Helping Ron
ring the bell
A group of 150 political, education and business leaders from 33 countries—including a swarm of ECU alumni—helped open the new Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta on June 13. Located in a converted warehouse near Turner Field in downtown, the  private school will greet its first classes of middle school pupils in September. Clark raised more than $2 million to create the school to serve disadvantaged inner-city kids. Donations from a host of fellow Pirates helped tremendously, he said.

The school will weave art, dance, music and business leadership classes into its curriculum, as well as international trips for students. By the time they finish the eighth grade, students will have visited six of the seven continents. Clark is teaching fifth grade.

“It’s all about empowering these kids,” Clark said during a tour of the school. “Whatever they want to do, whatever they want to become, they can do it and we want to give them the skills to do so.” Students attending the school will pay heavily discounted tuition—an average of $30 per month—on a sliding scale based on their parents’ income, and parents must volunteer 40 hours a year at the school. Donations will pay the rest of the $14,000 annual tuition.

Clark is a New York Times bestselling author and a Disney’s American Teacher of the Year whose work was chronicled in last year’s made-for-TV movie, The Ron Clark Story.


 

Cunanans fund lecture series
A gift from Steve ’87 and Ellen ’88 Cunanan is funding creation of a new lecture series on leadership in the College of Business. The Cunanan Leadership Speaker Series will offer quarterly lectures on business, government and public affairs. The speakers will address topics in leadership, professional development, ethics and the role of business in modern society.

Steve Cunanan, a Sigma Phi Epsilon who was SGA president his senior year, now serves as vice president of human resources for the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Group of Companies. “I have seen how important it is to become exposed to people who have distinguished themselves, and have a chance to hear what they say. I wanted the university to be able to bring some of those thought leaders to campus and expose the faculty and students and the community to those ideas and hopefully move people to action.” A grant from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation matched the Cunanans’ gift.

The Cunanans reside in Richboro, Pa., where Ellen is active in the nonprofit community.

Meanwhile, a new scholarship in the College of Business is made possible by a gift from alumna Bonnie Brown ’71, which she made in honor of her parents’ lifelong commitment to community service and to mark their 60th wedding anniversary. The Howard and Virginia Brown Community Spirit Scholarship will award $4,000 per year to a full- time, undergraduate student enrolled the College of Business. Recipients must demonstrate active involvement in their communities, whether on or off campus. Brown said a scholarship that recognizes students for service is “a fitting tribute to my mother and father at a very special time in their lives.” She credits her parents for inspiring her own dedication to service, noting that her father emphasized service to customers before it was the “in thing.” Bonnie Brown is a management consultant in Alexandria, Va. Her gift raises to more than $70,000 the amount of scholarships awarded each year by the College of Business. Formerly a partner in Coopers and Lybrand, she is co-author of Public Dollars, Common Sense—New Roles for Financial Managers.





Jeff Kerr ’99, a Troutman native who ran the 40-yard dash in about 4.5 seconds when he played inside linebacker at ECU, has used that speed to good advantage in his career. He’s a member of Martin Truex Jr.’s pit crew and won the jack man competition in the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Pit Crew Challenge. His pit crew also won the overall prize: They changed four tires from individual stations, filled the car with 18 gallons of gas and pushed the car 40 yards in a time of 25.44 seconds.

Tony Guzzo ’71, a former baseball coach at virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion who was a baseball catcher and football kicker at ECU, is a scout for the Boston Red Sox in the Mid Atlantic region. Guzzo kicked the winning field goal in ECU’s victory over Marshall on Nov. 14, 1970, before that team’s plane crashed on the flight home. His daughter Gina now is a softball catcher at Marshall.




Amelia Badders ’92 was promoted to director of strategic services and administration in the Energy Delivery Services Division of CPS Energy, the natural gas and electric utility serving 630,000 homes in San Antonio, Texas. Badders has worked at CPS energy in escalating roles for the past 11 years. Previously, she was the utility’s manager of strategic planning. After receiving her undergraduate degree, Badders moved to San Antonio, where she received a master’s degree in technology management from the University of Texas-San Antonio in 2004. San Antonio Business Journal named her one of the city’s young rising stars.




Brent Lubbock ’03 and his parents won the Northeastern Entrepreneurial Roundtable’s 13th annual Entrepreneur of the Year award for developing the Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park and Eco-Center in Scotland Neck. The facility is dedicated to educating people about the importance of conservation and research, with a focus on waterfowl and wetland habitats. Lubbock is the park’s manager of membership and development. Sylvan Heights, which boasts the largest collection of waterfowl in the world, is supported by the N.C. Zoo Society.

Former ECU and NFL star linebacker George Koonce ’99 ’06 resigned as director of player development for the Green Bay Packers to become senior associate athletic director at Marquette University. His duties will include fund raising, community relations and assisting in the welfare of student- athletes, much like his role in player development with the Packers.




Bob Greczyn Jr. ’73 of Durham, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, was elected chairman  of the Board of Trustees at the board’s July meeting, succeeding Stephen Showfety ’70 of Greensboro. David S. Brody of Kinston, managing partner of Brody Associates and co-owner of Brody Brothers Dry goods and eastern Carolina Coca-Cola, was elected vice chair. Margaret C. Ward ’61 ’63 of Burlington, a noted civic leader and a longtime supporter of ECU, was elected secretary of the board.

Before becoming head of North Carolina’s largest health insurer in 1999, Greczyn was CEO of Healthsource Health Plans. He serves on the board of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and on the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. He chairs the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, an alliance of the nation’s leading health plans working on simplifying health care transactions. He also chairs the Research Triangle Regional Partnership and the UNC School of Public Health’s “Carolina First” Campaign Committee. The Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Policy Research recently named Greczyn a research fellow. He serves on the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust advisory board and the board and executive committee of the Triangle United Way. He is a director of the N.C. Institute of Medicine and past chair of the March of Dimes’ Walk America.

Brody serves on the board of the ECU Medical foundation and is president of The Brody Brothers Foundation. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where he was a member of the Friars Senior Society. The Brody school of Medicine honors the Brody family.

Ward and her husband, Robert A. Ward ’62, a former chairman of the ECU Board, are major benefactors of the university. The Ward Sports Medicine Building on the campus is named for them. Margaret Ward is a member of the ECU Foundation Board, the Alumni Association Board, Chancellors’ Society, and the Pirate Club. She also is a member of the board of visitors of Elon University, the N.C. Film Council, and is an active volunteer for the Alamance Arts Council. She received the Distinguished Service Award from ECU in 1992. 

Several ECU alumni who have supported his work were on hand to help Ron Clark ’94 mark a milestone in help for Atlanta’s inner city kids, including (back row from left) Carlester Crumpler ’93 ’04, Wanda Burgamy ’80, Amanda Nixon ’94, Roger Wise ’63, Charlie Bedford ’55 ’57, Clark and Joey Barr ’97. Crumpler serves on the school’s board of directors, as does actor Matthew Perry, who portrayed Clark in last year’s made-for-TV movie. Taking the pictures was Atlanta photographer Stanley Leary ’84.


By Leanne E. Smith
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2007
DONNELL BROWN is the new assistant principal at Tarboro’s C.B. Martin Middle School. The Tarboro native surprised himself when he followed the advice of a former teacher and returned to Edgecombe County to teach language arts in 2001. In addition to coaching basketball and starting an intramural basketball program, he founded Project Hope, an after-school mentoring effort for at-risk boys that allows them to hear community members speak on topics like academics, finances and sports. DESI R. HIGGS of Fayetteville was assigned to Fort Benning, Ga., for Officer Candidate School. CLAUDINE YIN-CHI WARFEL of Fayetteville and TIMOTHY MARK CORBETT of Wilmington were married May 20 at Bellamy Mansion in Wilmington. The BSOM graduates are family medicine residents at Wake Forest University Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem.

2006
SARA ANN BURTON and John Timothy Whitehurst Jr. were married on May 19 in Bethel, where they reside. She is an assistant drafter at Bill Clark Homes. JESSICA ELAINE GRAY and Bryce Hain Ficken III were married March 31 in LaGrange. She is an exploring life skills teacher at Eastern Wayne Middle School. STACY M. LEONARD and Richard G. Southerland were married May 5 in Raleigh. She works at Greenville’s DSM Pharmaceuticals. MIKE MCDERMOTT was promoted to web developer at Evolve, an advertising, marketing and public relations company in Greenville where he writes code to enhance media and interactivity on web sites. BRANDON W. NEEDHAM, from Advance and Bethania, was named associate constructor by the American Institute of Constructors and is a project engineer for Balfour Beatty Construction in Tampa, Fla. MICHAEL ALEXANDER SHUSKO and Erika Jean Leicht of Bethesda, Md., were married Oct. 21, 2006. He works for CBIZ Accounting. She studied theater at ECU and teaches dance for the Little People’s Creative Workshop. JERRY SIMMONS, an assistant principal at Hunt High School since 2005, is the new principal at Wilson’s Forest Hills Middle School. From 1995 to 2005, he taught middle school math and science in Halifax County. DANIEL STILING, who works for Plan View Design near Wilmington, won the Board of Governors Award in the 40th annual Design/Drafting Contest, sponsored by the American Design Drafting Association, for his design of an office complex. LAMAR WALLER, a sixth grade social studies teacher at Johnston County’s Riverwood Middle School, was named First Year Teacher of the Year and Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year.

2005
KELLY ANDREWS, an assistant principal at Vinson-Bynum Elementary since 2005, is the new principal at Black Creek’s Lee Woodard Elementary School. She taught previously in Beaufort, Harnett, and Johnston counties, and at Lucama Elementary School. LINDSEY BROWN, a former executive director of Greenville’s Creative Living Center, was named community impact associate for United Way of Pitt County. JAMES MORGAN is a commercial lines producer for the Clement Companies, a Greenvillebased insurance and financial services provider. JEFFREY MICHAEL WARD of Charlotte and Jennifer Louise Blair of Fayetteville were married March 24 in Fayetteville. He is an account manager for Maxim Staffing in Charlotte, where they live. KELLY LOU WESTBROOK and Timothy Shaun Elks were married May 19 in Greenville. She is employed by Careworks, and they live in Chocowinity. CHRISTA WILLIAMS and SCOTT SEAMAN were married March 10 in Southport. Living in Cary, she works at PCMH, and he works for KB Home.

2004
MICHAEL BOJTOS, a Rocky Mount native who taught theater and dance courses in Greenville, plays Thomas’ driver in Thomas Saves the Day, a family-oriented touring show featuring Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends. JASON DOUGLAS CALE and MORGAN ELIZABETH SUTTON ’06 of Holly Springs were married May 5 in Winterville. She is an administrative assistant with Access Care in Morrisville. He is a software engineer with Lone Source in Cary. JUSTIN ST. CLAIR FIFE and LEAH JACKLYN PATTERSON ’06 were married on June 2 in Kenansville. He is a project manager/estimator with Group III Management of Kinston, and they live in Albertson. STACEY BROOKS LAMM ’04 ’06 and James Christopher Brown were married on June 2. She is an occupational therapist at Heritage Hospital in Tarboro, and they live in Winterville. LT. PETER FRIEND, based at Fort Hood, Texas, is a tank commander with the U.S. 1st Cavalry in Baghdad, Iraq. LT. CHADWICK E. HYMAN and Julie Rachel Ange were married Dec. 28, 2006, in Greenville. He is assigned to the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. JAMES HENRY JOHNSTON of Chocowinity was promoted from branch manager to assistant vice president at First South Bank in Washington. LAUREN GREY MASON ’04 ’05 and Justin Lee Thorn were married April 21 in Fayetteville. She is a social worker at The Oakwood School, and they live in Winterville. BROOKE BURBAGE OWEN and Dr. William Borden Hooks III were married April 14 in Pinehurst. An Alpha Delta Pi sister, she is an agent with Intracoastal Realty in Wilmington, where they live. MARY ELIZABETH ROONEY and TONY ANDERSON ’07 of McLean, Va., were married April 28 in Washington, D.C. She teaches fourth grade in Herndon, Va., and he recently completed an internship as a program assistant with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington. DONETTA STEINER ’04 ’06, who worked as a communications technician for the city of Greenville and in marketing for Beaufort County Hospital, is the new executive director at the Creative Living Center, an adult care facility in Greenville.

2003
LAURA BOKUS ’03 ’05, who worked in ECU’s online writing lab and taught composition at UNC Charlotte, was named writing center coordinator at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. DAMANE DUCKETT, a former ECU defensive tackle, is an offensive tackle for the San Francisco 49ers. PAUL KAPLAR of Apex, previously a loan processor at First Bank, was promoted to branch officer after being with the bank since 2004. AIMEE NEWSOME LASSITER and WESLEY LOWELL BARNES ’04 were married April 21 in High Point. Both work in Greenville. A Sigma Sigma Sigma sister, she is an account executive with FOX8/FOX14, and he is a consumer/retail lender with East Carolina Bank. BLYTHE DANIELLE MCLAWHORN and Donald Keith Crawford were married May 5. She is a systems analyst at PCMH. COURTNEY MARSHALL NORMAN and Hunter Lee Steed were married May 19 in Rocky Mount. She works for Signsmith in Greenville, and they live in Goldsboro. BRIAN RIMPF, a former ECU football player, signed a one-year, $435,000 deal in March to stay with the Baltimore Ravens after being out for a season recovering from a torn hamstring. THOMAS C. ROBBINS IV was promoted from director of information technology to vice president at First South Bank. Originally from Rocky Mount, he works at First South’s operations center in Washignton, performs in the Beaufort County Choral Society and is vice president of a Philadelphia non-profit that sponsors programs for inner-city youth. JENNIFER ROBERTA SMITH and NEIL THOMAS LINK ’06 were married April 28 in Cary. She works at UNC Chapel Hill, and he works for MacConnell and Associates. They live in Durham. SARA ANN BOCOCK SCHULTZ, of Champaign, Ill., received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Illinois May 13. KELLY GRIFFIN SMITH, a Washington native and Greenville resident, was promoted to assistant vice president at First South Bank in Greenville, where she is also a branch manager. JENNIFER CLAIRE WATERS and Kenneth Todd Dellinger were married March 17. They live in Greenville.

2002
MIKE POWELL, who was a commercial lines account executive for Ward Insurance in Eugene, Ore., is now a commercial lines agent with the Greenville branch of Southern Insurance Agency. KAREN WELLINGTON, who was an N.C. Teaching Fellow, is the new principal at Brogden Middle School in Wayne County. She taught math in Wayne and Wilson counties before being assistant principal at Meadow Lane Elementary School and Goldsboro Middle School.

2001
DARREN and KAREN FLORES KERR of Ashburn, Va., had a daughter, Isabella Margery, on June 7. Darren, who works in sales for INPUT in Reston, Va., and Karen, who works in claims for State Farm Insurance in Fairfax, Va., have two other children, Alexander and Penelope. SCOTT MCLAURIN, a teacher at Ayden- Grifton High School, was named Teacher of the Year by the Winterville Sam’s Club as part of Wal-Mart’s 12th annual contest for National Teacher’s Day. The school receved $1,000, and he received a $100 gift card for classroom supplies and a Teacher of the Year polo shirt. TODD ROUSE, a substation and controls engineer in the electric department at Greenville Utilities, recently celebrated 20 years of service with the company. CARRIE ELLEN WILLIAMS and WILLARD PAUL CORNWELL III ’04 were married April 21. She is a teacher in Craven County, and he teaches and is head football coach at Ayden-Grifton High School.

2000
DONNA MARIE DEES of Fayetteville and Christopher Patrick Aldredge of Buies Creek were married March 17 in Fayetteville. A Chi Omega sister, she is a pharmaceutical sales representative for Sciele Pharma. They live in Buies Creek. MEREDITH NEAL GRIFFIN and Max Joseph Weinstein were married May 5 in Fayetteville, where she is a sales representative with Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

1999
SAMANTHA DASSLER BARLOW, a middle school science teacher at The Oakwood School, was one of 16 nationwide recipients of an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship, an award sponsored by the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. She is a member of the N.C. Science Teachers Association and on the boards of the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation and the Albemarle Pamlico National Estuary Program. SUSAN SNOW BASS of Wilson is the new director of Interdisciplinary Aging (Nursing) Education for Area L AHEC, an affiliate of UNC’s School of Medicine.

1997
B.J. SMITH will provide training and project management in his new job as an interactive account executive at Evolve, an advertising, marketing and public relations company in Greenville. He is a former vice president of digital creation at Criterion Solutions who taught Macromedia Flash classes at PCC and worked with the Kinston Indians, Greenville-Pitt Chamber of Commerce, Carolina Mudcats and Wallace Telecommunications.

1996
CHRIS HAM ’96 ’04 of Creedmoor, the assistant principal at South Granville High School who was previosuly a band director in Vance, Franklin and Onslow counties, will be principal at the new South Granville High School of Engineering and Applied Studies. He is also a doctoral student at ECU. CHRISTOPHER STARBUCK and MANDY DAWN FIELDS ’02 of Winterville were married May 5 in Charleston, S.C. She is a nurse at Eastern Cardiology and he is a nurse in disaster management at PCMH.

1995
JEFF BAINES, who teaches music for grades 4 and 5 and choral music for grades 6 through 8 at Pactolus School, received the 12th annual Greenville Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year recognition in May in honor of National Teacher’s Day. Since he came to Pactolus in August 2006, he started a chorus for grades 4 and 5. ROBERT WARD EVANS JR. ’95 ’97 and Tiffany Casandra Pate were married Sept. 16, 2006, in Clayton. He works for state government. KEMP EWING, formerly Pitt County’s South Central High School football coach, is the new coach at East Carteret High School.

1994
BATTLE BETTS of Elizabeth City, director of policy and planning for Albemarle Regional Health Services and a member of the Pasquotank County Social Services board of directors, was reappointed to the Governor’s Task Force for Healthy Carolinians. JEFF SALEEBY, who was a comptroller at Systel for more than five years and taught evening accounting courses at Fayetteville Technical Community College, is the new finance director for Hope Mills.

1993
VIRGINIA HARDY was named one of ECU’s most outstanding women by the women’s studies program in March at Power and Pearls, an event sponsored by the Ledonia Wright Cultural Center and the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women that featured Maya Angelou as keynote speaker. She was recently named senior associate dean for academic affairs at the Brody School of Medicine. CAROLE MARIE SHARPLESS of Marietta, Ga., is a certified triathlon coach and clinician and a professional triathlete focusing on Ironman competition.

1992
PATRICIA ANN “PATTY” PFEIFFER, a nursing instructor at Wayne Community College, won the college’s George E. Wilson Excellence in Teaching Award, for which she received $4,000 and a trip to the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development’s 2008 International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence in Austin, Texas.

1991
KEVIN DALE CUTLER of Bath was promoted to senior vice president at Wachovia, and as the new community risk director for the company’s mid-south/north region he manages the wholesale underwriting team for north Alabama and Memphis markets. EMILY PROCTER, who plays ballistics specialist Calleigh Duquesne on CSI: Miami, finished eighth in a field of 16 film, television, 40 radio and sports celebrities who participated in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in Long Beach, Calif., in April. Greenville resident and BMX star Dave Mirra won the race. BRIAN SMITH, a former ECU football player and a member of the National Young Agents Committee, is a vice president of Greenville’s Hooker & Buchanan, a 70-year-old insurance company where he has worked for nine years. GEORGE STACKHOUSE is the new boys’ varsity basketball coach at Fayetteville’s Westover High School, where he also will teach physical education. He was head coach at Kinston and Gray’s Creek high schools, and an assistant coach at ECU. MICHELLE LEE STOTT and Stephen Phillippe Webb were married in Durham April 7. They live in Raleigh, and she teaches gifted students at Durham’s Bethesda Elementary School.

1990
SYLVIA GIBSON JOHNSON ’90 ’98 is the new principal at Perquimans Central School. She was a SACS facilitator, instructional specialist, teacher at Hertford Grammar School and assistant principal at Edenton-Chowan’s D.F. Walker Elementary School.

1989
JEFF GIBSON, who worked for Overton’s for 15 years, is a vice president at Greenville’s Hooker & Buchanan, a 70- year-old insurance company where he has worked for five years. MICHELLE ALDRIDGE KING ’89 ’94, a reading recovery specialist with Pitt County Schools, and DONALD “DON” M. KING ’90 ’95, an instructor/advisor at PCC, had a son, Matthew Aldridge King, May 3. They live in Ayden.

1988
CHERYL ANN CURTIS, a Southern Police Institute alum, was promoted to captain with the Greenville Police Department. She is the new administration bureau commander. JOHN L. HOWARD ’88 ’90 teaches MIS 2223: Introduction to Computers for the College of Business’ Department of Management Information Systems. LARRY LEE WEBB, a middle school administrator with Vance County Schools in Henderson, received his EdD from Nova Southeastern University in February with a dissertation entitled Increasing Student Achievement in a Rural North Carolina Middle School. RODNEY MALLETTE of Burke, Va., is director of strategic integration with Agility Defense & Government Services in Alexandria, Va. He develops proposals for new business and integrating new companies into the parent corporation, which is a global provider of integrated supply chain solutions with more than 20,000 employees, 450 offices in 100 countries around the world and more than $4.5 billion in annual revenue.

1987
MARY YVONNE DRAPER FAULKNER of Darien, Conn., and her husband Mack had their third son, Everett “Rhett” Powell, on Jan. 23. He joins 7-year-old Draper and 4-year-old Jake.

1986
MELINDA PEADEN HUDSON and Samuel McBride Pierson IV were married Jan. 14. A School of Nursing grad, she works for Amylin Pharmaceuticals. PAM POLLOCK is the service line director of cardiac services for Cape Fear Valley Health System. She recently directed inpatient nursing services and case management at Highsmith-Rainey Specialty Hospital and was interim director of nursing at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. JOHN PRUITT is the new band director at Fort Mill High School in Fort Mill, S.C., after 11 years as the director of the award-winning band at Cheraw High School in Cheraw, S.C. He is a former member of the Naval Aviation Command Choir who has a commercial pilot’s license and flight instructor rating and received his National Board Certification in 2005. ROBERT STROUD, who helped start the PCMH police department in 1990 and was the ECU police chief from 2003 to 2007, is a deputy in the Pitt County Sheriff ’s Office.

1985
DOUG MUHLE, a martial arts enthusiast and former ECU football player, is a real estate developer in Raleigh. MICHAEL STEINER of Raleigh, whose interior designs modernized the livability of the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, established Michael Steiner Design Interiors in 2005 after being a set designer for movies and television shows like Matlock, a photo stylist, and a partner in Steiner & Schelfe Designs.

1984
Rev. AL WARRICK, former dean of institutional advancement and executive director of the foundation at Johnston Community College, is the senior pastor of Micro Free Will Baptist Church. A motivational speaker, he has given more than 500 talks in the U.S. and England.

1983
DR. ROBERT BAILEY, who has more than 20 years of experience in family practice, joined the staff of Park Ridge Medical Associates in Hendersonville. MADIE BELLE BRYANT ORANGE, a career technical instruction coordinator for the Liberty County School District in Hinesville, Ga., received her PhD in science education from Curtin University of Technology Science and Mathematic Education Centre in Perth, Australia. She and her husband, Cedric Sr., have one son, Cedric II.

1982
CYNTHIA O. GIORGI of Greenville, who has 15 years of banking experience, was promoted from branch manager at the University Medical Center location of The East Carolina Bank to vice president business services officer at the Red Banks Road branch.

1981
DAWN SINGLETON ’81 ’93 is the new principal for both Wintergreen Primary and Intermediate schools in Winterville. She taught at Chocowinity Middle School and ECU before becoming K–8 director for Pitt County Schools, and was assistant principal or principal at South Greenville and Eastern elementary schools and Wintergreen Primary School.

1980
RANDY BEEMAN is the new town manager of Hope Mills. He was town manager of River Bend and received the State County Manager Award while working in Pamlico County. MARY BRYAN CARLYLE, South Central High School’s girls’ basketball coach, was named The Daily Reflector’s Girls’ Coach of the Year.

1979
DEBORAH DAVIS ’79 ’83 is the new chief operating officer at MCV Hospitals, part of the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond, Va. In her 32 years at PCMH, she was vice president for rehabilitation services, senior vice president and president.

1978
ROBERT BRINKLEY of Charlotte joined the ECU trustees in July. He is a retired corporate attorney and member of ECU’s Foundation board and Board of Visitors who served on an oversight committee for Clark-LeClair Stadium. WALT DAVIS, who played football at ECU from 1974 to 1978 and was an assistant coach under Ed Emory in 1983, is the new football coach at Pitt County’s South Central High School. Davis coached at Yatesville’s Northside High School and then for nine seasons at Manteo High School, where he led the team to the 2006 1-A state championship game. ROBERT KEAR ’78 ’83 of Harrisburg, N.C., chief marketing officer and partner of Sales Performance International, participated in an expert panel discussion of successful customer relationship management at the June 21 Sales Leadership Conference in Philadelphia. Kear was Ernst & Young’s eBusiness Entrepreneur of the Year for the Carolinas in 2001 and in 2006 co-authored The Solution-Centric Organization.

1977
ERNEST G. MARSHBURN ’77 ’78, director of strategic initiatives in ECU’s Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Studies, a community volunteer, and a commander with the boating safety group U. S. Power Squadrons, received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award at the Squadrons’ annual meeting. Less than one percent of Eagle Scouts have received the award.

1976
SHELIA GRANT BUNCH, coordinator for the bachelor of social work program, was named one of ECU’s most outstanding women by the women’s studies program at Power and Pearls, an event sponsored by the Ledonia Wright Cultural Center and the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women. The March event featured Maya Angelou as keynote speaker. CAPT. SUSAN S. JANNUZZI, chief of the strategy and integration division at U.S. Pacific Command, retired after nearly 30 years in the Navy.

1975
DR. MAXINE ANDREWS MCCALL, who was valedictorian of her 1956 class at Fayetteville State University and later received a second master’s degree from ECU, retired from her professorship at Florida State University. SUSAN QUINN NOBLES, vice president of institutional advancement at PCC and director of the PCC Foundation, was elected president of the N.C. Council of Resource Development after four years on the board of directors for the group that represents the state’s 58 community colleges. G. EDWIN PORTER is celebrating 25 years as an award-winning insurance and financial professional. He is a member of the AXA Advisors’ Hall of Fame and the Million Dollar Round Table, and a past president of Pitt County’s chapter of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. PAUL SCHIFFEL was named Lenoir-Rhyne College’s first head coach of women’s swimming. He won the Team MVP recognition from the swim team when he was a junior at ECU, and he teaches physical education at Hickory’s St. Stephens Elementary School, coaches St. Stephens High School’s swim teams, and owns the Catawba Valley Aquatics Club.

1974
ROBERT BEARD of Culpeper, Va., an acting and ham radio hobbyist, is a Culpeper County school board member and the staff attorney for Culpeper County Social Services. He was assistant county attorney in Culpeper, city attorney in Suffolk, and assistant city attorney in Danville, and from 1975 to 1979, a Mandarin Chinese lingual specialist for Army Intelligence. DAVE BURTON, an athletic trainer and physical education teacher in Duncanville, Texas, received the Athletic Trainer Service Award at the National Athletic Trainers Association’s annual conference in Anaheim, Calif., in June. ROGER EDWARDS of Laurinburg is the new principal at S.C.’s largest high school: Summerville High School in Summerville, S.C. His 33 years in education include positions as associate superintendentneWs for administrative services at Scotland County Schools and former principal at Scotland and Hoke county high schools. MILT SHERMAN ’74 ’79, a former D.H. Conley wrestling coach, was named to the N.C. chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame on May 20 at a ceremony in Chapel Hill.

1973
MIKE KELLY, a Nags Head restaurant owner, completed his term as an ECU trustee in June.

1972
LARRY W. MALLARD was promoted to CEO with First South and will oversee commercial and retail banking. His 30 years of financial services experience include being the quality and productivity executive of consumer banking for Bank of America and executive vice president of retail banking at First South Bank. DAVID REDWINE, a former legislator from Ocean Isle Beach, was reappointed to the ECU trustees for a four-year term. STEPHEN M. RUSSELL ’71 ’75 was elected to board vice president of the child abuse prevention agency Exchange/SCAN. He is an attorney and director for the firm Bell, Davis, & Pitt in Winston-Salem.

1971
BERT BANKS, formerly the assistant executive director of the Mid-East Commission in Washington, is the new executive director of the Albemarle Commission, based in Hertford, which represents 10 county governments in northeastern N.C. and attempts to coordinate environmental protection, economic development, land-use planning and services for senior citizens. KATHRYN LONG, who has the Asheville design firm Ambiance Interiors, received the 2006 Carolina Chapter Dora Gray Distinguished Designer award from the American Society of Interior Designers. The award is based on ASID’s national Designer of Distinction award. CAROL M. MABE of Greensboro joined the ECU trustees in July. She was previously an executive with Victoria’s Secret, Russell Corp., VF Jeanswear, and Sara Lee Products; the 2001 outstanding alum of the year; a strategic marketing consultant; an ECU Foundation board member; and chair of the College of Human Ecology’s Merchandising Advisory Board.

1970
TOM MARSH ’70 ’05 was named to the N.C. chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame on May 20 at a ceremony in Chapel Hill. He wrestled for ECU in the late 1960s and was an assistant coach in the 1970s before becoming the head wrestling coach at New Bern High School for 19 years and then principal at Pamlico County High School. STEVE SHOWFETY, a Greensboro developer, completed his term as an ECU trustee in June.

1968
ARLENE M. FERREN ’68 ’82, a visiting lecturer and university supervisor at ECU and chairwoman of the Leadership Institute and Teen Leadership Institute for the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, was reappointed to the N.C. Education Assistance Authority by Gov. Mike Easley. She also was named State Administrator of the Year by the N.C. School Counselor Association, and Pitt County Teacher of the Year and District Teacher of the Year by the N.C. Association of Educators. BING MITCHELL, who coached football at Yatesville’s Northside High School, is a new assistant coach at Pitt County’s South Central High School.

1965
BOB MURPHREY, Ayden-Grifton High School’s boys’ basketball coach, was named The Daily Reflector’s Boys’ Coach of the Year. JAMES T. HAMMOND of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by Mount Saint Mary College in May for his lifetime of leadership in public education and elective office. Hammonds is a retired teacher who served in the New York legislature for 28 years. He brought the Empire State Games to the Hudson River Valley in 2005.

1964
KAY YOW received the Naismith women’s award for outstanding contributions to basketball from the Atlanta Tipoff Club in April.

1959
BOB SAWYER ’59 ’60, a veteran coach and athletics director at Greensboro’s Grimsley High School, was named to the Guilford County Sports Hall of Fame. While swimming at ECU, he was the 1957 and 1959 national NAIA backstroke champion and a 1959 All-American.

1958
PATRICIA “PAT” DUNN, a Greenville city councilwoman and the coordinator of volunteer activities for international students with Global Academic Initiatives, was named one of ECU’s most outstanding women by the women’s studies program at Power and Pearls, a March event sponsored by the Ledonia Wright Cultural Center and the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women that featured Maya Angelou as keynote speaker.

1955
BETTY B. HOWES was named Grifton’s Citizen of the Year in March. She retired after 30 years of teaching in Lenoir County Schools, served on the Grifton civic center advisory board, and volunteers with several organizations, including HealthAssist.