Cosby Performance to Benefit Award Named for Chuck Stone

Posted on May 9, 2006

Bill Cosby is coming to Carolina to honor a longtime friend.

Cosby will perform a benefit show for the School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Chuck Stone Citizen of the World Award Fund at 8 p.m. June 10 in Memorial Hall.

Cosby wanted to help raise funds for the award, which will help students pursue study abroad or independent international learning opportunities related to journalism or mass communication. It is named for Stone, who retired from the school’s faculty in 2005.

Stone and Cosby met after Stone wrote an article on Cosby in the New York Age newspaper, which Stone edited. “We’ve been friends ever since,” Stone said.

Cosby spoke at UNC’s Commencement ceremony in May 2003. His lifelong contributions to American culture were recognized with a Kennedy Center Honor in 1998 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July 2002, America’s highest civilian honor.

Cosby won three Golden Globe Awards for The Cosby Show, which aired from 1984-92 and is now in syndication. He has won numerous People’s Choice Awards, as well as Grammies for his comedy recordings.

The NAACP honored him in 1991 with its Image Award for outstanding actor in a comedy series, for The Cosby Show. He was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1994.

Tickets to the event are $25 and $50 each and can be purchased by visiting or calling the Memorial Hall box office on Cameron Avenue, open Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., (919) 843-3333.

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