Editor Who Threw Out the Ads
“I4'at*- <»oo«liiig recalls tlic year at UNC
uhen lie was business malinger of the Tar
Heel, and the editor was Tom Wolfe.
Hi/
КК11Л1Ш
WALSER
During his busy senior year at the
University of North Carolina in 1919-
1920, Asheville’s tall slender contribu¬
tion to Chapel Hill campus life spent a
considerable part of his time as editor
of the weekly Tar Heel . student news¬
paper, True, he was active in many
other pursuits, but already he had de¬
cided that writing, perhaps journalism,
was to be his life's work, and so the
Tar Heel received the chief benefit of
his legendary energy. Often his classes
suffered.
Business manager of the Tar Heel
was Nathan G. Gooding. Not long ago
in New Bern, where he has lived most
of his life since leaving the university.
"Nat" Gooding recalled some of the
events and some of his impressions of
that hectic year. Gooding was of the
Class of 1919, but a spell in the Army
stretched out his college days and, after
most of his classmates had graduated,
catapulted him into a lively association
with eighteen-year-old Tom Wolfe in
the autumn of 1919.
By that time. Wolfe was an estab¬
lished campus personality about whom
many yarns were told. Gooding remem¬
bers hearing the talc that when Wolfe
was a junior, he was assigned to write
the class play. As one who rarely did
anything till the last minute. Wolfe of
course put off doing the job. Then,
when pressed to produce a script, he
wrote the play overnight. It was a
routine he followed in class assign¬
ments.
Actually the Tar Heel editor and his
business manager saw precious little of
each other. They didn't need to. Good¬
ing was in charge of advertisements and
circulation. Wolfe of editorials and
news. Both were enterprising young
men engaged in a number of activities
besides the Tar Heel. Because of their
qualities of leadership, both were
elected to membership in Golden
Nolhon Gooding look Ihb picture of Chapel Hill shortly oiler he wo» initiated info the Golden Fleece, the University's foremott undergraduote honor
society, in 1920. Tom Wolle hod been elected to the society the ycor before, ond is grouped here with other member»,
о
number ol whom hove oho
become widely known in the ycor» »ince. They ore, seated left to right: Nothon Mobley, Edwin S. Lindsey, E. Emerson White, William H. Bobbitt.
Stonding, left to right: Corydon P. Spruill, Beemer C. Horrell, John Duncon Show, Clouse R. Joyner, F. Carlyle Shepord, J. Burton Linker, Oli.cr G.
Rond, John H. Kerr, Jr., Fronk Porter Grohom, Thomos Wolfe, President Horry W. Chose of the University, unidentified, Doniel L. Grant, Albert
Coofes, John P. Washburn.
THE STATE. JANUARY 1. 1972 13
