A Cause for Celebration
Posted on March 13, 2003Joy, sadness, excitement, memories, Carolina barbecue, Kenan Stadium, Pomp and Circumstance, Hark the Sound, Bill Cosby, the Clef Hangers, diplomas, Distinguished Service Medals, honorary degrees, hugs, embraces, hand shakes, kisses, Commencement, “Saturday Morning in Chapel Hill,” Annual Alumni Luncheon, Old Students Club, Friday Frolic, the Red Clay Ramblers, Polk Place, McCorkle Place, Franklin Street, the Old Well, the Bell Tower, Old Chapel Hill Cemetery Walk with Professor Bland Simpson ’70, “America at War” discussion with Professor Richard Kohn, “Paul Green: Inspiring North Carolina Playwright” lecture with Professor Laurence Avery, balloons, ribbons, medallions, George Watts Hill Alumni Center, Tar Heel Trek, class reunions, enrichment lectures, tours …
Doug Dibbert ’70
These are just a sampling of the emotions, experiences, people, occasions and opportunities that Carolina alumni and friends may share with UNC students, faculty and staff May 16-18.
Too often alumni and Carolina friends conclude that unless their own class is having a reunion or unless they have a son or daughter, niece or nephew, granddaughter or grandson graduating, there is nothing that should prompt them to come home to Carolina for the weekend. How unfortunate.
As in the fall with Alumni Weekend, we strongly encourage and warmly welcome all Carolina alumni to share in the excitement of our spring reunions and Commencement. The weekend begins Friday with the Old Students Club Luncheon, where those who have celebrated their 50th reunion welcome those observing their 50th class reunion. (Since the 1930s, thanks to an endowment from the late James Lee Love of the class of 1884, this is Carolina’s only “free” lunch.) The weekend continues with Friday Frolic, which this year will be a Community Celebration of the 10th anniversary of the George Watts Hill Alumni Center, and on to “Saturday Morning in Chapel Hill,” the Annual Alumni Luncheon right through to Commencement in Kenan Stadium on Sunday morning. (For the complete schedule, please visit the Web at alumni.unc.edu/reunions.) These 48 hours will be a joyous occasion resplendent in a rich variety of opportunities for you to reconnect to Carolina, to enjoy Chapel Hill and to renew friendships with faculty, administrators and classmates.
Of special significance this year is the observance of the 10th anniversary of the George Watts Hill Alumni Center. It was George Watts Hill’s ’22 vision that the Alumni Center would serve as our campus home, an active home, one that was lively with the full involvement of alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of Carolina. He knew that as nicely furnished and as well constructed as the Alumni Center might be, programming would be critical in achieving the center’s principle purposes. In every year since, many alumni and University staff and faculty have been heard to say, “How did we get by all those years without the Alumni Center?”
We remain grateful to the 14,500 alumni, faculty, staff and Carolina friends whose generous gifts made a decades-old dream of a campus home for Carolina alumni become a reality. Over the past decade, dozens of other alumni associations from across the country have visited in anticipation of building their own alumni center. They consistently are impressed with the center’s inviting warmth and elegance and with the GAA’s wide range of programs.
The Carolina Club also continues to prosper, with 3,500 members and serving more than 100,000 meals each year. Among visitors for receptions, dinners and speeches over the years have been luminaries such as Maya Angelou, Bill Clinton, Alister Cooke, Charles Kuralt ’55 and George Will. The Alumni Center’s proximity to both the Smith Center and Kenan Stadium continue to make it a popular and regular
meeting place before and after Carolina home basketball and football games.
This will be a special Commencement for all the Dibberts, for our older son Michael will be among those receiving his undergraduate degree. Looking on will be his proud parents and admiring younger brother, each of whom will wonder how four years could go by so quickly. But then, don’t all Carolina alumni think their student days at Carolina went by much too quickly?
Please come home to Carolina for this special weekend. You won’t regret it.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
