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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
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Title | Western : the magazine of Western Carolina University |
Other Title | Magazine of Western Carolina University |
Date | 2011 |
Description | Summer 2011 |
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Full Text | 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 |
OCLC number | 137281166 |
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