The Magazine of Elon, Winter 2010

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Engaged minds. Inspired leaders. Global citizens.

PHOENIX WIDE RECEIVER TERRELL HUDGINS

was honored Nov. 14 at Rhodes Stadium for surpassing the NCAA Football

Championship Subdivision record for career receiving yards held by NFL

legend Jerry Rice. Hudgins, who amassed 5,250 career receiving yards,

was given a special game ball from former Elon and NFL standout Richard

McGeorge ’71 (below, right) before the Phoenix took on Appalachian State.

In December, Hudgins was named a fi nalist for the 2009 Walter Payton

Award, presented annually to the top FCS off ensive player. “It’s an honor to be

nominated,” Hudgins said. “I’m extremely grateful to the Elon community for

the support they’ve given me over the past four years.”

Hudgins fi nished his Elon career holding 10 FCS records, including nine

set during the 2009 season. He also holds numerous Elon and Southern

Conference records.

features

departments

Making HistoryPhoenix football and its fans celebrate a return to the playoff s.

faculty profile:

Bringing Learning to Lifeby dave hartA� er a decade of leading more administrative offi ces than she can count, Nancy Midge� e returns to where her career began: the classroom.

alumni profile:

Behind the Maskby kristin simonetti ’05 Drew Coble ’75 and Joe West ’74 make the right calls as major-league umpires.

cover story:

The Elon CommitmentThe university’s new strategic plan charts a bold course for 2020.

Shi� ing ‘From Age-ing to Sage-ing’by john g. sullivanElon’s Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Philosophy Emeritus explains the new role elders can play in today’s society.

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T H E M A G A Z I N E O F The Magazine of ElonWinter 2010, Vol. 72, No. 1

EDITOR

Jaleh Hagigh

DESIGNER

Christopher Eyl

NEWS EDITOR

Eric Townsend

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Grant HalversonKim Walker

COPY EDITOR

Kristin Simonetti ’05

CLASS NOTES

Holley Berry

STUDENT WRITERS

Sarah Costello ’11Robert Wohner ’11

DIRECTOR OF UNIVERSITY RELATIONS

Daniel J. Anderson

The Magazine of Elon is published quarterly for alumni, parents and friends by the Offi ce of University Relations.336-278-7415

EDITORIAL OFFICES

The Magazine of Elon2030 Campus BoxElon, NC 27244-2020

Class NotesElon Offi ce of University Relations2030 Campus BoxElon, NC 27244E-mail: [email protected]

Elon Web sitewww.elon.edu

Magazine Web sitewww.elon.edu/magazine

BOARD OF TRUSTEES, CHAIR

Allen E. Gant Jr., Burlington, N.C.

ELON ALUMNI BOARD, PRESIDENT

Bill Coff man ’86, G’88, Greenville, N.C.

YOUNG ALUMNI COUNCIL, PRESIDENT

Caroline Sage ’02, Atlanta, Ga.

PARENTS COUNCIL, COPRESIDENTS

Dave & Ellen Kay P’10, P’12, Oakton, Va.

BOARD OF VISITORS, CHAIR

Cliff ord B. Hardy Jr. ’62, Tampa, Fla.

SCHOOL OF LAWADVISORY BOARD, CHAIR

David Gergen, Cambridge, Mass.

LOVE SCHOOL OF BUSINESSADVISORY BOARD, CHAIR

Peter Tourtellot, Greensboro, N.C.

SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONSADVISORY BOARD, CHAIR

Don Bolden, Burlington, N.C.

PHOENIX CLUB ADVISORY BOARD, CHAIR

Amy Thomas Hendrickson ’69, Raleigh, N.C.

DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI RELATIONS

Sallie Hutton ’92

DIRECTOR OF PARENT PROGRAMS

Maggie Byerly

2 ELON News

10 PHOENIX Sports

26 ALUMNI Action

30 CLASS Notes

40 MAKING A Diff erence

I am writing this column from Cape Town, where Laurie and I have joined 28 students in the Elon Winter Term course, “Th e Call

of South Africa,” led by Prudence Layne, assistant professor of English and coordinator of African/African-American Studies, and Sandra Reid, lec-turer in human service studies. Th is is the fi rst time Laurie and I have been on the African con-tinent, and we feel immensely privileged to visit as a part of this special learning community.

j o u r n a l

society unfold following a dramatic struggle for free-dom. Th at both democracies were born is nothing short of a miracle, and there are the obvious and painful connec-tions to the American civil rights movement and ongo-

ing problems of racism in American society today. South Africa and the United States share many other challenges as well, such as the need to invest in high-quality public edu-cation to compete economically, scientifi cally and technologically on a global basis.

In a meeting Professor Layne and I had with Rector and Vice Chancellor Brian O’Connell of the University of the Western Cape, O’Connell explained the challenges the university faces in receiving students woefully underprepared by under-resourced schools, a lack of qualifi ed teachers and watered-down academic standards. Rector O’Connell is con-vinced that quality public education is the keystone to building a vibrant South Africa, much as it is to preventing further decline of America’s position in the world. But South Africa must undertake school reform while at the same time combating hiv/aids and receiv-ing an infl ux of refugees from other war-torn parts of Africa—terrible stresses for a relatively new democracy.

Our class has encountered a barrage of ideas and emotions during our visit. In our

visits to the townships (shanty towns lacking essential services housing tens of thousands of people), we are reminded of the terribly oppressive ideology that created such condi-tions for disease, violence and poverty. But in these same townships, we have been inspired by women’s empowerment projects that sup-port women artisans and entrepreneurs and by the gradual rebuilding eff orts to replace shanties with decent, safe housing.

We sat in quiet awe in a prison cell on Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela was held captive for 19 years, and contemplated his refusal to engage in acts of retribution and retaliation to build the new South Africa into a true “rainbow na-tion.” And we sat in quiet and in reverence in St. George’s Cathedral with our friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who graciously agreed to meet with our class and remembers fondly his 2003 visit to Elon.

Winter Term 2010 has been a great adven-ture for Laurie and me, and we have been impressed with the intelligence, friendliness and warmth of each member of our group. We are inspired by the powerful learning experi-ence Prudence and Sandra have created for our students. And, fi nally, we now understand the title of our course, “Th e Call of South Africa,” because it is calling us to return!

Leo M. LambertPresident

As I write, Elon students are engaged in serious academic study around the world, taking part in 25 courses that combine ex-periential learning and refl ection. Our class has participated in tours; lectures; visits to museums, hospitals, schools and theatres; mini-internships; journal writing; blog-ging; cultural explorations and much more. Prudence and Sandra off er a rigorous course.

Prior to the course, students met on cam-pus for a pre-departure seminar, and Laurie and I joined them in completing substantial readings and viewing several videos that set an important context for our studies. More read-ing is assigned during the course, and frequent after-breakfast classes give us the opportunity to discuss the readings and our daily observa-tions. (Note to students considering taking this course: it helps to be in decent physical shape to take full advantage of opportunities such as climbing Table Mountain, so hit the fi tness center after you enroll!)

Our class is studying post-apartheid South Africa. In some ways, there are parallels to early U.S. history as we witness a young democratic

AFRICA

President Leo M. Lambert

and Laurie Lambert with

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

SOUTH

ELON News

2 THE MAGAZINE OF ELON

Construction begins on Alumni Field House

Members of the campus community gathered Nov. 14 to break ground on Alumni Field House, a 30,000-square-foot facility located at the north end of Rhodes Stadium.

The fi eld house, named by Elon trustees to honor all alumni, is scheduled for comple-tion by December.

The facility will include a large team meeting room and locker room for football; a conference room; an advanced athletics training room, including a hydrotherapy area; a large strength and conditioning room; and space for student-athletes to study. It also will include offi ces for the director of athletics and coaches in the football, baseball, soccer, cross country, and track and fi eld programs, as well as other athletics staff .

Alumni Field House will feature the Hendrickson Football Center in recognition of a 1 million gift from Jay ’71 and Amy ’69 Hendrickson, of Raleigh, N.C., in honor of Jay’s father, Horace J. Hendrickson, one of Elon’s all-time great coaches. The fi eld house will include the Walker Room and Terrace, and the Zac Walker Place entrance road. Elon trustee Zac Walker ’60 and his wife, Dot, of Raleigh, made a 500,000 gift in honor of Zac’s father, Zachary T. Walker Jr. ’30, a member of Elon’s Sports Hall of Fame, and Zac’s uncle, D.C.

“Peahead” Walker, another of Elon’s all-time great coaches.Trustee emeritus W.E. “Dub” Love Jr. ’48 and his wife, Ann, made a 250,000 gift to name

the football locker room. Additional major gifts to the project were made by trustee Wes Elingburg and his wife, Cathy, as well as Rear Admiral Edward “Ted” Walker and the Ward family, including mother Cynthia, son Hunt ’82 and his wife, Julia.

Numerous other gifts from alumni, parents and friends helped make the fi eld house a reality and enabled the university to meet one of the goals of the Ever Elon Campaign.

“The Alumni Field House and Hendrickson Football Center will have a tremendous impact on our ability to attract top-notch student-athletes to Elon,” Pete Lembo, Elon’s head football coach, told the crowd at the groundbreaking.

President Leo M. Lambert thanked members of Elon’s board of trustees for their leadership.

“This board recognizes that it needs to set the example for the entire campus in terms of having tremendously high aspirations and expectations for this university,” Lambert said. “That leadership has shown itself so many times as we have worked in a very diffi cult economic time to raise funds for this building.”

Molly Calpin, an Elon senior and a member of the women’s soccer team, echoed the president’s comments during her remarks.

“I truly am amazed and inspired by the generosity of Elon’s benefactors,” she said. “I hope that we will be able to contribute as you have to help future generations of student-athletes.”

MBA program receives top

BusinessWeek ranking

BusinessWeek magazine has ranked Elon’s mbaprogram 1 in the South and 6 in the nation among part-time programs.

Elon jumped six spots from its previous ranking and now tops some of the premier names in graduate business education. Elon is the only university in North Carolina to have cracked the top 30 for part-time programs.

“Th e rankings are evidence of the creativ-ity and quality of our professors, the focus on building community and our students,” says Mary Gowan, dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.

Th e rankings were based on three mea-sures, including a survey sent to a sample of students. A second measure, academic qual-ity, examined average gmat scores, average work experience, the percentage of all faculty members in the part-time mba program who are tenured, average class size in core busi-ness classes, the number of business electives available to part-time mba students and the program’s completion rate. Th e third mea-sure, post-mba outcomes, was based on the percentage of survey respondents who said their program was “completely responsible” for them achieving their goals, according to the magazine.

Students take top honors in

national ethics contest

Senior Danny Bell and junior Charley Costa won fi rst place in October in the 2009 Eller Ethics Case Competition, which features students from many of the top-ranked under-graduate business schools in North America.

Hosted by the Eller College of Manage-ment at the University of Arizona, the annual invitation-only competition exposes students to ethics scenarios that they could face in their careers. Twenty-six teams presented in-formation and responded to questions posed by judges.

Before competing, the Elon team received feedback from Christy Benson, assistant pro-fessor of business law, and members of the advisory board of the university’s Martha and Spencer Love School of Business. Th is year marked Elon’s second appearance in the competition.

(l-r) President Leo M. Lambert, Jay ’71 and Amy ’69 Hendrickson,

Dot and Zac Walker ’60 and Dave Blank.

ELON News

THE MAGAZINE OF ELON 3

Phi Beta Kappa chapter installation

scheduled for April 13

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times col-umnist Nicholas Kristof will headline a daylong celebration of the liberal arts and sciences April 13, when Elon installs its new chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

Kristof is a Phi Beta Kappa member and best-selling au-thor who has traveled to 140 countries dur-ing a distinguished career as a journal-ist. He is the author of China Wakes: The S t rug gl e for the Soul of a Rising Power. His address at the university’s annual Convocation for Honors is titled “A Call to Action: Encouraging Young People to Join the ‘World’s Fight’ and Take on a Cause Larger than Th emselves.”

Th e convocation will include installation ceremonies for Elon’s Phi Beta Kappa chap-ter. Th e university will formally induct the inaugural Phi Beta Kappa student members during an evening ceremony in McKinnon Hall in Moseley Center. Elon’s new Phi Beta Kappa Commons will be dedicated earlier in the day at the weekly College Coffee gathering.

Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic society. About 10 percent of U.S. colleges and universities shel-ter Phi Beta Kappa chapters. Elon becomes the seventh institution in North Carolina to meet the high standards of excellence in the arts and sciences advocated by the society.

Book, Peeples named to

associate provost positions

Provost Steven House has named two long-time faculty members, Connie Book and Tim Peeples, to associate provost positions. Th ey begin their new duties June 1.

Book, who joined Elon’s faculty in 1999, currently serves as associate dean and associate professor in the School of Communications and faculty fellow/assistant to the president for strategic planning. As associate provost for academic aff airs, she’ll oversee Elon’s general studies program, civic engagement, expe-riential education, curriculum committee, Academic Support Services, Career Center,

Elon Life Trustee Robert LaRose ’66 diesRobert E. LaRose, a 1966 Elon graduate and former chair of the board of trustees, died Jan. 11. A successful entrepreneur from Clifton, Va., LaRose was a loyal and generous Elon supporter who played an important role in the university’s development.

LaRose served on Elon’s board of trustees from 1985 to 2006 and was chair from 1997 to 1999. He received an honorary doctorate at Elon’s Commencement in 1998, was named Distinguished Alumnus of the Year that same year and was elected the university’s fi rst life trustee in 2006. He and his wife, Gail, a 1964 Elon alumna, made a gift to name the former LaRose Resources Center in Mooney Building in honor of their parents. The LaRose Digital Theatre in the Ernest A. Koury Sr. Business Center is named in recognition of the couple’s 1 million gift to Elon.

“Bob brought a builder’s vision to Elon at an important juncture in the university’s his-tory,” President Leo M. Lambert says. “He brought his creative spirit to the board of trustees with a vision of what Elon could become. He and Gail have been loyal and generous alumni, and his death is a profound personal shock. Bob will be greatly missed.”

Former Elon President Fred Young says LaRose was a great help during his presidency.“Bob was unusually focused and brought that focus to bear on making Elon a better

place,” Young says. “As board chair, he provided me with strong counsel in the manage-ment of the university. He presided over the successful transition from my presidency to President Lambert’s presidency, and he was committed to making Elon an extraordinary institution, devoting his time and resources to that purpose. His death is a great loss to Elon and to me personally.”

After graduating from Elon with degrees in mathematics and physics, LaRose became involved with computer technology through his fi rst job with the Newport News Ship-building and Drydock Co. He went on to build companies that specialize in software applications and integration services for government and commercial enterprises. At the time of his death, he served as president, CEO and chairman of Agilex Technologies, Inc., a fi rm that provides consulting, software and solutions development, and system integration services.

LaRose founded his fi rst company, Advanced Technology, Inc. (ATI), in 1976. He off ered ATI’s services to help Elon expand its computer technology capabilities, helping the col-lege create computer labs and obtain a grant from Digital Equipment Corp. to acquire a VAX 8350 computer. LaRose later established Integic Corp. to focus on applications and solutions for government and commercial clients. The company’s innovations included the world’s largest, globally deployed electronic medical record system and the award-winning e.POWER business process management suite.

Bob LaRose ’66Nicholas Kristof

Photo © Joanne S. Law

ton/Washington Business Journal

ELON News


voice during campus gatherings, sharing many aspects of his Arabic culture with fel-low students.

“Captain Abu Raed” is the fi rst feature fi lm to emerge from Jordan in 50 years. After winning the award at Sundance, Majali trav-eled the globe to promote the fi lm and the Jordanian fi lm industry.

“It’s not whether people fail, because everybody does. We’re disappointed. We fall short. Th e question is how do you deal with that? People who are strong leaders and make a diff er-ence are people who get up and try again.”

Former Clinton White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers visited campus twice in January as the sixth Isabella Cannon Distinguished Visiting Professor of Leadership. Th e program brings nationally recognized leaders to campus to share insights about leadership. In her Jan. 7 lecture, “Leadership in Challenging Times,” Myers shared stories from her years in the White House. To view video excerpts, visit www.elon.edu/magazine.

leadership program, planning/priorities and academic support for student-athletes.

Peeples, a member of the faculty since 1998, is associate dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, and associate professor of English. As the university’s fi rst

associate provost for faculty aff airs, Peeples will oversee implementation of the faculty scholarship initiative, faculty research and development, undergraduate research, the honors program, the national fellowships di-rector, sponsored programs, the Lumen Prize and the Institutional Review Board.

“Both Dr. Book and Dr. Peeples are out-standing teacher-scholars and mentors,” House says. “Th ey have also provided excep-tional leadership throughout the university. Th e Elon community is extremely appreciative that Connie and Tim have agreed to serve in these important positions as we all work together to continue to enhance the teaching and learning experience at Elon.”

Laith al-Majali ’05 to deliver

Commencement address

Award-winning fi lmmaker Laith al-Majali ’05 will deliver Elon’s 120th Commencement address on May 22. Th e ceremony will take place Under the Oaks in front of West resi-dence hall.

Majali edited and produced “Captain Abu Raed,” which earned the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, in 2008. Later that year, he received Elon’s Young Alumnus of the Year Award.

Majali came to Elon in 2001 as the uni-versity’s fi rst King Hussein of Jordan Scholar. He distinguished himself as a campus leader, becoming an Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellow and Elon Ambassador, and joining the Intercultural Relations Club. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he served as a unifying

Laith al-Majali ’05

Connie Book Tim Peeples

Elon Law rated high for

student engagement

Th e Law School Survey of Student Engage-ment (lssse) shows that Elon Law students examine ethics, participate in clinical, pro bono and fi eld experiences, and collaborate with colleagues and faculty at higher rates than students at other law schools. Th e lsssesurvey includes responses from more than 26,000 law students across the nation.

According to the survey, 88 percent of fi rst-year Elon Law students report that the school’s environment encourages the ethical practice of law, compared with 79 percent na-tionally. Seventy percent of second-year Elon Law students report working to develop a per-sonal code of values and ethics during their studies, compared with 49 percent nationally. Also, 88 percent of second-year Elon Law students have completed or plan to complete volunteer or pro bono work, compared with 77 percent nationally.

ELON News


Janet Myers

Thomas Erdmann

Sophie Adamson

Karol K. Sparks

Faculty author

new books

New books from four Elon faculty members explore British literature, bank laws and regu-lations, a prominent Francophone Moroccan author and jazz music.

In her book, Antipodal England: Emigra-

tion and Portable Domesticity in the Victorian

Imagination, Janet Myers, associate professor of English, examines Victorian conceptions of home and identity by studying portrayals and accounts of middle-class emigration to Australia.

Karol K. Sparks, Elon Law’s distinguished practitioner-in-residence, has completed the 2010 edition of her book, Insurance Activities

of Banks, which she originally wrote in 1998. The book brings together all federal and state laws, regulations and case law that banks and insurance companies draw from to operate within the highly regulated fi eld.

Sophie Adamson, assistant professor of French, wrote Ethics, Politics and Poetics in

Tahar Ben Jelloun’s Harrouda, La Réclusion soli-

taire and L’Ange aveugle. Adamson examines how Tahar Ben Jelloun, one of today’s most prominent Francophone Moroccan authors, reconciles politics and poetics with the voices of Maghrebi culture.

In his new book, How Jazz Trumpeters

Understand Their Music: Twenty-Seven Inter-

views, music professor Thomas Erdmann off ers a collection of in-depth commentaries on the state of jazz music today.

“Twenty seconds after I sat on that stool, I had the most won-derful feeling. I had a feeling of self-fulfi llment. I had a feeling of dignity 100 feet tall.”

Franklin McCain spoke Jan. 14 at the School of Law’s second annual mlk forum, which focused on the 50th anniversary of the Greensboro, N.C., sit-ins. McCain was one of the North Carolina a&t students who initiated the sit-ins at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter in downtown Greensboro.

Lindner Hall receives

LEED Gold certifi cation

Lindner Hall, the new administrative home of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, has received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (leed) Gold certifi cation from the U.S. Green Building Council. leed is the national recognition for design, construction and operation of high-performance “green” buildings.

Named for benefactors Martha S. and Carl H. Lindner iii of Cincinnati, Lindner Hall anchors Elon’s Academic Village and includes classrooms, offi ce space, the Inman Reading Room, a computer lab and student-faculty engagement spaces.

Lindner Hall is 27 percent more energy

efficient than a similar building meeting traditional energy code requirements. Th e facility has many sustainable features that contributed to its leed Gold certifi cation. Photovoltaic panels on the roof generate elec-tricity and a solar thermal system provides hot water for the building. Adhesives, seal-ants, paints and carpets used in the building contain low amounts of volatile organic com-pounds, and the building is equipped with carbon dioxide sensors to monitor levels and maintain proper ventilation.

During construction, more than 90 per-cent of waste was diverted from the landfi ll for recycling or reuse, and building materials con-taining recycled content were used as much as possible. In addition, Elon used regional

suppliers whenever possible to support the lo-cal economy and reduce the environmental impact of transporting building materials.

ELON News


Students celebrate life of

Martin Luther King Jr.

Students examined the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., including the role that sit-ins played in the civil rights movement, during a weeklong celebration of King’s life on Elon’s main campus and at the School of Law in Greensboro.

Th e university’s Jan. 12-18 celebration in-cluded a special College Coff ee, School of Law forum, candlelight ceremony, commu-nity march and day of service.

Elon responds to tragedy in Haiti

Members of the Elon community responded to the Jan. 12 earth-quake in Haiti by raising money for humanitarian organizations and waiting to hear from family members and friends in the battered Caribbean nation. Others shared harrowing fi rsthand accounts of the tragedy.

Courtney Latta ’09, of Winston-Salem, N.C., was in Port-au-Prince volunteering with the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti when the 7.0 quake hit. Latta, who was an international studies major and Periclean Scholar, says she escaped death only because she and her colleagues chose to eat dinner on an outdoor patio rather than inside a nearby restaurant.

“There are no words to describe it,” Latta said of the aftermath. Senior John McGreevy, a Periclean Scholar and environmental

studies and biology double major, was in Haiti on a personal trip conducting research and distributing solar-powered ovens in a vil-lage north of Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck. He was not injured.

Several student groups moved quickly to raise money for vic-tims of the quake. Elon Hillel, the Periclean Scholars program and the Omicron Iota Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., were among the fi rst groups to collect donations in the form of Phoenix cash and meal swipes on behalf of the American Red Cross.

The Phoenix baseball team, led by senior catcher Mike Melillo, launched the “Pinch Hit for Haiti” project, which challenges all NCAA athletics programs to donate money to the Red Cross and then report those totals to Elon, which is tracking them on www.elonphoenix.com. As of late January, more than 8,000 had been raised.

For more information on Elon’s response to the tragedy, visit www.elon.edu/haiti.

Courtney Latta ’09

In her Jan. 13 address on main campus, diversity educator and author Lenora Billings- Harris urged students to use their knowledge and courage to build on the social progress made by civil rights activists.

During a Jan. 14 forum at Elon Law, stu-dents evaluated the impact of the Greensboro sit-ins on the American civil rights movement, two weeks prior to the 50th anniversary of the historic event at Woolworth’s. Participants included Franklin McCain, one of the North Carolina A&T students who initiated the

sit-in, and Elon Law professor Faith Rivers James.

“We can’t sit on our hands and wait for change to happen,” says Elon Law student Amanda Tauber. “As lawyers, we will have the infl uence, the intelligence and the creativity to really make an active change in our com-munities and in the world.”

Elon Law presented the forum in partner-ship with the law school’s Black Law Students Association and Phi Alpha Delta chapter.

ELON News


Update

dejoy and wos promote international educationBelieving in the power of cross-cultural learning, Elon trustee Louis DeJoy and his wife, the Hon. Aldona Z. Wos, M.D., have made a major gift to establish a scholarship endowment for international study. Th e scholarships will enable addi-tional students with fi nancial need to participate in one of Elon’s semester-abroad programs.

Th e couple’s gift addresses the Ever Elon goal of enabling additional students to study abroad regardless of fi nancial circumstances. It also demonstrates their deep commitment to global understanding.

“International study enables students to not only learn the culture, business prac-tices and society of other nations, but it also enables them to properly benchmark the gifts our nation provides them,” DeJoy says. “Elon needs to encourage stu-dents to transform the way they see themselves and the nation in which they live.”

International study can enhance students’ professional careers as well, adds DeJoy, ceo of New Breed Logistics.

Th e Ever Elon Campaign continues to gain momentum, with donors mak-ing major gifts to support need-based scholarships, international study, academic programs and outstanding facilities.

As of late January, alumni, parents and friends had contributed more than $73 million in cash and pledges toward the $100 million campaign goal. Th rough their generous annual, endowment, capital and planned gifts, all Elon benefactors are making a diff erence in the lives of students and help-ing to secure the university’s future.

Momentum builds for Ever Elon Campaign

Aldona Z. Wos and Louis DeJoy


“Th e experience of learning abroad not only makes students better global citizens and in-formed leaders, but it gives them knowledge and skills that will create greater opportunity for professional success,” he says.

Wos, a physician and former U.S. ambas-sador to Estonia, calls traveling “the best ed-ucation one can receive.”

“You not only learn about the world and its diff erent cultures, but more important, you learn about yourself and your country,” says Wos, who was born in Warsaw, Poland, and arrived in the United States as a child.

“Sometimes you can only see clearly from a distance. By visiting other places in the world, you develop a greater appreciation for the hard-fought freedom that we have in the United States.”

Th e couple have generously supported the university through the years. Th ey are mem-bers of Th e Elon Society Founder’s Circle and Aesculus Society. DeJoy has served as a mem-ber of the board of trustees since 2007.

loves support excellent facilities Trustee emeritus Walker E. “Dub” Love Jr. ’48 and his wife, Ann, of Burlington, N.C., have made a $250,000 gift to support con-struction of Alumni Field House. In recogni-tion of their generosity, the facility’s football locker room will be named in their honor.

Construction is under way on the 30,000-square-foot fi eld house, located at the north end of Rhodes Stadium. Th e facility, named by Elon trustees to honor all alumni, is scheduled for completion by December (see story page 3).

Th e Loves are longtime benefactors of Elon, making generous gifts to Rhodes Stadium and the Center for the Arts. Th e couple are members of The Elon Society Founder’s Circle, the Phoenix Club impact Circle,

Palladian Society and Order of the Oak, the university’s planned gift legacy society. Th e couple are the parents of W.E. Love iii ’72.

“Elon is a wonderful asset for this area, and it makes me proud to support the university,” Dub Love says. “I feel that (head coach) Pete Lembo needs our support right now to keep the football program going in the right direc-tion, and that’s why I support the fi eld house.”

newhalls enhance entrepreneurial education Trustee C. Ashton Newhall ’98 and his wife, Rebecca, of Owings Mills, Md., have do-nated $100,000 to fund a lecture series in E lon’s Mar tha and Spencer Love School of Business.

Th e C. Ashton Newhall Endowed Lecture Ser ie s brings successful entrepreneurs to campus to share their knowledge and experience ma na g ing t he risks and rewards of entrepreneur-ial endeavors. Dave Rendall, a former tele-communications executive, delivered the fi rst address Sept. 28 in the Ernest A. Koury Sr. Business Center. Th e lecture series comple-ments the work of the university’s Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, which administers the program.

Newhall is co-founder of Montagu Newhall Associates, a venture capital fi rm in Owings Mills. He says the recent fi nancial crisis has made a speaker series more impor-tant than ever to students’ education.

“Becky and I strongly believe that in times of crisis, leadership is most important,”

Newhall says. “We hope in some small way that this lecture series serves to accentuate the positive attributes that the Love School and the Doherty Center already exhibit.”

Entrepreneurial thinking is the key to global economic recovery, Newhall says.

“We believe that job growth is going to be driven by entrepreneurs, business leaders and fi nanciers of innovative ideas,” he says.

“We hope this lecture series helps to shape the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s leaders for the betterment of the student body and, ulti-mately, the country as a whole.”

Th e Newhalls are members of Th e Elon Society, the university’s premier annual giv-ing recognition society, and Aesculus Society.

hearst foundation funds scholarshipsHelping students from diverse backgrounds succeed at Elon inspired the William Randolph Hearst Foundation to make a $100,000 gift to the university.

The gift will be added to the William Randolph Hearst Endowed Scholarship Fund, which assists students in Elon’s Communications Fellows program. Th e foun-dation established the scholarship in 2001 with an initial $100,000 gift.

“The Hearst Foundation continues to be impressed by Elon and its School of Communications,” says Ligia Cravo, senior program offi cer at the foundation. “I think Elon is such a spectacular school and is one of these real jewels. I cannot be more thrilled that we are part of its success by helping stu-dents in the School of Communications.”

donors make planned giftsOrder of the Oak, the university’s planned gift legacy society, welcomes the following new members: Elon parents Hunt ’82 and Julia Ward, of Burlington, N.C., as well as M. William “Bill” Grant and his late wife, Lorraine, of Burlington, and Rachel Holt ’64, of Burlington.

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Visit www.everelon.org for more information on the

Ever Elon Campaign or to make a gift.


Mike Kennedy’s 2010 Phoenix baseball team seeks the program’s third consecutive

Southern Conference regular-season title and berth in the ncaa Regionals.

Th e Phoenix has become a consistent force in the SoCon, winning three league crowns in four years and eclipsing the 40-win mark each of the past two seasons. Elon ended the 2009 season ranked 24th in the nation in Baseball America’s top-25 poll and 27th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association top-30 poll.

Elon faces a challenging 2010 schedule, in-cluding home games against North Carolina, East Carolina and Wake Forest. Th e 56-game slate includes 10 games against teams that com-peted in the 2009 ncaa Division i National Tournament.

“Our pitching staff is experienced and should be the key to our success,” says Kennedy, a 1991 Elon alumnus currently in his 14th year leading Elon’s baseball pro-gram. “Traditionally, the Southern Conference is an off ensive league, but a lot of programs suff ered heavy personnel losses in terms of of-fense, while several teams return some quality arms. For us to be successful, our pitching staff will have to carry us.”

Th e Phoenix returns nearly every pitcher from last season’s squad, including junior left-hander Jimmy Reyes, who went 8–0 in 2009.

BY CHRIS RASH

Seniors Daniel Britt and Bobby Kennedy, junior Ken Ferrer and sophomore John Brebbia will help anchor the squad. Britt and Ferrer each won eight games last year. Late in games, Kennedy plans to turn to junior Th omas Girdwood, who has recorded an Elon-record 27 saves in two seasons. Junior Jared Kernodle and sophomore Jordan Darnell also will help from the bullpen.

Outfi elder Justin Hilt returns for his senior year, deciding to remain at Elon despite being selected in the 2009 mlb First-Year Player Draft by the Oakland Athletics. Senior Mike Melillo will handle the majority of the team’s catching duties. Also returning are senior fi rst baseman Ryan Adams, junior shortstop Neal Pritchard, junior outfi elder Harry Austin and sophomore designated hitter/fi rst baseman Alex Maruri.

The Phoenix opens the season at home Feb. 19–21 with the Elon Classic. Conference

play begins March 12 with a three-game series at Furman. Elon will host Th e Citadel the following weekend to open up its home confer-ence schedule at Latham Park.

Th is year, the Southern Conference Tournament returns to Riley Park in Charleston, S.C. Th e top eight teams in the league will battle for the tournament title and the SoCon’s automatic bid into the ncaa Regionals beginning May 26. Th e championship game is May 30.

Phoenix baseball players sport their 2009 regular-season championship rings.

10 THE MAGAZINE OF ELON10 THE MAGAZINE OF ELON

Jimmy Reyes

A healthy sibling rivalry

BY PAM RICHTER ’11

If you go to an Elon softball game this spring, don’t be surprised if you see several Phoenix football players cheering from the bleachers. Leading the group will be junior off ensive line-man Corey O’Shea, playing the role of supportive older brother to sister Erin, a sophomore pitcher on the team.

“I cheer and embarrass her sometimes,” con-cedes Corey, who routinely brings two or three teammates to each home game. “I think she gets a kick out of that because I can see her get fl ushed or start to laugh.”

Erin agrees. “On the football team, I’m known as ‘O’Shea’s little sister,’” she says. “I’m used to it.”

The O’Sheas are not the fi rst brother-sister team to play Division I sports at Elon. Others include senior soccer player Alix Heinicke and brother Chad ’03, who played on the men’s soccer team, and junior volleyball player Sarah Schermerhorn and brother Mason ’08, who played on the tennis team.

The O’Sheas have become key players for their respective teams; Corey started all 12 games for the football team, includ-ing the first-round playoff matchup against

Richmond, while Erin started 18 games and pitched 109.2 innings during her freshman season.

The siblings from Kennesaw, Ga., have been athletes since they were kids. Corey played ice hockey before turning to football in the eighth grade. Erin began playing fast-pitch softball when she was 11. Both excelled in their sports, develop-ing a healthy rivalry and respect for each other at Kennesaw Mountain High School.

“You’d see my name in the paper, then Erin’s name was in the paper,” Corey recalls. “We kind of battled back and forth to see who was the best player.”

Erin credits her brother with leading by example.

“There would be times when I wouldn’t want to go outside and pitch, and he’d remind me that you have to put in the eff ort if you want to do well,” she says.

After starting all four years for the Kennesaw Mountain football team, Corey fielded offers from nearly every Southern Conference school before choosing Elon. Erin led Kennesaw Moun-tain’s softball team to the Georgia 5AAAA Region Championship in 2007 and was named pitcher of the year before signing with the Phoenix.

“I really loved the campus and the school,” she

says. “When I went on my offi cial visit, the girls on the softball team were really welcoming. I thought it would be a good fi t.”

Even though classes and practices keep them busy, Corey and Erin make time for each other, including attending each other’s games when-ever possible.

“He’s a really great brother,” Erin says. “We’ve become a lot closer, and he’s become more of a friend than just my brother.”

McFadden to lead women’s golf

BY CHRIS RASH

Th e women’s golf team plans to build on a solid fall season when it opens spring play at the Edwin Watts/Kiawah Island Classic in late February.

Led by junior Tara McFadden, the Phoenix claimed three top-fi ve fi nishes in its four fall tournaments, including a share of the cham-pionship at the Great Smokies Intercollegiate. McFadden, who won two individual titles in the fall, is one of three veteran players lead-ing head coach Chris Dockrill’s team, joining seniors Ashley Barbee and Kelsey Johnson. Johnson competed in all four fall tourna-ments, tying for ninth in the Great Smokies Intercollegiate.

Dockrill will look to standout sophomores Lauren Lebak, Virginia Mayer, Dani Mullin and Meghan Green to round out the Phoenix lineup. During the fall, Lebak carded a low round of 73, while last spring, Mayer earned three top-25 fi nishes. Mullin averaged a 76.83 in six rounds, and Green tallied an average score of 78.17 in her two fall events.

True freshman Diana Davis had a solid fall season, averaging a 74.57 in seven rounds and fi nishing in the top 10 at two tournaments. Sophomore Lindsey Th omka and freshman Shannon Prunty also will play key roles this spring.

Kinney dra� ed into MLS

Phoenix defender Steven Kinney made Elon soccer history on Jan. 14 by becoming the program’s first player to be drafted into Major League Soccer. Th e Chicago Fire se-lected Kinney 45 overall in the 2010 mls SuperDraft.

“Th is is a great honor,” says Kinney, who graduated in December. “I feel that Elon and Coach (Darren) Powell prepared me for this next experience.”

During his career, Kinney was a three-time first-team All-Southern Conference selection. Last fall, he was named a fi nalist for the Lowes Senior class award as well as to ESPN Th e Magazine’s Academic All-America third team. Th e Norcross, Ga., native was

named a team co-captain and helped the 2009 Phoenix squad earn a program record-tying 10 shutouts en route to the team’s fi rst appearance in the SoCon tournament cham-pionship game.

In his four years at Elon, Kinney contrib-uted to 28 shutouts, scored eight goals and tallied two assists. He played an instrumen-tal role in the team’s undefeated 2008 SoCon regular-season championship season.

PHOENIX Sports


Siblings Erin and Corey O’Shea

Steven Kinney

Head football coach Pete Lembo

was hoping for a big Elon crowd as

his team prepared to take on the

University of Richmond Spiders

Nov. in the fi rst round of the

Football Championship Subdivision

playoff s. He wasn’t disappointed.

An estimated , alumni,

students, parents, faculty, staff and

friends traveled to Richmond, Va.,

to watch Elon compete in its fi rst

football playoff game in years

and its fi rst at the Division I level.

“It was awesome, to say the

least,” Lembo said of the crowd.

Some alumni traveled hundreds of

miles to witness Elon football history.

“I rearranged my whole travel

schedule, fl ights and everything, to

be here,” said Jayson Teagle ’, of

Atlanta, who served as president

of the Phoenix Phanatics student

group during his senior year. “It’s

awesome to be here, surrounded by

maroon and gold. It’s incredible to see

how far the program has come and

how far the university has come.”

President Emeritus Earl

Danieley ’ sat among a sea of

Phoenix fans tailgating before

Elon took on the defending FCS

national champion Spiders.

“It’s a great thing for our school, for

our people, for the community, for North

Carolina, for Elon to be at this level.

We’re delighted,” Danieley said. “I saw

my fi rst football game at Elon years

ago, and I’m excited about this one.”

Phoenix fans arrived early, stayed

late and cheered loudly from the

opening kick to the fi nal whistle.

Despite Elon’s – loss, fans came

away with a great deal of pride in their

team, which fi nished the season –

(– in the Southern Conference).

MAKING HISTORYPhoenix football & fans celebrate return to playoff s

V I S I Twww.elon.edu/magazine

TO VIEW VIDEO INTERVIEWS WITH PHOENIX FANS

football playoff game in years

and its fi rst at the Division I level.

“It was awesome, to say the

least,” Lembo said of the crowd.

how far the university has come.

President Emeritus Earl

Danieley ’ sat among a sea of

Phoenix fans tailgating before

Despite Elon s loss, fans came

away with a great deal of pride in their

team, which fi nished the season –

(– in the Southern Conference).

Photos by Daniel J. Anderson12 THE MAGAZINE OF ELON


“I would line up all my dolls for class and teach them,” recalls Midgette, Elon’s associate provost. “When I was in fi rst grade, if I got bored I would make up my own assignments and give them to the other kids. I probably was not real popular.”

Th at, at least, has changed. In her 25 years as a faculty member and administrator at Elon, Midgette has gathered a large and loyal fol-lowing among her former students. Many of them nominated Midgette for Elon’s highest teaching honor, the Daniels-Danieley Award, which she received in 1998.

“Nancy is, hands down, the best teacher I’ve ever known,” says Heather Di Lorenzo ’96,

Elon’s director of education outreach. “Dr. Midgette has a way of bringing life to history, of calling it into the here and now. She has very high expectations of her students and encouraged a kind of excellence that I’d never demanded of myself as a student.”

After a decade of serving in a dizzying number of administrative roles, Midgette is preparing to return to the classroom, where her career began. Th is fall, she’ll teach American military history and a class for Elon’s Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows and students minoring in leadership studies.

“I realized that I want to spend the last few years of my time at Elon the way I spent

the fi rst 15 — working with students,” says Midgette, who served as Elon’s fi rst William J. Story Professor of History.

Working with students is what inspired Midgette to enter academia in the fi rst place, although it wasn’t quite a straight line from her Christmas morning blackboard to Elon.

Born Nancy Smith in Charlotte, N.C., Midgette grew up the daughter of a Presbyterian minister and attended North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where she majored in sociology, not education or history.

“It was the ’60s,” Midgette says. “We were out to save the world. But eventually reality set in, and I decided I wanted to pursue a master’s degree in history. So I did that, at N.C. State, one class at a time.”

She married U.S. Army Capt. Charlie Midgette in 1978. Th e previous year, her pas-sion for teaching was renewed when she visited Charlie in Germany, where he was stationed with the Army Corps of Engineers. She began

Bringing learning to life

Santa Claus had Nancy Midgette pegged early on; when she was a young girl, he brought her a blackboard.

BY DAVE HART


teaching high school completion courses to young enlisted men on a nato missile base there.

“A lot of them signed up for classes to get out of duty, but there were some who really wanted to turn their lives around,” Midgette recalls.

Several men were eager for more serious studies but felt they couldn’t admit to that in front of their peers. So Midgette employed a ruse.

“I had to make it seem that I was pulling them aside for specialized instruction because they were so slow,” Midgette says. “Seeing them respond to teaching, I thought, ‘Th is is what I want to do.’”

The couple left Germany in 1978 and moved to Georgia. Midgette earned her doctorate at the University of Georgia while her husband worked in the textile industry. Charlie’s career eventually brought them back to central North Carolina, where he became a hand bookbinder — a skill he initially learned from Nancy’s parents — and collector of rare and antique books. Midgette joined the Elon faculty and began teaching her fi rst class, an introductory course in American history, in January 1985. She taught American history and military history, with a special focus on the Civil War.

Patrick Doering ’95, a part-time fac-ulty member in the theology department at Duquesne University, remembers talking with Midgette almost daily about the Civil War and his own challenges in life.

“It was under her direction that I really fl owered as an intellectual and an academic,” Doering says. “Before attending Elon, I had barely graduated from high school and attended Louisiana State to get my grades up. I found school boring, and studying under Nancy changed that. I discovered the subtle-ties and nuances of history and the intellectual tradition.”

Th e Civil War remains endlessly fasci-nating not only because it was an inherently dramatic and important period in American history, but because its repercussions remain to this day, Midgette says.

“Whenever you talk about the Jim Crow system or the civil rights movement, you’re talking about something that stretches back to the Civil War,” she says. “Here in the South, especially, almost every family has stories about the war: a relative fought here or died there, or the family house was occupied by troops.”

Midgette never confi ned her teaching to the classroom. Alumni fondly recall the trips she led to Civil War sites such as Gettysburg and Chickamauga, Ga. Midgette also taught the World War ii Revisited study abroad course and took students to military sites throughout Europe.

“It is one thing to read about World War ii and quite another to stand on the beaches of Normandy, tour the concentration camp at Dachau and see the white crosses where the American soldiers were buried,” says Melissa Pace Garrison ’98. “Nancy always challenged us to think critically about what we were seeing, to understand the impact of those his-torical events on today’s society.”

In 2001, then-Provost Gerry Francis named Midgette associate provost, a post she’s held ever since.

“I hired her initially to teach history, and it was obvious that she was going to succeed at whatever she did,” recalls Francis, Elon’s exec-utive vice president. “She not only has great organizational skills, but she’s a good listener, she’s highly respected and she can make deci-sions. Wherever Nancy goes, it’s a win-win.”

Midgette has taken on so many respon-sibilities at Elon that it’s diffi cult for anyone, including Midgette herself, to name them all. Her no-nonsense style served her well as chair of the Department of History and Geography, interim dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, interim director of the Career Center, the fi rst director of the Isabella Cannon Leadership Program and as interim dean of several departments in the School of Education. She has served on the university’s curriculum committee, was a member of the search committee that brought President Leo M. Lambert to Elon and chaired the

committee that crafted the university’s cur-rent mission statement.

Midgette says it’s no accident she has worn many hats at Elon.

“I enjoy doing diff erent things, taking on new challenges,” she says. “I’m not the most creative person in the world; don’t ask me to come up with a new program for Residence Life. But I’m pretty good at taking what is there and making it work better.”

“We sometimes refer to Nancy as our utility infi elder,” Provost Steven House says.

“When you need important things done, you tap good people. Nancy keeps getting tapped. What does that tell you?”

Midgette would certainly appreciate House’s baseball analogy; for many years she’s been a dedicated baseball fan and card collector.

“My parents took me to New York City, including a game at Yankee Stadium, in 1961, which of course was the year Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris were chasing Babe Ruth’s home run record,” she says. “When I lived in Georgia, we went to a lot of Braves games. You could get into the bleachers at Fulton County Stadium for $2 and after the third inning you could move down into the good seats.

“I started collecting cards in the ’80s. I like to choose a player and try to get one card for every season of his career. I have complete sets for players, including Joe Morgan and Cal Ripken. I remember trading two Phil Plantier cards for Cal Ripken’s rookie card.”

As Midgette prepares to return to the classroom, she recognizes that times have changed — and she’s excited. She patted a stack of textbooks on leadership and military history sitting on a table in her offi ce.

“I’m already preparing,” she says. “When I left teaching, we were guaranteed an overhead projector, and some rooms had a tv and a vcr, sometimes in the closet. Now you can take your laptop and put together a great kaleido-scope of images and information to share with students. Technology enables you to teach his-tory in whole new ways.”

Former students such as Doering know that her next class is in for a real treat. He says he was inspired to earn a doctorate and become a teacher out of “the desire to pass on to stu-dents the very things that Nancy passed on to me — love for learning, academic honesty and personal loyalty free of ideological preferences. I always tell people that the greatest gift Elon ever gave me was Dr. Midgette.”

“… I want to spend the last few years of my time at Elon the way I spent the fi rst 15 — working with students.”


major-league season this spring — both are highly respected among their peers in professional baseball.

“I’ve had an association with probably 100 or so umpires in the major leagues,” says Jack McKeon ’63, who managed fi ve major-league teams, including the 2003 World Champion Florida Marlins. “I’d have to put Drew and Joe near the top of that group.”

The road to the majorsGrowing up in Graham, N.C., Coble spent hours on the baseball fi eld.

“I played Little League and absolutely fell in love with the sport,” he says. “I played as late as I could every day and every night.”

He starred at catcher for the Southern Alamance High School team and was recruited by East Carolina University as well as Elon. Yet Coble, unsure whether he was ready for college, opted to enlist in the Air Force. He played on various Air Force softball and basketball teams that competed throughout the United States and internation-ally. Th e experience kept Coble in top physical shape, and when he returned to Graham following his service, Elon baseball coach Jerry Drake off ered him a scholarship. Two weeks later, Coble enrolled at Elon and immediately felt at home.

During his fi rst year on campus, Coble joined the Iota Tau Kappa fraternity and met West, the quarterback of Elon’s football team. Th e Asheville, N.C., native was already building an impressive record on the gridiron, leading Elon to consecutive Carolinas Conference champion-ships in 1972 and 1973, as well as a berth in the 1973 naia championship game against eventual champion Abilene Christian.

“We were one of those ‘outlaw’ fraternities,” West says of itk. “Drew and I were athletes, and we became friends pretty fast.”

Coble recalls one spring when West tried out for the baseball team. Th at didn’t sit well with football coach Shirley S. “Red” Wilson, who wanted his star quarterback at spring football practice. To satisfy his interest in baseball, West studied the rules of the game and began umpiring local high school contests.

“(Joe) used to work at a store in town that I’d go into sometimes, and I would notice he’d be reading his baseball rule book,” recalls Mike Harden ’76, of Graham, N.C., a friend of Coble and West.

After football season ended his senior year, West left Elon to take an umpire development course in St. Petersburg, Fla. A few months later, he went to spring training with the Detroit Tigers minor-league camp. He spent two years working his way through the minor leagues before umpiring his fi rst major-league game in September 1976 between the Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves.

“I fi gured I could do all that major-league stuff because I’d played football in front of packed houses at Williams High School,” quips West, “but walking on the fi eld for the fi rst time in the major leagues, that was special.”

After graduating from Elon in 1975, Coble began working for John Deere in Raleigh, N.C., before taking the advice of some friends, includ-ing West and McKeon, and attending the umpire training program in St. Petersburg. Coble earned a minor-league umpiring spot after completing the program and was called up to the al in April 1981.

“Once it all hit home, I was euphoric,” Coble says of the call.

Stars of ‘The Show’ Once in the major leagues, aff ectionately known as “Th e Show” to players and umpires alike, it didn’t take long for Coble and West to earn sterling reputations.

hen Drew Coble and Joe West crossed paths at Elon in the mid-1970s, no one could have

predicted that the pair would go on to become two of the most decorated umpires in Major League Baseball in the last 30 years. Between them, Coble and West have worked 21 post-season series, including fi ve World Series, and four All-Star Games.

As fraternity brothers and student-athletes, Coble and West forged a friendship that has spanned more than three decades. Th eir bond has withstood career highs and lows, personal triumphs and tragedies, and more than a few rounds of golf. Th ough their career paths some-times diverged — Coble worked in the American League, West in the National League; Coble retired in 1999, while West enters his 34th

Drew Coble ’75 & Joe West ’74

make the right calls

BY KRISTIN SIMONETTI ’05


Coble umpired six postseason series, including the classic seven-game 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and the Braves. In 1990, he became one of only fi ve umpires since 1901 to work two no-hitters in the same season.

“Some guys work a whole career and never see a no-hitter, and I worked two within one year,” Coble says.

It wasn’t always easy calling balls and strikes. espn baseball reporter Tim Kurkjian recalls an infamous encounter Coble had calling a game in Baltimore.

“When I was covering the Orioles in the mid-to-late 1980s, Coble ejected Cal Ripken in the fi rst inning of a game,” Kurkjian says. “Coble said after the game, ‘It was like throwing God out of Sunday school.’”

West has umpired four World Series, including the 2009 series between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies. In July 2009, he became the 14th umpire to log 4,000 career games. He remains the youngest nl umpire to work a championship series, and he holds the patent for the chest protector used by most major-league umpires, known as the “West Vest.” And if that weren’t enough to keep him busy, West also has built a successful music career, playing with noted country and western musicians such as Merle Haggard and releasing two albums, “Blue Cowboy” and “Diamond Dreams.”

Like West, Coble’s umpiring skills were top-notch. But he struck a diff erent tone behind the plate.

“While he was umpiring, Drew always had that calm demeanor about him,” says McKeon. “He’d always listen and wasn’t too anxious to get into a confrontation. Joe is more aggressive than Drew. He threw me out of a game in the Puerto Rican Winter League once.”

Says Kurkjian of West, “Th e players and managers refer to him as ‘Th e Cowboy’ or ‘Cowboy Joe West.’ Th ey all know that Joe is in charge, especially when he’s behind the plate.”

Because they worked in diff erent leagues, Coble and West rarely crossed paths on the diamond, but each worked to maintain their friendship.

“I would call Joe, or Joe would call me on the road, and it has been that way since,” Coble says.

Th eir friendship grew even stronger in 1999

during labor unrest between the umpires union and mlb. Coble and West were fi red amid a failed mass resignation by the union. Both got their jobs back after the ensuing two-year legal battle, but Coble, whose fi rst wife, Kim, lost her battle with cancer during the legal wrangling, decided to retire.

“At the time I was bitter,” Coble says. “I decided that baseball was starting to change. I didn’t think it was fun anymore.”

West had a diff erent attitude toward mlb. “I vowed right then and there to be a thorn in their side for the rest

of their lives,” he says with a laugh.

An enduring friendship Today, Coble lives in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and works as a sales repre-sentative for Mizuno Golf. He and West speak often on the phone and meet for an annual golf outing at Pebble Beach. Coble maintains strong ties to Elon as a longtime member of the Phoenix Club, supporting the baseball program and head coach Mike Kennedy ’.

Coble and West try to return to campus for Homecoming as often as possible. In 2000, Coble enjoyed a special Homecoming, reconnect-ing with Jane Clark ’75, whom he’d dated at Elon. Th e two rekindled their friendship and were married at Mt. Herman Methodist Church during a visit to Coble’s hometown in February 2002.

“It was a small ceremony,” Coble recalls. “We got married between the hot dog supper and the youth council meeting that evening.”

West currently serves as president of the World Umpires Association. After the World Series ended in early November, he negotiated the umpires’ new contract with mlb, which was approved in January. He’ll have a few weeks to enjoy the off -season at his home near Orlando, Fla., before reporting for spring training. He marvels at how far he and Coble have come since their days at Elon, where both have been inducted into

the Sports Hall of Fame.“I think it’s amazing that a school in the middle of North Carolina, with about 2,000 students at the time,

produced two major-league umpires, and both of us had 20-plus-year careers,” he says. “For a school that size, I don’t think that’s ever happened.” V I S I T

www.elon.edu/magazineFOR MORE ABOUT COBLE AND WEST,

INCLUDING FAVORITE MOMENTS IN BASEBALL

Drew Coble ’75 donated his umpire jacket to Elon in 2007. Joe West ’74, right, and Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte during the 2009 World Series.

Rob Tringali/Sportschrome/Getty Images


charting abold course

for the future


F or more than a year, members of the university community gathered to envision Elon in . At the conclusion

of this strategic planning process, the goals that emerged for the university centered on the word “commitment.” As they imagined the university in the next decade, alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends returned again and again to a powerful concept — that the world needs Elon graduates.

Th is concept forms the foundation of the univer-sity’s new strategic plan, “Th e Elon Commitment: Engaged minds. Inspired leaders. Global citizens.” Th e million plan includes eight broad themes demonstrating Elon’s commitment to engaging students’ minds and inspiring them to act as leaders and global citizens.

“Th e Elon Commitment,” says President Leo M. Lambert, “is based upon the belief that the next major advancement in the university’s stature and reputation will be realized through the extraordinary accomplishments of students and alumni, whom we see as tremendous forces for good in the world.”

A 23-member committee coordinated the creation of Th e Elon Commitment on behalf of trustees, gathering ideas and input from the entire campus community in a series of forums, group meetings and workshops, and online discussions. Th e plan builds on Elon’s two previous strategic plans, the Elon Vision (1994–2000), which trans-formed the campus with many new facilities, and NewCentury@Elon, which was launched in 2000 and successfully positioned the university as a national model of engaged learning and brought academic programs to new levels of excellence.

“When we reach 2020 and look back at the accomplishments of Th e Elon Commitment, we will be amazed at the ways this university has advanced,” says Allen Gant, chair of the board of trustees. “Our aspirations for Elon have inspired us to imagine great things, and we are proud to call this plan a ‘commitment.’ We are committed to making these exciting goals a reality.”

Th e plan’s eight themes are summarized in this story. To read Th e Elon Commitment in its entirety, go to www.elon.edu/strategicplan.

To thrive in a st century world, Elon

students must have experience across

diverse cultures, races, religious traditions,

and political and economic structures like no other

generation before them.

To better reflect the world’s diversity and

keep Elon’s doors open to students from many

backgrounds, the university seeks to double its

need-based fi nancial aid budget in the next 10

years and expand endowment-funded, need-

based fi nancial aid. The plan calls for additional

endowed study abroad scholarships to provide

100 percent access to international education, as

well as tripling international student enrollment

and expanding the role of the multicultural center.

To better support the many religious and

spiritual traditions on campus, the university will

build a multifaith center and additional religious

living-learning houses, promoting a rich dialogue

and championing interfaith understanding and

respect. Another key objective of the plan is to

build stronger partnerships with the Alamance-

Burlington School System, providing community

leadership on behalf of K-12 education and to

develop the Elon Academy as a national model

of university-school collaboration.

Key objectives

Double need-based fi nancial aid

Provide 100 percent

study abroad access

Triple international

student enrollment

Be a national leader in

preparing students to succeed

in a multicultural world

Build a multifaith center and

promote interfaith dialogue

Develop the Elon Academy

as a national model

AN UNPRECEDENTED COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY AND GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

Diversity is an important facet of an engaged, relevant classroom. It’s hard to talk about what’s happening in the world when the people sitting in your classroom don’t represent some of those other voices from that world. Diversity has to permeate all facets of the university. I’d love to be in a classroom where I’m talk-ing about a topic and I have input from younger and nontraditional students, and students from diff er-ent racial and ethnic backgrounds.

I hope we get to the point where having a more diverse cam-pus is not something we have to discuss in every strategic plan, and that we will be recognized for the way we infuse diversity and multicultural education as part of the Elon experience. With a commitment to diversity and global engage-ment, we are building a global reputation for producing students who are culturally sensitive and wear the moniker of Elon ambassador.

PRUDENCE LAYNE

Assistant Professor of English | Coordinator, African/African-American Studies program


Excellence across all aspects of the university has always been the goal at Elon. Attaining this goal is vital to Elon becoming one of the nation’s great liberal arts universities.

Th e Elon faculty are out-standing teacher-scholars and achieve excellence in all academic programs by maintaining close mentoring interactions with students. Taking these interac-tions to higher levels requires giving faculty additional time and support, and will allow us to develop one of the premier undergraduate research pro-grams in the country and better prepare students to compete for top national fellowships, including Rhodes Scholarships.

What this goal means for students is an even more academi-cally challenging and engaging experience. Elon’s commitment to the liberal arts and sciences throughout students’ four years combined with the depth of study in the major prepares stu-dents to be innovative, to be critical thinkers, to deal with messy, unstructured problems and, yes, to be able to handle failure. Elon brings learning to life, prepares students for lifelong learning and gives them the skills they need to make a diff erence in a diverse global community. Th is is the essence of an Elon education.

STEVEN HOUSE

ProvostA mong Elon’s greatest assets are its talented faculty and

staff who are committed to student success and make

up the fabric of a caring intellectual community. The

strategic plan calls for making new

investments in professional devel-

opment for faculty and staff .

Elon will expand the number of

faculty positions and provide addi-

tional funding for faculty to conduct

summer research, mentor stu-

dents and pursue their scholarship.

Through these eff orts, Elon seeks

to make its teacher-scholar model

a national exemplar and to enrich

engaged learning opportunities for

all students. Among the enhance-

ments to staff development

initiatives are increased fl exibility in

pursuing advanced degrees, oppor-

tunities for research or engagement

with professional associations, and

short-term sabbaticals.

Elon’s recognition for excellence is based largely on its ongoing commitment to a rich intellectual commu-nity. It is the excellent teacher-scholars and staff who make up the core of that community.

A rigorous environment for intellectual engagement requires faculty who are deeply committed to both teaching and scholarship, and who understand the value of integrating the two. It also requires staff members who are deeply committed to the ideals of a dynamic residential living-learning community.

Supporting world-class faculty and staff , most impor-tantly, leads to deeper, richer and more profound educa-tional experiences for students. World-class faculty and staff also enhance the reputation of the entire institution, which,

in turn, attracts more top students, increases postgraduate opportunities, expands professional networks and strength-ens competitiveness for external funding. Supporting Elon’s faculty and staff strengthens the core of the institution.

TIM PEEPLES

Associate Dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences

Key objectives

Accentuate and support

Elon’s teacher-scholar model

Fulfi ll the objectives of

the Presidential Task

Force on Scholarship

Establish new professional

and leadership

development programs

Accelerate progress on

faculty/staff salaries

SUPPORTING A WORLD-CLASS

FACULTY AND STAFF

A strong liberal arts and sciences core and

nationally recognized engaged learning

programs form the cornerstones of an

Elon education. Elon seeks to become a university of

national prominence by building on these strengths.

The university’s general education program will

be further enhanced to meet the challenges of a 21st-

century environment. Elon will capitalize on its role as

a national model of engaged learning by establishing

a Center for Engaged Learning, helping to advance

higher education through workshops, conferences

and publications. Elon also seeks to deepen the quality

of and support for each of the Elon Experiences (study

abroad, internships, service, leadership and research),

making each one a national model.

Every academic program will be challenged to

rise to new levels of excellence, including achieving

a top-50 national ranking for the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business and a top-100

ranking for the School of Law.

ATTAINING THE HIGHEST

LEVELS OF ACHIEVEMENT

ACROSS ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

Key objectives

Create the nation’s fi nest

general education program

Launch a Center for Engaged Learning

Graduate students with

prestigious academic fellowships,

including a Rhodes Scholar

Advance key programs of

national stature (top-100 law

school, top-50 undergraduate

business school and others)


E lon’s tuition rate is

,–,

below other pri-

vate universities and within

range of non-resident

tuition rates at fl agship state

universities. The university

is committed to guarding

its price advantage and

implementing a balanced

fi nancial model.

The strategic plans calls

for completing the Ever

Elon Campaign and launching the university’s next com-

prehensive campaign, as well as tripling the endowment and

building a fi nancial base for future generations.

T oday’s students are expecting more fl exibility in their degree options as they

seek creative learning programs, pursue online degrees and fi nd alternate and

more aff ordable routes to higher education.

In response to this trend, Elon will off er innovative 4+1 and 4+2 programs, which will

give prospective students the opportunity to pursue two Elon degrees — an under-

graduate degree followed by a professional

master’s degree. One existing model is the uni-

versity’s one-year interactive media master’s

program, launched in 2009 in the School of

Communications.

Elon will investigate opening a School of

Health Sciences, including a new physician assis-

tant master’s degree. This school will provide

synergy with Elon’s existing health-related pro-

grams, including physical therapy and exercise

science. Through an innovative gap-year expe-

rience, Elon will partner with students to defer

traditional courses and participate in a semester

or yearlong Elon service or internship experience.

Students are already thinking about graduate school when they’re in high school, and we need a curriculum that off ers students the choice to pursue those degrees at Elon. A liberal arts education teaches us to be great thinkers, and we want our students to have an opportunity at Elon to put their liberal arts education into action with a professional graduate or advanced degree. Th is creates a fundamentally sound graduate who is well prepared for success in today’s global environment.

We also need to be prepared to respond to the need for additional health-care providers, so we’ll investigate the possibilities of a School of Health Sciences and perhaps a new physician assis-tant master’s degree program.

Th e gap-year concept builds on our strengths of engaged learning. We’re considering an option in which students could include as part of their academic experience spending a year engaged in a meaningful faculty-led service, schol-arship or internship experience. Students often return from these experiences as leaders on campus, thinking critically about their impact on the world. Th is enriches our entire campus community, because the stronger the graduate, the stronger the institution.

CONNIE BOOK

Associate Dean, School of Communications

Cost was the number one factor for me in choosing a college. I looked at schools that cost $45,000 a year that don’t off er half as much as I’ve received at Elon.

Elon has allowed me to conduct research beginning in my fresh-man year and has given me the fi nancial sup-port to do it. Because of my scholarships, I can spend time in the lab doing research on heart disease instead of having to work. I’m going to be apply-ing to medical school, and that wouldn’t be possible if I had debt from my under-graduate education. Because my professors know me, I have great letters of recommendation for medical school, which will make me a very competitive candidate, and it’s due to the fi nan-cial support that I’ve received here at Elon.

AMANDA CLARK

Junior Biochemistry Major | Lumen Scholar, Elon College Fellow,

Presidential Scholar and Jane M. Baird Endowed Scholarship recipient

Key objectives

Create innovative 4 + 1 and 4 + 2

combination degree programs

Investigate a School of Health

Sciences and a physician

assistant program

Launch an Elon service experience

as part of a gap-year program

Key objectives

Successfully complete

the Ever Elon Campaign

Implement a strong,

creative fi nancial model

At least triple Elon’s

endowment

LAUNCHING STRATEGIC AND INNOVATIVE

PATHWAYS IN UNDERGRADUATE

AND GRADUATE EDUCATIONSTEWARDING ELON’S

COMMITMENT TO REMAIN

A BEST-VALUE UNIVERSITY


Asuccessful athletics program

plays an invaluable role in

building institutional pride

and increasing national visibility. The

university is committed to developing an

athletics program that is a model of aca-

demic integrity, establishes a tradition of

winning conference championships and

competes in NCAA regional and national

tournaments.

Elon also seeks to fully fund athletics

scholarships in all sports, especially

through increased annual support and endowment resources, and

maintain a leadership position by meeting the objectives of the uni-

versity’s gender equity plan.

DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE ALUMNI

PROGRAMS TO ADVANCE AND

SUPPORT THE ELON GRADUATE

Th e ability to get local and national exposure for successful athletics programs is very important to Elon.

Anyone who was with us in Charleston in 2008 when the men’s basketball team com-peted in the Southern Conference champion-ship game, was with us in Richmond last fall when the football team played in its fi rst Division I playoff game or watched the baseball team compete last spring in the ncaa Regional in Atlanta knows how impor-tant those events were to Elon. When Elon University appears in the brackets of an ncaa tournament, we’ll be on everybody’s radar for the month of that championship.

Having our scholarships fully funded in all sports is critical because it allows our coaches to recruit competitively with other schools at our level. Above all, we want to make sure we’re recruiting student-athletes who are competitive with our admissions standards and who will graduate from Elon while we compete for and win championships.

DAVE BLANK

Director of Athletics

Elon is ready to make an ongoing commitment to help alumni through their career transitions and enable them to be successful. I think that will ultimately bolster the value of an Elon degree and reinforce the importance of lifelong learning and alumni

engagement with the university.Developing the next generation

of alumni leaders is very important. It’s our responsibility to cultivate the leaders that we need to take care of this precious entity that is Elon. I’m glad that giving back to Elon is a focal point of the strategic plan. Th e percentage of alumni who make annual gifts to the university is a critical measure of support for Elon when it seeks grants or funding from foundations. Th ose entities want to know the willingness of graduates to reinvest in their institution.

I support Elon because Elon gave me what I have. My Elon experi-ence allows me to do the job that I

do and live the life that I live. We need to convey the message to alumni that every dollar counts. Yes, Elon is a beautiful place and an excellent institution, but that’s only because people give.

KELLI PALMER ’98

President-elect, Elon Alumni Board

Elon’s alumni body of , is unusually

young — percent are in their s and

s. Understanding that the university’s

future will be shaped by alumni accomplish-

ments, Elon seeks to support graduates by

launching programs and initiatives to celebrate

their achievements and enhance engagement

with the university.

The university is committed to developing

relevant young alumni programs and communi-

cations strategies to keep graduates connected

with their alma mater. For example, new alumni

international travel and service experiences

would enable graduates to pursue the passions

they developed as students.

Developing the next generation of alumni

leaders, including those ready to serve on uni-

versity boards and councils, is one of the most

important strategic tasks facing Elon. Equally

important is the objective to increase the per-

centage of alumni who make annual gifts to 40

percent from the current 21 percent.

Key objectives

Identify and support

the next generation of

alumni leadership

Create a premier

Career Center

Build a strong transitions

program to careers and

graduate school

Launch new alumni

service, travel and

engagement programs

Foster a culture of

philanthropy and double the

alumni giving participation

ESTABLISHING A NATIONAL

TOURNAMENT TRADITION OF

ATHLETICS SUCCESS AND THE

HIGHEST ACADEMIC STANDARDS

FOR PHOENIX ATHLETICS

Key objectives

Consistently win conference

championships in both

men’s and women’s sports

Fully fund scholarships

in all sports

Set conference standards in

academics and gender equity


Enhancing Elon’s beautiful

campus remains a high

priority. The strategic

plan calls for investing more

than million in new facili-

ties while continuing to meet the

university’s sustainability goals.

Expanded academic space

is planned for the School of

Communications and science

programs.

To transform Elon’s resi-

dential experience, innovative

models are planned such as resi-

dential colleges, living-learning

and academic-themed com-

munities, faculty apartments,

classrooms integrated into resi-

dential spaces, new dining facilities and graduate student housing. Elon

intends to provide housing for all juniors and seniors who wish to live on

campus and bring all housing in line with modern student standards.

Construction of a 5,000-seat convocation center will solve Elon’s long-

standing need for a large facility to host athletics events, Commencement,

convocations and events such as presidential campaign appearances or

debates, prominent speakers and performing groups. Additional new

facilities include an auditorium as part of an expansion of Moseley Center,

a multifaith center and an admissions center. Construction is under way on

Alumni Field House adjacent to Rhodes Stadium.

Beyond the campus, Elon will encourage more privately owned busi-

nesses to open in the Town of Elon, including restaurants, cafés and a

pharmacy, to enhance students’ entertainment and shopping options.

We want to create a more vibrant living-learning environ-ment that fosters personal and intellectual development among our students. Students don’t turn off their brains when they walk into their residence halls, and we want to create a seamless learn-ing environment in which every part of campus off ers students opportuni-ties to learn and grow.

We want a housing program that helps fi rst-year students adjust to college life and prepares them for future learning. We want housing that challenges sophomores and gives them opportuni-ties to design the rest of their college career. And we want juniors and seniors to live on campus to mentor younger students. Th e residential colleges and themed-housing initiatives will allow students to take common courses or work on projects together, seamlessly integrating living with learning. Th e new multifaith center is excit-ing because it will help students understand their own faith, and learn about other faiths and the role of religion in global aff airs.

In our eff orts to meet these initiatives, we will follow our ambitious sustainability master plan, modeling sustainable liv-ing for our students and the entire campus community.

JEFF STEIN

Associate Dean of Students

SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCING ELON’S CAMPUS WITH

PREMIER NEW ACADEMIC AND RESIDENTIAL FACILITIES

AND A COMMITMENT TO PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT

Key objectives

Expanded academic facilities

for science, communications

Transformation of the

residential campus, including

1,600 additional beds

5,000-seat convocation center

1,500-seat auditorium

Multifaith center

Admissions center

Career center

Vibrant downtown Elon

Implementation of the

Sustainability Master Plan


SHIFTING ‘FROM AGEING TO SAGEING’

RRetirement from a career doesn’t mean retire-ment from life, at least not for former Elon philosophy professor John Sullivan.

Sullivan, who taught at Elon for 36 years before retiring in 2006, is spending the sec-ond half of his life embracing new energies and practices, and encouraging others to do the same. In his new book, Th e Spiral of the Seasons: Welcoming the Gifts of Later Life,he examines the role that aging adults can play in nurturing the spirit and community. In thought-provoking prose, he compares a human lifetime to the four seasons. In spring, we are students; in summer, we are householders; in autumn, we are forest dwellers; and in winter, we are invited to become sages.

Th e transition to life as an elder, he says,

involves simplifying and returning to a fuller relationship with the natural world.

“Our culture is very much at home in the first half of life,” says Sullivan, Elon’s Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Philosophy Emeritus. “We are at home in doing, in striving, in achieving.”

Sullivan serves as principal designer and a faculty member in an innovative master’s program in transformative leadership at Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, Md. He also is active in Second Journey, a nonprofi t orga-nization based in Chapel Hill, N.C., focused on a new vision of aging and new models of community for the second half of life.

In the following essay, Sullivan discusses ways that “seasoned citizens” can enrich the larger community. �


Among native peoples, revered elders had a place in holding the values of the tribe, initiating the young and providing wise counsel in tribal deliberations. Today, seasoned citizens can play similar roles that allow all of us to benefi t from their wisdom and experience. Consider how we would gain from seniors performing the following three impor-tant functions:

To speak the deep values that help us come to life more fully as a community. To do this means holding a dynamic balance between conserving our heritage and responding to new challenges. Might this not off er a middle ground between red state and blue state rhetoric? Might such elders speak for the earth, remind us of the com-mon good and help us reinstate civility?

Here the constant challenge is to sort out what is enduring and what is culturally conditioned. It is not enough to simply hearken back to earlier times. New elders must in compassionate ways give voice to what is enduring in new forms, placing old insights in new wineskins. One leadership expert defi nes “adaptive challenges” as those without clear technical solutions. Such challenges demand that we develop new attitudes, values and behaviors, enabling what is needed to arise. It is said, “People are often right in what they affi rm and wrong in what they deny.”

Wise elders can help us return to unity and community by fi nding the oversights in what we affi rm and the insights in what we deny, so that all of us are seen deeply and prized as contributing parts of the whole.

To initiate the young in deeper ways toward becoming contributing adults. Today, mentoring is thought of as helping the student learn the ropes of life in the wider world. Fair enough. Yet there is an older notion that helps the young discover their gifts and fi nd ways to give them to the community. Such an initiation is not only commercially useful, it also evokes honor, integrity and a deeper

sense of what matters. In older cultures, the youth were not initiated by parents but by the older aunts and uncles. Elder men outside the family circle initiated the men in what it means to be a man of integrity. Elder women outside the family initiated the women in what it means to be

a savvy woman.To offer wise counsel in delib-

erations. Elders understand that “this too will pass.” Th ey have a sense of longer rhythms of time — time across generations. Th ey notice who or what needs a voice — for example, the wel-fare of the earth or the most vulnerable of our sisters and brothers. Not being hostages to the latest fads and fashions, they can bring some sanity to a rapidly spinning world.

Of course, older people do not automatically gain wisdom by aging. As elderly, they can simply repeat old stories and be cranky people who praise only times gone by. But as elders, they will practice other skills.

What skills do older people, those of grandparent age, need to step up to such challenges? Th ey need to learn to

keep the big things big and the little things little, to see what is included and what is left out in current debates. Th us, they must hold fast with open arms, being ready to revise their own views in light of better alter-natives. Th ey need to see each person in a wholehearted way — seeing their surface diffi culties and also their deep inestimable worth. Th ey need to see each situation as containing both danger and opportunity. Seeing true worth realistically means that such elders bless the young and foster hope in the public sphere. In deliberations, they need to listen carefully so as to affi rm what is valuable, amplify what is positive in discussion and help move to common ground.

In truth, elders are among our most underutilized resources. Companies need to fi nd ways to hear their voices — relatively inde-pendent points of view, no longer beholden to the powers that control their careers. Might not some of the recent fi nancial disasters have been averted if independent, experienced, ethical voices had been sought out?

Advisory councils of respected elders on the national scene can speak for present and future generations. Th ey and elder councils at state and local levels can be a counterbalance to the forces emphasizing only short-term material benefi ts. Educational institutions can well use elders as mentors to the young, and a source of encouragement and acknowledgment to teachers, administrators and parents.

In each institution, elders can be reminders of what is worthy about the work being done. Religious institutions need to aid in cultivating such elders so we may fi nd ways to shift, as Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi puts it, “From age-ing to sage-ing.”

Will we reap the benefi ts of longer life? How might we use this resource? A golden opportunity, unprecedented in history, beckons. Will we invent new forms to make use of it? Imagine elders stepping up to hold our deep values, to initiate the young and to provide creative per-spective in deliberations. Now that is a vision worth working toward.

BY JOHN G. SULLIVAN

Each day, more than , baby boomers enter their retirement years. Diffi cult economic times are making prospective retirees pause. Will they be able to retire? Should they remain in the work force as long as possible? Th ese are serious concerns. Still, we should consider a deeper question: Is this graying of America to be seen as a burden or an opportunity to reimagine the role of elders in our society?


As Elon alumni, you have played a critical role in the ongoing success of our university. Through your many hours of volunteering and attending events, and your philanthropic support, you have helped Elon become a nationally recognized institution and a place we can be proud to call our alma mater.

Your future accomplishments and those of current students will enable Elon to make the next major leap in reputation. This concept forms the foundation of the university’s new strategic plan, “The Elon Commitment: Engaged minds. Inspired leaders. Global citizens.” The plan, which will guide Elon through 2020, includes eight broad themes that are explained in the cover story of this issue of The Magazine of Elon (see page 18).

One of the themes, “Developing innovative alumni programs to advance and support the Elon graduate,” speaks directly to the university’s commitment to your success. While we’ve made steady progress toward reaching this goal during the past few years, there is still a great deal to be accomplished in building a robust, exemplary program that not only fosters alumni engagement with the university but also develops graduates into future leaders of this great institution.

The work to be accomplished is signifi cant, and meeting this goal will take the involvement of all alumni. It will take alumni who are willing to step up and help us defi ne the elements of meaningful programs.

I’d like to touch on two of the key objectives connected to this goal: To identify and support the next generation of alumni leadership, and to foster a culture of philanthropy and double the alumni giving participation rate.

During the weekend of April 23-24, Elon will host an African-American Alumni Summit. Members of the university’s African-American alumni group have been invited to campus to participate in this historic discussion concerning strategies to enhance diversity at the university, to prepare Elon students for success after college and to foster meaningful connections among African-American alumni. Following the summit, a plan will be drafted to provide a blueprint for the group’s activities over the next several years. We also will identify volunteers who will help energize the group and enable members to reach the goals in their plan.

Building a stronger culture of philanthropy

among all alumni is also a focus of The Elon Commitment. The plan calls for increasing the percentage of alumni who make annual gifts to 40 percent from the current 21 percent. This is an ambitious goal to meet by 2020, but with education and innovation, I know it is one we will reach together. We must sustain this great university, and annual giving plays a critical role in this eff ort.

For many alumni, there is a personal story behind their gifts. Katie Whidden ’08 makes annual donations as a way of thanking her professors and coaches for helping to shape her personally and for teaching her to always strive for success. Katie, who studied business and played on the women’s basketball team, believes it’s important to give back to the people and places that have had the biggest infl uence on her life. We are grateful that she places Elon at the top of that list! As a loyal Phoenix Club donor, Katie is helping to strengthen opportunities for current and future student-athletes.

All of us have the power to change students’ lives with our support. Think back to a program, professor or staff member who made a diff erence in your education and consider honoring them with an annual gift. All gifts to Elon, regardless of the size, make a diff erence in the lives of students and help preserve the Elon experience that we all cherish.

As proud alumni, you are important to Elon’s future. I challenge each of you to fi nd ways to become engaged with your beloved alma mater. I invite you to e-mail or call me if you’re interested in connecting with Elon in your community or here on campus. Also, I invite you to read The Elon Commitment by visiting www.elon.edu/strategicplan and to share your thoughts and suggestions on the goal to enhance alumni programming.

Long live Elon!

[email protected]

Sallie Hutton ’92

You are Elon’s future

PHYSICAL THERAPY ALUMNI

CELEBRATE REUNION

Sixty graduates of the universi-ty’s physical therapy program and their families gathered on campus last fall to celebrate the program’s fi rst reunion and 11-year history at Elon.

Attending the Oct. 9-10 reunion were alumni from each graduating class, beginning with the charter class of 2000. The gathering included a dinner, program update, family activi-ties, continuing education course and tour of the Center for Fitness and Human Movement Studies at Alamance Regional Medical Center (armc). Th e center, which opened on armc’s campus in 2006, is a partnership between Elon and the hospital.

Elon’s physical therapy pro-gram transitioned from a master of physical therapy degree to a doctoral program in 2005. Th e group’s next reunion will be held in spring 2011.

GET YOUR LUGGAGE TAG

Want to show your Elon pride on the road? get tagged with a complimentary Elon luggage tag from the Alumni Association.

Mail your business card to the university and you will receive a laminated maroon and gold lug-gage tag with the Elon logo on the front and your business card on the back. Th e tag is sturdy, waterproof and a great way to make your luggage stand out in a crowd.

To get your tag, mail your business card to: Office of Alumni Relations, 2600 Campus Box, Elon, N.C., 27244.

ALUMNI Action

26 THE MAGAZINE OF ELON The Alumni Relations Offi ce is located in Johnston Hall at 123 S. Antioch Ave. and can be reached toll-free at 877.784.3566 or by writing to Campus Box 2600, Elon, NC 27244.

ore than 3,000 alumni returned to campus Oct. 23–25 for Homecoming, enjoying class and affi nity reunions, tailgating, Phoenix football, the Young Alumni Party,

Phoenix Phest and much more.On Friday, alumni band members gathered at a reception

and dinner for the group’s centennial celebration. Several alumni dusted off their instruments and performed with Elon’s Fire of the Carolinas marching band during halftime of Saturday’s foot-ball game. Former drum major Carl Burke ’59, of Chatham, Va., enjoyed reuniting and reminiscing with fellow band members. He performed with the marching band from 1956 to 1958 under the direction of former Elon professor Dewey Stowers.

“We marched at all the football games and performed at the Homecoming parade in downtown Burlington,” Burke recalls. “We had some excellent musicians back then and had a great time traveling together.”

Other groups celebrating reunions included Lambda Chi Alpha (centennial founding celebration), Phi Beta Sigma (10th anniversary), Pi Kappa Phi (30th anniversary), Tri-Delta (5th anniversary), Tau Kappa Epsilon/Alpha Pi Delta and Watson Scholars. Alumni from Kappa Sigma, Student Government Association, Periclean Scholars and Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellows also gathered for reunions.

Th e Tau Kappa Epsilon reunion drew the largest crowd, thanks in part to publicity on the group’s Facebook page. tke’s Mike “Radar” Robinson ’80, who co-sponsored the group’s Friday night reception, says reunions are a great way to main-tain ties with Elon.

“I believe it’s very important for fraternities, and all other groups, to reconnect, not just to relive great times but also to renew relationships for networking and business connections,” he says.

Rick Hancock ’77, reunion committee chair, agrees.“Th irty years of being apart evaporated in a matter of seconds,

and old friendships picked up where they had left off ,” Hancock says. “Th ere were brothers there who had not been back to Elon since graduation. Many had left a college and returned to see a university.”

Hancock praised Lisa Ratliff Roper ’93, assistant director of alumni relations, for helping them plan a successful reunion.

“Without Lisa’s help and the help of Elon’s Alumni Relations staff , our reunion would not have been possible,” he says.

At a brunch on Sunday, tke presented the inaugural Lambda Mu Chapter Alumnus of the Year award to Barry Bradberry ’75, associate dean of admissions and fi nancial planning at Elon.

Brothers of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity also worked closely with Alumni Relations to plan the 30th anniversary of the Epsilon Alpha chapter at Elon.

“We relied on Alumni Relations to do a lot of the legwork,” says Josh Donde ’08, a reunion organizer. “Th ey have the con-nections within the university community, as well as the larger Burlington community, to make sure that anything a group wants from their event can be achieved.”

Alumni from the School of Communications, the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business, and the departments of leisure and sport management, mathematics and chemistry reunited on Friday at receptions with faculty, staff and students. Th at evening, graduates of the past 10 years turned out in droves for the Young Alumni Party at the Lighthouse, featuring the Montgomery Burns Band, while alums of all ages enjoyed the Phoenix Phest party and music by the North Tower Band.

On Saturday, more than 200 students, faculty, staff and alumni gathered in Koury Athletic Center to pack meals for people in need during the Stop Hunger Now service event. At the Alumni Association Awards brunch, Dr. William N.P. “Bill” Herbert ’68, Deborah A. Yow-Bowden ’74, the Rev. Walstein W. “Wally” Snyder ’45, Audrey M. Seagraves ’02, Stephanie P. Newbold ’01 and Walter Campbell “Cam” Tims ’00 were recog-nized for outstanding service to their professions, communities and to Elon. Members of the Class of 1969 were given special beanies to commemorate their 40th reunion. Hundreds of other alums braved the rain to tailgate before the Elon vs. Chattanooga football game, which the Phoenix won, 45-10.

See the inside back cover of the magazine for additional photos from Homecoming 2009. Make plans now to attend Homecoming 2010, scheduled for Oct. 22-24.

Alumni band practice Watson Scholars Lambda Chi Alpha

(l-r) Rick Hancock ’77, Barry Bradberry ’75

and Louie Carrea, Tau Kappa Epsilon’s

national director of alumni relations.

THE MAGAZINE OF ELON 27 Alumni Relations Offi ce staff : Director, Sallie Hutton ’92, [email protected] • Assistant Director, Lisa Ratliff Roper ’93

Assistant Director for Young Alumni, Lindsay Gross Hege ’04 • Coordinator of Alumni Chapters, Lauren Kelly ’08 • Program Assistant, Kelly Elliston

Where in the worldwill you go?

THE ELON ALUMNI ASSOCIATION INVITES GRADUATES to take in the sights and sounds of the Middle East, bask in the Mediterranean sun or experience the old-world charm of Austria in 2010. The following trips are off ered:

ALUMNI Action


Alumni spent last fall serving their favorite charities, cheer-ing on Phoenix sports teams and welcoming the holidays through chapter events. Here are some of the highlights:

Middle East Pilgrimage » June 28–July 12Join President Leo M. Lambert and his wife, Laurie, as well as religious studies

professor Jim Pace and associate university chaplain Phil Smith on this 13-day tour

through Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Sponsored by Elon’s Truitt

Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, the trip is modeled after a program that

enables seminary students to better understand Middle Eastern history, culture,

geography and religious traditions.

The cost is approximately 5,000 per person and includes airfare, all meals,

baggage handling and guiding fees, and travel insurance (double occupancy;

additional 500 for single accommodations).

Best of the Mediterranean & Greek Isles Cruise » Oct. 11–24You will spend 12 nights aboard Oceania Cruises’ Regatta departing from Venice,

Italy, with stops in Dubrovnik, Croatia; Corfu, Delphi (Itea), Zakynthos, Monemvasia,

Crete, Santorini, Delos, Mykonos and Athens, Greece; and Kasadasi, Turkey.

The cost is 3,299 to 6,099 per person for staterooms (double occupancy);

taxes, fees and airport/ship transfers are included. There is no charge for airfare if

you depart from select gateway cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago,

Washington-Dulles, Newark, New York-Kennedy, Philadelphia and Raleigh-Durham.

Holiday Markets on the Danube » Nov. 29–Dec. 7Experience the fairy-tale charm of Austria during the holidays! Smell the warm

glühwein, roasted chestnuts and spicy gingerbread as you shop for beautiful

handcrafted decorations and gifts in the holiday markets. You will marvel at

Austria’s stunning architecture as you walk the streets of Salzburg, the setting for

the classic fi lm “The Sound of Music,” and visit the stunning abbey at Melk and

Germany’s Passau.

The cost is approximately 1,995 per person (does not include airfare and

there is an additional fee for single accommodations).

For more information on these trips, visit www.elon.edu/alumni or contact the

Alumni Association at 877.784.3566 or [email protected].

ALUMNION THE TOWN

Members of the D.C. Chapter braved the cold-est Oct. 17 in Washington history to participate in the Light the Night walk for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Th ey raised more than $2,700 in honor of Carey Scovel ’06 and Elizabeth White ’06. Alumni later mourned White, who lost her battle with cancer in November.

On Nov. 9, Charleston Chapter members met at Tommy Condon’s for a Toys for Tots service event. In December, they attended Charleston’s 23rd annual Tree Lighting Ceremony in the city’s Marion Square.

On Nov. 14, alumni in several regions gath-ered to watch the Phoenix football team take on the Appalachian State Mountaineers in a televised Southern Conference matchup. More than 60 Washington-area alumni gathered at Bailey’s Pub and Grille in Crystal City, Va. In North Carolina, Neal Howes ’75 and Brent Schroyer ’99 hosted watch parties for Charlotte and Huntersville alumni, respectively. On the Outer Banks, more than 40 alumni, parents and friends met at Pamlico Jack’s for a party hosted by Zene Fearing ’76 and his aunt, Lib Simpson Fearing ’47.

Also on Nov. 14, Amanda Swartzbaugh ’04 and Laura Somerville ’06 led a group of Nashville alumni attending the Elon vs. Lipscomb men’s bas-ketball game. Alums witnessed Matt Matheny’s fi rst victory as head coach of the Phoenix, a 91-86 win over the Bisons.

In December, members of the Boston Chapter celebrated the holiday season with a social at the Foundation Lounge.

D.C.


For the latest alumni news, go towww.elon.edu/alumni

FEB. D.C. Chapter service event,11:15 a.m. Calvary Women’s Shelter, Washington, D.C.

MARCH Boston Chapter Celtics vs. Charlotte Bobcats game, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are 55.25 and located in section 305

MARCH Los Angeles Chapter First Thursday social, 7 p.m. Village Idiot, L.A.

MARCH Charlotte Chapter attends SoCon men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, Charlotte, N.C.

MARCH Baltimore Chapter Blast vs. Monterrey LaRaza soccer game, 7:30 p.m. 1st Mariner Bank Arena

Chicago Chapter WhirlyBall event (Time TBA)

MARCH Los Angeles Chapter Biannual Southern Schools Networking Event, 7 p.m. SOUTH, Santa Monica, Calif.

MARCH Charleston Chapter Annual Almost St. Patrick’s Day social, 6 p.m. Henry’s on the Market, downtown

MARCH D.C. Chapter Shamrock Fest, RFK Stadium festival grounds

MARCH Triangle Chapter Hurricanes vs. Boston Bruins game, 7 p.m. RBC Center, Raleigh, N.C.

MARCH D.C. Chapter Third Thursday social and NCAA Tournament viewing, 6:30 p.m. Bailey’s, Crystal City, Va.

Philadelphia Chapter Third Thursday social and NCAA Tournament viewing, 6:30 p.m. PJ Whelihan’s Pub, Haddonfi eld, N.J.

Atlanta Chapter networking social, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Shout

APRIL Los Angeles Chapter First Thursday social, Timmy Nolan’s, Burbank, Calif.

APRIL Elon Alumni Board meeting, Elon

APRIL Young Alumni Council meeting, Elon

APRIL Baltimore Chapter wine tasting, Woodhall Wine Cellars, Parkton, Md. (Time TBA)

Boston Chapter service event, Home for Little Wanderers, Jamaica Plain, Mass. (Time TBA)

D.C. Chapter Wizards vs. Atlanta Hawks game, 7 p.m. Verizon Center

APRIL Chicago Chapter social and trivia night, 6-9 p.m., Lakeview, Ill.

APRIL D.C. Chapter Third Thursday social, 6:30 p.m. (Location TBA)

Philadelphia Chapter Third Thursday social and wine tasting, 6:30 p.m. Total Wine, Wilmington, Del.

Richmond Chapter Tax Day social, 5 p.m. Legends Brewing Company, Richmond, Va.

Atlanta Chapter networking social, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Eclipse di Luna

APRIL Elon faculty/staff mixer, 5:30 p.m. Sullivan’s Steakhouse, Charlotte, N.C. Invite your favorite professor or staff member when you RSVP.

APRIL Triangle Chapter “Angels Among Us” race, 7 a.m. registration for 5K race at Duke University. 9 a.m. registration for family walk through Duke Gardens. Durham, N.C.

MAY Triangle Chapter sixth annual Kentucky Derby Party, 4:30 p.m. Wild Turkey Lounge, Angus Barn, Raleigh, N.C.

MAY Los Angeles Chapter Big Sunday 2010 service event (Time and location TBA)

MAY Boston Chapter social, 6 p.m. The Greatest Bar

Los Angeles Chapter First Thursday social, 7 p.m. Barney’s Beanery, Santa Monica, Calif.

MAY Chapter leaders workshop, Elon

MAY Charlotte Chapter Culinary Experience, 7 p.m. PRESS wine/food

D.C. Chapter Third Thursday social, 6:30 p.m. 3 Bar and Restaurant, Arlington, Va.

Philadelphia Chapter Third Thursday social, 6:30 p.m. Apothecary Bar and Lounge

Atlanta Chapter networking social, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Salt Factory Pub

Coming Events 2010MAY Baccalaureate, 3 p.m. Alumni Gym, Elon

MAY Commencement, 9:30 a.m. Under the Oaks, Elon

JUNE Los Angeles Chapter Entertainment Industry Mixer, 7 p.m. SOUTH, Santa Monica. Meet with Elon students in the Elon in L.A. summer program

JUNE D.C. Chapter Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure, 8 a.m. The National Mall

JUNE Triangle Chapter Komen Race for the Cure, 7 a.m. Meredith College, Raleigh, N.C. Family walk begins at 8:45 a.m.

JUNE Chicago Chapter Day, 10 a.m. North Avenue Beach

D.C. Chapter Nationals vs. Chicago White Sox game, 7:05 p.m. Nationals Park. Pre-game barbeque, RFK Stadium parking lot

JUNE Charlotte Chapter Summer Pops, Symphony Park, South Park Mall (Time TBA)

OCT. Homecoming

ALUMNI Action

D.C. Nashville NYC

Outer Banks Boston Boston

Class Notes

’40sSarah Lou Wrenn Mundy ’47 had never been away from home before she attended Elon, and she is grateful that she overcame her trepidation and forged ahead. Elon helped her grow and mature in many ways, she says, and was a wonderful experience that made a big diff erence in her life and career. Sarah, who lives in Durham, N.C., encourages all current students to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities available to them.

Dorothy “Dot” Shepherd Hilliard ’48 and Charles Albert “Al” Hilliard ’49 met while students at Elon. Al was a nurse in the school infi rmary and Dot was a soloist in the Elon choir. One day, Dot stopped by the infi r-mary for some cough syrup to keep her voice clear, and Al was smitten. Th ey began dating a short time later and were married Aug. 28, 1948. Th ey celebrated their 61st wedding anni-versary in August 2009. Both Dot and Al are very proud Elon alumni and are excited to see how Elon has grown over the years and where the future will take their treasured alma mater. Both Dot and Al keep busy; Al plays golf three times a week, and Dot enjoys her retirement group meetings and visiting with family and friends. Th ey live in Durham, N.C.

Jessie Doughtie Cutrell ’49 is grate-ful to Elon for helping to broaden

her horizons and for giving her life purpose. She has so many wonderful memories of her time at Elon, in-cluding sitting under the senior oak and meeting her late husband, Ira G. Cutrell ’50, as well as many other wonderful people. She currently re-sides in Windsor, N.C.

Dorothy “Dot” Jane Brinkley Lassiter ’49 is grateful to Elon for helping her land her fi rst job as a second-grade teacher at Altamahaw-Ossipee Elementary School. She is grateful to the kind and knowl-edgeable faculty who took the time to guide students into careers that suited their academic strengths and personalities. She enjoyed all of the hustle and bustle of campus and at-tended many wonderful plays, con-certs and, of course, football and bas-ketball games. Dot and her husband, James Lassiter ’49, live in Florence, S.C. Th ey have three sons and two grandchildren.

’50sSara Foster Dodson ’51 has many special memories from Elon but none as special as the day she met her husband. She currently lives in Burlington, N.C., where she enjoys spending time with her family. She has two daughters, eight grandchil-dren and three great-grandchildren.

Dr. Walter O’Berry ’54 recently cel-ebrated 50 years as a practicing physi-cian and plans to continue working for many years. He lives with his wife, Sarah, in Jacksonville, N.C.

Carl Gordon Gibbs ’55 credits Elon with helping him to grow both aca-demically and spiritually. While at Elon, he became pastor of Efl and Baptist Church in Efl and, N.C. He helped the church develop full-time services and begin a building pro-gram. He is very proud of Elon and hopes that the school will stay true to its spiritual heritage. He lives with his wife, Jessie, in Burgaw, N.C.

Edwin J. Davidson ’57 has re-tired after 38 years with the Basic Steel Industry. He lives with his wife, Jennie Keck Davidson ’57, in Wexford, Pa. During Homecoming this year, as in previous years, Edwin got together with several former Elon football players from the era of former coach Sid Varney (1953-1959). They are a distinguished group, boasting six Elon Sports Hall of Fame members. Th e group has raised close to $100,000 for the Sid

Varney Football Scholarship and the Varney Box at Rhodes Stadium. Two well-known members of the group are Furman Moseley ’56 and the late Nick Th eos ’56. Over the next year, Edwin says the group will be com-piling their many Elon experiences and “exploits” (now that the statute of limitations has expired, he adds) into a memoir that they hope will be available at the next reunion.

’60sREUNION ’

Al Capuano ’60 is a retired princi-pal from Broward County Schools. In 2009, he returned to his favorite hobby, sports car racing. He received the Most Improved Driver award by

the Florida region of the Sports Car Club of America after he fi nished sec-ond in the Regional Championship its Class standings. He was inspired to return to racing by his hero, the late Paul Newman, who raced until he was age 83. He lives with his wife, Marcia, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Charitable gift annuities can provide income for lifeA charitable gift annuity of 10,000 or more to Elon will guaran-tee you a fi xed income for the rest of your life. With market interest rates near historic lows, a gift annuity is an attractive way for you to increase your income and make a gift to Elon at the same time. You will receive immediate tax benefi ts and can defer capital gains. The payment rate of a charitable gift annuity depends on your age at the time of the gift — the older you are, the higher the rate.

Sample Rates:

ONE BENEFICIARY

AGE ANNUIT Y RATE

60 5.0% 65 5.3% 70 5.7%

T WO BENEFICIARIES

AGES ANNUIT Y RATE

60/65 4.8% 67/67 5.0% 71/73 5.3%

Annuity rates are subject to change. The annuity rate remains fi xed once your gift is made.

To calculate a gift annuity for you, your spouse or a family member, go to www.elon.edu/giftplanning.

For more information on how you may benefi t from a life income gift to Elon and other gift planning opportunities,

please contact:

Jamie Killorin, CPA/PFS, CFP®, Director of Gift PlanningToll free 877.784.3566

[email protected] • www.elon.edu/giftplanning

Dot Shepherd Hilliard ’48 and Al Hilliard ’49 then

and now

Mary Coolidge Ruth ’66, left, and Sally Maurer

Koch ’66

CLASS Notes


Sally Maurer Koch ’66 visited with longtime friends, Mary Coolidge Ruth ’66 and Bill Ruth ’66, at the Silver Lake Conference Center in Sharon, Conn., where the Ruths were volunteering for the United Church of Christ Partners in Service. Sally lives in Scarborough, Maine.

Th omas Page ’66 is a novelist and technical writer. His novel, Th e Man Who Would Not Die—A Love Story, is being reprinted in Ireland and England, and has been optioned for a fi lm. He lives in Santa Monica, Calif.

Oliver G. Halle ’67 is a retired spe-cial agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is now president of Oliver G. Halle & Associates Inc., a fi rm that conducts corporate ethics and anti-corruption training seminars. His firm recently con-ducted seminars at Michigan State University, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. He lives with his wife, Mollie, in Marietta, Ga.

Peggy Bell Poe ’68 recently retired after eight years with the Department of Family and Children’s Services and fi ve years as a Spanish teacher. She lives with her husband, Gray, in Newnan, Ga.

’70sRoland “Chip” Gill ’70 is a retired teacher, coach and athletic direc-tor. He was honored by the North Carolina Alliance for Athletics, Health, Physica l Educat ion, Recreation, and Dance, on Nov. 13, 2009, for his many years of dedicated service. He served as president of the North Carolina Association for Athletic Education in 2002, 2004 and again in 2009. In 2001 he was inducted into the North Carolina Athletic Director’s Hall of Fame. He lives with his wife, Sarah Kenyon Gill ’70, in Durham, N.C.

Robert R. Lane ’71 and Karen Paulos Lane ’71 live in Powell, Ohio. Robert is president of the Central

Ohio District Key Bank. On Nov. 17, 2009, he was honored at the Grand Illusions Event hosted in Columbus, Ohio. Th e event is held annually to raise money for cancer research.

Robert Scott Baily ’72 and his wife, April, have relocated to Mountain Home, Ark. Robert is a wellness con-sultant and has his own business with his wife called To Your Good Health. Th ey have partnered with nikken, a wellness company headquartered in Irvine, Calif.

Charles F. Bell ’72 has retired from his real estate fi rm in Carolina Beach, N.C. He now resides in Titusville, Fla.

James L. Correll Jr. ’72 is the ex-ecutive tournament director for the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn and was recently elected to serve a second term as chairman of the pga Champions Tour Tournament Association Board of Directors. As chairman, he will serve as the liaison among the 26 tour stops, the players and the pga Tour. Th is will be his fi fth year as a member of the board. He lives in Hickory, N.C.

Perry Crouch ’73 is minister of Christian education for Th alia Lynn Baptist Church. He was recently hon-ored by the congregation on the 20th anniversary of his ministry. He served for 16 years as minister to youth and in his current position for the past four years. He lives with his wife, Emily, in Virginia Beach, Va.

Addison “Buddy” Himes Jr. ’73served as director of the School of Music at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for 12 years. He recently accepted a position as dean of the College of Fine Arts at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he now resides with his wife, Cynthia.

Daniel N. Douglas ’74 is serving as nuclear medicine technologist for the American Hospital-Dubai. He lives with his wife, Diana, in Glendale, Ariz.

Patsy Lynch ’75 is a photojournalist for Peralandra Services. She recently completed a project and exhibition honoring community pioneers for the Rainbow History Project, and her photographs are being featured in an exhibit honoring people who are working to fi ght hiv/aids. Th e exhibit is called “Portraits of Heroes,” and it is currently on display in Washington, D.C. She lives in Glen Echo, Md.

Zene Fearing ’76 attended the Kappa Sigma awards ceremony in Virginia Beach, Va., on Nov. 21, 2009. At the ceremony, the Senator John G. Tower Distinguished Alumni Award was presented to Vice Admiral William E. “Bill” Gortney ’77 of the United States Navy for his professional achievements and significant re-sponsibilities during his 32 years of service. He is one of only 160 of 175,000 Kappa Sigma brothers to re-ceive this award. Gortney currently commands the U.S. Naval Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet/Combined Maritime Forces, which is his third command tour in the U.S. Central

Command area of operations. His command supports maritime security operations and combat operations for Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. Other Elon alumni in attendance were: Tom Summers ’70, Tom Ponder ’76, Barry Smith ’79, Les Hall ’77 and Rick Coradi ’76.

Richard M. Coradi ’76 and Jane Healy Coradi ’78 live in Chesapeake, Va. Richard is a stockbroker for Davenport & Company, and Jane is a homemaker and volunteer.

Larry Riggan ’76 retired last May af-ter 33 years in education. He served

Peggy Bell Poe ’68

Alumni honor Jerry TolleyFormer Elon football players and coaches joined more than 200 people at a Dec. 7 retirement celebration for Jerry Tolley, former head football coach and staff member.

“It meant an awful lot to have those players and coaches there,” Tolley said.

Tolley served in many capacities during his 31 years at Elon, most notably as head coach of Elon’s 1980 and 1981 NAIA national championship football teams. He arrived at Elon in 1967, serving as an assistant football coach for 10 years before leading the team for five years. He retired from coaching in 1981 and joined Elon’s development office, serving as director of annual giving and The Elon Society, Elon’s premier annual giving recognition group. In 1986, he left Elon to work at Burlington, N.C.-based LabCorp. He returned to Elon’s development office in 1999.

Tolley, who currently serves as mayor of the Town of Elon, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from East Carolina University, where he starred in the early 1960s on the Pirates football team. He earned a doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Vice Admiral William E. Gortney ’77 with fellow Elon alumni at the Kappa Sigma awards ceremony on Nov. 21, 2009.

Jerry Tolley, front row center, and friends

CLASS Notes


as principal at Union Pines High School and Alexander Central High School before fi nishing his career at Asheboro High School. He lives in Aberdeen, N.C.

M. Fleetwood “Fleet” Bagley ’77 spent this past Christmas in Istanbul, Turkey. He is also a teacher at Th e Learning Center in Doha, Qatar.

Marilee McPherson Kivett ’77 is a sales and promotions director for Alamance Marketing & Publishing. She manages the sales and market-ing department and works on vari-ous magazine publications, as well as with advertising clients. She lives with her husband, Mitchell, in Snow Camp, N.C.

Samuel A. Burgess ’78 is a princi-pal development planner for New Hanover County Government. He has been serving as scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 218, Cape Fear Council, since 1991. He has guided 24 young men to the rank of Eagle Scout. He also serves as chair of the North Carolina State Employee Credit Union Advisory Board in Wilmington, N.C., where he lives with his wife, Jimi-Ann.

David L. Payne ’79 was recently promoted to assistant director for operations in the Office of Thrift Supervision, United States Treasury Department. He lives with his wife, Sharon, in Blue Ash, Ohio.

’80sREUNION ’

Veronica Leath Revels ’81 was re-elected in November for a second term to the Town of Gibsonville Board of Alderman. She lives in Elon, N.C.

Terri Crowson Wallace ’81 is the community outreach coordinator for the University of North Carolina – Lineberger Cancer Center. Th e cen-ter works with cancer patients and

their families to help them enjoy the highest quality of life possible. She lives with her husband, Richard, in Benson, N.C.

Daniel M. Alexander ’82 recently accepted a position as vice president of national programs for spl Inc., a national network of environmental and petroleum testing laboratories based in Houston.

Margaret Toney Elvers ’82 teaches English at Daniels Middle School. She coaches varsity cheer-leading at Broughton High School, where she recently coached the 2009 nchsaa state championship and the national

championship in varsity cheerleading. In 2006, Margaret won the Coach of the Year award. She lives with her husband, John, in Raleigh, N.C.

Gene Walker ’82 is a service advisor at Mercedes Benz of Winston-Salem. He and his wife, Anna, celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary on Dec. 3, 2009. Th ey have two sons whom they are extremely proud of and enjoy spending time with their family. Th ey live in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Liz Hickman Gregorek ’83 is a hu-man resources manager for Omya Inc., a calcium carbonate mining manufacturer. She lives with her husband, Derek, and their sons, Tyler and Garrett, in Brandon, Vt.

Kim Morehouse Kobre ’85 is a learn-ing specialist and owner of Wise Owl Learning. She lives in Santa Rosa, Calif., with her husband, Shaw, and their children, Alec and Rylan.

Lydia Shull Lunnen ’87 is owner of Big Jim’s bbq Catering in Charlottesville, Va. She purchased the business last year and she says it

has been a fun and challenging expe-rience. Feel free to call her with any of your catering needs. She lives with her husband, Brent, in Charlottesville.

Mark W. O’Brien ’87 competed in the Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, on Oct. 10, 2009. He fi nished in 14 hours, 24 minutes. Th e race includes a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run. Mark lives in Fairfax, Va.

Marc A. Olson ’89 is chief executive offi cer of Nayatek. He lives with his wife, Cornelia, in Wilmington, Del.

Kris Liviccori Subasavage ’89 re-cently earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Kennesaw State University. She is a registered nurse in the icu department at Kennestone Hospital. She lives with her husband, Brian, in Acworth, Ga.

’90sTracey Cooper Borgstrom ’90 was re-cently promoted from nursing super-visor to the clinical manager of oncol-ogy at Chester County Hospital in West Chester, Pa. She lives with her husband, Robert, in Swarthmore, Pa.

Todd D. McGirk ’90 was recently promoted to Band 4 vp Supplier Manager iii for Bank of America. He lives in Huntersville, N.C.

Jennifer L. Meyers ’91 is an emer-gency services specialist for the American Chemistry Council,

chemtrec. In September 2009, she earned her National Pro Board cer-tifi cation as a Hazardous Materials Technician & Hazardous Materials Responder/Operational & Awareness levels through the Delaware State Fire School in Dover, Del. She lives in Leesburg, Va.

Jonathan C. Hoover ’92 is director for Fast-Teks Computer Services, an on-site computer technical support franchise. His territory serves resi-dential and small business customers in the Danville, Va., and Reidsville/Eden, N.C., areas. He also recently fi nished his second year as a Virginia high school football offi cial. He lives with his wife, Tracy, in Danville.

Tracy Pilc Costello ’93 is a counselor for Family Preservation Services. She lives with her husband, Michael, and their children, in Willis, Va.

Tracey Helton Lewis ’93 is principal for Surry County Schools. She was recently inducted into the Alpha Th eta Chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, a pro-fessional honor society comprised of women educators. She lives with her husband, James, in King, N.C.

Natasha Jones ’94 graduated in August with a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her advanced degree is as a family nurse practitioner. She lives in Charlotte, N.C.

Terri Y. Fletcher ’95 is an adjunct composition instructor at the itt Technical Institute. She teaches composition courses and Strategies for the Technical Professional. She lives in Greensboro, N.C.

Geoff Gentry ’97 earned the Professional Standard Certificate through the North Carolina Association of Educational Office Professionals. He serves as secretary of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro branch. He is also on the Classifi ed Council for the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools. He has worked for the school system for the past seven

Liz Hickman Gregorek ’83 and family

Mark W. O’Brien ’87

Kim Morehouse Kobre ’85 , husband, Shaw, and

sons, Alec and Rylan

Terri Crowson Wallace ’81

Marilee McPherson Kivett ’77

Tracy Pilc Costello ’93, husband, Michael, and children

CLASS Notes


State University. She lives with her husband, Sterling, and their daughter, Amelia, in Belleville, Mich.

’00sREUNION ’

Cameron W. DeJong ’02 was elected a selectman in Manchester, N.H., during elections held last fall. As a selectman, he will help oversee the balloting process during primary and general elections, and he will also serve on the Heritage Commission, which oversees development pro-posals in historic areas of the city. Cameron works as a sales manager

dle, secondary and K-12 education. She lives in Charlotte.

Joseph M. Capps ’99 is director of bands for Orange County Schools. He teaches 6th, 7th and 8th grade bands along with three jazz bands. He also serves as chair of Jazz for North Carolina Music Educators. His middle school jazz band will be the fi rst to perform at the North Carolina Music Educators Association Conference. He lives with his wife, Erin, in Mebane, N.C.

Suzy Wilson Schmeltz ’99 is a part-time physician assistant at Henry Ford Hospital. Th is fall she began as an assistant professor in the physician assistant studies program at Wayne

Award for service to youth. He lives in Ramseur, N.C.

Courtney DeBerry Baraglia ’98 re-cently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Colorado-Denver. She is a pedi-atric nurse at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Hospital in Denver. She lives with her husband, Jim, in Littleton, Colo.

Heather M. Coff ey ’98 earned a doc-torate in education from the culture, curriculum and change program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s an assistant pro-fessor in the College of Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in the department of mid-

years as the ncwise data manager. Th is spring, he will be traveling to the island community of Bocachica in Colombia on a mission trip with Elon professors Vic Costello and Mark Fox, and Elon student Sarah Costello ’11. They will be helping with several projects such as building latrines, pouring concrete fl oors and holding a family conference. Geoff lives in Graham, N.C.

Daniel B. Haithcox ’97 has accepted a position as principal of Bonlee School, a K-8 school in Chatham County, N.C. Recently, he was a finalist for the Chatham County Schools Principal of the Year award, as well as a recipient of the Western Chatham naacp Humanitarian

by Robert Wohner ’11

Michael Long ’04 has been fascinated by politics for as long as he can remem-ber. As a teenager, he gladly chose C-SPAN over MTV. He and his mother, Naomi, worked on numerous cam-paigns as local and state Democratic Party activists, while his father, Isaac, served for 10 years on the board of edu-cation in Caswell County, N.C.

After graduating with degrees in political science and public administra-tion, Long headed to the most natural place for a political junkie: Washington, D.C. After a brief stint as a research assistant at a nonprofi t organization, Long went to work as a special assistant to one of the most influential law-makers on Capitol Hill — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Long’s duties as a member of Pelosi’s executive staff can vary daily and take him anywhere. In general, he makes sure Pelosi’s day goes smoothly, providing her with the proper briefi ng materials, fi elding requests from other congres-sional offi ces and greeting guests before they meet with the speaker. He also has assisted with major events at the Capitol, including the Inauguration and the State of the Union address, and accompanies Pelosi on offi cial trips, including her trip to China last spring to discuss environ-mental issues.

There is no limit to what Long might be expected to do or how long that might take.

“I get into the offi ce at 8 a.m. and am there until the speaker leaves,” he says. “That could be at 7 p.m. That could be at 1 a.m. One day, I could meet a movie star and by the end of the day be at the White House.”

Working in the speaker’s offi ce, Long has learned what it takes to be suc-cessful in Washington. To him, it’s simple.

“Nothing can happen without coop-eration,” he says. “I have to work with individuals from Republican offices, and when it comes to working relation-ships, you have to put politics aside.”

No one appreciates Long’s contribu-tions more than Pelosi, who praises his desire to learn as well as his humility.

“Idealism, a curiosity to learn and to absorb, good judgment and a sense of planning, Michael brings all of that to the table,” Pelosi says. “When people come to Washington, I want them to understand that they are a future leader of America. This is a job I want people to thrive in.”

Pelosi also praised Long’s ongoing eff orts to build a relationship between her office and the Boy Scouts of America. Long is a member of The Order of the Arrow, the Boy Scouts’ national honor society.

“No offi ce can boast a stronger rela-tionship with them,” Pelosi says. “Michael displays such dignity and maturity that he has for all people, from a 12-year-old boy to a head of state.”

Even with the pressures of working

on Capitol Hill, Long has flourished. Since joining Pelosi’s staff two years ago, he says he has grown profession-ally and personally.

“Every day I learn something new,” Long says. “There are talents that you have, but you don’t have a chance to show them all at one time. When you work in a high-energy environment, you’re pulled in so many directions that

you’re forced to bring all your talents to the surface.”

So far, Long says, he hasn’t allowed Washington’s partisan atmosphere to get to him.

“A lot of people suggest that Wash-ington changes you, but only if you allow it to,” he says. “I hope to stay in this high-profi le arena but remain a humble individual.”

At home on Capitol Hill

Michael Long ’04 with Nancy Pelosi

CLASS Notes


Kara M. Anderson ’06 graduated in May 2009 with a master’s degree in nonprofit leadership and manage-ment. She recently accepted a posi-tion as assistant director of alumni relations for Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio. She lives in Dublin, Ohio.

Michael Hurst ’06 reports that the Charleston Elon Alumni Chapter hosted a golf match on Oct. 31, 2009. In attendance were Alan Wilson ’79, Matthew Lake ’06, Charlie Davis ’98 and Anne Machowski ’03. After golf, the group enjoyed a cookout at the Shadowmoss Clubhouse.

Canden Schwantes ’06 lives in London, England. Th is summer, she will be trekking to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Th e climb will benefi t ActionAid uk, a charity that sup-ports the awareness and eradication of worldwide poverty. If you would like to learn more about her upcom-ing adventure or make a donation to the cause, check out her Web site at www.myactionaid.org.uk/Canden/mount-kilimanjaro-trek.

Sara E. Davis ’07 ran her first marathon, the nyc ing race, to raise money for the Robin Hood Foundation last fall and ran a second marathon to raise money for Easter Seals in December. She lives in New York City.

Calley J. Grace ’07 is an editorial assistant with the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, part of the National Institutes of Health and the Department of

Health and Human Services. She lives in Baltimore.

Jaclyn A. Immordino ’07 recently received a master’s degree in design and branding strategy from Brunel University in West London, uk. She lives in Ewing, N.J.

Aileen M. McCarthy ’07 recently traveled to Hong Kong as part of the Blackstone Group internship pro-gram. She also has received a master’s degree in publishing from New York University in New York City, where she lives.

Adam Milliken ’07 is a marketing operations analyst for a B2B telecom company headquartered in Denver. He was working for the company in Orlando, Fla., but has recently trans-ferred to Denver, where he will main-tain and optimize the internal opera-tions of the marketing department.

Charlie Remy ’07 graduated in December with a master’s degree in library and information science from Simmons College in Boston. He lives in Gorham, Maine.

Shannon M. Keane ’08 recently earned her certifi ed public account-ing license from the Massachusetts State Board of Accountancy after successful completion of one year of professional auditing experience. She lives in Somerville, Mass.

Kim Marker ’08 is a training and networking coordinator for jva Consulting. She lives in Denver.

Lesley Tkaczyk ’08 is an assistant editor for Pace Communications in Greensboro, N.C. She works on AAA Traveler magazine and AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah. She lives in Burlington, N.C.

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. ’08 recently marked the first anniversary of his marketing agency, jdw: The Charlotte Agency, in Charlotte, N.C., where he lives. He is responsible for the general business operations, busi-ness development and marketing services.

Sean P. Flynn ’09 is an account associate for Ketchum Sports & Entertainment. He tracks current digital public relations trends and applies those to client programs. He lives in New York City.

Brittany L. Heff ernan ’09 is an au-dit associate for McGladrey & Pullen. She lives in Arlington, Va.

Sarah K. Townsend ’03 works in system and service sales for Firetrol Protection Systems Inc. She recently earned her nicet Level I certifi ca-tion in fi re alarm systems. She lives in Greensboro, N.C.

Andrew Frace ’04 is a member of the Las Vegas production of Broadway’s Jersey Boys, playing at the Palazzo Resort. He rotates through the show and covers the roles of Bob, Tommy, Joey, Norm, Barry, Knuckles and Th ug. He lives in Las Vegas.

Ann H. Early ’05 is founder and chief executive offi cer of Ann Early Organizing, which specializes in moves and relocations. Visit her Web site at www.annearly.com. Ann lives in New York City, where she serves as vice president of the nyc Elon Alumni Chapter. She encourages all alumni to participate in their local chapter.

for Verizon Wireless and lives in Manchester.

Kimberly Carr MacDonald ’02 is a high school counselor for the Charleston County School District. She recently achieved her National Board Certifi cation in the area of school counseling. She lives with her husband, Drew, in Charleston, S.C.

Erica Stanley ’02 is director of the public aff airs division of Th e Glover Park Group, for which she special-izes in health-care issues. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Keira Wickliffe ’02 graduated in May from Johns Hopkins University with a master’s degree in nursing sci-ence and public health. She is cur-rently working at Johns Hopkins Emergency Department and teaching at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She lives in Baltimore.

Taking Elon on the road Before his deployment to Iraq in March 2009, Army 1st Lt. Brian Foley ’08 trained to be a field artillery officer who would help plan, coordinate and execute artillery fire attacks on enemy aircraft. When he arrived in Iraq, however, he found himself in a very different role, serving as a liaison between U.S. forces and Iraqi militias in Baghdad and Diyala Province.

With little, if any, training for his new assignment, Foley says he drew on his Elon experiences, particularly a Winter Term course in South Africa that he took in 2007. He found parallels between apart-heid and the subsequent reconciliation process in South Africa and efforts by American and coalition forces to stabilize Iraq.

Foley, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, says he spent most of his time meeting with leaders of the Sons of Iraq, a para-military group consisting of former insurgents who later teamed up with American forces against insurgents. During one of his meetings with the group, he unfurled a maroon and gold Elon flag that he’d brought to Iraq and asked them to pose for a photo.

Foley concluded his eight-month tour of duty in November, returning with his unit to Fort Bragg, N.C. He says he’s proud to be a soldier and a former member of Elon’s ROTC program.

“Elon ROTC alumni have definitely had a dramatic impact on this country, as well as the world, through their service in the U.S. military.”

(l-r) Charlie Davis ’98, Alan Wilson ’79,

Michael Hurst ’06 and Matthew Lake ’06

Canden Schwantes ’06

CLASS Notes


Kevin A. Kline ’09 was recently promoted to full-time producer/as-signment editor for wxii 12 News in Winston-Salem, N.C., where he lives. He is currently producing a 30-min-ute special for the station that looks behind the scenes of the Flight of Honor project.

Chika Kusakaw ’09 is a vista (Volunteers in Service to America) for AmeriCorps, serving a yearlong assignment through AmeriCorps-North Carolina Campus Compact at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Th e primary goal of the organization is to increase campus-wide participation in community and

public service. She lives in Pembroke, N.C.

Garrett Pittenger ’09 recently started a new job as a business valuation asso-ciate with Deloitte Financial Advisory Services. He lives in New York City.

Durice N. White ’09 is an event mar-keting representative for alsac/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Atlanta, where she lives. Her respon-sibilities include planning, organizing and implementing fundraising events for the hospital.

Weddings

’80sE. Kyle Tyner ’83 and Michael J. Tucker, 11/21/09. Kyle is a leader-ship consultant. Th e couple live in Statesville, N.C.

’90sWendi Anne Johnson ’98 and John C. DeForest Jr., 10/24/09. Wendi is a literacy specialist for the City of Springfi eld. Th ey live in Springfi eld, Mass.

Andrea Spinella ’99 and Rob McDiarmid, 11/7/09. Th e wedding was held at Trinity Church with a re-ception at the W in Union Square in New York City. Elon alumni in atten-dance were: Eric “Turbo” Joyner ’98, Jimmy Golinsky ’99, Shelley Rubin Golinsky ’00, Kerri Coby White ’99, Jaimie Morais ’99, Chris Tonnesen ’99, Jennifer Long Tonnesen ’01, Christy Slosky ’99, Kristine Sweeney Carroll ’99 and Rich Carroll ’99. Th e couple live in New York City.

by Sarah Beth Costello ’11

Ashley Igdalsky ’02 is standing at the bottom of the grandstand, surrounded by the roar of racecars as “God Bless America” blares from the sound system and a squadron of Air Force jets whiz-zes by.

It is another day at the office for Igdalsky as she awaits the crack of the start gun for another race at her family’s NASCAR track, Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. During racing season, Igdalsky spends every weekend at the raceway, helping her family, the Mat-tiolis, run the famed NASCAR track.

“I’ve always loved (race day),” she says. “It’s that feeling in the air on race morn-ing, you wake up and there’s excite-ment. Everybody’s in a good mood.”

Igdalsky is more than just a fan of racing — it’s in her blood.

Growing up, she spent every sum-mer at the raceway, which is owned by her grandparents, Rose and Joseph

“Doc” Mattioli. When she was 8, she learned to drive a bulldozer. At 10, she was given her fi rst offi cial job — paint-ing the black and white checkers on the track. As she grew older, Igdalsky took on more responsibilities, from running hospitality services to timing the fl yby, or coordinating the start of the race with television coverage. Today, she is executive director of the family’s latest venture, The Village of Pocono, an all-season resort across the street from the raceway.

Originally a spinach farm in the

1960s, Pocono Raceway was launched by a group of investors who wanted to build a NASCAR racetrack similar to the one in Daytona, Fla.

“From that day on, my grandfather was chairman of the board,” Igdalsky says. “Little by little, he bought (the investors) out.”

It truly is a family business. Igdalsky’s mother, Looie McNally, is a member of the raceway board of directors, while brother Brandon serves as president and brother Nicholas ’99 as senior vice president. Her grandmother, Dr. Rose Mattioli, serves as secretary and trea-surer. Igdalsky is assistant secretary and assistant treasurer.

After graduating with a degree in communications and fi lm and a pho-tography minor, Igdalsky says she didn’t expect to work in the family business. Then she received the off er of a lifetime from her grandfather.

“About fi ve years ago, he asked me to come back and take care of a project for him,” Igdalsky explains. “He’s had this vision since the ’70s about starting a resort and asked me to implement, design, build and open it.”

The mission was simple — to off er guests comfortable, aff ordable accom-modations, especially during racing season.

“The main objective of the resort was to get other hotels to lower their prices,” Igdalsky says. “The money it generates helps the local economy. The Village is clean, it’s luxurious, it’s something you wouldn’t expect at a racetrack.”

Igdalsky oversaw the design and construction of the facility, including hiring contractors and putting on a hard hat to crawl through tight spaces. With no experience in construction, Igdalsky learned a lot from her grandfather.

“He has built so much that there was no one better who could teach me,” she says.

The resort includes a 6,000-square-foot clubhouse, 5,000-square-foot indoor aquatic center, saunas, fi tness

center, fireside lounge, theater and game room. The resort project forced Igdalsky to think on her feet, which proved invaluable.

“I learned so much being thrown into situations where I had no experience and having to step up and learn,” she says. “As a petite Italian girl, it’s a little harder to prove yourself in an industry that’s male-dominated. But the more you know, the more respect you can get.”

On track for success

Ashley Igdalsky ’02

CLASS Notes


’00sHenry L. Spence ’00 and Keiko Kito, 9/20/09. Th e couple were married on the island of Okinawa, Japan. Henry is an offi cer in the U.S. Army.

Meredith Lynn Wood ’01 and Matt D. Davis, 9/12/09. Elon alumni who participated in the wedding were: Erin Witmer-Yuska ’01 and Emily MacDonnell Grdic ’01. Elon alumni in attendance were: Kelly Dynan-Strain ’01, Andi Novak Chamberlain ’01, Courtney Daubert Verdelli ’00 and Greg Verdelli ’01. Th e couple reside in Chicago, where they are both actors.

Jermaine Evans ’03 and Shannon Stone, 8/15/09. Jermaine teaches business education and is an assis-tant football coach at Millbrook High School. Th e couple live in Raleigh, N.C.

Blaire Galaton ’03 and Brian Kelleher ’03, 8/29/09. Th e couple were married in Philadelphia, where they reside. Elon alumni in atten-dance were: Brielle Gould ’04, Katie Jarret ’03, Tom Trost ’03, Patrick Estlow ’04, Gregory “Wood” Barrett ’02, Elizabeth Mills ’03, Kellie Brielmaier ’03, Alexia Halbart ’03, Jessica Messier ’03, Jamie McGovern ’03, Emily Perry ’03, Ivy Myer ’03, Cheri Seagraves ’02, Erin Bricker Zarate ’03, Martin Zarate ’04, Sarah Gesl-Spencer ’03, Patrick Gilligan ’02, Ed Gurley ’02, Lee Hawley ’02, Blair Dowling Hawley ’05, Brandon Kline ’04 and Timmy Kelly ’04.

Michael McQuarrie ’03 and Elizabeth Williams, 7/9/09. The wedding was held on Ocracoke Island, N.C. Michael is director of recreation for Th e New School. Th e couple reside in New York City.

Monica Fee ’04 and Bryan Terry were married at a private residence in Southampton, N.Y., on 9/12/09. Th ey honeymooned on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia. Jennifer Fulmer Guthrie ’04 served as a bridesmaid.

Monica is a sports sponsorship sales agent for Creative Artists Agency in New York City, where they live.

Taylor Jones ’04 and Micah Gremillion, 4/25/09. Elon alumni who participated in the wedding were: Allison Brown ’04, Katie Harrell ’03 and Nicole Richie ’04. Elon alumni in attendance were: Kevin Garrett ’03, Rebecca Lefevre Somonelli ’04 and Tina Lager Garrett ’04. Taylor works for Access Insurance Company. Th e couple reside in Atlanta.

Renita Lenee Leak ’04 and Jarred L. Webb, 7/11/09. Elon alumni in attendance were: Dana Whitt ’94, Kimberly Claud ’04, Kimberly Adams Van Acker ’04, Calvin Sutton ’04, Joanna Jarrett Langston ’02, Joy Carter Alexander ’02, LaTasha Douglass ’03, Lisa Ratliff Roper ’93, Kelsie Langston ’02, Brittney Logan ’02, Courtney Walton ’03, Bianca Ashton ’03, Alice Turner ’07, Shana McLaughlin ’03, Arianne Hamilton ’03, Nichelle Harrison ’04, Adina Dorch ’03, Tanaya Jones ’04, Melissa Jordan ’04 and Elon staff members Pamela Moffitt and Janice Ratliff. Renita is an assistant principal at Western Middle School in Elon, N.C. Th e couple live in Greensboro, N.C.

Alexandra Marina Hacking ’05 and Justin Hadfi eld, 6/5/09. Elon alumni in attendance were: Andrea Ronzoni ’05, Kathy Schwartz ’05, Christina Pilafas ’05, Allie Gilkey ’05, Gillian Ruttkay ’05, Melissa Villemarette ’05, Allison Earley ’05, Keegan Heise ’05 and Molly Cade ’05. Th e couple re-side in Chester Springs, Pa.

Emily Jane Shore ’05 and Patrik K. Silvola, 8/8/09. Elon alumni who participated in the wedding were: Emily Karr ’05, Bucleigh Newton Kernodle ’05, Mary Allen Mann ’05 and Lindsay Gross Hege ’05. Emily is a graduate student. Th e couple live in Columbia, S.C.

Rasmi Gamble ’06 and Candace Williams ’06, 6/19/09. Rasmi works for the Department of Treasury in Houston, and Candace is a senior medical student at the University of Texas Medical Branch and will grad-uate in June 2010. She is currently interviewing for pediatric residency programs. Th e couple reside in Sugar Land, Texas.

E. Kyle Tyner ’83 and Michael Tucker

Wendi Anne Johnson

DeForest ’98 and John

C. DeForest Jr.

Jermaine Evans ’03 and

Shannon Stone Evans

Mary Sessions Newman

’06 and Jonathan

Newman

Ashley Owen Witt ’06

and Matthew Witt

Melissa Rafetto Prelec ’07

and Michael Prelec ’04

Candace Williams

Gamble ’06 and Rasmi

Gamble ’06

Meredith Wood Davis

’01 and Matt Davis

Henry L. Spence ’00 and

Keiko Kito Spence

Monica Fee Terry ’04 and Bryan Terry and friends Renita Leak Webb ’04 and Jarred Webb and friends

Blaire Galaton ’03 and Brian Kelleher ’03 and friends

Andrea Spinella ’99 and Rob McDiarmid and friends

Taylor Jones Gremillion ’04 and Micah Gremillion

and friends

Emily Shore Silvola ’05 and Patrick Silvola and friends

Michael McQuarrie ’03 and Elizabeth Williams

McQuarrie and friends

Molly Steinberg Howard ’06 and Christopher

Howard ’06 and friends

CLASS Notes


Christopher Howard ’06 and Molly Steinberg ’06, 5/24/09. Th ey were married at the Spring Mill Manor in Ivyland, Pa. Elon alumni who partici-pated in the wedding were: Th omas Kernan ’06, Stephen Johnson ’03, Jim Milligan ’05, Michelle Moody ’05, Danielle Smith ’05 and Jennifer Harmon ’06. Elon alumni in at-tendance were: Robin Smith ’07, Ben Samel ’05, Adam Dice ’04 and Emma Longster ’07. Christopher is an investment specialist for Th e Vanguard Group, and Molly is a sales manager at Norstone Inc. Th ey live in Bensalem, Pa.

Ashley Owen ’06 and Matthew E. Witt, 7/11/09. Ashley is a student advocate at Rosman Middle School and Rosman High School. Th e cou-ple were married in Brevard, N.C., where they live.

Mary Sessions ’06 and Jonathan Newman, 7/25 /09 . Rachae l Fiorentino ’07 served as maid of honor. Elon alumni in attendance were: Mike Micciche ’04, Nadine Madadha ’05, Neil Millhiser ’05, Colleen Corrigan ’06, Josh Kagel ’06and Alexis Smith Kagel ’08. Th e cou-ple met at Th e Webb School where

Mary is assistant director of admis-sions and teaches photography. Th e couple reside in Buckle, Tenn.

Jessica Lee Harmon ’07 and Samuel D. Boro ’07, 7/4/09. Jessica is a kin-dergarten teacher with Montgomery County Public Schools, and Samuel is a social studies teacher for Baltimore City Public Schools. Th ey live in Columbia, Md.

Melissa Rafetto ’07 and Michael Prelec ’04, 6/20/09. Elon alumni in attendance were: Evin Prelec ’07, Kristin Jennings ’07, Caity

Cummings ’07, Elliot Cardano ’07, Austin Fenn ’07, Nick Bogdovitz ’07, Rachel Sparrow ’08, Paisley Boyd ’08 and Dan Pozzo ’08. Melissa is a teacher for Volusia County Schools, and Michael works in sales at Battery Tender. Th ey live in DeLand, Fla.

Blake Cunningham ’07 and Jenny Pearce ’08, 8/9/08. Blake is an ac-countant with Ernst & Young, and Jenny is a teacher and coach at Sharon Middle/High School. Th ey live in Canton, Mass.

Preserving a piece of historyby Sarah Beth Costello ’11

The tobacco barns dotting rural North Carolina may seem old and dilapidated to some, but to Jayson Judy ’08, they are historical landmarks full of artistic possibilities. As owner of The ’Bacco Stick, Judy handcrafts hiking sticks from the hardwood used to cure tobacco in old barns. He takes the rough, splin-tered wood and transforms it into a piece of art.

Growing up on a horse farm in Gib-sonville, N.C., Judy spent time with neighboring tobacco farmers and grew to appreciate the craft of growing, picking and curing the crop. Before the introduction of modern bulk curing systems, North Carolina farmers fl ue-cured tobacco by draping the leaves over sticks hanging from barn rafters above large kilns of coals. Most of those barns sit empty today, which provides opportunity for Judy and his Gibson-ville-based company.

“When I was 11 or 12, I visited my grandfather in the mountains in Waynesville, N.C., and went to a craft show where I saw some walking sticks (on display),” Judy says. “I came back home, found an old tobacco barn and thought I could make a tobacco stick out of the sticks from the barn.”

He began making and selling tobacco sticks to friends and family. By the time he was 14, he was selling them nationally after stories about his work appeared in The Charlotte Observer, The Times-News in Burlington and Countrymagazine. Some people even shipped sticks to Judy to transform into beautiful handmade crafts. In 2001, he launched

his company Web site and currently sells his sticks in almost every state.

“Most people my age don’t know what a ’bacco stick is because they stopped using them 50 years ago,” Judy says. “They can’t appreciate how much work goes into it.”

The transformation process takes several hours. Judy begins by using a mounted belt sander to remove large splinters before meticulously hand-sanding the 5-foot sticks. Once the sticks are stained, they are ready for

sale. The entire process takes about three hours.

Last fall, the university asked Judy to make ’bacco sticks as gifts for Elon trustees who were attending a retreat in the mountains in Highlands, N.C. The sticks commemorated the university’s Ever Elon Campaign topping the 70 million mark.

“I was extremely excited and hon-ored to be part of the Ever Elon Campaign,” says Judy, who will fi nish his MBA studies at Elon in May. Judy plans

to use his MBA degree to grow The ’Bacco Stick.

“I make ’bacco sticks for two reasons,” says Judy, “to preserve a part of my heri-tage that is quickly being forgotten and to recycle tobacco sticks to produce a quality, elegant and functional product for people of all walks of life.”

Visit www.baccosticks.com for more information about Judy’s company.

Jayson Judy ’08

CLASS Notes


Campbell. 3/1/09. Danielle is a fourth-grade teacher for the Warwick School District.

Tiff any Shields ’00, Durham, N.C. Son: Alexander James. 2/23/09.

Stephanie Walz Vining ’00 and Travis Vining, Encinitas, Calif. Son: Tyler David. 4/10/09. Stephanie is a homemaker.

Jessica Papuga Yarrow ’00 and Michael Yarrow ’99, Flemington, N.J. Son: Lucas Riley. 1/23/09.

Jim Ahearn ’01 and Ann Ahearn, Cottage Grove, Wis. Son: Melkamu. 2/14/09. Melkamu was born in Ethiopia. Jim and Ann traveled to Ethiopia in August to bring their son home. Jim is a commercial insur-ance agent for Hausmann-Johnson Insurance.

Emily Brown Garner ’01 and Zack Garner, Columbia, Md. Son: Kellan. 2/14/09.

Katie Sheffler Bittle ’02 and Devaughn Bittle, Hagerstown, Md. Daughter: Ainsley Grace. 7/17/09. Katie teaches second grade for Frederick County Public Schools.

Elise N. Hewett ’02 and Richard Dutton ’03, Williamsburg, Va. Son: Cole Andrew. 5/29/09.

Mike Proctor ’98 and Jaime Curtis Proctor ’00, Powhatan, Va. Son: Gavin. 8/14/09. He joins older brother, Caden.

Stacey Ward Rice ’98 and Steve Rice, Gettysburg, Pa. Daughter: Sarah Ellen. 7/2/09.

Wendy Schott Zuber ’98 and Daniel Zuber, North Versailles, Pa. Daughter: Lexi Mae. 6/30/09. Wendy is a teaching and learning consultant for Promethean Inc. and coaches vol-leyball at the Pittsburgh Renaissance Volleyball Club.

Scott Humphries ’99 and Tish Beauchamp Humphries ’00 , Charlotte, N.C. Daughter: Kelsie Renee. 10/28/08.

Amy Jumba Rayman ’99 and Mark Rayman, Irwin, Pa. Daughter: Abby Katherine. 7/21/09.

’00sTiff any Byrdic Mayo ’00 and Shelton Mayo, Newport, N.C. Daughter: Makenna Rose. 8/18/09. Tiff any is a media specialist for Morehead City, N.C.

Megan Mehaff ey Plemmons ’00 and Chris Plemmons, Denver, N.C. Son: Evan Lance. 3/23/09.

Danielle Sempier Reist ’00 and Dave Reist, Lititz, Pa. Son: Benjamin

Scott Humphries ’99 and Tish

Beauchamp Humphries ’00 and

daughter, Kelsie

Christy Donhauser Hornyak

’03 and Daniel J. Hornyak ’03

and daughter, Caitlyn

Kenny Karpowicz ’93 and Deborah Grant

Karpowicz ’93 and daughters, Emily and Sarah

Anne DeVoe Garcia ’03 and Luke

Garcia and son, Cooper

Catherine Farrington Rowan ’04 and

Joshua Rowan ’04 and children, Lily

and Davis

Amy Jumba Rayman ’99, husband,

Mark, and daughter, Abby

Julie Dyke Ford ’95, husband, Ephraim, and sons,

Robinson and Keller

Tiff any Byrdic Mayo ’00, husband,

Shelton, and daughter, Makenna

Stephanie Walz Vining ’00,

husband, Travis, and son, Tyler

Elise Hewett ’02 and Richard

Dutton ’03 and son, Cole

Wendy Schott Zuber ’98 and daughter, LexiJulie Bray Lanzone ’97 and daughter, Samantha

Jim Ahearn ’01 with his wife, Ann,

and son, Melkamu

Kristyn Green Chrzanowski ’95 and Kevin Chrzanowski, Mullica Hill, N.J. Son: Th omas James. 3/17/09. He joins older sister, Sara Ruth. Kristyn works for Ernst & Young llp.

Julie Dyke Ford ’95 and Ephraim Ford, Socorro, N.M. Son: Keller Joseph. 5/22/09. He joins older brother, Robinson. Julie is an asso-ciate professor of technical commu-nication at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

Anna Dawson Harris ’95 and Mark F. Harris ’97, Southern Pines, N.C. Son: Robert Jones. 8/24/09.

Jennafer Bloom Ross ’95 and Michael Ross, Downingtown, Pa. Son: Alex Joseph. 8/26/09. He joins older siblings, Matthew and Mackenzie. Jennafer is a meeting manager for jr Global Events.

Julie Teague Boyes ’97 and Michael Boyes, Fort Mill, S.C. Daughter: Savannah Grace. 7/25/09.

Julie Bray Lanzone ’97 and John Lanzone, New York, N.Y. Daughter: Samantha Doreen. 1/30/09.

Kyle E. Anderson ’08 and Caitlyn P. Glascock ’08, 8/22/09. Kyle is an assignment editor for wfmz-tv, and Caitlyn is a teacher with Anne Arundel (Md.) County Public Schools. Th ey live in Bear, Del.

Births

’90sKenny Karpowicz ’93 and Deborah Grant Karpowicz ’93, Parkton, Md. Daughter: Emily Anne. 6/28/08. She joins older sister, Sarah.

Yves Bauerle ’94 and Lisa Bauerle, Stamford, Conn. Daughter: Georgia. 12/18/07. Yves is a dancer for Fred Astaire Dance Studios.

Christy Chappell Ruth ’95 and David Ruth, Charlotte, N.C. Son: Andrew Christopher. 1/25/09. He joins older sister, Ashley. Mary Coolidge Ruth ’66 and Bill Ruth ’66 are the proud grandparents. Christy is director of fi nancial systems for Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated.

CLASS Notes


Winter 2010

Maro Hionides Trendel ’02 and Rich Trendel, Atlantic Beach, Fla. Son: Vangelli. 3/31/09. Maro is a teacher.

Anne DeVoe Garcia ’03 and Luke Garcia, Naples, Fla. Son: Cooper Delmar. 4/3/09. Anne and her hus-band recently moved back to Florida from Johannesburg, South Africa, where they were on assignment for ibm.

Christy Donhauser Hornyak ’03 and Daniel J. Hornyak ’03, Red Lion, Pa. Daughter: Caitlyn Elizabeth. 5/24/09.

Kelly Miller Valencia ’03 and Claudio Valencia, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Son: Enzo Luke. 7/8/09. Kelly works for Campus Crusade for Christ in Argentina.

Brad J. Spitz G’03, Kansas City, Mo. Son: Gavin Robert. 11/19/09.

Catherine Farrington Rowan ’04 and Joshua N. Rowan ’04, Auburn, Ga. Son: Davis Gray. 4/17/09. He joins older sister, Lily.

Heather Conlon Pladna ’05 and Matt Pladna ’05, Catonsville, Md. Son: Caleb William. 8/1/09.

Jenifer Blowe Riddei ’07 and Steven Riddei, Conway, S.C. Daughter: Kailyn Grace. 10/22/09.

Barron L. Th ompson L’09 and Emily Th ompson, Walkertown, N.C. Son: William Barron. 8/19/09. Barron is an attorney with Smith, Alexander & Morgan llp.

Deaths

’30sWingate Harris ’38, Candor, N.C. 1/18/09.

’60sJimmy Edward Ward ’61, Cumming, Ga. 11/12/09.

J. Donald “Don” McPherson ’69, Burlington, N.C. 10/6/09.

’70sErnest Alexander Holt ’70 , Burlington, N.C. 12/15/09.

Thomas Dale Summers ’70 , Th omasville, N.C. 11/26/09.

’90sJimmy Fred Combs ’96, Mebane, N.C. 11/17/09.

’00sDavid Shawn Ingalls ’02, Columbus, Ohio. 11/26/09.

Elizabeth Karin White ’06, Vienna, Va. 11/13/09.

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CLASS Notes


making a difference

To learn more about how you can support the Ever Elon Campaign and make a diff erence at Elon with a charitable remainder trust or other planned gift, contact:Jamie Killorin cpa/pfs, cfp®, Director of Gift Planning

Toll free 877.784.3566 [email protected] www.elon.edu/giftplanning

PROUD TO BE ELON ALUMNIwalter ’ and barbara bass ’ know fi rsthand the power of scholarships to change lives. Th ey credit the fi nancial assistance they received from Elon with preparing them for successful careers.

Th e couple decided to give back to their alma mater by estab-lishing a charitable remainder trust with a gift of real estate. In the future, the trust funds will be added to the Walter H. and Barbara D. Bass Scholarship, which assists Elon students with fi nancial need and high academic achievement.

“Elon was very good to us, and we felt like it was time to give back,” Walter says. “Elon has blossomed, and we’re proud to say we’re Elon alumni.”

“We could not have attended Elon without scholarships, and we recognize the need to help others,” adds Barbara, an Elon trustee since 1985.

By funding a charitable remainder trust, the Basses will receive lifetime income as well as income and estate tax benefi ts.

“Th is type of trust has made it very easy for us to give back,” Barbara says. “It is convenient and has great tax advantages for us.”

Th e Basses have long supported Elon. Th e couple began making gifts to their alma mater in 1964. In addition to scholar-ships, they have been loyal supporters of Phoenix athletics and are members of the Phoenix Club, Th e Elon Society President’s Circle and Order of the Oak, Elon’s planned gift legacy society.

Th e Basses fondly remember their Elon days. Both sang in the college choir and played in the band, with Barbara on saxophone and Walter on the trombone. To earn extra money, Walter worked in Elon’s dining hall and chemistry lab, and he had a portion of his expenses paid by singing in the college’s all-male quartet. Barbara worked answering calls to the college switchboard.

Following graduation, Walter enjoyed a 34-year career as a biochemist with American Tobacco Co. in Richmond, Va., while Barbara taught math and computer science for 40 years. Th e couple regularly drive to Elon from their South Boston, Va., home to attend events and see the university’s progress.

“Th ere are still young people who are very capable who cannot aff ord to go to college,” Barbara says. “If we can provide the opportunity for just a few of them to attend Elon, then I think we’ve done our job.”

Barbara ’61 and Walter Bass ’62


HOMECOMING

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PAIDRaleigh, NC

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Last fall’s production of the musical “Kiss Me, Kate” drew large crowds to Elon’s McCrary Theatre.

ELON UNIVERSITYOffi ce of Alumni Relations2600 Campus BoxElon, NC 27244-2010

Toll Free: 877-784-3566www.elon.edu/alumni

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Documents

The Magazine of Elon, Winter 2010