ONE OF OUR OWN:
Bowles, Board of Governors tap Thorp as Carolina's 10th chancellor
These days, the last place anyone would expect to get good
news is at a gas pump. But for Holden Thorp, it presented the opportunity of a
lifetime.
Several weeks ago, on his way back from Greensboro with UNC
President Erskine Bowles, that is exactly where Thorp, Kenan Professor of
Chemistry and dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences, learned that he would be
Carolina’s next chancellor. It happened after the two men met with Jim
Phillips, chair of the UNC Board of Governors (BOG), about Thorp’s candidacy.
That meeting with Phillips was one of many interviews Thorp
had faced over the previous seven months. It would also prove to be the last.
As Thorp recalled, “President Bowles got out and put the
nozzle in the tank. Then he leaned back into the car and said, ‘I know this
probably isn’t the place where you thought you’d get the most important job
offer of your life, but I’d like you to be the chancellor at Chapel Hill.’”
Of course, Bowles already knew what Thorp’s answer would be,
and maybe that was why Thorp responded, “Erskine, I’m never going to forget the
Exxon on Wendover Avenue.”
Thorp recounted the story last Thursday moments after the
Board of Governors voted unanimously to make him the University’s 10th
chancellor. “It’s a good thing I didn’t run inside to get some Nabs,” Thorp
added.
The selection of H. Holden Thorp as chancellor, many people
believe, is good news for Carolina. And no one believes it more than Bowles,
who told BOG members he had no doubt that Thorp was the right leader for
Carolina today and tomorrow.
“He personifies what Carolina is all about. He is a
remarkable teacher, a brilliant scientist, a successful
inventor and entrepreneur, and a respected administrator. His passion —
which you can absolutely feel — for the
liberal arts, for creativity and the joy of discovery are
absolutely contagious and I am caught with the disease.”
Bowles also noted that Thorp was about as true-blue a Tar
Heel as they come. Thorp admitted as much in his acceptance speech, with a nod
to his late father, Herb Thorp, also an alumnus, who used to tuck him into bed
at night to the tune of “Hark the Sound.”
That may be why, as a senior at Terry Sanford High School in
Fayetteville, Thorp applied only to Carolina. “It sounds crazy now, but I only
sent in one college application,” he said. “Thank goodness I was accepted.”
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