Susan Belcher says she has no plans to join
the faculty in WCU’s School of Music. “I have only one self-imposed
job title at my new institution and that is ‘WCU
friend-raiser,’” she said. “This will play out in many ways,
but through them all, David and I will be wholeheartedly
engaging with students, faculty, staff, donors, alumni,
community members and other constituent parties to create
broad support for the WCU mission.”
Susan Belcher has had some interesting stops on her
career path, ranging from serving as magician David
Copperfield’s on-stage assistant to working with the United
Nations travel office. Her performing career has seen
her share the stage with actor and fellow Missouri State
alumnus John Goodman and, in rehearsal, with opera
great Luciano Pavarotti. In addition, she was once an avid
long-distance runner. “I’ve lost track of the number of
marathons I’ve run, but they have included the New York
City Marathon, Chicago Marathon and Marine Corps
Marathon in Washington, D.C. I did run a 700-mile race in
New York City. It was on a one-mile loop on Ward Island in
the East River, and it took 13-and-a-half days to complete,
averaging around 50 miles a day,” she said. “Another year,
I participated in the Marathon of the Sands – a seven-day
endurance race in the Moroccan Sahara Desert. We ran
over sand dunes, dried mudflats and through the occasional
oasis, carrying our gear on our backs and camping in tents
under the stars. See why Base Camp Cullowhee intrigues
me? I have done more walking than running in recent years,
but have committed to running the Valley of the Lilies Half
Marathon next year at WCU. It will be my first in awhile. I’ll
have to train.”
Travel and community also are passions for the Belchers,
she said. “We love meeting new people, and exploring new
places and cultures. Visits to Turkey, Italy, Croatia and
the Mayan ruins in Mexico rank at the top of our shared
overseas journeys, but our wish list of unvisited places is
extensive. Last summer brought us to North Carolina. Who
would have imagined we would be moving here within
a year?” she said. “I fell in love with WCU and Cullowhee
before I ever set physical eyes on them. Their sense of
place resonated deeply with me, and I felt I had found a
community that I could truly embrace as home. More than
anything, I want to be a good neighbor, and getting to know
as many people as possible in my university and regional
community is a top priority.”
FIRST THINGS FIRST
When a university gets its first new leader in 16 years, it is
natural for those within the institution to wonder what big
changes may be in store, and what will the new boss do first.
The chancellor-elect already has answered that question
with one word – listen. (There’s that word again.)
“My first job is to get to know you and to listen to you.
I have worked for 17½ years in administrative positions at
two great universities. But this institution is not the same
as those two. I have to learn who you are, as individuals, as
units, as a university, as alumni, as community members,”
he said. “While I do have some ideas, I would not presume
to conjure up a vision without your consultation. My modus
operandi is a consultative approach. It’s not about my vision;
it’s about our vision.”
Belcher’s super senses of vision and hearing are part of
what helped sell him to the search committee in its efforts to
bring a superhero to President Ross, said Steve Warren ’80,
committee chair and chair of WCU’s Board of Trustees, who
previously had made this promise to Ross: “We’re going to
find you your Superman or Superwoman. They won’t have
an ‘S’ on their chest. They’ll have a ‘WCU’ on their chest.”
And be dressed in purple, Ross added.
“We knew that our starting point was that we had an
incredibly gifted faculty, highly intelligent students and
extremely motivated staff, all of them possessing a very
David Belcher talks with
students during an April visit
to campus.
20 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
David Belcher is not just the first new chancellor at Western Carolina
University in 16 years. He also is the first chancellor hired under the watch of
Tom Ross, who became president of the University of North Carolina on Jan. 1.
Ross is no stranger to Western Carolina University, having made several visits
to campus since he was announced as successor to departing president Erskine
Bowles, including a meeting with the chancellor search committee while he
was still president-elect, the delivery of official greetings at one of WCU’s three
spring commencement ceremonies in May, and remarks at the student-athlete
scholarship banquet.
In fact, Ross was already familiar with Cullowhee prior to assuming his
current position, thanks to the influence of his brother, Bill Ross ’70, who has
urged his sibling to always wear a purple tie when visiting campus. Bill Ross
is a member of the WCU Alumni Association board of directors representing
District 3, and he has endowed a golf scholarship at WCU in memory of his
father, Charles B. Ross Jr.
Although Tom Ross won’t always sport a purple tie when he’s conducting
UNC business, one newly elected member of the UNC Board of Governors can
– Hickory banking executive Phillip D. Walker ’71, former chairman of the
Western Carolina University Board of Trustees.
Walker is among eight people recently appointed by the N.C. Senate to
serve four-year terms on the 32-member board, which handles policy-making
decisions for the 17 schools in the UNC system. The General Assembly elects
16 board members every two years – eight from the Senate, and eight from
the House.
Walker is senior vice president of corporate banking for the western region
of BB&T. He was a member of WCU’s Board of Trustees from 1997 until
2005, serving as its chair from 2003 until 2005, and he is currently chairman
of the WCU Foundation Board of Directors. A member of the WCU Research
and Development Board of Directors, he is former president of the WCU
Alumni Association.
PURPLE TIES
New UNC president and board member
have WCU connections
strong work ethic,” Warren said, describing the search.
“The question became who would best leverage those
extraordinary talents and take advantage of them to increase
our ability to deliver first-class educational opportunities
to our students and improve the economic vitality of this
region. David Belcher was the answer to that question.”
Committee member Betty Jo Allen ’68, a retired
schoolteacher like Belcher’s mother, said she was impressed
with David and Susan Belcher’s knowledge of not just
the university as an institution, but the individuals who
comprise it. “Many things about Dr. Belcher make me believe
he will be an excellent chancellor for Western Carolina:
intelligence, experience, personality, knowledge of the
position,” said Allen, WCU Alumni Association president.
“When I met Dr. Belcher, I felt as if I already knew him. But,
more important than that, I felt Dr. Belcher knew me, knew
us – Western Carolina – and enthusiastically desired to be
our chancellor. Now that I have met Mrs. Belcher, I see we
are getting a couple who are already part of the WCU family,
and are happy to be.”
Speaking of happy, Dr. Belcher’s folks are thrilled that
their son is back in the South. When he and Susan take up
residence in Cullowhee this summer, it will be the first time
he has lived within an easy drive from his parents, who now
live in Rock Hill, since he left for Michigan to start work on
his master’s degree in 1979. They also have found that, with
their eldest child’s appointment as WCU chancellor, their
extended family just got a whole lot larger.
“It has been interesting, all of the people we have
discovered who have connections to Western Carolina
University,” Posey Belcher said “So many people who we
know have come up to us after David’s appointment to
say they went to WCU or they have a brother or sister who
went to school there. One of the leaders of the church in
Walterboro who is now in Rock Hill got his degree there. It’s
just been amazing the number of people we are finding who
have connections to the university.” As a new member of the Board of Governors, Phillip Walker ’71 (left) will be working closely
with UNC President Tom Ross (right).
“I felt Dr. Belcher
knew me, knew us –
Western Carolina – and
enthusiastically desired
to be our chancellor.”
– Betty Jo Allen ’68
Summer 2011 | 21
Library’s collection of soldier
correspondence gains attention on
the Civil War’s 150th anniversary
By CHRISTY MARTIN ’71 MA ’78
Letters From
The Homefront
There was only one sheet of paper and two soldiers with
letters to write. So they each used half a page, one covering
the top and the other writing across the bottom. The letter
was dated Sept. 16, 1862. America was into the second year
of a war between the states that no one had expected would
last long. “I want you to do the bes you can for yourself for
I don’t know when I will get to come home,” wrote Thomas
Edmonston. In his letter, Rufus Kelly told his parents, “I am
well and harty. I had the tooth ache but I had it taken out. …
Since that I have been stout.”
The young brothers-in-law from Haywood County, foot
soldiers in a Confederate regiment, were camped close to
railroad tracks in Eastern Tennessee. Kelly wrote about
watching trains pass, day and night, back and forth, carrying
sick and wounded soldiers away from the battlefields of
Virginia, new volunteer soldiers toward them. Like most
soldiers from the mountains, Kelly and Edmonston were
farmers and wrote about farming matters, including
livestock and crops, and occasionally about triumphs of a
personal nature. In one of his letters, Edmonston wrote,
“Mother, I have quit swearing. I have not swore once in
two months.”
The Edmonston-Kelly correspondence is in the “Civil
War Letters” collection of WCU’s Hunter Library. Written
by Western North Carolina soldiers and their loved ones,
the original letters are being digitized by library staff and
made available online. “The authors of the letters were
writing from their present moment without the knowledge
that we have of what would happen in the war,” said George
Frizzell ’77 MA ’81, head of the library’s special collections.
“The letters were a way to reassure one another during a time
of great national conflict. Today they help us to construct
a broader picture of what life was like and how the shared
experience of this region fits into the national picture.”
As primary resources for researchers, the letters are
receiving renewed attention this year as the nation observes
the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the war, a pivotal
time in American history. “The Civil War is something that
Americans should think about and remember because it is
essential to who we are as a people,” said Richard Starnes
’92 MA ’94, chair of the WCU history department.
22 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
The dozens of letters in the library’s collection reveal
many details about daily life in the mountains during the
mid-19th century and the impact the war had on local
families. “At the time, there had been ongoing commerce
in the mountain region, especially with South Carolina.
There was slave ownership here, though a lower percentage
than in the Piedmont. There were newspapers. Residents
had knowledge of politics and current events, and
literacy rates were rising,” said Starnes. “Western North
Carolina wasn’t an isolated region, and any idea that it was
untouched isn’t true.”
Absent soldiers, terrible inflation and shortages of even
the most basic of supplies, such as paper and postage stamps,
created hard times for mountain families. Women especially
felt these hardships as they took on more responsibility for
farms, businesses and families. During the war, there were
conflicting loyalties between neighbors and within families
about the issues of secession and slavery. Soldiers from
the mountains fought in both the Union and Confederate
armies. “The letters run the gamut of human emotions, from
love and concern, hope and despair, but are always poignant
and compelling when read in the context of the nation’s
agony and the longing to remain in touch through the years
of war,” said Frizzell.
The Civil War carried soldiers hundreds of miles from
home to parts of the country they had never seen before.
In a letter of 1861, just after the war began, R.P. Crawford
of Jackson County wrote to his cousin about seeing the
ocean: “You can stand on the beach and look as far as your
eys can see and it is nothing but one world of water.” In a
letter to his sister while on the march through Maryland
into Pennsylvania, George Huntley, a teacher from
Rutherford County, described his fondness for the scenery
in the unfamiliar surroundings. “We are stopped today in a
beautiful oke grove. … This is one of the finest countrys that
I ever saw.” This last letter home was dated three days before
he died at the Battle of Gettysburg.
For some of the soldiers, thoughts of home and loved ones
often brought memories of food. Encamped in Wilmington
and receiving a routine diet of meat and bread, Wiley Parris
of Jackson County wrote to this wife, “I want a good mess
of eggs. … I want a good jug of whiskey with some cherry
tree bark.”
During the war, women at home often provided supplies,
including uniforms for their soldiers. In a letter to her
husband, Keziah Osborne of Asheville wrote about sewing
him a new pair of trousers. “I could not get velvet to make
strips for them but I did the best that I could. … Hope they
will fit you. I cut them like your others and lined them in the
seats and knees to save you patching.”
In a “howdy” to her husband serving near the South
Carolina coast, Elizabeth Watson of the Hamburg
community in Jackson County wrote about the usual
concerns of domestic life. Their three young children
were healthy. The cows were producing plenty of milk.
Temperatures were warm for late October. She missed her
husband: “My dear I han’t forgot you for I think of you every
hour in the day.”
And, in closing, “Here is your shoo strings, if you a
git them.”
You know that card playing
was one of the things that you
promised me you would
never do.
My dear I hant forgot you
for I think of you every hour
in the day.
I hant time to tell you of any
of our ups and downs now at
this time. ... Tell pap not to
come to this war.
Mother I have quit
swearing. I have not swore
once in two months.
Summer 2011 | 23
Cross
Purposes
24 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Landing, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg,
Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Petersburg. As Orr was not
promoted from first lieutenant to captain until April 3, 1863,
the cross must have been manufactured after that date.
Here’s what Meister has learned about the badge’s owner,
Capt. Orr: Orr enlisted at age 24 on Sept. 26, 1861, as a first
lieutenant at Gansevoort, N.Y. On Nov. 23, 1861, he was
commissioned a lieutenant in G Company of the 77th N.Y.
Infantry, and he was promoted to captain on April 3, 1863.
He was wounded and lost an arm at the Battle of Cedar
Creek on Oct. 19, 1864, and was mustered out of the army at
Saratoga, N.Y., on Dec. 13, 1864.
So how did the badge arrive in North Carolina? The
historians have a theory. During the summer of 1864, Gen.
Robert E. Lee dispatched Gen. Jubal Early with 17,000
men to march through the Shenandoah Valley in hopes of
capturing Washington, D.C., which was lightly defended.
The plan almost worked, but Early stopped overnight to rest
his men, allowing reinforcements – including Orr’s 77th
Regiment – to arrive. Early’s forces were repulsed on the
outskirts of Washington. They retreated, with Union forces
in pursuit, precipitating a series of battles that culminated
at Cedar Creek.
There, Union troops were able to regroup and, aided by
reinforcements, mounted a counterattack that scattered
the numerically inferior Confederate forces and sent them
in retreat, but not before the camp of the VI Corps had
been pillaged. “The ground was littered with ragged, lousy
tatters of gray Rebel blouses and breeches, where they had
just peeled themselves of their old duds to put on our spick-span
artillery dress uniforms that we had left in our valises,”
writes Union cannoneer Augustus Buell.
Two Confederate companies at Cedar Creek that day were
composed of members of Thomas Legion, which was raised
in the mountains of North Carolina and included many
soldiers from Jackson County. The commander of these
companies at Cedar Creek was Lt. Col. James R. Love of
Jackson County, and these were the troops that overran the
camp of the VI Corp and had the opportunity to riffle the
“valises” (or baggage) of the Union officers, including that
of Orr. Meister and Jones believe this is where Orr’s cross
began its journey to Jackson County.
Reprinted in edited form with permission of The Sylva Herald.
History is where you find it, and in the case of a Civil War
cross currently in residence at Western Carolina University’s
Mountain Heritage Center, history was found at the flea
market. The badge, in the shape of a Greek cross, belongs
to private collector Luther Jones ’74 MAEd ’82 of WCU’s
School of Stage and Screen. Jones discovered the badge last
summer at Uncle Bill’s Flea Market in Jackson County, and
offered to loan it to the museum.
Before putting the badge on display, MHC Director Scott
Philyaw ’83 and Curator Pam Meister worked to find out as
much as they could. The mysterious part was not what the
medal is – it’s a Union Army of the Potomac corps badge
– or who it belonged to (Capt. George S. Orr), but how the
medal came to be in Jackson County.
Philyaw and Meister learned quite a lot about Capt. Orr
and his distinctive badge, and the story will soon come to
life as a graphic novel being produced by the center with
original artwork by Lee Budahl, retired art faculty member
at WCU.
In March 1863, Union Gen. Joseph Hooker decided that
all corps in his army should have distinctive badges to help
distinguish between soldiers from different units on the
battlefield. The First Corp used a ball; the Second, a trefoil;
the Third, a diamond, and so on. The Sixth’s badge was to
be in the shape of a Greek cross. Each of the three divisions
within each corps had its own color: red for the first; white,
second; and blue, third. Many officers chose to wear metal
badges in the shape of the corps badge on their hats or
uniform coats.
The cross is 1-3/4 inches by 1-3/4 inches, and its main
body is silver. The center has been cut out with a half-inch
hole into which have been mounted the numerals “77” in
gold. Below are engraved in block letters “REG N.Y.S.V.”
(Regiment New York State Volunteers). Above the hole is
engraved, in a fine script, “Capt. Geo. S. Orr.” The entire
cross is delicately engraved in a
combination of geometric and
floral patterns. The 77th New
York State Volunteers were a
part of the Second Division of
the Sixth Corp of the Army
of the Potomac. The regiment
participated in many bloody
battles throughout the Civil
War, including Williamsburg,
Mechanicsville, Seven Pines,
Malvern Hill, Harrison’s
How a Union Army badge found
its way from a northern battlefield
to the Mountain Heritage Center
By LYNN HOTALING ’72 MAEd ’80
For more information about the exhibit or the
graphic novel, contact the Mountain Heritage Center
at 828.227.7129.
Luther Jones ’74 MAEd ’82
(opposite) combs through a
booth at a local flea market
where he found a rare Civil
War badge (below left)
whose story is the subject
of a graphic novel (above)
by retired art professor
Lee Budahl.
magazine.wcu.edu
Summer 2011 | 25
Two sets of twins, a word that TWINS Magazine (yes, there is a publication especially for multiples)
traces to an ancient German word meaning “two together,” have taken similar paths to Western Carolina
University to pursue similar dreams. Ashley Anderson and Amber Anderson, who are both special
education majors, spent part of their spring semester helping students at Scotts Creek School in Jackson
County improve their literacy skills. Jason Proffitt ’09 MS ’11 and Matthew Proffitt ’09 MS ’11 were
invited to share their research with state legislators as part of 2011 N.C. Graduate Education Week.
These WCU siblings share more than just a set of chromosomes
By TERESA KILIAN TATE
26 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Amber and Ashley Anderson
WCU, Times Two: Amber (bottom right) and Ashley
(bottom left) are juniors from Durham majoring in special
education who were drawn to Western Carolina after
touring the campus during their exploration of teaching
fellows programs.
In Step: The Andersons trace their shared career path in
special education to a family friend who has a disability
and to volunteering for a parks and recreation department
program that offered fun activities tailored to the needs
of children who have disabilities. “I knew from the first
few interactions this is what I wanted to be involved
with for the rest of my life,” said Amber. The sisters also
are in their fourth year of coaching participants in the
Special Olympics.
Roommates: They have not yet lived together at WCU, but
will be roommates in Balsam Hall during their senior year.
Double Take: Ashley said sometimes people ask if she is
Amber’s mother or vice versa. “I simply tell them that I am
only one minute older than she is and laugh it off. She does
the same,” said Ashley. Amber said people ask them crazy
questions about being twins, too. “I personally laugh at,
‘Can you feel each other’s pain?’ Ha, no, not really!” she said.
Jason and Matthew Proffitt
WCU, Times Two (Twice): Jason (top) and Matthew
(center) are from Burnsville and recently completed the
Western Carolina master’s degree program in engineering
technology after earning their bachelor’s degrees from
WCU’s Kimmel School of Construction Management and
Technology. They recently accepted engineering jobs at the
same company in Asheville. “As brothers, we have always
worked together well,” said Matthew.
In Step: The Proffitts became interested in technology
playing with toys such as Legos, K’NEX and Erector sets,
and through their father, who is an engineer. At WCU,
Matthew has researched using a swarm of robots to detect
and recognize large scale meta events such as oil spills,
radiation leaks and tsunamis. Jason’s recent research related
to cancer treatment and reducing the moving parts, which
can get jammed, used when automatically loading radiation
sources utilizing a needle device.
Roommates: They roomed together during their
undergraduate years in Norton Hall and have been
housemates during graduate school.
Double Take: “For the first few years, our fellow students
did not know we were twins and thought we were the same
person double majoring,” said Matthew. “This also led to
confusion when classmates of one didn’t understand why
the other did not know them. This continued to happen
during our graduate careers, especially if either of us had to
venture into labs assisted by the other.”
Summer 2011 | 27
t h e p o w e r o f p u r p l e
SEVEN
WONDERS
28 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Stephen Notaro’s bio reads like a one-man casualty
report. In roughly three years at Western Carolina, Notaro
has suffered a broken finger, fractured wrist, broken shin
and two fractured facial bones that forced him to miss
more than half of the Catamounts’ baseball games prior
to this season. Very little – if anything – has come easy for
the catcher since he arrived in Cullowhee before the 2008
season. But he’s refused to quit the game he loves.
That dogged determination is the main reason WCU
Coach Bobby Moranda chose Notaro as the first player to
carry on the “Leggett Legacy” in honor of Jack Leggett, the
former WCU coach now at Clemson. “(Notaro) has overcome
adversity, and that’s one of the things we talked about with
Jack Leggett’s No. 7 legacy,” Moranda said. “He’s a guy who
turned adversity into greatness, into opportunity.”
This season marks Clemson’s first visit since WCU hung
Leggett’s No. 7 jersey on the “Purple Monster” in left field.
Rather than retiring the number, Moranda and his staff
decided to pick one player each year to wear the number
of the man who put WCU’s baseball program on the
national map.
“I’m very honored by it. It’s the nicest thing to come my
way,” said Leggett, who led the Catamounts to 10 SoCon
titles (tournament and regular-season) and five NCAA
Division I tournaments from 1983-91. “It’s very flattering
that they would think enough to do that. I’m very excited
that someone will be wearing the uniform. I know they’ve
got a great representative in Stephen Notaro.”
Adversity seemed to be waiting for Notaro from the
moment he arrived as a sophomore transfer from Pierce
College in California. During a wind sprint to the fence
and back in his first practice as a Catamount, he turned
after touching the fence and ran into a teammate so hard
that a joint exploded in his right pinky and caused him to
miss more than half the season. Near the end of his next
season, in which he led WCU with 13 home runs, he broke
his right wrist when he tried to avoid a tag between first and
second base and landed awkwardly. He broke his shin in his
second game as a senior last year. And in the past off-season,
a teammate accidentally smashed Notaro’s face with a bat
while Notaro was reaching down in the batting cage to grab
a bat. The string of painful injuries and missed time took a
toll, but Notaro said he couldn’t give up the game.
Leggett was keynote speaker at this year’s “Celebration
of Catamount Baseball” banquet held in conjunction with
WCU’s 2011 season opening weekend. The former skipper’s
No. 7 hangs alongside the lone retired number in WCU
baseball history – the No. 23 worn by former player and
coach, the late Keith LeClair ’89 – on the left-field fence of
Childress Field at Hennon Stadium.
Reprinted in edited form with permission of the Asheville Citizen-Times.
The Catamount baseball program launches the
‘Leggett Legacy’ to honor a former head coach
By TYLER NORIS GODE
Coach Bobby Moranda (center)
selected catcher Stephen
Notaro (left) to wear No. 7 in
honor of former coach Jack
Leggett (right). Opposite,
Leggett in his days as WCU
baseball coach.
Summer 2011 | 29
Nick McNeil ’03 is a small-town N.C. boy from Leland.
Percy Watson was raised in the glitter of Miami. Nick,
who attended tiny North Brunswick High School, could
get about as wild as McDonald’s on a Friday growing up.
Percy’s parents “managed the hottest nightclubs in the
United States.”
Nick is a hard worker who got noticed by running
down quarterbacks and earning good grades. Percy gets
attention with bright-red tights, bombastic speeches and
the “Showtime Splash.” Nick was one of the finest football
players in Western Carolina history. Percy is an up-and-coming
professional wrestler.
Nick McNeil and Percy Watson don’t seem to have
much in common, except for one critical thing: They’re the
same person.
Choosing a career in pro wrestling is unconventional
by pretty much any standard, and McNeil is fairly certain
that more than a few of his former classmates in Cullowhee
would be shocked to meet his fictitious alter ego. “I think the
people who don’t know would be surprised for sure,” McNeil
said with a chuckle recently from his home in Tampa, Fla.,
where he lives while he competes in Florida Championship
Wrestling, which is the official developmental league of
World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE.
Catamount fans remember McNeil as a ferocious
defensive end who is still tied for fourth in the WCU record
book with 45 tackles for loss and sixth in sacks with 18.5.
After he graduated in 2003, his talent earned him stints
on a trio of NFL practice squads – the Packers in 2004, the
Redskins in 2005 and the Giants in 2006 – before he played
a season with the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg
Blue Bombers in 2007. But after four years, the writing was
on the wall that his football days were numbered. “It was
pretty disappointing, but you can’t dwell on things like that
for long,” McNeil said. “I consider myself lucky to have been
able to play as long as I did.”
Although he had earned a degree in computer
information systems, he took a different step thanks to a
friend who had connections in the wrestling world. “He
made some calls, and I had a tryout a year-and-a-half ago
down in Florida. Luckily I got signed,” McNeil said. “I knew
this was something that wasn’t going to be easy because I
had no experience. It’s hard to compare (to football), but
physically it can be exhausting as well. It’s very tough on
your body, very demanding.”
McNeil’s athletic talent was critical to learning how
to safely execute moves such as his signature “Showtime
Splash,” which is basically turning 180 degrees in the air
and landing on someone. Just as important as acrobatics,
however, is the ability to work the crowd verbally. Percy’s
witty banter was on display when he hosted a talk show
segment during season two of “WWE NXT” last summer.
The program is a “reality” show built around the concept of
rookies trying to break into the big time, and when Percy
was eliminated in Week 11, WCU economics professor
Robert Mulligan thought he’d been robbed.
“There were these 10-minute shticks where he would
interview the other wrestlers. It came across that he’s highly
intelligent, and he really cleaned up doing that particular
ALTER EGO
A former Catamount football star grapples
with a career in professional wrestling
BY RON WAGNER
2009 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
See Percy Watson’s WWE profile online at
www.wwe.com/superstars/wwenxt/percywatson.
t h e p o w e r o f p u r p l e
30 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
thing,” Mulligan said. “I was
disappointed that they allowed
someone else to win. I really think
he was a crowd favorite when they
took him out.”
Mulligan has followed McNeil’s
athletics career since he taught
McNeil in an introductory
economics class, and he says he
knew him pretty well. Or so he
thought. Watching Percy Watson
opened Mulligan’s eyes to a side of his former pupil he still
can’t quite believe. “He was a good student. He was very
focused on getting his coursework done and managing
his time,” Mulligan says. “There was very much of this all-business
persona, and now I’m wondering. It’s an amazing
acting job. I really had no hint of that when he was in school.
He was not a flamboyant personality either in class or on
the field, so to see him strutting and trash-talking as a
professional wrestler is just strange.”
Brittany Bennefield ’05, a soccer player at Western
Carolina while McNeil was on the football team, isn’t quite
as surprised. “He was always the life of the party with this
wonderful attitude. I thought he had a big personality,”
Bennefield said.
Being popular with the fans is the most important
component of McNeil’s new job, although he disputes the
notion that the outcomes of the matches are predetermined.
“It’s 100 percent competitive,” he said. “To perform in front
of 10,000 or 15,000 people a week, there’s nothing like it. To
get a victory over someone – it’s nothing scripted. It’s real.”
A spot on “NXT” was a big step for McNeil, but now he
says he’s “in limbo.” He hasn’t wrestled on TV since, though
he has continued to compete in “dark” – nontelevised –
matches. McNeil also attended WrestleMania recently
and left inspired. “Short-term, the goal is to get back on
television. The long-term would be to capture a title, you
know?” he says. “I just have to keep working. The ultimate
goal is to participate in WrestleMania, the main event. It was
definitely a great experience. I didn’t partake in anything,
but it was good to be there and absorb the atmosphere and
get myself ready for next year.
“This is a dream job. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal. It
looks like I’m headed in the right direction,” he said. “So far,
so good.”
Ron Wagner is a freelance writer in Henderson County.
NET EXCHANGE
WCU’s volleyball program gets
a new head coach for 2011
By BRYAN POWEL
Karen Glover, assistant volleyball coach at the University of Louisiana
at Monroe and former head coach at Arizona Western College, was named
Western Carolina’s ninth head volleyball coach earlier this spring. Glover
brings more than a decade of coaching experience to the program, including
four seasons as a head coach in the collegiate ranks.
“We are very pleased to have Karen Glover join our staff as the head volleyball
coach,” said Chip Smith, director of athletics. “Her drive and her enthusiasm for
volleyball are very evident. We are looking forward to Karen returning Western
Carolina volleyball to a position of prominence in the Southern Conference.”
While at Arizona Western College, Glover directed the team to the National
Junior College Athletic Association Region I Tournament, its ninth consecutive
regional appearance. She also coached four all-conference performers and an
NJCAA All-American. In addition, Glover’s program attained a 3.2 overall
team grade point average.
Prior to her stint at AWC, she spent two years as head coach at Phoenix
College. Glover turned the Lady Bears program around in her first season,
as the team went from 10 wins in the season prior to a playoff-bound squad
that won 17 of its last 25 games and finished third in the
conference. The following year, she directed Phoenix
College to an Arizona Community College Athletic
Conference co-championship with a 16-2 league
record and a fourth-place finish at the national
tournament. Overall, Glover had a 45-24 record
in her two years at PC and was named 2007
ACCAC Coach of the Year.
Certified by USA Volleyball and the
American Volleyball Coaches Association,
Glover earned her bachelor’s degree in
psychology and communications from Hiram
College (Ohio) in 1993. She is pursuing her
master’s degree in coaching and athletic
administration from Concordia
University Irvine.
“I am extremely excited for
the opportunity to be the
next head volleyball coach
at Western Carolina
University,” said Glover.
“Throughout this
process, I have been
impressed by the level
of support the athletics
department has provided.
I am looking forward to
working with the team and
rebuilding the program.”
Glover takes over a Catamount
squad that finished 4-26 overall and
1-15 in the Southern Conference last
season and holds a 613-604 all-time
record. Returning for the Catamounts
is senior Carrie Minogue, who was an
ESPN All-Academic District III Third
Team selection this past season.
Bryan Powell is an intern in the athletics
media relations office.
2009 World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Percy Watson (opposite and
left) is the professional wresting
persona of football standout Nick
McNeil ’03 (No. 75 above, with
Michale Spicer ’04).
Summer 2011 | 31
BULPEN BOSS
A WCU baseball standout from the ’70s is
coaching the Baltimore Orioles’ relief pitchers
By DAVID DRIVER
young pitcher joined the WCU program the following fall.
“He was a good left-handed pitcher with good fundamentals,
so I offered him a scholarship,” said Haywood, now retired
and living in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Adair enjoyed two seasons
with Tolleson, a Spartanburg native who eventually played
Major League Baseball.
During three seasons at WCU, Adair went from a non-prospect
whose fastball topped out at around 85 mph as a
freshman to throwing in the mid-90s by the time he was
drafted in the third round by Seattle in 1979. “He learned
how to pitch,” Haywood said. “We did a lot of work on his
pickoff move and his mechanics. His pickoff move was as
good as anyone in the world.”
Adair pitched pro ball for seven years and reached the
Triple-A level, one stop below the big leagues. “He almost
got there. If he would not have gotten hurt I think he would
have made it,” Haywood said.
But Adair has made it to “The Show” – as an instructor.
He has worked as a Major League Baseball pitching coach
in Cleveland, Detroit and Seattle, and held minor league
positions with Cleveland, San Diego, Detroit, Atlanta and
Texas. After working as pitching coach for the Mariners in
2010, he was named bullpen coach of the Baltimore Orioles
for 2011 alongside new pitching coach Mark Connor.
Adair said as a bullpen coach he is an extension of Connor,
although the former WCU standout does not make pitching
changes or visits to the mound. “Mark and I were coaching
together with Texas. We had conversations going back to the
late 1980s,” Adair said. “The last couple of years, since I was
at Seattle and he was a consultant with Texas, we said if we
ever had a chance to work together that would be great.”
Adair finds his new job interesting. “I have never been in
the bullpen at all as a coach,” he said. “I think the world of
Mark as a person. He has been an adviser. His knowledge
and expertise is awesome. He gives me the freedom to speak.
We have about the same exact thinking on pitching.”
Adair is the nephew of the late Art Fowler, a pitcher
and pitching coach for several years in the big leagues and
pitching coach for the Yankees in 1988, when Tolleson was
on the team. Adair has two sons – Dustin, a pro golfer, and
Travis, a minor league infielder.
David Driver is a freelance writer living near Washington, D.C.
Rick Adair was a student at Spartanburg High School in
the 1970s when he went to Cullowhee to visit cousin Wayne
Tolleson ’78, who was on the Catamounts baseball team.
Adair had his heart set on playing baseball at the University
of South Carolina, but the feeling was not mutual. “I was
told I was not good enough to play,” Adair said.
While visiting Tolleson, he met Bill Haywood, head
baseball coach at WCU from 1969 to 1981. Haywood came
to see Adair play as a senior at Spartanburg High, and the
Rick Adair, meeting with
baseball supporters Mickie
and Jimmy Childress during
his WCU playing days (inset),
is now coaching in the big
leagues (above).
t h e p o w e r o f p u r p l e
Photo by Todd Olszewski, courtesy the Baltimore Orioles
32 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
The shot was so pure, a silk stroke launched toward
history. “A good look” is how Thad Matta remembers it 15
years later. His boss at the time can still see the basketball
floating on the game’s final possession. “I thought it was
going in,” Phil Hopkins recalled.
Only it didn’t. The open 3-point shot by Joel Flemming
’98 hit the back of the rim and bounced long to teammate
Joe Stafford ’04, who tossed up a 15-foot runner that would
have forced overtime.
That shot missed, too. Game over. Purdue, a No. 1 seed,
had escaped with a 73-71 victory over 16th-seeded Western
Carolina in the first round of the 1996 NCAA Tournament.
History still awaits someone. A No. 16 seed has never
defeated a No. 1 seed.
“You can ‘what if’ yourself to death, but things happen for
a reason,” Hopkins, then-coach of WCU, said. Today, he’s in
his 11th year as a teacher, athletic director and coach of the
boys and girls basketball teams at Walhalla Middle School
in South Carolina. “I’m where I’m supposed to be, and Thad
is where he’s supposed to be,” Hopkins said.
His top assistant during the 1995-96 season was Matta, a
gum-chomping newlywed living in Cullowhee on a $30,000
salary. “I thought I was the richest man in the world,”
said Matta, who made about $2.5 million this season as
coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes, the top seed of the 2011
NCAA Tournament.
To be sure, Ohio State’s players were lectured by Matta
about how WCU nearly toppled a Purdue powerhouse. “The
greatest thing that game did for my career is, now as a No. 1
seed, I’ve got a hell of a story to tell my players,” Matta said.
Matta impressed everyone at WCU as a cyclone of energy
and enthusiasm. He would liven up practice by giving drills
funny names. He would cut up little paper 3’s and mail
them to hot-shooting prospects so they would fall out of
an envelope like confetti. He subscribed to a newspaper in
MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH
Ohio State men’s basketball coach uses experiences
from 15 years ago at WCU to motivate his players
By TODD JONES
a small Nebraska town in order to mail articles back to a
recruit there, just to let him know Western Carolina was
watching. “I knew he was destined to be a great coach,”
said Orlando Early, a South Carolina assistant coach who
also served on the 1995-96 WCU staff. “He wasn’t the head
coach, but he had kind of a presence with our team.”
Matta, Early and fellow assistant Martin Unger ’97
were so earnest that they heard the tournament bracket
announced and immediately drove three hours to Charlotte
to pick up game tapes of the Boilermakers from a fellow
coach. They watched video into the wee hours and liked
what they saw, even though Purdue was 25-5 and Western
Carolina 17-12, having earned an automatic NCAA bid by
winning the Southern Conference tournament. “I felt like
we had a shot,” Matta said. “They were a No. 1 seed, but they
had a couple of chinks in their armor. They weren’t a great
shooting team.”
Matta drew up most of the scouting report, which called
for a zone defense. “We felt the longer the game went and
the closer the score was, the tighter they would be,” Hopkins
said. “We called it pucker power.” The game played out
as hoped. Purdue struggled to make shots and the score
remained close.
“I’ve never been in a louder building than that was,”
Matta said. “When the game started, there was nobody
there, maybe 2,000 people. But as the game went on, more
and more people kept coming in for the next game, and they
sensed an upset. They wanted to watch history.”
It appeared they were going to see it on the game’s final
possession when Fleming took his 3-pointer from the top
of the key. “I thought that baby was going in,” said Unger,
now an assistant coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas
City. “If it was 2 inches shorter, it was a swish.”
Used in edited form with permission of The Columbus Dispatch.
Thad Matta, who helped guide
WCU men’s basketball program
to its only NCA tournament
appearance as an assistant
coach (inset), is now prowling
the sidelines at Ohio State.
Photo by Jamie Sabau, courtesy Ohio State University
Summer 2011 | 33
alumni
Achievements
A national conservation group honors
a Bryson City attorney for his role in
settling a Great Smokies controversy
From Staff Reports
The long fight over whether to build a road along the
north shore of Fontana Lake in Western North Carolina
ended recently with a multimillion dollar cash settlement
that will stop the road forever. That decision pleases some
people and infuriates others. Among those who are pleased
is L.D. “Luke” Hyde ’63 of Bryson City and Raleigh. Hyde
earned both a prestigious award from the National Parks
Conservation Association for his help in organizing a broad
coalition in favor of the cash and the anger of former friends
and neighbors who favor the road. It’s been that kind of a
bitter battle for nearly 70 years. The animosity saddens
Hyde, but he says, “It had become impossible for the road
ever to be built. The cash settlement will benefit opponents
and proponents alike, if it is used wisely.”
Hyde and his older brother Herbert Hyde ’51, both
attorneys and both natives of Swain County, once favored
building the long-awaited north shore road, promised by
the federal government in 1943. That’s when a 44,000-acre
chunk of Swain County was taken to build Fontana Dam
on the Little Tennessee River to generate hydroelectric
power for the war effort. The rising waters of Fontana Lake
flooded several small communities and covered the only
access road into what would become an isolated section of
the newly created Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Forced to move, more than 200 displaced families expected
the government to follow through on its wartime pledge to
build a road they could use to reach abandoned homesites
and family cemeteries. Instead, the government delayed,
protected by a clause in the 1943 agreement that said the
road would have to wait until Congress could find enough
money for construction. It never did.
After years of wrangling on various issues that reached
the Supreme Court, a 9-mile stretch of road with a short
tunnel was built near the eastern tip of Fontana Lake in
1968. And there it stopped. That two-lane segment, which
became known as “the Road to Nowhere,” was enough to
keep alive the hopes of road supporters. It also fueled fierce
resistance among road opponents, an outspoken mix of
local, state and national conservationists who feared further
road-building would cause disastrous damage to an area of
the Great Smokies.
ROAD WARRIOR
34 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
As environmental concerns increased, so did estimates
of construction costs, which eventually reached more than
$750 million to complete about 30 miles of pavement inside
the park. In the meantime, a noncontroversial road had
been built along the south shore of the lake in Swain County.
“All of those factors convinced me that the Road to Nowhere
had reached a dead end and that the county would be better
served by compensation in cash from the government,” Luke
Hyde said. He, longtime road historian Claude Douthit
and others formed the Citizens for the Economic Future of
Swain County to fight for the settlement.
It took several more years for all of the pieces to come
together. A series of public hearings, which kept the
controversy alive, also led to a 525-page study detailing the
likelihood of massive environmental damage and minimal
economic benefit from road construction. Those study results
helped Hyde and the citizens group in their discussions with
officials who would shape the new agreement. Backed by
parks enthusiasts and conservationists across the country,
and with strong bipartisan support from U.S. Rep. Heath
Shuler (D-N.C.) and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.),
they succeeded in hammering out a contract, signed in
February 2010, for a settlement of $52 million in lieu of the
much-disputed road. Under the new agreement, the federal
government paid $12.8 million immediately and promised to
pay $4 million each year for the next 10 years. Payments are
held in trust by North Carolina, with Swain County receiving
interest on the principal as it grows.
“While there’s no certainty that there will be enough
money in the federal budget to make annual payments for
the next decade, the strongest possible contract was signed
with county, state and federal officials,” Luke Hyde said.
“This time, there is no escape clause. All of the signatories
recognize an obligation to honor the contract. And we’ll be
working with them to be sure they do.”
For his work on resolving the Road to Nowhere issue,
Hyde received the National Parks Conservation Association’s
Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award at its annual meeting
in Washington, D.C., in April. The award, named for a
prominent 20th-century environmentalist and writer, is
presented annually to an individual or organization whose
on-the-ground community work helps to enhance and protect
national parks, said Thomas C. Kiernan, NPCA president.
“Luke’s tireless efforts to find an appropriate solution to the
north shore road proposal at Great Smoky Mountains have
earned him this year’s recognition,” Kiernan said.
Leila Tvedt, former associate vice chancellor for public relations at Western
Carolina University and L.D. Hyde’s spouse, contributed to this article.
L.D. Hyde ’63 (left) and
Swain County historian
Claude Douthit visit Swain
County’s ‘Road to Nowhere.’
Summer 2011 | 35
Elaine Barnes MAEd ’00 received a pair of lovely parting
gifts far more special than a year’s supply of Turtle Wax to
mark the occasion of her recent retirement from Haywood
Community College, including an honor she now shares
with the likes of poet Maya Angelou, evangelist Billy
Graham, basketball superstar Michael Jordan and artist
Bob Timberlake.
N.C. Gov. Beverly Perdue bestowed the Order of the
Long Leaf Pine award upon Barnes in recognition of the
educator’s more than 30 years of service to HCC and the
state. Created in 1965, the Order of the Long Leaf Pine is
among the highest honors the governor can present to
North Carolinians. It is designed to recognize individuals
who have a proven record of extraordinary service to the
state as exhibited by contributions to their communities,
extra effort in their careers, and many years of service to
their organizations.
“For the past 35 years, Elaine has had one – and only one –
goal in mind: help students at Haywood Community College
succeed,” said co-worker Margaret A. Studenc ’85 MA ’90.
“Hundreds of people have advanced their educations
under her guidance. Her colleagues at HCC and those of
us whom she supervised served with a leader – Elaine –
who was completely unselfish, completely professional and
completely focused on always doing what is right and true.”
Barnes received the honor during a retirement reception
on the HCC campus, where she also learned that the newly
renovated Teaching and Learning Center is now named the
Elaine D. Barnes Tutoring Center in recognition of her role
in expanding the college’s programs in tutoring and other
student support areas. “I am so glad I had the pleasure of
working with Elaine,” HCC President Rose Johnson said as
she presented Barnes with a plaque. “I know the value of this
lady and what she brought to the college.”
During her career at HCC, Barnes most recently served
as executive director of student success services. She
previously was coordinator of the Teaching and Learning
Center and the peer tutoring program, and lead reading
instructor. Barnes also served as developmental reading
instructor and GED instructor. She was instrumental in
developing study skills classes in the early 1990s. She is a
three-time nominee by students for HCC’s Excellence in
Teaching Award, in 2000, 2005 and 2007.
“Teaching is such an honorable profession,” Barnes
said. “The diverse ages, backgrounds and academic levels
of our students make teaching a challenge. These same
characteristics make teaching all the more rewarding. The
mission of the community college – to take students from
where they are to where they want to be – is inspiring. It
makes dreams come true. It gives people second chances. To
be part of that learning experience is an honor. It motivates
me. It keeps me sharp.”
Diana S. Conard, marketing and communications technician at Haywood
Community College, contributed to this article.
PARTING GIFTS
A longtime community college
educator collects honors from the
state and her colleagues
By BIL STUDENC MPA ’10
alumni
Achievement s
Elaine Barnes MAEd ’00 meets with students in the Haywood
Community College tutoring center that now bears her name.
36 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
Matthew Newsome ’99 wasn’t expecting a deluge
of publicity when he was asked to design a tartan to
commemorate last September’s visit of Pope Benedict
XVI to Scotland. But when the pontiff paraded down an
Edinburgh street wearing a scarf in Newsome’s tartan
design, WCU’s Catholic campus minister was suddenly hot
news from the British Broadcasting Corp. all the way to the
Los Angeles Times.
A native of Charlotte who holds a master’s degree in
theology, Newsome “fell in love” with the culture of Scotland
after experiencing the Highland Games at Grandfather
Mountain as a teenager. That passion continued over the
years as Newsome’s family moved to Sylva and he enrolled at
WCU and began working part time at the Scottish Tartans
Museum in Franklin. He is now museum director. “My job
there connected me with tartan experts and manufacturers
of tartan cloth in Scotland, and put me in a position to
learn even more about the history and tradition of tartans,”
Newsome said.
Newsome designed his first tartan (a cloth with a pattern
of interlocking stripes and a symbol of traditional Scottish
culture) around 1999, when he produced WCU’s official
tartan. He now has about 30 designs to his credit, including
tartans for Emory University, the University of Georgia and
Virginia Tech.
As a member of the board of governors of the Scottish
Tartans Authority, Newsome was contacted about designing
MAN OF THE CLOTH
A tartan designed by WCU’s Catholic campus minister
attracts attention around the world
By RANDAL HOLCOMBE
a tartan to mark the fall papal visit. With the pontiff’s arrival
in Scotland falling on the traditional feast day of St. Ninian,
the first Christian missionary to enter Scotland, Catholic
officials wanted a special St. Ninian tartan to present to
the pope. Newsome came up with the design on his home
computer in Jackson County’s Savannah community and
was flown to Scotland by the Catholic Church to be present
at the launching of the tartan before the Scottish Parliament
one week before the pope’s arrival.
As the pope entered the “popemobile” for a parade on
Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile on Sept. 16, Cardinal Keith
O’Brien, the top Catholic official in Scotland, draped a St.
Ninian tartan, in the form of a scarf, over his shoulders. “The
Holy Father and Cardinal O’Brien wore scarves with the St.
Ninian design throughout the entire parade,” Newsome
said. News accounts around the world included information
about Newsome’s role in creating the design. That day was
Newsome’s last one in Scotland, and although he didn’t
meet the pope, he was present as the pontiff celebrated Mass
with 70,000 worshipers in Glasgow.
The tartan Newsome created is rich with symbolism,
including a white line on a blue field to represent Scotland’s
national colors and green to reflect the color of lichens at the
point where St. Ninian landed. Items in the St. Ninian tartan
design are woven at woolen mills in Scotland.
Matthew Newsome ’99 (third
from left) explains the symbolism
of the St. Ninian tartan to
Scottish leaders, including
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the top
Catholic official in Scotland
(fourth from left).
Photo by Paul McSherry
Items in the St. Ninian tartan design are available
for purchase, with a percentage of the proceeds
going to charity, at www.papaltartan.com.
Summer 2011 | 37
Erica Nicole ’04 didn’t do much singing during her two-and-
a-half years as a WCU student, but she’s been making up
for lost time since then. Nicole grew up just outside Atlanta
and spent her summers in Sapphire Valley. With aspirations
of becoming a country music star, she began working on her
first CD while she was still in high school, but she put that
project on hold while she was a student in Cullowhee.
Nicole put herself on the college degree fast track
beginning fall semester of 2002, taking 21 to 23 credit hours
of classes each semester and going to summer school.“I
pushed through because I wanted to get into music, but I
had promised my parents I would get an education first,” she
said. “I loved the campus and being in Cullowhee, but there
was no time for anything except academic work.”
After leaving WCU with her bachelor’s degree in
entrepreneurship in December 2004, Nicole worked at her
parents’ insurance agency for two years as she continued to
lay the groundwork for her music career by finishing the CD
she had started in high school. She moved to Los Angeles
ON A COUNTRY ROAD
With her entrepreneurship degree in
her back pocket, Erica Nicole has her
sights set on musical stardom
By RANDAL HOLCOMBE
For more information about Erica Nicole,
check out ericanicolemusic.com.
in August 2006 to earn a living and continue her dream
of making a career in country music. She now works with
renowned vocal coach Nate Lam, who has been involved in
the careers of Rod Stewart, Dolly Parton and many other big
names in entertainment, and her manager is Michael Lloyd,
musical director of the movie “Dirty Dancing.”
Nicole’s demo CD, “Erica Nicole,” was released last July,
and the album’s first single, “Somebody Like Me,” was
No. 1 for 19 straight weeks on the Clear Channel radio
network’s “On Demand New Music.” The song also made
the soundtracks of two feature films, “Too Late to Say
Goodbye” and “Small Town Saturday Night.” Last fall,
Nicole went on a radio station-visiting marathon to promote
her music, hitting 125 stations in 20 states between August
and December. On the performance side, she has opened an
Eric Church-Miranda Lambert concert in Kentucky, and
she sang the national anthem for the Petit Le Mans race at
Road Atlanta.
In late spring, Nicole was preparing for a show at
Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles, performances at the
Country Music Association Festival in Nashville, a concert
tour that will take her to four Northeastern states and the
release of her second single, “Shave.”
“When I left WCU with my degree, I wondered what I
would do with it,” she said. “Turns out, my music career has
everything to do with it. My degree has been unbelievably
helpful. If you are a country singer, you literally do run your
own business. You have to know how to market your music
and keep track of your finances. There’s a lot involved in it.”
Erica Nicole is counting
on talent, hard work and
good business sense to put
her on the path to country
music success.
38 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
John Taylor weighed 200 pounds when he was 9 years
old, so he knows well the problems faced by the obese teens
he works with at Wellspring Academy, a residential weight-loss
boarding school near Brevard. What Taylor didn’t know
when he signed on with Wellspring was that he would wind
up on a reality TV show called “Too Fat For Fifteen.”
Taylor grew up in a tumultuous household in Seattle as
the son of obese parents. A sedentary lifestyle and a botched
ear surgery that disrupted his equilibrium led to his weight
gain as a young boy. As a teenager, his weight dropped as
his family fell upon hard times and food sometimes became
scarce at home, and as he became involved in sports.
After earning his undergraduate degree in Washington
and a master’s degree in sports studies at High Point
University, Taylor was hired by Wellspring, and he began
working as a physical trainer at the company’s Brevard
campus when it opened in spring 2007. Taylor enrolled at
WCU the following fall and earned his certificate to teach
K-12 physical education. “For two-and-a-half years, I
attended classes at WCU and lived in Cullowhee, and every
day I drove to Brevard to work at Wellspring, and then I
would drive back to Cullowhee for classes at 8 a.m. the next
day,” he said. “It was hard, but the people at Wellspring were
extremely accommodating, and the people at WCU were
great to me.”
Taylor’s life as a TV personality got going when the
British Broadcasting Corp. came to Wellspring to make a
WEIGHT WATCHER
Fitness trainer for overweight teens takes TV cameras in stride
By RANDAL HOLCOMBE
documentary about an English girl attending the school.
The BBC debuted “Georgia’s Story” in August 2009, and
then sold the program rights to The Style Network, which
renamed it “Too Fat For Fifteen” and re-broadcast it
multiple times because of the program’s popularity. Filming
began in January 2010 for season 1 of the series, which
follows the journeys of five teens as they attempt to lose
weight and adopt healthier lifestyles. Shooting for season
3 of the Emmy-nominated program has been taking place
this spring for episodes that will be broadcast beginning in
August. “Too Fat For Fifteen” is the highest-rated show on
The Style Network.
Taylor’s day-to-day tasks at Wellspring include facilitating
an exercise regimen for the students and teaching them
skills they can use to continue their weight loss when they
go home. Taylor said working with the teens while the show
is being filmed “isn’t a big deal,” and helping them rebound
from obesity from both a physical and mental standpoint is
personally fulfilling. “I want to see these kids get to the point
where they don’t have to adjust their lifestyles because their
bodies won’t do what they want them to do,” he said.
Editor’s note: News reports in early June indicated that John Taylor has left
his position at Wellspring and the “Too Fat For Fifteen” show to become
program director for WellBalance, a weight-loss organization that focuses
on helping obese youth. Despite that career change, Taylor said he will be
making media appearances to help promote the show.
John Taylor and a Wellspring
Academy student try out the
fitness equipment in WCU’s
Campus Recreation Center
during a visit to Cullowhee.
Summer 2011 | 39
1969
Edward M. Gouge retired in June 2010 as the Daniel Professor
of Chemistry at Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., and now
is an adjunct professor at Presbyterian College’s School of
Pharmacy. His wife, Diane Burnette Gouge ’68, retired in June
2010 from Laurens County School District 56.
Candie Gibson Lemaire has written and illustrated a children’s
book of poems titled “Li’l Gulp and Friends,” published by
PublishAmerica. The book, for children from preschool through
the elementary grades, celebrates friendship and environmental
stewardship.
1972
Leslie Anderson MPA ’85 (right) received
a Downtown Hero Award from the Asheville
Downtown Association in February. Anderson
received the award, which recognizes
organizations and individuals who have
shown dedication to the history, growth and
sustainability of downtown Asheville, for her
nine years (1986-95) as Asheville’s director of
downtown development.
1974
Tom Ditt is chair of the WCU Triangle Alumni Club and
emergency preparedness coordinator for the N.C. Division of
Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He celebrated his
March birthday with his wife, Shirley, on the court with the
Harlem Globetrotters.
LIFESTYLES OF THE
RICH AND FAMOUS
It was a trip from the land of purple and gold to the red carpet of Hollywood
recently for Katie Spear ’03. A close friend and trusted confidant of comedian
and actor Tracy Morgan, Spear attended the 17th annual Screen Actors Guild
Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 30 with the co-star of the popular NBC
television comedy series “30 Rock.” She also was Morgan’s guest at Super
Bowl XLV on Feb. 6, sitting in a private suite and rubbing elbows with the
celebrity likes of Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, Cameron Diaz, Derek Jeter
and Demi Moore, and posing for a photo while holding Warren Buffett’s
wallet. Spear’s exploits prompted her friend Lashonda Lewis Jones MPT ’06
to exclaim, “And we thought that we were doing big things that time we sat
up in the Catamount Club section and got free popcorn, M&M’s and drinks!
Now you’ve moved on up into the big leagues like the Jeffersons.” Spear, a
former intern in the WCU Office of Public Relations and former staff member
in the Office of Admission, is currently living in New York City, where she is
executive assistant to Martha Stewart.
class
NOTES
Photo by John Shearer, Getty Images
40 | The Magazine of Western Carolina University
1975
Sue Nations MAEd ’76 EdS ’84, (right),
superintendent of the Jackson County
Public Schools system since 2004, will
retire July 1. Nations began her education
career in 1974 as a fourth-grade teaching
intern at Fairview School. She hopes to
spend time after her retirement hiking all
the trails of the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park, a goal she has set with her husband, James.
1978
Joseph Suttle teaches art in
Union County’s Hemby Bridge and
Marshville elementary schools.
For 22 years he has maintained an
art studio in downtown Monroe,
working as an artist and teaching
art lessons. Shown here: “Trebla,”
2006, acrylic on canvas, 30 inches
by 24 inches.
1979
Andrea Zaher Cassell (right) has written,
published and is now promoting a
cookbook of simple Mediterranean recipes,
“Nahima’s Hands,” in tribute to her
grandmother, Nahima Albert, who died at
age 101. Cassell also performs a cooking
segment on ABC affiliate KAKE-TV in
Kansas and hosts cooking classes twice a
month at a local market. She lives with her
husband, Joseph, in Wichita,
Kan., and has four grown
children.
Bobbie Pyron, a librarian for more than 20 years,
wrote “A Dog’s Way Home,” a work of juvenile
literature published by HarperCollins in March.
The book, set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, tells
the story of an 11-year-old girl and her dog, who
are separated by a car accident. Pyron lives in
Utah with her dog, Ted.
1981
Jerry Rice I MBA ’89 recently opened a computer repair
business, Apex PC Repair, on Main Street in Sylva with his son,
Robert, a rising junior at WCU who is majoring in electrical and
computer engineering. The son of the late Jerry Rice Jr. ’47, who
was longtime director of summer school programs at Western
Carolina, Rice had been operating the business out of his home
for the past several years before moving to downtown Sylva. The
company was formerly known as Cullowhee Computers.
1982
Paul Mellor has chronicled his 17-year
journey of running marathons – 26.2 miles
– in all 50 states with the book “You’re
Almost There.” Mellor speaks to audiences
throughout the country on lessons he
learned through running.
1983
Tommy Lambert is the new general
manager of the Cherokee Boys Club, an
organization he’s been with for 26 years.
1984
Monica Henson is executive director of Provost Academy in
Georgia, the first virtual charter high school in the state.
The “Citation Machine” website that David Warlick ’76 built to help student
researchers properly cite their sources attracts about a million pageviews a day,
and his classroom blogging tool has served more than a quarter of a million
teachers and students.
“When I entered the classroom as a history teacher, the personal computer
hadn’t been invented yet. Much has changed in the past three decades that
affects what and how students learn and how we conduct formal education,”
said Warlick, an international education technology consultant who owns and
operates the Landmark Project firm in Raleigh. “These changes are dramatic and
complex, and a part of today’s ongoing conversations among educators around
the world.”
After studying education at WCU, the Cherryville native taught history and
social studies for eight years and wrote award-winning instructional software.
“I always found a way to bring technology education into the mix by teaching on
how we invented the bow and arrow and other things and how it altered the way
things were done after that,” said Warlick.
He later became director of technology in a central office position 1984,
before moving to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, where he served
as a technology integration consultant and built the nation’s first state education
department website. He also served the organization as a district administrator
and technology director.
In addition, Warlick has authored four books centered on how teachers can use
today’s technology and information environment to improve student learning,
and his expertise has led to a series of speaking engagements that may mean he
is in Philadelphia one day and New Zealand soon after. The rigorous speaking
schedule offers a change of pace for a man who did not travel on an airplane
before the age of 40. After travels throughout the United States, Canada, Europe,
Asia, the Middle East and South America, Warlick recently returned to WCU –
an alma mater he shares with his wife, Brenda Finley Warlick ’76, and daughter,
Ryann Warlick ’08 – to present on how teachers can use today’s technology
and information environment to improve student learning. “Many 21st-century
learners continue to be taught in 19th-century classrooms,” said Warlick. “I have
been able to adapt and, in small ways, lead educators through this time of rapid
change because of the progressive education that I received at Western Carolina.”
Claire Karriker ’11, a communication major from Salisbury, was a spring semester intern in WCU’s
Office of Public Relations.
TEACHING TOOLS
Books, blogs, websites and presentations encourage
use of technology to enhance education
By CLAIRE KARIKER ’11
Summer 2011 | 41
classNOTES
1991
Cliff Clark is the editor and general manager of the Jefferson Post
in Ashe County. He and his wife, Martha, an assistant principal at
Watauga High School, have two teenage daughters.
Michele Galloway and her husband, Dale Galloway, a WCU
graduate student in the public affairs program, have launched a
nonprofit following the death of their 12-year-old son, Connor, in
2007. Connor’s HEART (Help Eliminate Adolescent Risk Taking)
advocates for the health and well-being of preteens and teens
by addressing high-risk behavior. Connor died while engaging
in the “choking game” – the act of choking oneself to feel high,
an activity determined to be popular at the child’s school. Dale
Galloway also published an article titled “Parents’ Roles in
Improving the Health of Adolescents” in the July/August 2010
issue of the North Carolina Medical Journal.
Eric Powell received an appointment to attend the Naval
Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security,
an 18-month program based in Monterey, Calif. Powell, WCU’s
Young Alumnus award winner in 2000 and past president of the
WCU Alumni Association board of directors, plans to research
areas involving emergency medical services and homeland
security curriculum development.
Cameron Weaver is a permit coordinator with the N.C.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of
Environmental Assistance and Outreach.
1992
Mark Ellison, (right) director of admissions
at Cabarrus College of Health Sciences
since 2003, recently earned his doctorate
in adult education from North Carolina
State University. Ellison’s dissertation
research focused on the restorative
benefits of hiking in wilderness solitude
and the relationship to job satisfaction. He
is married to Tori Addington Ellison ’91.
Marty Stamey is the county manager in Haywood County after
serving as interim county manager and assistant county manager.
1994
Lonnie Galloway (left) is wide receivers
coach and passing game co-coordinator for
Wake Forest University football. At WCU,
Galloway was a four-year letterman who
threw for 5,545 yards, the second-highest
total in school history. After graduation, he
played one season in the Arena Football
League, then started a coaching career that
included positions at Elon, East Carolina,
Appalachian State and West Virginia.
1995
Mark Huddle MA (right) has edited “Roi
Ottley’s World War II: The Lost Diary of an
African American Journalist,” published by
the University Press of Kansas. Ottley was
a black journalist assigned to cover the
experiences of African-American soldiers
in the European theater in World War II.
Huddle, an assistant professor of history
at Georgia College and State University,
discovered Ottley’s journal of the time – rich
in personal reflections and with a keen eye
on race – in an archive.
1996
Allen Bentley studied
painting at the University
of Pennsylvania and has
since exhibited his work in
Philadelphia, New York,
Chicago and San Diego.
Now living in Ithaca, N.Y.,
Bentley earlier this year
had a show in Graham,
his first exhibition in North
Carolina since he left more
than a decade ago. Shown
here: ‘Laces,’ 2011, oil on
canvas, 30 inches by 30
inches; courtesy of Bridgette
Mayer Gallery.
Alison Rebecca Mann has obtained her master’s degree in social
work and licensed social work certification. Mann is a social
services program consultant in the N.C. Department of Health
and Human Services in Raleigh.
Jody Mathis has been with Evergreen Packaging Worldwide for
10 years. A senior production planner for the last three years,
Moore has been promoted to shipping and inventory manager
over the Canton and Waynesville plants. He also is head coach of
the junior varsity football team at Pisgah High School. He and his
family live in Canton and raise golden retrievers.
1998
R. Chad Merrill MAEd EdD ’08 is chief institutional
advancement officer/assistant to the president at Blue Ridge
Community College in Flat Rock. Merrill has been with the college
since 1996.
2000
Adrianne Overbay is regional manager of sales for Eastern North
Carolina for LabCorp in Raleigh, which provides testing services
to the medical field. She is married to Wesley Overbay, who
played baseball for WCU and now raises the couple’s children.
2001
Reuben Councill MA is executive director of the Williamsport
Symphony Orchestra offices in Williamsport, Pa. In March,
Councill performed a flute recital at WCU.
2001
Zebulon Martin (left) is a financial
center leader with BB&T Corp. serving
the Asheville market.
2002
Christa Davis, a third-year law student
at Elon University, has been awarded
the Duquesne University Environmental
Leadership Grant sponsored by the U.S.
State Department for studies in Ghana, Africa. For the past two
years, Davis has served as a judicial extern for administrative law
judge Randall May ’69 in High Point, assisting May with several
environmental cases of statewide significance.
Kevin W. Dowling EDS is deputy chief of the Federal Reserve
Police in Washington. Dowling previously served as an
instructional specialist with