Fuchs
puts people first and music second
Editor's note: This story and the one that follows are the last
of a series featuring 2002 winners of the C. Knox Massey Distinguished
Service Award. The late C. Knox Massey of Durham created the awards
in 1980 to recognize "unusual, meritorious or superior contributions"
by University employees. The award is supported by the Massey-Weatherspoon
Fund created by three generations of Massey and Weatherspoon families.
Chancellor James Moeser selected the honorees from nominations
submitted by the campus. They each received an award citation
and $5,000 stipend.
Officially, Jeffrey Wayne Fuchs' musical career started in seventh
grade. It began with a big instrument -- a tuba -- and with a
big dream for a boy growing up in a town as small as Savannah,
Mo.
The town had fewer than 6,000 people and one high school that
proved to be the touchstone of community pride. On fall Friday
nights, townspeople crowded into the bleachers to cheer on the
football team. But they also came to hear the band.
When Fuchs was in the stands, he paid particular attention to
the animated man who stood bouncing on his toes in front of the
band directing it.
That man was his father -- and the person Fuchs wanted to grow
up to be.
Gerald Fuchs directed high school bands for some 20 years, and
in all those years he made sure his band members practiced as
hard during the week and played as well as the team when they
got into their uniforms on game day.
And in all those years his bands received superior ratings wherever
and whenever they performed throughout Missouri.
Fuchs' dream was not just to share the same profession as his
father, but to be able to do it with the same exacting precision
and flair as his father did it, and with his priorities for life
set as straight and true as the rows his father's marching bands
formed on the field.
The family would leave Savannah for Kansas City, and his father
would retire before Fuchs could play for him. But the father would
still offer his son valuable lessons by the way he conducted himself
on and off the field, at home and at work.
Now, some 30 years since Fuchs first picked up a tuba, he has
been leading bands for more years even than his father did. He
has been director of the Carolina band program for the past six
years.
Evidence of the kind of job Fuchs has been doing came this past
May in the form of a C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award.
One of the most valuable lessons his father taught him, Fuchs
said, is that the molding of people matters more than the making
of music.
The second important lesson he taught him is that one can't happen
without the other.
The
road to Carolina
Fuchs
graduated in 1983 from Truman State University in Kirksville,
Mo., then known as Northeast Missouri State University. After
teaching three years at a small high school, Fuchs returned to
Truman State to serve as assistant director and to pursue the
master's degree he would complete in 1988. By then, Fuchs knew
he wanted to direct at the college level, and he went to the University
of Kansas to work with the band and start on his doctorate to
make it happen.
He got off to a fast start.
After one year at Kansas, Fuchs took over the marching band. After
two years, he took over the band that played for the men's basketball
games.
But by 1993, budget cuts at Kansas forced him to take a job at
a high school in St. Charles, Mo. The job entailed directing the
marching, concert, jazz and basketball bands.
He was still teaching at the high school when he learned of the
opening for an assistant band director at Carolina in spring of
1994. He interviewed for the job but didn't get it. When the same
job opened again a year later, Fuchs applied again. This time
he got it. He started work at Carolina in August of 1995.
By the fall of 1996, Fuchs was acting director.
By January of 1997, he was named the permanent director.
His chance had finally arrived.
Now it was time for him to deliver.
The
organization man
The
Massey citation described Fuchs as a "gifted organizer" who is
"a joy to those he leads and to all with whom he collaborates
for the greater good of their common educational enterprise."
Before asking yourself why a man would be lauded for simply being
organized, consider all that Fuchs must get around to doing each
year.
He runs the Tar Heel Invitational, a recruiting event each fall
for 25 high school bands from throughout the state. He also visits
public school band programs as a clinician.
He serves as the chair of the music department's Wind and Percussion
Area.
He coordinates his band programs with athletic coaches. He leads
the 330-member marching band in half-time programs for football
games. He leads the basketball band.
He musters, guides and manages an overlapping system of pep bands
that plays for more than 70 athletic events a year. He conducts
the symphony band. He instructs students in instrumental methods.
And he knows all his students by name, along with the instruments
they play, just like his dad always had.
They are the only students in the University who take their exams
in front of 60,000 people each week in the fall -- and where a
"B" performance is unacceptable, Fuchs said.
"I
let them know that my responsibility to them is to make sure that
I put them into a position where they can succeed," Fuchs said.
But he also lets them know that they are really performing for
themselves -- not for him.
"We
teach a lot of things here. Among them are qualities that can
create success in their lives. Discipline. Commitment. Having
a high standard and meeting it consistently."
One of our responsibilities during the game, Fuchs said, is to
create an atmosphere that perpetuates excitement no matter how
far ahead or behind the team happens to be. And through this year's
losing campaign that responsibility weighed even heavier.
In many ways, band members go through the same kinds of feelings
and preparation as the players do, except their playbook changes
each week with a change of music and visuals. His Massey award,
Fuchs said, is as much a testament to their efforts as his own.
"It's
a tremendous honor, and it has to be shared with the kids," Fuchs
said. "I have never marched on the field in Kenan Stadium. It's
as much theirs as mine."
Life
lessons
But
there is more to Jeffrey Fuchs than his work. There is also his
wife, Karen, and daughter, Megan.
He and Karen met in college. She was the drum major of the marching
band his freshman year. They were married on May 1, 1982, at the
end of his junior year.
Megan is now a freshman at Carolina, but when Megan was growing
up, she served as both his clock -- and compass.
"I
was always home when she was home," Fuchs said, even if it meant
going back to work after she went to bed at 9:30 p.m. As he put
it, "I didn't want to miss my daughter's life."
Now, he has to remind himself to get out of the office to get
home to be with Karen so she is not there alone. Among his proudest
achievements is "the fact that we are still a family."
Striking a balance between work and family may have been the most
important lesson his father taught him, Fuchs said.
Every Memorial Day, his father would lead the high school band
from the downtown to the section of the town cemetery where war
veterans were buried. Fuchs remembers those days because they
always marked the starting date of family vacations. Fuchs had
an older sister and younger brother, and every year, when they
got home from the ceremony, the car would be packed and ready
for them to hop into the back seat and go.
His mother Jackie, who taught what would now be considered special
education, would have an influence on him that would prove to
be no less strong. "Dad invested in his students. He invested
in their lives and their musical lives. Mom did the same thing.
She invested in students who the system had given up on."
She did it with the patience that her compassion gave her, and
she managed to get her students to reach for goals once thought
unattainable, even if it was learning how to spell their name
or read.
Both his parents are now 66 and retired, although his mother hasn't
quite figured out what that means. She still volunteers to teach
people her age or older how to read. One of her pupils is an 80-year-old
man who came to her wanting to learn to play the piano. She couldn't
say no.
Fuchs' brother and sister ended up being teachers, too. His sister
is the chair of the English department at Clinton High School
in Missouri. As for his little brother, he's now the band director
for Pittsburg State University in Kansas.
His father supported all his children at every turn, Fuchs said,
but more than the words of encouragement was the solid example
he set by the life he led.
"A
band director is what I do," Fuchs explained. "It's not who I
am."
Richardson:
good works in a small package
Phylinda
Baldwin, just like everyone else, calls her "Sister."
Baldwin -- who calls herself a "jackie of all trades" -- began
working at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center 27
years ago. "And Sister was there when I started."
Sister's real name, for people who don't know her, is Eleanor
Guthrie Richardson. And she officially started working as an unpaid
volunteer in the nursery way back in 1969, for reasons she says
she can no longer remember.
Baldwin knew Sister before the car accident in 1976 that nearly
claimed her life.
"A
lesser person, a person with less willpower, wouldn't have made
it through what she had to go through," Baldwin said. "The doctors
gave her up, said she would pretty much be a vegetable."
But Sister was in a comaso she wasn't listening.
In 1991, 15 years after doctors gave up hope on her, Richardson
returned to the nursery to resume the work she loved. And this
spring, some of the people she had worked with over the years
felt it important that others share in their appreciation of this
determined woman. They nominated her for a C. Knox Massey Distinguished
Service Award.
In her nominating letter, Mary G. Jenne, the assistant director
of the center's child care program, said of her: "Sister cares
for some of the youngest members of this University community.
She has held, fed, changed, comforted, cajoled, nurtured, and
above all, loved infants and young toddlers at Frank Porter Graham
for over 20 years. Not only has she contributed to the development
of the infants, she has also been an example to the teachers and
assistant teachers who have worked with her. Before the research
on brain development and critical periods, Sister's careful attention
to the infants in her care showed that she knew it mattered how
attentively she held them, how often she talked to them, how well
and how frequently she responded to them. Our nursery includes
infants with special needs. Sister is often the adult who gives
the extra care, the lap time, the loving attention that helps
make a difference for a baby struggling to make its way in the
world."
She won the award in May.
"She,
like Frank Graham, for whom the Child Care Center is named, lives
her life selflessly," the award citation said of her. "She exemplifies
that ancient admonition, often neglected but not quite forgotten,
that we `love one another.'"
With her overflowing heart of love and her devoted volunteer work,
Eleanor Guthrie Richardson lends a little touch of glory" the
award stated.
Glory or no glory, Baldwin recalled that Sister was a little perturbed
at first about the whole thing. "She doesn't like surprises and
wants to know everything that is going on. She fussed at us for
a while and told us, `You guys weren't supposed to do that to
me.' "
After she got the award, though, she changed her tune slightly.
"She
told me after she got it, `This is really nice, but my real reward
is in heaven.' "
As for the money that accompanied the recognition, she liked that,
too, Baldwin said, but she made sure to give her 10 percent as
a tithe to Saint Paul's Baptist Church in Carrboro.
Chapel
Hill native
Eleanor Guthrie was born and raised in Chapel Hill. She and her
fraternal twin sister, Edna, were the youngest of five children.
It was Edna who came up with her nickname, "Sister," that the
teachers and parents at the nursery still call her today.
They were all born and raised in Chapel Hill, and Richardson graduated
from Lincoln High School in 1959. Afterward, she went to work
at the old Monogram Club on campus as a waitress. The job didn't
last long, not
nearly as long as the relationship she developed
with one of her
fellow workers, James Richardson.
They have been married for going on 42 years now.
"He
was a cook, and he does all the cooking now," Richardson said.
"He can cook anything."
At 4 feet, 11 inches tall, she was tiny enough to inspire her
husband's relatives in New Jersey to come up with yet another
nickname for her. "They call me Little Bit," she said.
The couple had two daughters, Wylica and Duanna, in quick succession
in 1962 and 1963. They would later adopt a third daughter, Denise,
born in 1972.
James ended up getting a job as a nurse at UNC Hospitals, a job
he kept until his retirement a few years back.
After they were married, Richardson went to work on the line at
Triem Inc., a factory in Carrboro that makes small electric motors.
"It was all right, but it just wasn't what I wanted to do," Richardson
said. She quit after about a year.
She started volunteering at the nursery in 1969, about the time
her oldest girls who heading off to school.
The factory job paid her a little bit of money, but holding down
a real job didn't carry the same satisfaction she could get just
by holding a little baby in her arms.
And through the years, that satisfaction has never left her.
The
accident
The
only thing she knows about the accident is what James told her
-- and even what he told her about it is now a fading memory.
It happened in 1976, in an old brown Pontiac. At least she thinks
it was a Pontiac. James' grandfather had died and they were heading
to the funeral in Louisburg when a truck crossed the centerline
and plowed into them.
Everyone tells her she should have died. She stop breathing, but
her husband did something -- he still hasn't explained exactly
what -- to revive her before the rescue squad arrived and took
her to the Duke hospital.
She suffered brain damage and a broken neck. She remained in a
coma for three months. Her first memory after the accident was
lying in bed and being surrounded by the smiling faces of people
from her church.
"They
told me my sister Edna was there every day to see me, talking
to me and going on."
That was easy for her to believe, Richardson said, because it
sounded like her sister.
James came to visit as much as he could. He went to work, came
home and fixed supper for their three girls, then headed to the
hospital to see her until the nurses kicked him out.
It took her weeks to curve her fingers around a pencil to learn
to write again.
Learning to walk and talk again was just as hard. That took months.
And it took 15 years to get back to where she was -- and the place
she belonged -- in the nursery.
"I
think the Lord saved me because he wasn't ready for me yet," Richardson
said.
She figured one of the reasons was maybe because He had work for
her left to do down here.
"I
just knew I had to come back to the center because I just love
working here."
A
happy return
Baldwin
remembers not being able to see Richardson in the hospital all
those years ago. It was too painful seeing all the tubes and screws
protruding from her head.
During physical therapy, she remembers how Richardson kept pushing
herself. "If she fell down, she would let you pick her back up,
but then she wanted you to step away so she could try again."
Baldwin left the nursery for two years, but since she returned
in 1994 she has picked Richardson up on her way to work and taken
her home with her at the end of the day.
Sister arrives with Baldwin every morning but Friday at 7:15 a.m.
She leaves with her every afternoon sometime after 4 p.m.
For Richardson, each step, each word still comes slowly. But that
doesn't stop her from getting where she wants to go -- or speaking
her mind.
Jenne said most people would have quit if they had gone through
what Richardson did. "She can't stand up and hold the babies anymore,"
Jenne said. "When she walks across the room it is an act of will
that she even gets there."
But it doesn't matter to her that she can't cross the room the
way she used to.
What matters is that she's back.
She has two rocking chairs, one for each side of the nursery that
is partitioned off into two classrooms during the day. Throughout
the day, the babies are carried to her. Most days, Baldwin says,
she eats her lunch in one of the chairs, too.
Baldwin said they tease each other unmercifully in the car and
at work as good friends sometimes do. "Everybody on the job says
she has to have the last word," Baldwin said. "I'll roll down
the window to try to get in the last word and then when I'm driving
up the street I'll hear her say something."
It's the same thing in the morning, except in reverse. She's the
official greeter, the first one there to tell the parents coming
in, "Good morning, how are you doing."
Her body may be frail, Jenne said, but not her personality.
Jenne has seen that same "spunky humor," she said. "She will poke
fun at you, and if you poke fun at her back that is just fine.
"Sister
is not a saint," Jenne said. "She is just a good woman."
And when it comes to caring for babies, she is really good. "She
is persistent in trying to figure out what they need -- and then
doing it," Jenne said.
All of it, Richardson explains, "is just in my nature.
"If
I know a baby is sleepy, I'll bounce him or shake him until he
gets quiet. He can raise all the fuss he wants to, but I still
do it because I know what's best for him. I don't give up."
There are babies that stick in her memory, like the baby boy with
Down syndrome who always had a smile on his lips. And the little
girl who had some kind of syndrome that kept her from growing
as fast as she should. That little baby stayed in the nursery
for two years before Richardson had to tell her goodbye.
The college-educated folk sometimes refer to such children as
babies with special needs. Not Richardson. In her eyes, each baby
is special in its own way. And every baby needs everything she
has to give.
A soothing voice.
A soft touch.
A kiss on the cheek.
A hug.
Richardson knows, of course, that important research is going
on here, that these little babies she cradles on her knee and
rocks to sleep are seen and treated as test subjects, too.
But to Richardson they are just little babies, and what is most
important about them to her is that they need her as much as she
needs them.
"I
love babies," she said. "For one thing, they are not able to talk
back to you. I just love them. There is one baby down there now
I just kiss all the time. I tell him, `I'm going to get all of
your sugar.' And he just looks at me and laughs. I hold them and
feed them and talk to them and kiss on them as much as I can."
Money isn't everything, and for Richardson it's not even the most
important thing. And that is all that needs to be said to explain
why she has chosen to watch over so many babies over so many years
for no pay.
"All
I get is a thank you," Richardson said. "And that's all I want."
So when they cry, she comforts them.
When they get hungry, she feeds them.
When they want to play, she can still play a pretty mean game
of peek-a-boo.
When they need their diapers changed, "I give them over to somebody
else. Love only goes so far," she said.
Philosopher wins Mellon Foundation award
Susan
Wolf, the Edna J. Koury professor of philosophy, has been selected
for a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon
Foundation in New York.
Wolf is regarded in the field "as one of the most original and
distinguished philosophers of her generation," stated the Mellon
Foundation in the award announcement. She is one of five humanities
scholars nationwide to receive the prestigious honor this year.
The awards are intended to honor scholars who have made significant
contributions to the humanities and more broadly to other fields
and to enable them to pursue their teaching and research interests
under especially favorable conditions. Each award includes a grant
of up to $1.5 million over a three-year period for the recipient
and his or her academic institution.
Wolf is known for a set of provocative and highly original theses
on the relationships among free will, moral responsibility and
objective values. She is the author of "Freedom Within Reason"
(Oxford University Press, 1990), in which she explored the concepts
of free will and responsibility in the context of one's capacity
to reason and form values.
At least two of her essays are considered modern classics. "Sanity
and the Metaphysics of Responsibility" explores the philosophical
implications of the insanity defense for the problem of free will
and responsibility. "Moral Saints" considered the question, "What
would a morally perfect person be like?" and argues that nonmoral
values, such as humor and beauty, have an important place in personal
ideals.
Most recently, Wolf has been reinvigorating discussions of the
age-old question: "What is the meaning of life?"
"Professor
Wolf is an extraordinary philosopher who manages consistently
to bring a fresh and penetrating eye to issues that are of central
moral concern," said Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, professor and chair
of the philosophy department. "Her seminal ideas have significantly
influenced contemporary analytic philosophy and ethics, as well
as law and psychology."
Wolf received a B.A. degree in mathematics and philosophy from
Yale University in 1974 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton
University in 1978. Among many other honors, she was elected to
the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.
Before joining the Carolina faculty, Wolf was the Duane Peterson
Professor of Ethics and chair of the philosophy department at
Johns Hopkins University. She also has held positions at Harvard
University and the University of Maryland.
The other Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award recipients this
year are from Harvard University, Princeton University, the University
of Chicago and the University of Virginia.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is dedicated to enabling first-rate
scholars and institutions to cultivate and to advance humanistic
learning and understanding.
Two join faculty, receive endowed chairs
Two
professors visiting this fall will join the faculty in January
with appointments to endowed chairs. They are:
* Christopher K.R.T. Jones, Bill Guthridge distinguished professor
of mathematics; and
* Jodi Magness, Kenan distinguished professor of teaching excellence
in early Judaism.
Jones
Before
coming to Carolina, Jones was director of the Lefschetz Center
for Dynamical Systems at Brown University, where he also held
the position of professor of applied mathematics since 1990.
Jones' interests span both pure and applied mathematics, particularly
applied dynamical systems. He recently studied ocean flow at Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Among many honors, he received the Faculty Mentor of the Year
Award from the Compact for Faculty Diversity in 1999 and the Senior
U.S. Scientist Award from the Humboldt Foundation at the University
of Stuttgart in 1993-94.
Jones received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
in 1979.
Magness
Magness,
an expert on the archaeology of ancient Palestine including the
site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, teaches courses
on early Jewish history, literature, religion and archaeology.
Before coming to Carolina, Magness taught at Tufts University,
where she was associate professor of classics and art history
and director of the archaeology program.
Her major publications include "The Archaeology of Qumran and
the Dead Sea Scrolls" and the forthcoming "The Archaeology of
the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine."
Magness earned a Ph.D. in classical archaeology from the University
of Pennsylvania in 1989 and a bachelor's degree in archaeology
and history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1977.
The Bill Guthridge distinguished professorship in mathematics
was established by gifts from alumni Charles and Beth Duckett
and John and Mary Louise Burress. Guthridge was assistant basketball
coach for 30 years before becoming head coach in 1997. He retired
in 2000.
The Kenan professorship was established in 1995 at the suggestion
of alumnus Frank H. Kenan to help the University recruit and recognize
extraordinary scholars who excel in undergraduate teaching. Kenan,
long-time Carolina benefactor and founder of Kenan Oil Co., died
in 1996. The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust funded the
professorships.
Decorations
& Distinctions
Alice
Ammerman
Marci
Campbell
Boyd
Switzer
Department
of Nutrition associate professor Switzer and assistant professors
Ammerman and Campbell have received the Sarah Mazelis Best Paper
of the Year Award for Health Promotion Practice for their work
on "The PRAISE! Project: A Church-Based Nutrition Intervention
Designed for Cultural Appropriateness, Sustainability, and Diffusion."
Larry
Alford
Deputy
university librarian, Alford began his first term as a member
of the board of trustees of the Online Computer Library Center,
a nonprofit organization that provides computer-based cataloging,
reference, resource sharing and preservation services to 43,000
libraries in 86 countries and territories.
David
R. Godschalk
Steven
Baxter professor of city and regional planning, Godschalk has
received the Distinguished Educator Award from the Association
of Collegiate Schools of Planning. This award was presented in
recognition of his service and contribution to planning and based
on his scholarly contributions, teaching excellence and professional
service.
Joanne
Harrell
Professor
of nursing, Harrell has received the Katharine A. Lembright Award
from the American Heart Association in recognition of her contributions
to cardiovascular nursing research. Her studies, as part of the
Center for Research on Preventing and Managing Chronic Illness
in Vulnerable People, have examined the development of obesity
and cardiovascular disease risk factors in children and adolescents.
Jeffrey
L. Houpt
Dean
of the School of Medicine, Houpt was chosen the 2002 George C.
Ham Society Distinguished Alumnus by the Department of Psychiatry.
Houpt's research and teaching interests have examined the interface
between psychiatry and medicine.
Jonathan Kotch
Professor
of maternal and child health, Kotch has received the 2002 GlaxoSmithKline
Child Health Recognition Award in the Individual Recognition Award
category from the N.C. Public Health Association.
Fredrick
O. Mueller
Chair
of the Department of Exercise and Sports Science, Mueller has
been selected for the Citation Award from the American College
of Sports Medicine.
Etta
Pisano
Chief
of breast imaging and professor of radiology and biomedical engineering,
Pisano was recognized as one of the 20 most influential people
in radiology by "Diagnostic Imaging" magazine for outstanding
contributions to maximizing diagnostic imaging's potential to
improve health care and save lives.
Timothy
Quigg
Associate
chair for administration and finance in computer science, Quigg
has been appointed a member of the Society of Research Administrators
International Distinguished Faculty.
Alan
Shapiro
Professor
of English, Shapiro has received the North Carolina Literary and
Historical Association 2002 Roanoke-Chowan Award for his poetry
volume "Song and Dance: Poems." The prize recognized this year's
best volume of poetry by a North Carolinian.
Philip
Singer
Daniel
A. Okun professor of environmental engineering, Singer has been
selected as the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science
Professors' 2003 Distinguished Lecturer.
Southern
Oral History Project
North
Carolina Humanities Council
These
organizations have received a 2002 Innovation Award from the Woodrow
Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, which recognizes and supports
projects in university humanities departments that help Ph.D.
students explore professional possibilities.
Trustees
cite outstanding service with Davie awards
Christopher C. Fordham III, Henry E. Frye and C.D. Spangler Jr.
were honored Nov. 20 with William Richardson Davie Awards in recognition
of their extraordinary service to the University and to society.
Established by Carolina's Board of Trustees in 1984, the prestigious
Davie Award is named for the Revolutionary War hero considered
to be the father of the University. Davie was the author of the
bill that established the University. The award is the highest
honor bestowed by the trustees.
Fordham
Fordham,
who received his pre-medical degree and certificate of medicine
from Carolina (and medical degree from Harvard University), returned
to his alma mater from the Medical College of Georgia in 1971
as professor of medicine and dean of the School of Medicine, positions
he held until 1979.
Under his leadership, the Area Health Education Centers Program
was established, linking the University with other in-state medical
schools to provide service opportunities to physicians and increase
the ratio of health professionals to North Carolina's population.
During part of his tenure as dean, he served the University as
vice chancellor for health affairs and in 1977 was named acting
assistant secretary for health and acting Surgeon General of the
United States at the request of President Jimmy Carter.
In 1980, Fordham became Carolina's chancellor. Under his leadership,
the undergraduate curriculum was revised. He sought and achieved
significant increases in research funding, which grew from $56
million at the beginning of his term to $105 million by the end.
He renewed focus on private giving, putting Carolina among the
nation's top 20 public institutions for contributions and increasing
the endowment from $30 million to $130 million.
He also oversaw construction of the Dean E. Smith Center, Sitterson
Hall, the Hanes Art Center, the Kenan Center and Davis Library.
Among Fordham's honors are the General Alumni Association's Distinguished
Service Medal, the American Medical Association Award and the
N.C. Hospital Association Distinguished Service Award. He also
is a distinguished service member of the Association of American
Medical Colleges. An honorary member of the Board of Visitors,
he serves on the Carolina First Campaign Chapel Hill-Durham Regional
Steering Committee.
The Christopher Fordham Award recognizing a graduating student
for outstanding and creative leadership at the medical school
was established in his honor. In 1988, the University's biology-biotechnology
building was named Christopher C. Fordham Hall.
Frye
Frye
graduated from North Carolina A&T State University and received
his law degree, with honors, from Carolina. He was admitted to
the state bar and practiced as an attorney in Greensboro for four
years.
In 1962, Robert Kennedy appointed him an assistant U.S. attorney
-- one of only six in the nation. He followed this appointment
with a professorship in the School of Law at North Carolina Central
University before returning to private practice in Greensboro.
In 1968, Frye won a seat in the state House of Representatives,
the first black in the 20th century to do so. He served six terms
in the state House and one in the state Senate, always writing
and delivering a poem on the last day the legislature was in session.
Frye also started the Greensboro National Bank and served as its
president for nine years. Former Gov. Jim Hunt appointed him associate
justice of the state Supreme Court in 1983, the first black to
serve on the high court.
He successfully ran for the position in 1984 -- the first of eight
such terms -- making him North Carolina's longest-serving Supreme
Court jurist. In 1999, he became the first black to serve as chief
justice in the state's history.
Frye is now attorney of counsel with Brooks, Pierce, McLendon,
Humphrey & Leonard in Greensboro.
Among his many honors, Frye has received the Distinguished Alumnus-Alumna
Award from Carolina and the N.C. chapter of the NAACP's Kelly
M. Alexander Sr. Humanitarian Award. N.C. A&T honored him
with the Alumni Excellence Award, an honorary doctor of laws degree
and established the Henry E. Frye Honors Program Endowment and
the Henry E. Frye Pre-Law Society in his name.
He has received the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers' Appellate Judges
Award and was named Lawyer of the Year by the N.C. Association
of Black Lawyers. He received the University of North Carolina
Board of Governors' University Award this year.
Spangler
Spangler
received his bachelor's degree in business administration from
Carolina. After earning his master of business administration
degree from Harvard Business School and serving two years in the
U.S. Army, he returned to the family business, C.D. Spangler Construction
Co.
Spangler's commitment to public education began in 1972. As vice-chairman
of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board, he helped lead the
successful integration of area schools. From 1982 to 1986, he
served as chairman of the state Board of Education.
During his tenure as president of the 16-campus University of
North Carolina from 1986 to 1997, Spangler was known for his dedication
to students; he was a champion of low tuition.
Spangler opened doors to minorities, hiring Julius Chambers away
from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to become chancellor at N.C.
Central University. Spangler also brought women into the top tier
of the university system, hiring the first female vice president
of the system and two female chancellors.
Grant funding for research in the system grew from $206 million
to $493 million in the Spangler years. University-wide enrollment
grew by 27,000 students during his tenure. In 1993, he led a successful
campaign for a $310 million bond referendum for UNC facilities
-- at the time, the largest in system history.
Spangler was successful in securing greater flexibility in management
and budgeting for the system, and he instituted reforms to ensure
integrity in the sports programs at all Carolina campuses participating
in intercollegiate athletics.
Under his leadership, the Spangler Foundation has generously supported
institutions of culture, public service and higher education.
Overall, the Spangler Foundation has contributed more than $10
million toward the creation of 38 distinguished professorships
within the university system.
Among his many honors are the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award,
the UNC Board of Governors' University Award, Harvard Business
School's Alumni Achievement Award and the N.C. Citizens for Business
and Industry Citizen for Distinguished Public Service Award.
