Navigate

Reflections On the First Year

With this Commencement issue of The Alumni Review marking the end of the 1982-1983 Association year and my first year as your Director, I share with you a few reflections.

One of my greatest pleasures is the opportunity to visit alumni chapters inside and outside North Carolina. I have visited alumni in Tampa, Jacksonville and Palm Beach, Florida; Hilton Head and Greenville, South Carolina; Atlanta, Georgia; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cincinnati, Ohio; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; and Detroit, Michigan.

In North Carolina, I’ve been to alumni meetings in Edenton, Ahoskie, Windsor, Goldsboro, Clinton, Whiteville, Fayetteville, Smithfield, Sanford, Burlington, Raleigh, Troy, Greensboro, Wilkesboro, Asheville, Lenoir, Waynesville, Rutherfordton, Shelby, Charlotte, High Point, Monroe and Salisbury.

Each visit is different. I will remember with amusement that I suggested our mid-west chapters delay until April the meetings that were scheduled for January, only to be greeted by 14 inches of snow in Minneapolis on April 14. I’ll remember walking into our Columbus County Chapter in Whiteville, North Carolina, on the evening of the seventh game of the World Series, finding over 150 people there (in a county of 300-plus alumni) and having the chapter president apologize because “there aren’t more people.” In Smithfield, I watched our Charles Kuralt-narrated sound-slide show “On the Road in Chapel Hill” and listened with joy as 150 Johnston County alumni sang along with Mitch Miller and his band, “Nothing Could Be Finer Than To Be in Carolina in the Morning.”

I will remember with fondness and appreciation the retiring GAA officers and directors with whom I have worked: Ray S. Farris Jr. of Charlotte, 1981-82 GAA president and last year’s immediate past president, with his fierce independence and boundless commitment to the University and our Association; Pepper S. Dowd, also of Charlotte, for three years a director and last year’s first vice president and chairman of our membership development committee, who was responsible for new records in membership development (Pepper also serves our alumni on a University committee studying undergraduate admissions); and Gene Oberdorfer of Atlanta, a director for three years, and afterward second vice president and chairman of the program committee, who worked to revitalize programs for out-of-state alumni.

These officers, as well as other Board members who retired in May, earned the gratitude of myself, the GAA staff, the University and our 150.000 alumni.

On Commencement weekend, the Friday night Fetzer Field Frolic drew nearly 1,000 alums, kicking off what proved to be our largest reunion attendance ever. Of course. we may never top our Saturday morning program, “The State of the University,” anchored by Carolina alumnus Roger Mudd, with correspondents Doris Betts, chairman of the Faculty, Professor Jim Leutze, Vice Chancellor Rollie Tillman, former Student Body President Mike Vandenbergh and Chancellor Christopher Fordham. In a half-hour we learned more about the University than in any other program that I have attended.

And then we had the fun of watching UNC’s College Bowl Team “The Rude Boys,” nearly upset in a round with a team from the reunioning Class of ’58.

On a personal note, I share with you the happy news that the Dibberts have added a new member to their family. Due on Reunion/Commencement weekend, Brian Charles Dibbert upstaged our returning alumni and new graduates by joining the family on April 30. Unlike all his kinfolk, he has the distinction of being a “Tar Heel born” at UNC’s Memorial Hospital. This is an advantage which I am sure he will learn to appreciate in the years to come. No one was prouder than his older brother, Michael Steven, whose smiling face greeted him on day 1.

I could go on and on, but I’ll save a little to greet you with in the fall.

Enjoy your summer and, if your travels bring you to Chapel Hill, please visit with us in the Alumni House.

Yours at Carolina,

Doug signature

 

 

 

 

Douglas S. Dibbert ’70

Share via: