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Remembering "Dr. Frank" — Saluting "Spike"

Most alumni recognize that it is difficult to understand and appreciate our University without knowing something about Frank Porter Graham ’09. So special was “Dr. Frank” that his presidency (from 1930-1949), his example, and his good works have shaped our campus in profound ways ever since.

Regrettably, I never met Dr. Frank. Today only one sixth of our alumni attended Chapel Hill during his presidency of our University and the Consolidated University. Fortunately, many who did know and work with him continue to gather to reflect on his work and remind us of its applications today. (See Jim Hughes’ article on page 15, reporting on a recent conference sponsored by The Program in The Humanities and Human Values of the University’s College of Arts and Sciences on the Centennial of Dr. Frank’s birth.)

Dr. Frank believed the University had a responsibility to address North Carolina’s many problems during the ’30s and ’40s. He relished persuading members of the General Assembly to provide the University with much needed financial support. And he took the University to the people of the state — believing that the University belongs to all the people of North Carolina.

Throughout his presidency, Dr. Frank received the advice and support of J. Maryon “Spike” Saunders ’25, who gave 43 years of dedicated service to the University and our Association as Alumni Secretary. But nearly one half of our alumni have finished their undergraduate degrees since 1970 when Spike “retired,” and they may not yet have had the pleasure of knowing Spike. Fortunately, Spike has never really retired, and this year marks the 60th anniversary of his devoted service to our alma mater.

I’ll never forget my first day of work in Alumni House and Spike’s warm welcome. His encyclopedic memory of Carolina alumni was immediately apparent. That day Spike handed me a key to the alumni office thoughtfully given him by his successor Clarence Whitefield ’48. Spike believed it was time to turn in the key. (While “retired,” Spike, with help from others, secured an $11.5 million gift from Dr. Joseph E. Pogue ’06.)

I asked Spike to keep and use the key. I knew he would help me come to know our alumni more quickly if he regularly visited the Alumni House.

But Spike does more than teach me about our loyal alumni, the Association and the rich history of the University. He has become my friend — a colleague who gently but necessarily shares with me his own observations and experiences. In recent months he has been active helping on our fund raising efforts for the Alumni Center — delighted that his dream of a permanent campus home for our alumni will soon become a reality. Seldom do I attend an alumni meeting where someone does not ask, “How is Spike?” Each year we help him celebrate his birthday — 83 last November 20. Each day we anxiously look for the sign that he is in the Alumni House — his tweed hat and wooden walking stick.

Most know of Spike’s many contributions and achievements President of the American Alumni Council, recipient of the University’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Service Medal, and much more. He has shaped alumni involvement on behalf of the University to which he devoted his entire professional career in a very effective way during the difficult years from 1927 to 1970.

Yes, Spike’s love affair with the University, like that of Dr. Frank’s, has been special and has infected all who have come to know him. Perhaps Orville Campbell ’42 and Hugh Morton’43 said it best in their letter to “friends of Spike and Susan Saunders” inviting these individuals to a retirement dinner. They observed that “no one will ever love, know or understand the alumni of this great university better than Spike.” More recently University President Emeritus William Friday observed that “there is not a more devoted, unselfish, loving man than Spike Saunders.”

Dr. Frank Porter Graham and J. Maryon “Spike” Saunders are not the only alumni to love the University. However, by working together and by encouraging others to help, Dr. Frank and Spike have been instrumental in shaping our University and have inspired many others to carry on their work.

While I regret not knowing Dr. Frank, I am grateful to know Spike, to be able to learn from him, and to share his friendship. As we recognize Spike’s 60 years of devoted service to the University and the Alumni Association and remember the centennial of Dr. Frank’s birth, all alumni should reflect upon how much richer the University is for both of these special sons of the University.

Yours at Carolina,

Doug signature

 

 

 

Douglas S. Dibbert ’70

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