Alumni Spotlight

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ewspaper editor SANDRA MIMS ROWE ’70 won the sixth Pulitzer Prize of her career when the Portland Oregonian was honored in April for a series of breaking news stories about a San Francisco family snowbound in the Siskiyou Mountains. Her paper also won a Pulitzer last year for a series of editorials calling for improvements in the state’s mental health care system. The Oregonian, the largest newspaper in the Pacific Northwest, now has won five Pulitzers since she became editor in 1993. Rowe also won a Pulitzer at the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, where she worked for 22 years before moving to Portland. At ECU, she was editor of the yearbook her junior and senior years (right).

What’s different about editing a West Coast paper? “In Norfolk, anything that related to the federal budget or the military was automatically on the front page. When I came out here I realized that salmon and trees—that’s the Navy here. Also different here is that the Portland metro area, more so than any in the country, is very eager to put limits on growth to prevent sprawl. We have tighter land-use restrictions.”

Tell us something we might not know about Portland. “This is a wonderful news city. We have the busiest public library in the United States. This is a very literate and very involved market, so it’s a good newspaper market.”

What strikes you now when you look back on your college days? “It was a very sheltering environment. We were isolated in what most people considered the poor part of the state and we were fighting for university status. That permeated the campus. There was certainly activism but I was astounded when I got out of college that we were on the fringes. There was drug use but it was around the fringes. We were much more sheltered. I remember race and Vietnam more than anything else.”

Rowe was inducted into the Virginia Journalism Hall of Fame in 2000 and was named Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation in 2004. She is married to Gerard Rowe, an attorney active in local nonprofit work. They have two grown daughters who live in Portland.  


After a 31-year career, SHIRLEY CARRAWAY ’75 ’85 ’92 ’00 said she would retire Oct. 1 as superintendent of Orange County (N.C.) Schools, which she has led the past four years. Before coming to Orange County, Carraway was associate superintendent at Pitt County Schools, where she was the first minority, as well as the first female, to be a principal at any Pitt County school. “It’s exciting and scary at the same time,” she said after informing the school board of her plans. She said she plans to return home to Greenville. Carraway received a master’s in educational administration and a doctorate in educational leadership from East Carolina, where she also received her bachelor’s degree in 1975. “I feel as young as I did 20 years ago,” she told a reporter for The Daily Tar Heel. Carraway was selected to Orange County’s top spot in April 2003 after an eight-and-a-half-month search fraught with controversy. Her first task was working to close the school system’s $1.2 million budget gap. She also dealt with issues such as the question of a district merger, the opening of a new middle school and issues with the state’s new education lottery. “I have always been prepared for whatever was going to come next.”



ROD GRAY ’94 of Raleigh, who was PeeDee the pirate his entire four years at ECU and married a cheerleader, Amie Wilbanks ’95, was honored by his company, First Quality Enterprises, for producing $26 million in sales for the territory in the Carolinas and Virginia. Gray, who previously worked for Southland Medical Supply, joined First Quality, which is based in Great Neck, N.Y., in 2000. He and his wife have a daughter, Olivia, and a son, Owen.





MIKE LITWIN ’01 won a Gold ADDY Award for his illustrations accompaning the urban legends story in the Fall 2006 issue of East. His was one of eight awards won by ECU’s Department of University Publications staff from the Professional Ad Club East, a chapter of the American Advertising Federation. Litwin’s illustrations went on to win a Silver ADDY in PACE’s regional competition.





MIMOSA MALLERNEE ’00, another graphic designer in university publications, was also recognized during the competition. Her design of East Carolina’s centennial logo received a Silver ADDY Award. The logo has been designated the official mark of ECU’s centennial celebration. In addition to centennial-related university publications, the logo has appeared on a variety of items ranging from golf shirts to Pepsi cans.





CASSANDRA “CASEY” DECK-BROWN '87 made history a second time when she became the first woman elevated to the rank of major in the Raleigh Police Department. Deck-Brown, who has worked for the Raleigh PD for 19 years, now is in charge of the department’s Administrative Services Division, which provides training, administrative support and technical services to the department’s 750 officers.

In 2003 she became the first woman to command one of Raleigh’s six police districts. Deck-Brown, who also has a master’s in public administration from N.C. State, is the sister-in-law of former Raleigh police chief Mitch Brown. Deck-Brown grew up in Franklin County, but spent summers in Philadelphia with her mother’s relatives.

Her interest in law enforcement was aroused one day in Philadelphia when she saw a woman officer working on the street. “She looked sharp in her uniform. Just the way she carried herself and the way she handled her business. She was in charge.” Deck-Brown entered the Raleigh Police Academy shortly after graduating from college.

She initially worked as a patrol officer and a crime prevention-community relations officer and was later promoted to detective. After earning her master’s degree, she was promoted to sergeant and later to lieutenant and served as the department’s grants manager.

Deck-Brown’s husband, David, has been with the Raleigh Police Department for 25 years. “One of us outranking the other has never been an issue,” she said. “He’s my biggest fan.”





During 26 years as director of the North Carolina Film Office, BILL ARNOLD ’59 aided in the production of 700 movies shot in the state. But he was the star when dozens of friends and industry leaders gathered in Kinston recently to honor his contribution to the state’s film industry. Arnold was praised for building the film industry in North Carolina into the nation’s third largest, after California and New York. “He was the first person I spoke to in North Carolina,” Frank Capra Jr., president of Screen Gems Studios in Wilmington, said about Arnold during the event. “From my viewpoint as a producer, Bill was a tremendous resource for an out-of-state producer who wanted to come to North Carolina and film. Productions came here and were very well-received. They didn’t find antagonism. They found warmth and hospitality.” Ever modest, Arnold said he was just doing his job. “To tell you the truth, after 26 years of doing it, I’m not sure I knew exactly what the job description was. It was a matter of responding to whatever their needs would be.”



JOHN ANGEL ’69, who designed many of the consumer lighting products sold by Sears and other major retailers throughout the 1980s, has endowed a $25,000 scholarship for sculpture students at the School of Art and Design. “[Retired Development Director] Janet Fischer called me a few years ago and asked me, tongue in cheek, to start funding an endowment. Then she pulled out a baseball bat.” Angel enjoyed success early. “By age 23, I was in charge of all product development for lighting, in charge of seven factories, and on the road for seven months a year,” he says. His biggest account was Sears. After building an impressive resume, Angel left for another firm in Pittsburgh, then opened his own business in 1976.



DAVID C. REAVIS ’74, who manages e-commerce for the State of North Carolina, received the 2006 Barry K. Sanders Award, presented by the Office of State Budget and Management. David has over 31 years of service in state government and is currently employed by the Office of the State Controller. He is married to Deelane Pinkston Reavis ’75, and they have one daughter, Evelyn Reavis Bussell ’00.

By Leanne E. Smith '04 '06
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2006
RAY GUNNELL of Fredericksburg, Va., is the sports programs coordinator at Bragg Hill Family Life Center and director for FAST Ministries, a Christian sports ministry. DAZZALA KNIGHT, who teaches art at two Greenville schools, collaborated with ECU art professor Mark Malley on a 144-foot mural depicting significant moments and people in the history of Princeville, the first town chartered by freed slaves after the Civil War. CRYSTAL LYNN works in recreation therapy services at PCMH. CLAYTON MCCULLOUGH, a Greenville native and former catcher for the Pirates who played for the Cleveland Indians, was promoted from hitting coach to a manager for the Toronto Blue Jays minor league baseball operations in the Gulf Coast League. ASHLEY MEYER and ADAM WITTER were married Dec. 28. She is pursuing her MAEd in health education at ECU, and he plays for the San Francisco Giants. JANNA THOMPSON, a park attendant at River Park North and after school program coordinator at Wahl-Coates Elementary School, is pursuing her environmental education certification. HEATHER VERCOE works part-time in aquatics for PCMH’s recreation therapy services. DAVE WHITE works for the High Point Parks and Recreation Department.

DANA BULLARD is the eastern superintendent for Sampson County Parks & Recreation in Newton Grove, and she coordinated a haunted trail at a local park in Fall 2006. TAYLOR BRAXTON HOLT, originally of Greenville and now of Wilmington, accepted a job within a week of graduation as a project superintendent with Southeast Custom Homes and passed the N.C. Licensing Board for general contractors exam in Fall 2006. MICHELLE LONSWAY MATHIS is the program director at Creative Living Center, an adult day care in Greenville. APRIL BRITTON MATHEWS is a recreational therapist and child life specialist at Heritage Hospital/Northeast Rehabilitation Center in Tarboro. RANDALL LEACH worked on a section of a 144-foot mural depicting significant moments and people in the history of Princeville, the first town chartered by freed slaves after the Civil War. ASHKA LEWIS, an employment specialist at East Carolina Vocational Center, cut an R&B CD entitled It’s About That Time with 130 Entertainment Group, an N.C.-based independent record label. KATHRYN OSGOOD, an award-winning jeweler, metalsmith, and instructor for the College of the Albemarle’s Professional Crafts Jewelry program, was selected as the featured artist at the eighth annual Currituck Arts Council Art Extravaganza in March at Currituck County High School. TYSHON PUGH is a recreational therapist at Bryant T. Aldridge Rehabilitation Center in Rocky Mount. JUSTINE SMITH WILSON works in recreation therapy services at PCMH.

2004
WESLEY BARNES was promoted to a commercial lender position at East Carolina Bank in Avon and now works at a Greenville branch. SHAQUANNA JOHNSON ’04 ’06 married Ian Stevens on Dec. 16. She teaches first-year composition at ECU. GINA MARIE SUMMA SMITH of Rocky Mount, and her husband, Joshua, had a daughter, Kaitlyn Virginia, on Jan. 12. PAM WALLACE TOLL, a professor at UNC-Wilmington and co-founder of the No Boundaries International Art Colony and Acme Art Studios, gave a talk at Cameron Art Museum in January about inspirations for her mixed-media paintings. CARA WHITE is in graduate school at UNC Chapel Hill.

2003
TIFFANY GRIFFIS was promoted from a loan processor to a retail lender at The East Carolina Bank in Morehead City and now works at a Greenville branch. ELIZABETH RICHMOND WEEKS, an Alpha Delta Pi sister, and JUSTIN THOMAS HOTT, a Sigma Phi Epsilon brother, were married on Sept. 30, 2006, in Goldsboro and live in New Bern.

2002
MARK TYLER BEARD and MELISSA RANA MOTAHARI ’03 were married Oct. 28. A Kappa Delta sister, she teaches at Greenville’s Eastern Elementary School, and he is a design engineer for Carolina Cabinet Co. in Wilson. BRAXTON PATTERSON is the athletics supervisor for the City of Wilson Parks & Recreation Department and commissioner for Wilson City Little League. HOLLY FRANCES SCOTT and ROBERT MICHAEL HARRINGTON ’03 ’04 were married Dec. 6 in Wanchese. She directs Spa Koru in Avon, and he is general manager of Resort Realty of the Outer Banks.

2001
MEREDITH BROOME is a relocation sales representative for Allied Vanlines in Raleigh. DEBBIE BRYNE, who worked with Maricopa County Parks in Arizona, lives in Syracuse, N.Y., and works for the Onondaga County Parks system. WENDY NICOLE HARRIS and Jonathan Coleman Sergeant were married on Jan. 20 in Pactolus. She is a processing assistant in Academic Affairs at ECU. ROBERT M. HUGHES IV, who was awarded felowships from the the Burroughs-Wellcome Foundation and the American Chemical Society Division of Organic Chemistry while completing his doctoral work in organic chemistry at UNC, received a post-doctoral fellowship at Duke University in biochemistry. JAMES PARKER is the athletic program coordinator for Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation Department. CHAD AUSTIN TRACY, a Charlotte native who played baseball for ECU from 1999 to 2001, is a third baseman for the National League’s Arizona Diamondbacks. WHITNEY MEREDITH WILSON and Richard Ashton Oakley were married on Dec. 30 in Greensboro. She is assistant principal at Alexander Wilson Elementary School in Graham and is pursuing her doctorate in educational leadership at UNC-Greensboro.

2000
ADAM MCCOMB is the assistant director at the recreation and parks department in Elkin. LESHAUN JENKINS, a former ECU tennis player, mentors at-risk students and coaches basketball at his alma mater Tarboro High School. MARK SEYMOUR is the program manager for the Craven County Recreation & Parks Department. KIM STEPHENSON is the new nurse manager for Greenville’s Gastroenterology East & Endoscopy Center, the practice of Dr. Jack Cole, who was a clinical instructor at BSOM from 1993 to 1995.

1999
JANELL BULLOCK is a realtor with ERA Millennia in Greenville. ANNABELLA BENFIELD COLE of Youngsville works with the pediatrics team at UNC Children’s Hospital. JULIE WOMBLE SMITH of Apex is a senior recreational therapist in the rehabilitation center at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. LYNN CHERYL WILCZEWSKI of Midlothian, Va., received a Fulbright-Hayes Award from the U.S. Department of Education to study in Russia and Poland for five weeks during Summer 2007.

1998
JOEL BUTLER, the chief external affairs officer for University Health Systems and an ECU trustee, was a panelist for the Chancellor’s Forum on Service as part of ECU’s centennial celebration on March 8. KRISTY CONWAY ’98 ’02, who was recently a corporate and taxation paralegal, is a new Re/Max Preferred Realty staff member who specializes in residential real estate sales and coordinates marketing and administrative programs as the manager for Team TNT, which includes two brokers. KEVIN HALTIGAN of Greenville partnered with his older brother, Pat Haltigan IV, to form P&K Land Development in 2000, a company that provides structure demolition and land preparation, and in 2006 to form New East Recycling & Container Service, which provides large containers for commercial and residential demolition and debris clean-up. JAMES TED LOCKAMON is the sports coordinator for Henderson, Nev. The city’s youth sports program received the 2006 National Excellence in Youth Sports Award from the National Alliance for Youth Sports and Athletic Business magazine at the Athletic Business Conference and Expo in Las Vegas. GILBERT MICHAEL WHITFORD JR., a safety coordinator with Pitt County Schools, and his wife, Rolanda Toler Whitford, had a daughter, Isabella Grace, on April 11, 2006.

1997
MATT JONES DUFFY of Roswell, Ga., received his MA in mass communication from the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia in May 2006 and teaches journalism at Georgia College in Dunwoody. MELISSA DAWSON JERNIGAN is a recreation supervisor for Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation Department. KELLY GRAHAM KIVETTE is a senior therapeutic recreation specialist at UNC Healthcare in Chapel Hill. She and her husband, AARON KIVETTE ’99, have a 1-year-old son, Cole. OLIVIA PLYMALE SALTER, who was Cary/Apex’s 1993 Junior Miss and was named the state’s Most Outstanding Local Chaiman after two years heading Pitt County’s Junior Miss program, is an elementary school counselor and master teacher instructor with ECU’s Departmet of Curriculum and Instruction. LYNNETTE TAYLOR, who was a WITN-TV 7 anchor and reporter from 1998 to 2002 before accepting an anchor position in Gainesville, Fla., retured to Greenville’s WITN as the primary weekend anchor at 6 and 11 p.m.

1996
ERIC BARTELS oversees communications, marketing and advertising as manager of communications for the nonprofit Atlanta Junior Golf Association. MEREDITH P. GOINS of Maryville, Tenn., is the public relations and development director at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, a non-profit environmental education center. CHRIS HADDOCK of Winterville is a commercial banker at a Greenville branch of the Raleigh-based First Citizens Bank. MIA PARDUE HARDY, a supervisor and recreational therapist at Morehead Memorial Hospital in Eden, became a certified laughter leader in 2006.

1995
KELLY SCHEELE CORDER and her husband Tim have a daughter, Margaret Ann, born on Oct. 12. ALI HILLIS, a former Charlotte resident who played Maria in a summer theater production of West Side Story at ECU, and had roles in Must Love Dogs, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and Law & Order, will appear in Thowing Stars with Ben Stiller and The Ultimate Gift, which was filmed in Charlotte.

1994
TRACY PROCTOR DANIELS ’94 ’98 and husband Eric, who have a 2-year-old daughter Elizabeth, had a son, Michael Wayne, on Feb. 28. NANCY BARRETT LAWRENCE, a former First South Bank branch manager in Greenville, is vice president and branch manager for First South in Hope Mills, where she oversees consumer lending, business development and branch operations. DR. JOY LOWRY, a member of the N.C. Medical and N.C. Pediatric societies and an Academy of Pediatrics fellow, recently joined the staff at Frye Regional Medical Center in Hickory. JEFF SALEEBY, who worked for Systel for five years and has a decade of experience as a CPA, is the new finance director in Hope Mills. LEE ANNE HENDERSON TRAGLE of Yorktown, Va., is a nationally certified pilates instructor who teaches classes at several locations, including the Victory YMCA in Yorktown, Va., and she is vice president of the Junior League of Hampton Roads Class of 2006-2007. She and her husband, AARON THOMAS TRAGLE ’95, have two children.

1993
CASSANDRA DARDEN BELL of Winterville released her fourth novel, Changing Lanes, in October, following The Color of Love (2002), Mississippi Blues (2004), and After the Storm (2005). JACQUELINE ELLIS, an award-winning administrator, was promoted from principal of Culbreth Middle School to a position in Wake County Schools. BEN OWEN III, a Seagrove potter, will travel to Santi Mountain in Gidong, China, to participate in a dedication ceremony for a park at the place where downed World Ware II fighter pilot Lt. Robert H. Upchurch was buried for 60 years. Owen made two jugs out of clay from Upchurch’s new Moore County gravesite; one will stay in Moore County, and Owen will present the other in China.

1992
DOYLE WHITFIELD, who won more than 400 games as baseball coach at Southern Wayne High School, was inducted into the N.C. Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame on March 27.

1991
KRISTA KAMENSKI ADAMS, a national board certified teacher with 10 years of experience in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, opened Mathnasium South Charlotte, an after-school math learning center for students in preschool through 12th grade. COLEMAN BAILEY ’91 ’93, a science teacher at D.H. Conley High School, was the 2006-07 Teacher of the Year for the Northeast Region and the 2005-06 Pitt County Schools Teacher of the Year. RALPH HOLLOWAY, who was an athletics director in Kinston and at West Carteret High School and and is currently the principal at East Carteret, was inducted into the N.C. Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame on March 27. GEORGE STACKHOUSE, whose Kinston High School basketball team won the 2001 3-A Eastern championship and who coaches basketball at Gray's Creek High School, offers weekend basketball lessons to children sometimes as young as 6.

1990
SUSAN COOPERMAN BRADLEY ’90 ’00 changed careers after 16 years as a band director and music educator in Beaufort County Schools and is now the eastern N.C. sales representative for Herff Jones Yearbooks. CHRIS CAUBLE of Faith, who was an all-conference catcher on ECU’s baseball team and the head baseball coach for the title-winning team at West Rowan High School, accepted a coaching job at the new Jesse Carson High School in China Grove to be closer to his family while developing the baseball program. JON DECKER of Oakland, Fla., was named director of instruction at the New Albany Country Club in Columbus, Ohio, and will teach golf there from May to October and at the Grand Cypress Academy of Golf in Orlando, Fla., from November to April each year. MARY CHATMAN, vice president of patient care services at PCMH and an ECU distinguished alumnus, was recognized by the Girl Scout Council of Coastal Carolina at its inagural Women of Distinction Banquet in March. DELILAH JACKSON ’90 ’96 is executive director of human resources for Pitt County Schools. JIM LUX is the business manager of the Center for HIV/AIDS Vaccine Immunology in Durham, and combines planning and spontaneity when he crafts his hand-built pit-fired pottery, which he shows each year at the Craven Allen Gallery. GEORGANN ATHANAELOS SAPP ’90 ’91 was recognized by the Kannapolis Board of Education for her art teaching at Jackson Park and Woodrow Wilson Elementary schools and her community work: Kannapolis City Schools Mentor Committee, co-chair of Jackson Park’s communications/family and community support committee, Kannapolis City Schools news team, organizing Jackson Park’s secret pal program, serving on the Kannapolis centennial celebration and the Jeff Gordon Children’s Hospital fundraising committees, and organizing Jackson Park’s annual Big Sweep with the Cabarrus Soil and Water Conservation Service and the school’s art enrichment program. ANGELA LYNN SPEAR STANCIL ’90 ’94, the graduation project coordinator at Pasquotank County High School in Elizabeth City, has two children and is pursuing her principal certification.

1989
PAM GAINEY ’89 ’97 coaches girls’ basketball at Rocky Mount High School and was inspired by GERALD WHITLEY ’76, her basketball coach at Goldsboro High School who was also the assistant school superintendent of Goldsboro-Wayne County Schools. MARY ELIZABETH FORDHAM RHODES of Greenville, and husband William had a daughter, Anna Jean, on Dec. 27.

1988
DR. LARRY DAVIDSON works at NorthEast Medical Center Carolina and Neurosurgery and Spine Associates in Concord.

1987
BILL COOK ’87 ’93, an award-winning teacher and administrator and the current principal of Marvin Ridge High School in Waxhaw, will co-head an elementary-middle-high school cluster in Marvin with his wife, Donna, and another administrator. MARK DESALVO, senior vice president at Ferris Baker Watts, started a radio show called Smart Investor, which airs at 6 p.m. on Mondays via Norfolk, Va.’s AM 850 WTAR. MARY ANN SANDELL FORRESTER, who has eight years of realty experience, is part-owner of Keller Williams Coastal Area Partners in Savannah, Ga., which opened in 2005 and is the second largest real estate company in Savannah. PAUL M. HOGGARD was an assistant coach and offensive coordinator for the N.C. football team that won the 2006 Shrine Bowl in Spartanburg, S.C. On Feb. 23 he was named head football coach at Richmond Senior High School in Rockingham. ANNA HARRIS IVORY of Peachtree City, Ga., oversees management of health information, case and risk management, safety, patient relations and medical staff services as vice president of quality at Piedmont Newnan Hospital in Newnan, Ga. LADDEUS SUTTON, a cardiologist with Mid Carolina Cardiology in Gastonia, was named 2007 secretary for Gaston Memorial Hospital.

1986
PATRICE ALEXANDER, formerly human resources manager for the Sara Lee Bakery in Tarboro, is the new director of human resources at Greenville Utilities. RICHARD E. HALL, director of land use for Maryland’s department of planning and president of the Maryland chapter of the American Planning Association, was nominated by Maryland Gov.-elect Martin O’Malley to be secretary of the state planning department. ELLA TYSON HARRIS, a vice principal at J.H. Rose High School who is active in senior citizen ministry in her chruch and community programs via Alpha Kappa Alpha, was recognized by the Girl Scout Council of Coastal Carolina at its inaugural Women of Distinction Banquet in March. DR. LINDA GARDNER JOBE ’86 ’88 of Enfield received the Dellinger Lifetime Achievement Award from the N.C. English Teachers Association at the NCETA conference in October. On Jan. 1 she retired from 38 years in education that included teaching in the ECU Department of English from 1988 to 1994 and most recently a position as curriculum and instructional specialist for Halifax County Schools.

1985
TERRI DECRESIE, a 22-year teacher currently working in the academically gifted program at A.G. Cox Middle School, was named Wachovia-Pitt County Schools 2007-08 Teacher of the Year. JOHN DEW, who has 20 years of personal and commercial loan experience in Edgecombe and Nash counties, manages Providence Bank’s new loan production office in Tarboro.

1984
DONNA MOONEYHAM, who participated in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program in October, is the transition coordinator for the exceptional children department of Brunswick County Schools.

1983
HENRY PROCTOR “HANK” SERMONS of Waldorf, Md., retired from the Air Force as a colonel on Feb. 28 after 23 years of service.

1982
SPENCER K. STEPHENS started Packard Title & Escrow to complement his real estate and construction law practice based in Rockville, Md., where he lives with his wife, Catherine, and their two daughters, Caitlin and Meredith.

1981
JAMES ROY GORHAM, a colonel in the National Guard, was promoted to business banker at First Citizens Bank in Kernersville. RANDY KEITH LANGLEY of Battleboro is an agent with Farm Bureau Insurance in Rocky Mount. He and his wife Denise have two children.

1980
ROGER L. “VERN” DAVENPORT ’80 ’81, a Pitt County native who was a wide receiver on ECU’s football team, senior vice president of solutions and marketing at Siemens Medial Solutions, and chief operating officer of Eastman Kodak, is the new executive vice president and general manager of Raleigh-based Misys Healthcare Systems.

1979
BRENDA COGDELL is president of Tri-County Industries, a Rocky Mount-based company that recently became one of six N.C. vocational rehabilitation programs with international standards certification, allowing the company to do more subcontracting and provide job training and placement for disabled and low income clients. DEBORAH WALTERS DAVIS ’79 ’83, a Rotarian and a board member for Ronald McDonald House who was named to Oxford’s Who’s Who in Business, was recognized by the Girl Scout Council of Coastal Carolina at its inaugural Women of Distinction Banquet in March. DAVID PERRY of Greenville modeled for several of former ECU art student Marcia Dockey Smith’s Native American-themed oil and watercolor paintings that appeared in “The Spirit Within,” a show at downtown Boone’s Jones House Community Center in February. MARY CHAUNCEY SCHULKEN is an associate editor with the Charlotte Observer. WILLIAM TOTTEN, who worked at Jordan Lake State Park for 15 years, oversees nine parks as the north district superintendent for the State Parks system. ROY TURNER, the athletic director at Ashley High School in Wilmington, received the NFHS Citation Award in December and is the 2007-08 president of the N.C. Athletic Directors Association.

1978
DAVID R. WHITE is an assistant town manager and director of public services in Southern Pines. He and his wife, ANN WHITE ’79, have three children.

1977
BETTY FENTRESS, the first director of Parks and Recreation in Huntersville, returned to her directorship after a stint as director of Parks and Recreation & Senior Services in Carteret County.

1976
JACQUELINE FINCH JACKSON is a cross categorical resource teacher at Lufkin Road Middle School in Apex.

1975
DR. SYLVIA BROWN ’75 ’78, associate dean for graduate programs in ECU’s School of Nursing, is acting dean for the school. GLENN EURE, a Nags Head-based artist, created sketches that were selected as models for the 50 to 75 6-foot-tall fiberglass pirates scheduled to be placed around Greenville, like Beaufort County’s crabs and the horses on the Outer Banks. WAYNE R. MYERS of Raleigh retired in November as a senior special agent with the USDA Office of Inspector General–Investigations after 30 years in law enforcement with the government. He is married with three children and plans to go sailing. ROGER G. TAYLOR, of Roger G. Taylor & Associates and AXA Advisors, is an award-winning 30-year veteran of financial services and received his second Silver Eagle Award from AXA recognizing outstanding sales achievement. GAYLE MCCRACKEN TUTTLE, director of public relations and external communications at Blue Cross & Blue Shield of N.C., was named to the advisory board for the Durham YMCA.

1974
ANNE SLOAN AULBERT opened Roomscape, a new custom interior design and decorating business in downtown Hillsborough. DIANE CARLSON FLOYD ’74 ’76, a probation supervisor with the Virginia Beach Court Service Unit, was recognized at the Virginia Juvenile Justice Association’s 15th Spring Juvenile Justice Training Institute for her 15-year work as the association’s training consultant and as chair of the institute’s planning committee.

1973
KEITH BEATTY of Intracoastal Realty Corp. was named in the Wall Street Journal’s Top 200 list of real estate professionals. KEN HAMMOND, who was recognized in 2001 by Gospel Today magazine as one of America’s Most Beloved Pastors and is pastor of Durham’s 3,500-member Union Baptist Church, delivered the keynote address at Greenville’s annual Community Unity Breakfast honoring Martin Luther King Jr. CLAUDE HUGHES, a professor at ECU, Duke and Wake Forest, and formerly an executive director of medical and scientific services at Quintiles Transnational, was named vice president for the Partnership for Genomics and Molecular Epidemiology and chief medical officer for RTI in Research Triangle Park. ALICE F. KEENE ’73 ’80, the special projects director for Pitt County Schools and a board member for the North Carolina Senior Games, was reappointed by Gov. Mike Easley to the N.C. Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service. HAROLD ROBINSON, whose record was 239-89 in his 25 years as football coach at Williamston High School and who is director of football operations at ECU, was inducted into the N.C. Athletic Directors Association Hall of Fame on March 27. CLIFF STUCKEY ’73 ’77, chair of the fine arts department at Sandhills Community College, showed some of his latest paintings that incorporate landscapes with phrases written in runes at the Expressions & Impressions show in Southern Pines.

1972
GEORGIA J. “ABBEY” ABEYOUNIS ’72 ’75 of Bethel, a technology specialist at South Greenville Elementary School, was appointed by Gov. Mike Easely to the Governor’s Teacher Advisory Committee. BETH GRANT of Valley Village, Calif., portrayed a pageant official in Little Miss Sunshine, which received several international awards, including an Academy Award for best original screenplay. The film is Grant’s second to be nominated for best picture. LARRY W. MALLARD, a Pollocksville native and Raleigh resident who was the quality and productivity executive of consumer banking with Bank of America and the executive vice president of retail banking for First South Bank, is the chief operating officer for First South. RAY ROGERS, the finance administrator at Cornerstone Missionary Baptist Church and a member of the Pitt Community College Board of Trustees, was appointed to the PCMH and University Health Systems boards by the UNC Board of Governors.

1971
PHIL DIXON, an attorney in Greenville, a member of the UNC board of governors and former chairman of ECU’s trustees, was a panelist for the Chancellor’s Forum on Service as part of ECU’s centennial celebration on March 8. WALTER FIELDS, formerly of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, joined Raleigh-based Kimley-Horn and Associates’ Charlotte office as a land planning consultant.

1969
SYLVIA DOMARATRY BRILEY of Columbia, S.C. is retiring after 37 years as a French teacher, 33 of which she spent at J.H. Rose High School in Greenville. She and her husband plan to move to the the South Carolina coast and enjoy the beach. JOE BYNUM ’69 ’76 of Defiance, Mo., retired from American Airlines as a 767 captain after flying more than 22,000 hours for Ozark Airlines, Trans World Airlines, American Airlines, USAF, and the USAF Reserve, and will be an Embriar 170 instructor pilot for Flight Safety International in St. Louis. DR. PHYLLIS HORNS, longtime dean of ECU’s School of Nursing, is now interim vice chancellor for health sciences and interim dean of BSOM. THOMASINE KENNEDY ’69 ’81 ’87, a retired teacher, administrator, and mental health professional from Chinquapin, is chair of the Duplin General Hospital board and was appointed to the PCMH and University Health Systems boards by the UNC Board of Governors. RUTH SHAW ’69 ’72, a former president and CEO of Duke Power, is executive advisor to the current chairman, president and CEO, and is group executive for public policy and president of Duke Nuclear. She was a panelist for the Chancellor’s Forum on Service as part of ECU’s centennial celebration on March 8. RONALD “RV” VINCENT of Greenville, the baseball coach for J.H. Rose High School’s multiple conference title and championship-winning Rampants since 1974, achieved his 700th career win in a game against Eastern Wayne at Greenville’s Guy Smith Stadium on March 15. The Rampants have 30 consecutive winning seasons under Vincent’s leadership.

1967
CAPT. HARRY L BALDWIN III, a U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain and two-time Liberty town councilman, retired from furniture manufacturing and landscape construction and now works for Tyson & Hooks Realty in New Bern and leads fishing trips on the Neuse River. PAT LANE and his wife, Lynn, both of Chocowinity, pledged $100,000 to the College of Education to found the Pat and Lynn Lane Education Scholarship Program Fund, a two-year need-based award for rising traditional juniors majoring in special education, middle grades mathematics and science and high school mathematics and science. Recipients will have to teach for at least two years in one of eastern N.C.’s 29 counties. Rep. MARIAN MCLAWHORN ’67 ’88, a Democrat from Grifton, was appointed chair of the N.C. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Education and vice-chair of the Education Subcommittee on Preschool, Elementary, and Secondary Education. She spoke in favor of a resolution recognizing ECU at the centennial celebration on March 8.

1965
KATHY TAFT, a founder of the Communities in Schools of Pitt County who has been on the group’s board of directors for 14 years, is the group’s new executive director. Also on the State Board of Education, she was inducted into ECU’s Educator’s Hall of Fame in 2003.

1964
DR. BRUCE I. HOWELL ’64 ’65, president emeritus of Wake Technical Community College, where the library is named for him, lives in Cary with his wife, MABLE LEA SMITH HOWELL ’64 ’67, pursuing churchwork, antiquing, genealogy, Civil War history and stock market investing. He was president of Sampson Community College from 1976 to 1980 and of WTCC from 1980 to 2003. KAY YOW, the 32-season women’s basketball coach at N.C. State who was an ECU English major, was honored after her 700th career win with the naming of the basketball court at Reynolds Coliseum as Kay Yow Court. She is the first ACC women’s basketball coach to receive such recognition. A member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the coach of the 1988 Olympic gold-medal women's team, Yow is the fifth-winningest women’s basketball coach in Division I.

1962
MELTON A. MCLAURIN ’62 ’63, a UNC-Wilmington professor emeritus of history, an award-winning author, and husband of SANDRA MCLAURIN ’62 ’63, released a collection of personal narratives entitled The Marines of Montford Point: America’s First Black Marines. JIM KIRKLAND and his wife, EVELYN ’61 ’62, both of Lumberton, pledged $20,000 for each of the next five years to establish a middle grades education scholarship at ECU.

1960
DAVE THOMAS, who was inducted into the ECU Sports Hall of Fame in 1998, retired in 2003 after 42 years as a teacher, coach and administrator, and was elected to the Wayne County Board of Education in November. Rep. EDITH WARREN ’60 ’73 , a Democrat from Farmville, was appointed co-chair of the N.C. House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural and Economic Resources and vice-chair of the Education Subcommittee on Universities. She shared college memories when she spoke in favor of a resolution recognizing ECU at the centennial celebration on March 8.

1957
Sen. JEAN PRESTON ’57 ’73, a former teacher who is Carteret County’s Republican senator in the N.C. General Assembly, complimented ECU’s teacher education efforts when she spoke in favor of a resolution recognizing ECU at the centennial celebration on March 8.

1955
CHARLES B. BEDFORD of Atlanta was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite by the French government for his work as co-president and program coordinator of the Atlanta Council on International Relations. As executive director emeritus of the University Center in Georgia, past president of the International Club of Atlanta and a trustee of the Georgia Council for International Visitors, he and his wife Nancy, who is an attorney and mediator in Atlanta, are on the advancement council for the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences.

1953
JANICE HARDISON FAULKNER ’53 ’56, a former ECU English professor who was the first female N.C. Secretary of State and served several other roles in politics, was recognized by the Girl Scout Council of Coastal Carolina at its inaugural Women of Distinction Banquet in March. She moderated the Chancellor’s Forum on Service that was part of ECU’s centennial celebration on March 8.

1943
JOYE GRAHAM of Cedar Creek makes at least one quilt each month to donate to the Tar Heel Quilter’s Guild, which provides quilts for pediatric and geriatric care centers.