June 2012
06.30.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Alumni News, NC State History, NC State People, NCSU Libraries | Comments: One response |
Few individuals loom larger over NC State and its 125 years of success than John T. Caldwell, who served as the university’s chancellor from 1959 until he retired on this day in 1975.
NC State blossomed under Caldwell’s leadership, growing from a student body of 6,100 to more than 15,700 during his time as chancellor. Several new campus buildings, including D.H. Hill Library, were constructed under Caldwell’s watch.
Even the university’s name changed — from N.C. State College to N.C. State University.
But Caldwell was remembered as much for his steady hand and encouraging words as he led students to great work at NC State and elsewhere.
“John Caldwell radiated confidence, joy, excitement, enthusiasm, and his heart was as big as all outdoors,” William Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system, said in a 1996 article in NC State alumni magazine after Caldwell died.
Friday, a 1941 graduate of NC State, said that Caldwell sought the best in others. “He was in the right place at the right time, had the right values in his heart,” Friday said.
Caldwell’s legacy lives on at NC State. In 1987, Caldwell Hall was named for him for Caldwell’s “wisdom and vision in guiding this university through a period of unprecedented growth.”
The Alumni Association’s Caldwell Scholars program is also named for the former chancellor, carrying on his dedication to student leadership and community service.
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06.29.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Alumni News, College of Engineering, College of Management | Comments: No responses |
Oliver Brooks, Zane Chrane and John Rogers were all students at NC State during the mid-2000s. But they had different majors and graduated in different years, so they never met during their years on campus.
But then they all went to Harvard Business School, getting to know each other as they pursued their MBAs. They also got together with other NC State alumni in the Boston area to watch Wolfpack football and basketball games.
And, in May, all three graduated with an MBA from Harvard.
“We became friends at Harvard through classes that we were in together,” says Brooks, who graduated from NC State in 2007 with a degree in business administration. Brooks is going to work for Harris Williams & Co., a global middle market investment bank based in Richmond, Va.
Chrane, who graduated from NC State in 2003 with a degree in engineering, is going to work as a management consultant for McKinsey & Co. in New York City.
Rogers, who graduated from NC State in 2005 with a degree in mechanical engineering, is moving to Brussels, Belgium, to work for AB InBev as a global procurement raw materials manager.
Oliver Brooks, Zane Chrane
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06.29.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Alumni Association News | Comments: No responses |
The Alumni Association’s Ginny Hall is with a group of NC State alumni and friends on a Wolftreks cruise along the Mediterranean, exploring the shores of France, Monaco, Italy, Greece and Turkey. Here is her first dispatch from their journey:
Mr. Wuf enjoys the cruise
Our trip began in the beautiful city of Barcelona, where our first stop was the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Família was begun in 1882 by the diocesan architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. At the end of 1883, Antoni Gaudi was commissioned to carry on the work, a task which he did not abandon until his death in 1926. Since then different architects have continued the work after his original idea and now, over 100 years since it was begun, it still is not finished. This is because it is an “expiatory” church, meaning it is built only with donations. Based on historic trends, the official estimated completion date of the basilica is some 150 years from now but, due to increased tourism, resulting in more revenue, it is rumored that Sagrada Familia could be completed in as few as fourteen years.
We next toured the Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia (also known as Barcelona Cathedral). Unlike most cathedrals, this one has several of its chapels outside the cathedral. Because the chapels were sponsored by local organizations that wanted to represent their success and wealth, the chapels contain the finest marbles, gold and jewels. They have ornate, spike-topped wrought iron gates to protect them, but are not impenetrable. The solution to this challenge was the 16th century security system called geese. Geese are aggressive, have teeth, will only accept food from their known handler (so, unlike many dogs, cannot be distracted with a juicy steak), and become upset and honk loudly when a stranger enters their domain. The geese are still there today, but they are now kept inside a gated enclosure to protect visitors.
After touring the cathedral, we continued on foot through the area surrounding the oldest medieval square in Barcelona. This area was originally built by the Romans and, while most of the streets have been widened to allow vehicle access, some of the original Roman streets (only 600 feet wide!) remain.
Next it was on to the harbor to board our beautiful ship, Oceania Cruises’ Regatta. The Regatta is small by cruise ship standards, with space for less than 700 guests. This allows for a much more intimate and luxurious experience — there are less than two passengers for every crew member.
The first night of our cruise, our tour company, Go Next, hosted a reception for our group, along with all the many other alumni groups aboard the ship. This is the first time our entire Wolfpack group assembled and we had a wonderful time. While we are not the largest alumni group on board, when our name was called, our cheering was certainly the loudest!
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06.28.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under NC State History, Sports | Comments: No responses |
There was a time, not that long ago, when basketball players weren’t drafted by the NBA until after they had played for four years in college. The notion sounds so old-school these days, with players barely sticking around long enough to find their way around campus before they jump to the NBA.
But on this day in 1983, three seniors (yes, seniors) from NC State’s national championship team were selected in the NBA draft.
Thurl Bailey was chosen by the Utah Jazz with the seventh pick in the first round. Sidney Lowe was chosen by the Chicago Bulls with the first pick of the second round. And Dereck Whittenburg was chosen by the Phoenix Suns in the third round.
Frank Layden, then the head coach and general manager of the Jazz, said Bailey’s basketball talent was only part of the reason the team drafted him so high.
“When we chose Thurl we felt like there were probably some players available with more talent,” Layden said in a story about Bailey in the March 1985 issue of NC State alumni magazine. “But we talked to Jim Valvano who told us, ‘Don’t look at Thurl as just a player. As a person, he’ll make your team better.’ When we checked with Dean Smith and other coaches in the ACC, they all said the same thing.”
Another ACC star, Virginia’s Ralph Sampson, was chosen by the Houston Rockets with the first overall pick of the draft.
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06.26.2012 | by Chris Saunders | Filed under Administration | Comments: No responses |
Photograph by Becky Kirkland.
Friday marks the last day NC State’s campus will see Thomas H. Stafford Jr. ‘66 MS as vice chancellor for student affairs. He’s retiring after almost 30 years in that position. But he vows to stay around, perhaps continuing to give his Bell Tower tours on campus.
Stafford will welcome staff, faculty and anyone from the community to his office Friday to bid adieu. Visitors are welcome from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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06.22.2012 | by Chris Saunders | Filed under Administration, Alumni News, Campus News, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences | Comments: No responses |
Photo by Bryan Regan. Courtesy of Brian DuMont.
Brian DuMont ‘98 was sitting in a class during spring semester in 1997 when his mind drifted to what he would do for work that upcoming summer. He was dissatisfied with past summer gigs with unappreciative bosses, so he turned to one of his friends to brainstorm. That’s when his friend gave him an idea not just for that summer’s work, but one that was the basis for DuMont’s thriving business today.
“He said, ‘Forget about working for someone else,’” DuMont says. “‘Grab a mower and cut some yards.”
That’s exactly what DuMont did 15 years ago. He and a couple of his fraternity brothers spent that summer posting signs and depending on word of mouth to attract work. Fifteen years later, Dumont, 36, is still in the lawncare game as the owner and CEO of Yard-Nique, a Morrisville, N.C.,-based company that does commercial and residential landscaping maintenance and installations.
The company has grown to 225 employees with locations across the state. It is the official landscaper of the Carolina Hurricanes, and DuMont was recently named as one of the Triangle’s top executives in Triangle Business Journal’s annual “40 Under 40″ list.
DuMont, who came from Lawrenceville, N.J., to NC State because of its horticulture program, says he always knew he wanted to run a lawncare business.
“As early as I can remember, I loved working out in the yard with my dad,” he says. “My dad would get a truckload of mulch, and we would go lay it. We’d go to a nursery and pick out plants. I don’t think I ever changed my mind about what I wanted to do.”
Even though DuMont had the love of working outdoors, he had to gain his business acumen through on-the-job training. He says there were no business classes for him to take in his horticulture major, so his operation simply started out of his kitchen in his house he had near downtown Raleigh. He says the key to going from that small model to a company that continues to grow despite a poor economy is hiring good people he can trust, many of whom are Wolfpackers.
“That’s probably the hardest thing for small business owners is letting go,” he says. “I pulled a lot from State. I’ve had a lot of great interns from State. I think the biggest thing is to realize you can’t do it on your own.”
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06.21.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under NC State in the News, Sports | Comments: 2 responses |
Any Wolfpack fan knows that the greatest sports moment in the history of the state was when NC State beat heavily favored Houston to win the NCAA championship in 1983.
But did you know it was the greatest sports moment in the history of another state as well?
In its latest issue, ESPN magazine reports on the results of a reader survey about the greatest sports moments in each state. In California, it was the win by the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship game in 1981. In Florida, it was the perfect NFL season by the Miami Dolphins in 1972. In Massachusetts, it was the Boston Red Sox overcoming an 0-3 series deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series.
And in North Carolina, it was NC State’s 1983 national championship in basketball. That win easily outpaced the runner-up — Michael Jordan leading UNC to the NCAA championship in 1982. More than 38 percent of the magazine’s readers voted for NC State’s championship, while slightly less than 19 percent voted for the UNC championship.
But NC State’s accomplishment was significant enough to also rank as the top sports moment in New Mexico, site of the 1983 Final Four. ESPN readers overwhelmingly chose that over New Mexico’s runner-up, Brian Urlacher (a University of New Mexico alum) winning the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year award in 2000.
“The state earns the tag of the Land of Slim Pickings for sports moments,” the magazine wrote of New Mexico.
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06.20.2012 | by Chris Saunders | Filed under Academics, Alumni Association News, Alumni News, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, NC State History | Comments: No responses |
Seventy-two students arrived at the North Carolina College of Agriculture & Mechanic Arts in the fall of 1889, some of them men and some boys no older than 14. They joined six professors for the great educational experiment that would become NC State. But curriculum, class time and homework was a different life for some of the young men who had grown up in the agrarian world of their families’ farms. So the numbers immediately dwindled.
“At the beginning of its 2nd year 18 of its registrants of the first year were together with one new one registered,” wrote L.T. Yarbrough, a member of the first freshman class at A&M College, in a 1943 letter included in his biography file at the Alumni Association. And it was on this day in 1893 that those 19 young men, NC State’s first class, graduated and received their degrees.
Those graduates went on to work in an array of jobs. Frank Floyd worked on linotype machines for Knoxville, Tenn., newspapers before getting into the coal mining business. C.B. Williams became the fist dean of N.C. State College’s School of Agriculture. And S.E. “Doc” Asbury was known as a Renaissance man of Texas A&M University, where he transcended his job of chemist to study Texas’ history, poetry, drama and music.
“A number of ‘green’ country boys arrived on A&M College (New State College) in 1889,” Yarbrough wrote of that first freshman class, “and after four hectic years, all save two left for about as many locations–some never to return.”
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06.12.2012 | by Chris Saunders | Filed under Alumni News, Student Life | Comments: One response |
Stephen Judge in Schoolkids.
It’s not often that you hear of someone coming to NC State to start a career in the music industry, but that’s what Stephen Judge ‘97, ‘98, owner of Schoolkids Records, did.
But Judge couldn’t settle for one career. As a record-store owner, music label president and magazine publisher, Judge is a rock ‘n’ roll Cerberus.
Judge grew up in Rocky Mount, N.C., and spent his high school years making regular sojourns to Raleigh to buy music he could only get at Schoolkids, which has been in the Triangle since 1974.
He’d buy Sugarcubes and Soul Asylum records, and the experience introduced him to a living, breathing alternative music scene that left him wanting more. “It was like a whole new world and like the tip of the iceberg,” Judge says.
So Judge decided to come to NC State, go to shows at the Brewery and secure what he saw as an “internship” in music at Schoolkids. He got a job there his sophomore year.
Judge worked at Schoolkids for a couple of years until he left to manage Athenaeum, a band from Greensboro, N.C. He returned to Schoolkids in the mid-’90s and managed its Cary and North Raleigh stores until Redeye Distribution, a Haw River, N.C., independent record distributor, hired him as its marketing director. He worked there for seven years and became the company’s first general manager, a position he credits with teaching him valuable business lessons to supplement his NC State business management and accounting degrees.
Last April, Judge felt the pull to invest in the place that had given his career to him and add it to the list of his music industry endeavors. He’s also president of Second Motion Records and publishes Blurt magazine. At the time of his purchase, Schoolkids had closed its Cary, North Raleigh and Chapel Hill stores. Judge didn’t want an institution on Hillsborough Street to suffer the same fate.
“It’s such an important place to me,” he says. “If it wasn’t for Schoolkids, I wouldn’t have had the career I’ve had for 22 years. The shopping experience can come in many different ways, but you can’t replace going into the store.”
Judge says Schoolkids’ legacy is the intimacy music lovers share with the favorite albums, something he believes many mom-and-pop stores around the country depend on to thrive. “People remember this is the place where they bought their first Ryan Adams record. ‘I bought my first U2 album there,’” he says. “I think Schoolkids is synonymous with that.”
One facet that should help preserve that legacy for Schoolkids and Judge is the resurgence of vinyl, which has been a boon for record stores the last few years. Judge says vinyl sales have grown 40 percent and account for 50 percent of sales at Schoolkids. He attributes that to consumers growing bored with the music on their computers and iPods .
“There is an appreciation for the physical component of it, holding something in your hand again,” he says. “The artwork is better. And a lot of it has to do with the sound. Vinyl sounds so much better than a CD.”
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06.11.2012 | by Bill Krueger | Filed under Administration, Alumni News | Comments: No responses |
Photo courtesy the University of Kentucky
Mike Mullen, who earned a doctorate in soil science at NC State in 1987, is returning to the university as the new vice chancellor and dean of the Division of Academic and Student Affairs.
Mullen, who begins work at NC State in August, replaces Thomas H. Stafford Jr. ‘66 MS, who is retiring as vice chancellor of student affairs after 29 years in the position.
Mullen currently works at the University of Kentucky, where he is the associate provost for the Division of Undergraduate Education and dean of undergraduate studies.
Provost Warwick Arden announced Mullen’s hiring, saying he has “considerable expertise, skill and a passion for student success.”
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