Our Bicentennial Community
Posted on Dec. 1, 1993“I speak for all of us who could not afford to go to Duke, and would not have even if we could have afforded it.” — Charles Kuralt ’55
“Yesterday is yesterday. If we try to recapture it, we will only lose tomorrow.” — President Bill Clinton
From the stirring beginning of the Bicentennial Observance with a speech by Tiananmen Square student leader Li Lu to a capacity crowd on a crisp University Day evening in Kenan Stadium with President Bill Clinton, there was a feeling of community that marked the official beginning to our University’s 200th anniversary.
This special issue of the Carolina Alumni Review is jammed with photographs and articles that should give those unable to be in Chapel Hill a sense of the pageantry and color of these opening events. Regrettably, articles or pictures cannot fully capture the special glow that marked these glorious two days.
Care was taken to include representatives of every constituency in our Bicentennial celebration and to recall our proud history. Planners were anxious that we focus also on Carolina’s future. The theme of community tied together each of the events. As we moved from the uplifting performance of Richard Adler’s (’43) “Bicentennial Suite” by the North Carolina Symphony and the Carolina Choir and Chamber Singers to the reenactment of the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, from the special joint session of the North Carolina General Assembly to the all-campus picnic on Polk Place, from the presentation of Davie Poplar seedlings by Coach Dean Smith to sixth-graders from each of North Carolina’s 100 counties to a series of alumni-faculty panels on provocative topics, everywhere there was a wonderful air of excitement and anticipation. There could be little doubt that Carolina’s founding fathers would glow in pleasure at how their creation, nurtured with care and sacrifice by North Carolinians and Carolina staff, faculty, alumni and students these past 200 years, continues to fulfill UNC’s original mission of educating our citizenry for service.
The feeling of community permeated the atmosphere in Kenan Stadium that evening. Appropriately, the processional was led by a record number of UNC faculty. And following the faculty came the UNC staff, without whom our University could not provide its distinguished service. In a moving recognition of the contributions of the staff, the faculty stood and applauded as their representatives marched into Kenan Stadium. The familiar “voice of the Tar Heels,” Woody Durham ’63, narrated the processional and introduced taped greetings from distinguished guests.
As I stood near the platform and gazed into the crowds on both sides of the field, I recalled an early fantasy. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a gathering of our entire University family — students, staff, faculty, alumni and friends — and just for a short time capture some of the pride and emotion we share in our athletic successes and transfer that intensity and pride to the more significant achievements of our entire University?
Well, friends , we came as close to fulfilling that fantasy as is perhaps possible. The Rev. Shirley Caesar led Kenan Stadium’s largest-ever nonathletic crowd in singing the national anthem. Carolina’s favorite son, Charles Kuralt ’55 , delivered the evening’s best-received lines in referencing our rival institution in Durham, and he recalled the legacy of the late Frank Porter Graham ’09, whose values and contributions helped shape our University as we know it today.
President Clinton obviously caught the spirit. Volunteering that he had spent an August evening with Chapel Hill’s favorite musician, James Taylor, President Clinton reflected on some of Carolina’s most notable former students. Recognizing that this was not an evening for partisanship, President Clinton spoke about the important role of higher education today, the need to “make change our friend” and the challenge of ensuring “personal security.”
Yes, led by the Carolina Choir and Chamber Singers, all 50 ,000 attendees sang “Hark the Sound.” As we departed the stadium, James Taylor’s “Carolina in My Mind” was played. This University Day all of us in Chapel Hill or watching on statewide public television could proclaim that we were “going to Carolina.”
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
POSTSCRIPT : President Clinton stopped by the George Watts Hill Alumni Center briefly to thank some of those who had helped with his trip or had been important supporters in the past. We worked with the Secret Service to ensure the president’s security while in the Alumni Center. President Clinton had his picture taken with some of the staff from The Carolina Club and departed with “carry out” from the Club! Presidential Assistant and Durham native David Gergen volunteered to me as he left the Alumni Center that he really enjoyed Charles Kuralt’s remarks — except his opening lines (Gergen is a Duke alumnus!).
