GAA Honors Three Alumni for Service

Posted on May 12, 2018

The General Alumni Association on Saturday honored three alumni for their service to the University or the association.

Recipients of the 2018 Distinguished Service Medals are Phillip L. Clay ’68, former member of the UNC Board of Trustees; Dwight D. Stone ’73, current member and former chair of the trustees; and Teresa Holland Williams ’77, former member and chair of the GAA Board of Directors.

The medals were presented at the GAA’s Annual Alumni Luncheon during spring reunions weekend. The association has awarded the medals since 1978 to alumni and others who have provided outstanding service to the association or the University.

Clay, of Boston, graduated with degrees in history and urban studies. After receiving his doctorate in city planning from MIT in 1975, he joined its faculty and served as chancellor from 2001 to 2011.

In 2002, he received UNC’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. The following year, he served as an inaugural member of the Faculty Development Advisory Group through the Institute for the Arts & Humanities to identify and elevate leaders within the University. In 2007, he began the first of two terms on the Board of Trustees. As a student, he was a leader in Campus Y and created the Carolina Talent Search, sending students to high schools to recruit more students of color.

Stone, of Greensboro, graduated with a degree in history and worked in banking before joining his family’s construction business, D. Stone Builders, where he is president. He has been active in the Greensboro community, including serving on the executive committee of the Greensboro Builders Association and the boards of the Greensboro Sports Commission and Greensboro Sports Council and the Habitat for Humanity Raising Roofs Committee.

Before becoming a UNC trustee, Stone was appointed in 2011 to the search committee that led to the hiring of Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham and in 2012 to the committee that recommended the appointment of Chancellor Carol L. Folt. He joined the board of The Educational Foundation in 2004 and served 13 years, including a stint as chair. He has chaired UNC’s Executive Cup Golf Tournament and been a member of the Chancellor’s Philanthropic Council.

Williams, of Huntersville, graduated with a degree in psychology and was a counselor in a drug treatment program before spending the majority of her career in volunteer positions. She has often focused on education, such as serving on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board and the Western Carolina University Board of Trustees, where she ended her tenure as chair.

At Carolina, the GAA appointed her to its Board of Directors in 2011, and she served two terms, including as chair in 2016-17. She is a founding member of the GAA-sponsored Black Alumni Reunion Light on the Hill Society. She served on the chancellor’s advisory committee for the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History and the boards of visitors for UNC and the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. As a student, she sang with the Black Student Movement Gospel Choir.

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List of past Distinguished Service Medal recipients.

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