March 2012
03.30.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Campus Events | Comments: No responses |
NC State is having a birthday party, and you’re invited!
Alumni, students, staff and other friends of the university are invited to a celebration on Monday of NC State’s 125th anniversary. The party is being held from 1:30-2:30 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum. Doors open at 1 p.m. and, best of all, it’s free.
The party will feature lots and lots of giveways, including Tradition Scarves and other great Wolfpack gear. Entertainment is being provided by DJ Tim Gunter, emcee Kornelius Bascombe, the band Old Man Whickutt and other special surprise guests.
The Wolfpack basketball team, fresh off their Sweet 16 run in the NCAA basketball tournament, will also be there. Come by and say hello!
And, of course, no birthday party is complete without cake and ice cream, so we’ll have that, too. See you at the party!
Following the party, the Alumni Association Student Ambassador Program is hosting the first annual Tradition Run.
The event will begin the Brickyard, where teams of two will race around campus to complete several NC State traditions in 1 hour and 25 minutes (in honor of the 125th anniversary, of course). Alumni are invited to come out and cheer the students on.
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03.30.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Alumni Association News, Alumni News, Campus Events | Comments: One response |
Jim Futrell remembers the day his parents dropped him off at NC State and drove away. It was more than 50 years ago, and Futrell still says that was the most lonesome moment in his life. “I was scared to death,” he says.
But Futrell, who grew up in the Eastern North Carolina town of Potecasi, quickly found a home at NC State. He was president and social director of Bragaw Dorm and majored in agricultural education, graduating in 1962 before going on to earn a master’s degree in adult education in 1968. He went on to work as vice president of public relations/communications for Farm Credit Banks of Columbia, S.C., and then as a city and county manager in South Carolina.
Futrell is back on campus today for the 50th reunion of the Class of ‘62. He is joined by more than 80 classmates and their spouses, the largest group to attend a 50th reunion at NC State.
Futrell is quick to thank the members of the reunion planning committee for the turnout, but it started with Futrell and the many hours he spent on the phone. Futrell, the permanent Class of 1962 president, had a goal to contact all 1,200 living members of the class. He would start calling at 10 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday morning, and make calls for 6-8 hours. By the time he was done, he had reached about 1,000 classmates.
“I told them to get these dates on your calendar,” he says. “A lot of them were very excited.”
The reunion activities kick off this morning with a tour of the chancellor’s new residence next to the Park Alumni Center. The group will also visit D.H. Hill Library, tour the Bell Tower and hear from former UNC system President William Friday ‘41 at a banquet tonight at Vaughn Towers. Friday spoke at the group’s graduation 50 years ago.
On Saturday, the group will take a bus tour of campus before being welcomed into the Forever Club during a lunch at the University Club. The weekend’s festivities will end Saturday night with a barbecue dinner at the Park Alumni Center.
“I hope they will see how much the university has grown and changed,” Futrell said of his classmates. “But changed for the better.”
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03.29.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Campus Events | Comments: No responses |
Students were joined on the Brickyard today by Chancellor Randy Woodson, Mr. Wuf and others to sign a large Thank You card to show their appreciation for the alumni and friends of the university who have made contributions that help raise the quality of education at NC State.
The event was hosted by Annual Giving at NC State as a way to help students understand the importance of giving back to the university after they graduate.
“Thank You Day is an exciting opportunity for NC State to thank our donors for all of their support,” says Amanda Paine with Annual Giving. “Their generosity helps NC State continue to make enhancements and transform the student experience. This day will allow us to celebrate these donors and educate the students on the importance and impact of giving back to NC State.”
In addition to signing the card, students were given a chance to win gift certificates to area merchants, enjoy Howling Cow ice cream and share a “Congratulations” cake for seniors.
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03.29.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Alumni News, Campus Events, College of Engineering, College of Management | Comments: No responses |
Stephen F. Angel, an NC State engineering grad who is now chairman, president and chief executive officer of Praxair, Inc., spoke on campus Wednesday as part of the Poole College of Management’s Wells Fargo Executive Leadership series.
Here’s a quick glance at some of his tips for would-be leaders in the business world:
- Work for people who will challenge you, not someone you’re comfortable with.
- Learn to give and ask for feedback.
- Don’t be too general a manager. Develop strong competence in at least one area and maintain it throughout your career.
- Learn finance. It’s the language of business.
- Don’t be viewed as high maintenance or a self-promoter.
- Develop the proper balance between self confidence and humility.
- Be yourself. Be authentic.
- Be someone who can be counted on to keep confidences.
- Don’t always rely on email. Step away from the computer and walk down the hall to have a conversation.
- Write heartfelt, thoughtful notes.
- Prepare, prepare, prepare.
- It doesn’t cost you much to be gracious.
Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and South American and one of the largest in the world. It produces, sells and distributed atmospheric and process gases and high-performance surface coatings. Before joining Praxair in 2011, Angel was the general manager of General Electric’s $2-billion power equipment business.
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03.29.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Campus Events, College of Education, College of Engineering, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences | Comments: No responses |
Everyone, it seems, has a Facebook page and we know that when someone says they Tweet they don’t mean that they chirp like a bird.
But as familiar as we are with social media, there’s a great opportunity on Monday to hear from one of the pioneers of social media.
Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook, is delivering the 2012 Harrelson Lecture at 3 p.m. Monday at Stewart Theatre. His topic is “The Changing Media Landscape: How Social Media is Transforming News and Information.” The talk is free and open to the public.
Hughes has also worked in politics (director of online organizing for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign), investments (General Catalyst Partners) and the nonprofit world (he founded Jumo, a tool to help people find high-quality nonprofits).
In the fall of 2011, Jumo merged with GOOD, an online community of young adults interested in social activism. Hughes is currently a senior adviser at GOOD. In March, it was announced the Hughes had purchased and will be the publisher and editor-in-chief of The New Republic magazine. Hughes, a native of Hickory, N.C., is a Harvard University graduate.
The Harrelson Lecture is made possible with support from the Harrelson Fund, the College of Education, the College of Engineering, the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, the Entrepreneurship Institute, the Institute for Emerging Issues, the University Scholars Program, the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the Department of Athletics and the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science.
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03.27.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Alumni News, Campus Events, College of Engineering, College of Management | Comments: No responses |
Stephen F. Angel, an NC State engineering grad who is now chairman, president and chief executive officer of Praxair, Inc., is speaking on campus Wednesday as part of the Poole College of Management’s Wells Fargo Executive Leadership series.
Angel’s topic for the afternoon talk is “Leadership: What Really Matters.” The event, at 4:30 pm in the auditorium in Nelson Hall, is free and open to the public.
Praxair is the largest industrial gases company in North and South American and one of the largest in the world. It produces, sells and distributed atmospheric and process gases and high-performance surface coatings.
Before joining Praxair in 2011, Angel was the general manager of General Electric’s $2-billion power equipment business.
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03.27.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under NC State History, NCSU Libraries | Comments: No responses |
Phones are ubiquitous on campus today. If you don’t believe it, take a stroll and check out all the students talking or texting or playing with their cellphones.
Of course, that wasn’t always the case.
On this day in 1927, Southern Bell removed the free telephone from the campus YMCA and replaced it with the first pay phone on campus.
Why? According to Historical State, a collection of historic photos and events kept by NCSU Libraries, it was “due to abuse of the free phone by students using the phone for ’social visits.’”
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03.26.2012 | by Chris Saunders | Filed under Alumni News, CHASS | Comments: No responses |
Filmmaker Robert Greene’s career making documentaries began with a paper he wrote on Rebel Without a Cause in Tom Wallis’ Intro to Film class at NC State. Until that paper, Greene thought movies were not capable of being deep, truthful investigations into the soul.
“The way Tom was talking about these movies, there was no way a movie was meant to be that deep,” says Greene, a 2000 CHASS graduate. But an analysis of the James Dean classic convinced him that movies could have depth. “It convinced me,” he says, “movies could be.”
And now, some 15 years later, Greene and 4th Row Films, the production company he’s involved with along with two other partners, have made seven films. Greene serves as director and/or editor on the projects. His passion for documentaries comes by default and an eye for honest portrayals of real people.
“I wrote some screenplays that sucked,” he says. “Writing a screenplay and dialogue, I’d rather be waterboarded. …I think I cared about real stories in a way.”
4th Row currently has three movies in theaters across the U.S. All In: The Poker Movie, a journey into the poker subculture, premiered last Friday at Cinema Village in New York City and will be available on video on demand April 24. Fake It So Real, a look at the big dreams of independent professional wrestlers in small-town North Carolina, is ending a run on the West Coast. And Kati with an I, an intimate look at at Greene’s teenage half-sister in Alabama who is about to graduate high school, is opening in Seattle.
Greene likes showing the essence of truth in these films, putting people front-and-center along with their hopes, dreams and faults. “My films are very loving to the subjects,” he says. “I’m very protective of them as people.”
Chris Moneymaker, a mere nobody who hit it big by winning millions in the 2003 World Series of Poker’s main event, is one of those subjects in All In. “Moneymaker is kind of the soul of the movie,” Greene says. “He says, ‘I was a fat, drunk, degenerate gambler.’ He figured he could take his gambling problem and use it as a skill. …He transformed himself.”
The Moneymakers of poker or the professional wrestlers of the rural South interest Greene because of their passion, and sometimes obsessiveness, to turn nothing into something.
“You can make films about people who are passionate about things,” he says. “They take their art, their things so seriously. When they talk about poker or cards, they’re really talking about life. …It’s like an American dream.”
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03.23.2012 | by Chris Saunders | Filed under Alumni Association News, Alumni News, Sports, Uncategorized | Comments: No responses |
Three NC State fans: Daniel McImoyle, Johnathan Kwong and Jason Santiago
St. Louis is a deluge of NC State red and Kansas Jayhawk blue. Chris Saunders talked with Wolfpack fans who made the trip for tonight’s Sweet 16 contest. They reflected on NC State’s basketball history, and a few boldly predicted an outcome.
What’s your favorite Wolfpack basketball moment? Debbie Claybrook, of Rockingham County, N.C., remembers the 1983 NCAA championship win over Houston. “We were a sleeper team and nobody thought we had a chance,” she says. “When that shot hit, I was running around like Valvano.” But Johnathan Kwong, a 2006 graduate, points to a player. “My favorite moment was in 2003 when Julius Hodge said, ‘We hungry, we eat.’”
Who’s your favorite player on this year’s squad? Daniel McIlmoyle, a 2010 graduate from Augusta, Ga., points to C.J. Leslie. “He’s just so explosive,” McIlmoyle says. “We haven’t had a player like that in a long time.” Virgilia Moore, who received her graduate degree from NC State, was hesitant to choose. “I’d say [Lorenzo] Brown,” she says. “I like the little guys and he’s taken charge.”
What’s your prediction for tonight? Many fans hesitated with an answer. Jason Santiago, a 2007 NC State graduate, was sure and quick. “67-64, State. Scott Wood hits a three pointer at the buzzer to win.”
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03.23.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under NC State History, Sports | Comments: No responses |
NC State was in the Final Four, but the team standing in their way to a spot in the championship game was none other than the basketball dynasty known as UCLA.
UCLA had won seven consecutive national championships and, earlier in the 1973-74 season, had humiliated the Wolfpack 84-66 in a game played in St. Louis, Mo. (The site, as it happens, of another big NC State game tonight.) It was the only game that NC State, led by David Thompson and Tommy Burleson, lost that season.
“We just weren’t good enough to win that day,” point guard Monte Towe said in an account in NC State Basketball: 100 Years of Tradition, by Tim Peeler and Roger Winstead.
But on this day in 1974, NC State was more than good enough to win. As every Pack fan knows, NC State defeated UCLA 80-77 in double overtime. Two days later, the Pack defeated Marquette to win the national championship. The Sporting News says the 1973-74 NC State team was one of the 10 greatest college basketball teams of all time.
We recently talked with Burleson about the UCLA game and his personal rivalry with Bruins’ center Bill Walton.
“That was the game that was going to make or break what we were doing,” Burleson said. “It was do or die.”
Burleson said Walton showed him no respect, “as usual,” and was demanding the ball from his teammates as time was running out.
“They needed a basket and he said ‘Throw me the ball,’” Burleson recalled. “As we got down and set up in defense, (Jamaal) Wilkes had the ball. I cut off the passing lane and stole the ball. A pump fake would have burned me big time, but I went with my gut and jumped the route and stole the ball. That sort of sealed the game.”
Burleson and his teammates reacted with a mixture of elation and relief. “We were really happy after the UCLA game,” Burleson said, “because we knew we had gotten over the big hurdle.”
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