But when he was interviewed for the Student Leadership Initiative, an effort by NCSU Libraries to document the efforts of student leaders at NC State through the years and record their memories of their time on campus, Friday talked more about challenging times during his years on campus.

William Friday, center, as senior class president

The project features three interview segments with Friday. In one, Friday talks about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, saying “it changed everything” at NC State. “Boy, it [NC State] got right into the war effort up to its neck,” Friday said.

Friday also talked about his days working in cotton mills for 18.5 cents an hour. He said that when Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president, his pay in the mills jumped to 37.5 cents an hour. “And I’ve been a Democrat ever since,” he said with a laugh.

Friday recalled “those glorious days at NC State,” but noted that he came here as a transfer student after initially enrolling at Wake Forest with a $50 scholarship. But given that his father was in the textiles business, Friday decided it was best to transfer to NC State.

Nonetheless, it was on this day in 1988 that the ground was officially broken for a new home for the College of Textiles on Centennial Campus. The 300,000-foot square foot facility, which was actually to be four interconnected buildings, was expected to cost $30 million to build and equip. Over 175 people turned out for the groundbreaking.

“If this $30 million investment says anything, it says the textiles industry is a number one priority at North Carolina State University,” then-Chancellor Bruce Poulton said at the groundbreaking, according to an account in the Technician. “This building is really symbolic of our constant commitment to have the best College of Textiles in the free world.”

The new College of Textiles complex was dedicated in 1991.

At least 17 NC State alumni work at the Baltimore headquarters of the sporting apparel company, according to Blakely. “It’s a lot for a small company,” says Blakely, who graduated from NC State in 2007 with a textiles degree.

Blakely, director of material development, works with a team to develop and engineer textiles that Under Armour uses for their athletic wear. “We’re engineering the fabrics that go into garments,” he says. “Part of that is working with our mill partners and the other part is working with design partners here.”

The view from Kyle Blakely's desk at Under Armour

Blakely attributes the large number of employees at Under Armour from NC State to the education that the university provides. “Most of us are from College of Textiles,” he says. “But, one is from sports marketing – that’s a big deal. I think there are a few with engineering degrees, but it’s mostly textiles. We do have other fields present and we even have a few from UNC. Most of them majored in finance.”

It’s nice to have so many colleagues who share his Wolfpack background, Blakely says. “Baltimore – it’s a great city, but we’re from North Carolina,” he says. “Anyone from North Carolina that has lived there for an extended period has an understanding about how great it is down South. It’s nice to have people here that understand your culture and your background.”

Blakely and his coworkers have filled their walls with NC State paraphernalia. “I have an NC State jersey on the wall,” he says. “It’s everywhere. You can tell NC State people because we have it all over our desks. Everybody displays their NC State stuff with a lot of pride.”

In addition to hiring so many NC State graduates, Under Armour has developed a more formal partnership with the university. “We have a great working professional relationship with NC State,” says Blakely. “We show some of our designers our school, show them the textiles machine. We take proofs to NC State and (the designers) have a whole new perspective. It’s beyond just us working here.”

The success that Blakely and his NC State colleagues have enjoyed at Under Armour, he says, undercuts any suggestion that a degree in textiles is not useful in today’s economy. “While the manufacturing side isn’t as heavy as it used to be, there are still mills in this hemisphere and they are thriving,” he says. “There are many job opportunities and brands (in textiles) … In all reality, there is more opportunity than ever, especially since we’re specialized and there are not a lot of us (textile majors).”

Blakely says his textiles degree has worked well for him. “When I came into textiles, people were like are you kidding me?” he says. “I couldn’t be happier. I have the coolest job on the planet.”

—Molly Green

Ramquist will be joined on the expedition by his 10-year-old son Charlie. “Around the age of 2 or 3,” Ramquist says, “Charlie was diagnosed with a rare inflammatory disease called eosinophilic esophagitis (EE), which simply put means he’s actively allergic to almost all foods.”

Eosinophilic esophagitis is a disease in which the body produces an excess of esophageal eosinophils – a type of white blood cell – causing chronic inflammation, tissue damage and potentially permanent scarring in the throat and upper gastrointestinal tract.

Ramquist and his son are members of Team Climb for EE (Team Kili) – a diverse group of individuals including adolescents and adults diagnosed with EE, relatives and family friends of those affected by EE, as well as doctors, college students and outdoor enthusiasts, all hoping to raise money and awareness for the disease through the CURED Foundation.

Next summer, Team Kili will travel to Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. Before beginning the 37-mile hike, Ramquist, Charlie and the rest of the group will spend a few days volunteering at a small orphanage for children.

For many of the climbers diagnosed with EE, preparations for the trip have already started. “This will require a lot of physical training, and we’re going to be dealing with a lot of dietary restrictions,” says Ramquist, who manages a team specializing in green energy development for Siemen’s Power Transmission & Distribution, Inc. “Currently, there are only eight foods my son can eat, such as turkey, chicken, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, carrots and tomatoes. A handful of the kids going, however, can only have formula.”

“As a protective dad, the idea of my 10-year-old son doing something like this is nerve-racking,” Ramquist says. It was ultimately the enthusiastic “You should go for it!” from his wife, who started a local EE support group in Raleigh, that convinced Ramquist to submit his and Charlie’s applications for the Climb for EE expedition.

Ramquist is grateful that the trip has given his family “an avenue to talk more about what we’re going through.” “Now,” he says, “we’ve accepted the disease, and we’re trying to figure out how to handle it. We don’t want Charlie to feel like a victim, but I also don’t think he understands what it will be like for the rest of his life – especially the medical aspects like the cost of formula and dealing with insurance companies.”

Additionally, Ramquist worries about Charlie’s matter-of-fact outlook. “Charlie asked me the other day, ‘I wonder what will be the first thing I’ll eat when we find a cure,’” Ramquist says. “For someone who can barely eat anything, he loves going out to dinner. He’ll walk around smelling what people have ordered, and then rate which foods he thinks would taste the best.”

Charlie was first hospitalized when he was three months old, and it’s been an uphill battle since for him, his parents and his older sister. “We fed him milk supplemented with formula every three hours, day and night. It was a very intense period – a lot of time and effort spent trying to get him to grow,” Ramquist says. Charlie’s symptoms, such as difficulty swallowing and inexplicable abdominal pain, persisted for a few years until he received his official diagnosis. “The only way to confirm EE is through an endoscopy and a tissue biopsy of the esophagus,” says Ramquist.

“We’re incredibly fortunate that Charlie’s pediatrician was really young and had just learned about EE during his residency,” he says. “Most doctors who graduated from medical school more than 10 or 15 years ago have little to no experience with EE and often misdiagnose it as other gastrointestinal disorders. The diagnostic process for Charlie – though it seemed like forever at the time – was much quicker than it is for a lot of kids.”

Shortly thereafter, Ramquist and his wife found out about the leading facility in research on EE, the Cincinnati Center for Eosinophilic Disorders (CCED) of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. “We elected to participate in one of their clinical trials on allergy testing,” says Ramquist. “Once we finished the trial and had an idea of which food antigens Charlie’s system could and couldn’t handle, we started the long and challenging process of gradually introducing a single food – we’re currently working on watermelon – and then waiting to see how he physically reacts to them.”

This trial-and-error process, combined with endoscopies and biopsies every 3-4 months, is common among patients with EE. The medication regimen for EE generally includes steroids, which coat the esophagus, and antacids. So far, there is no cure, but Ramquist hopes the money raised by the Climb for EE expedition will make a difference.

“This disease is really starting to impact adults as well as children, and it’s increasing significantly in prevalence. We need to raise money, and we need to spread awareness,” Ramquist says. If Team Kili reaches their fundraising goal, they’re hoping to give the CURED Foundation a check for approximately $200,000. “That would be one of the largest donations CURED has ever received, and 100 percent of the funds are applied to research for eosinophilic disease.”

Donations can be made directly through the CURED website. Contributions from corporate sponsors, individual donors, and equipment sponsors can be designated for a specific climber through the Climb for EE team support site.

—Lindsay Williams

It was for the love of Lacey that Brittany Saad started a non-profit rescue program for horses with medical conditions that have no other option.

“Lacey was my first rescue horse,” she says. “She had the biggest heart and when we lost her due to ulcers rupturing, I knew then that I was going to rescue horses like her that had no one to speak up for them and give them a chance.”

Lacey used to be a show horse. She developed a condition called Laminitis, which affects a horse’s hooves, and was then left outside to die until Saad found her. “No veterinarian could believe that she was alive,” she says. “Her X-rays were some of the most gruesome that they had seen and no other horse would have survived.”

Love of Lacey Equine Rescue, Saad’s non-profit organization, is named for this beloved horse. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about Lacey and how much I miss her,” she says. “It is the extreme love for her and her love for life that I rescue horses.”

Saad, a 2006 NC State graduate, stays busy with her organization, which is based in Wake County. “I work with ten rescues, soon to be 11 when a foal is born this month,” she says. Saad was encouraged to begin her journey with her own horse rescue program after the death of her father. “When my dad passed away in August, I had to have something more to do with my life,” she says. “So I chose to help my life by doing what I love more than anything … and start my rescue.”

Saad knows her dad would approve. “He always told me I was going to have a rescue someday,” she says. “(He) really inspired me through my life with following my dreams and was always going to the barn with me. This is a dream come true.”

Saad works a full-time job as a veterinarian technician at Hilltop Animal Hospital in Fuquay-Varina, N.C., and cares for her ten rescues – horses that have been abused or neglected – and her own three horses every night. Her healing methods include gentle therapy and trust-building exercises that make the horses who have known mostly fear feel comfortable with her. “They have been neglected or abused by people,” she says. “Treats are a great way to show pleasurable responses to these guys as they are very food motivated.”

The length of time a horse spends with Saad is dependent on the kind of life the horse had before. “Horses that have been raced or over-ridden get a minimum of six months just learning to be a horse – eating, playing, just getting to have some time off,” she says. “They need to just get love and be a happy, grazing, playing horse. It is good therapy for their mind … they normally have not had that privilege in their lifetime.”

Love of Lacey mostly survives on fundraisers and donations. Adoption fees, which start at $400 a horse, also go back into funding the rescue. “The horses are adopted (by) homes that have been approved for horses and we hold partial ownership of the horses as a security measure,” she says. “This prevents the horse from being sold or given away.”

Saad loves her job and her work with horses, and  hopes to go to veterinarian school and major in equine medicine in the near future.  “It will certainly make things much more difficult but I am not a person that can just do one thing,” she says. “I don’t know what to do with myself if I’m not being pulled in five directions.”

— Molly Green

Thanks to the folks at NCSU Libraries, you can find the answer to these and other questions about student life at NC State through the years. Through a project known as the Student Leadership Initiative, NCSU Libraries has assembled oral histories, photographs and other documents associated with student leaders at NC State. The project’s website featured video interviews with everyone from former senior class president William Friday to former student body president James B. Hunt Jr.

Over the course of this summer, we will periodically feature some of the project’s work here at redandwhiteforlife.com. So stay tuned.

Upon hearing it, people might think of the Greek god of the music, poetry, prophecy and intellect. Or people might think of the outer boundaries of scientific discovery that were rendered limitless when Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969, putting men there for the first time. Some might think of the numerous historically significant performances under the lights at Harlem’s Apollo Theater that gave voice to African-American artists throughout the 20th century.

And for others, Apollo’s a towering boxer that it took two movies for Rocky to defeat.

And NC State is not without its own association to the name, as on this day in 1958 it was announced that there would be a new club forming on campus to “promote knowledge and intellectual curiosity.” It was named the Apollo Club.

Don Malpass (left), the associate secretary of the YMCA, and Oscar Wooldridge, coordinator of religious affairs and general secretary of the YMCA, hold a program from one of the Apollo Club's lectures.

The Technician in 1958 framed the club as “a new adventure into the modern world of thought [that] is about to occur on the campus of State College.” The YMCA sponsored the club, which held four meetings each semester where members would eat dinner and then listen to a lecture by “a nationally or internationally famous authority on some subject of humanistic importance.”

The first lecture, scheduled for October 1958, addressed technological concerns. The club kicked off its beginnings on campus that year with 75 members who became more sophisticated for a relatively cheap price.

“The club is open to anyone who has a real interest in ethical problems of today,” The Technician reported. “A member must be able to pay for his meal which will be one dollar.”

Ted Brown being congratulated his senior year on "Ted Brown Day."

Former NC State running back Ted Brown was expecting a simple return home when he arrived back in Minnesota in early May, fresh off a trip to Florida. But when Brown went through his mail, he came across a package that caught his attention.

The package was from the National Football Foundation, and Brown was puzzled because he doesn’t know anyone working there. Then he saw a football in the package, which didn’t strike him as odd since people frequently send him memorabilia to sign. But what was printed on the football welcomed him to a special place for an athlete.

“Ted Brown, North Carolina State University, Member of the 2013 College Football Hall of Fame Class.”

The College Football Hall of Fame honor, Brown says, caught him off guard because it’s been a while since he ran over Wolfpack foes from 1975-78. In those four seasons, Brown became the ACC’s all-time leading rusher with 4,602 yards and 51 touchdowns.

“I was surprised but pleased to finally be recognized for the hard work  I put in through college,” he says. “I had thought my numbers were good enough. …I felt a little overjoyed. Better late than never.”

Brown’s promise as a  runner was realized in his first game as a freshman, running for 121 yards and two touchdowns in the contest against Indiana University. That game helped Brown believe he could do something special. But, he adds, he never set his sights on being one of the greatest running backs in college football history.

“My goal was to play and do the best I could for my teammates,” he says. “The camaraderie we had was so tight. That is so important in sports. If you get any individual honors, it’s probably because you were surrounded by great people.”

And win honors he did. Brown was named first-team All-ACC all four years at NC State, and he was a consensus All-American in 1978. He had a decorated career in his eight seasons for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings. And last fall, he was part of the inaugural class inducted into the NC State Athletic Hall of Fame, an honor he says will always stand out for him.

“Having been in the first class,” Brown says, “it speaks volumes since the school has been there so long. …That feels like family. It felt like my family was recognizing me. [The College Football Hall of Fame] is a great honor, but it wouldn’t have been possible without my having been at NC State.”

The Technician took note of de Carvalho registering for graduate studies in nuclear engineering in 1952. The student newspaper described de Carvalho as “the key man in Brazil’s peacetime development of atomic engineering.” The paper said that de Carvalho planned to return to Brazil after earning his PhD to operate a pilot atomic reactor.

De Carvalho was quite accomplished before arriving at NC State. He had already earned two doctorates and worked as a professor at the University of Recife and the University of Brazil. He had been elected a Fellow in the Brazilian Academy of Sciences and, immediately before coming to NC State, had served as assistant counsel to the scientific director for the newly created National Research Council of Brazil.

Although de Carvalho earned his PhD in nuclear engineering from NC State, he spent much of his time working as a research associate in the Institute for Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago. In his thesis, (”Total Cross Sections of 208-Mev and 315-Mev Protons for Light Elements”) de Carvalho expressed his appreciation for professors at the University of Chicago before thanking NC State professors Clifford Beck, Raymond Murray and A.C. Menius for their assistance.

But on this day in 1954, de Carvalho became the first student in the world — yes, the world — to complete the requirements for a doctorate in nuclear engineering, according to an account in The News & Observer. He was also the first person to ever earn a PhD from NC State’s physics department. A photo showed him standing atop NC State’s nuclear reactor with Beck, head of the Physics Department.

The newspaper account said that de Carvalho flew to Chicago after completing his work so that he could join his family, but that he planned to return to NC State in June to receive his degree.

Built in 1914, it once housed mechanical engineering “shop” classes such as woodworking and welding. In later years it became a headquarters for the university’s facilities operations such as keymaking and plumbing. Although its functions had nothing to do with students, it was smack dab in the middle of student activity.

But thanks to a 2009 renovation, Park Shops is now home to light-filled lecture halls, laboratories for classes such as anthropology and forensic analysis, and advising offices. A Port City Java café with arched windows and exposed brick walls provides a place for students to gather. A loading dock where white service vans once parked is now an inviting plaza with trees and benches that faces the new SAS Building, which is home to mathematics and statistics.

During the extensive renovation, architects gutted the building, removed wallboard and sandblasted the existing brick. Narrow gaps between the ceiling edges and the brickwork allow strips of light to wash over the bricks. The renovation also made use of skylights and included acoustical improvements.

Park Shops may not be home to machinery shops anymore, but it keeps its name. It was named for Charles Benjamin Park, a Raleigh native who graduated from the Raleigh Male Academy. A former machinist with the Seaboard Coastline Railroad, he was superintendent at the shops for nearly 50 years, and impressed students with model locomotives he constructed.

–Sylvia Adcock ‘81

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Campus Changes is a periodic series on redandwhiteforlife.com looking at changes to NC State’s campus. Some installments will look at major changes, such as the ongoing renovation of Talley Student Center, while others will look at smaller changes in various corners of campus.