Class of 1972

Dear Roaring ‘72 Classmates (and those of you not so roaring),

How many times in the last 50 years has our perspective changed, been challenged or transformed?  Our ‘72 classmate, Fred Eshelman delivered the 2017 UNC Commencement address, to wit he stated, “Don’t take things at face value necessarily.  Turn them around 180 degrees and see if you are missing something.”  (He must have attended more than one of King Kyle’s Invisible Universe Carrboro gatherings).  So, who among you took Math 15 or English 21 with Roy Williams and thought then that he would lead our TarHeels to three NCAA National Championships? Except perhaps for ‘72 classmate Wanda Jones Williams, likely none of us? Similarly, for those of you taking Chemistry 11 or 41 with Fred Eshelman, who thought you were sharing lab space with an innovator, philanthropist and entrepreneur?  And now our School of Pharmacy is named The Eshelman School of Pharmacy in honor of your classmate.  We, the Class of ‘72 are much more and we are not through, even though many of us are now 72.  I invite you to return to Chapel Hill, May 5-8, 2022 for our 50th Reunion to share, learn, offer and exchange more of these journey stories.  As well, if we can secure scheduling, experience dance and party time with another ‘72 luminary, Rick Dees as we create an original Class of ‘72 Top Forty.

Thursday, May 5, we’ll likely begin with a reception in Graham Memorial, near Davie Poplar, the Old Well and Franklin Street, and our celebration concludes Sunday morning in Carolina graduation gowns, processing into Kenan Stadium (we know many of you skipped commencement ceremonies on that wet May graduation day of 1972…now the Carolina cap and gown is again yours to wear) as you lead the 2022 ceremony.

AS Barney Fife once exclaimed, “This is big, Andy.  The biggest thing to ever hit Mayberry.” To echo Barney’s words, it IS big.  We have only this one opportunity to celebrate our Golden Anniversary Reunion.  Still evolving, your ideas for the enrichment panels and related ideas and thoughts for the “must have” elements of our weekend are needed. Are you interested in editing our 50th anniversary digital Yackety Yack?  Or would you join the group designing a spectacular Saturday evening gathering and the Friday programs? We will be sharing some events with the Class of ‘70 thereby creating an early ‘70’s UNC Celebration. Their reunion was cancelled due to Covid-19.

Between now and Reunion Weekend, perhaps monthly an invitation letter or short story will be shared with you by one of our classmates.  Who would you like to hear from?  Would you consider sending one of the letters?  The first extra invite letter is from Frank G. Carter, Jr., author of Across The Tracks – Mostly True Stories.  Follow Frank on Face Book. Frank is compiling a list of other Class of 72 authors and academicians for our Class Website and GAA Reunion page.

To enhance our participation and assure a fabulous Chapel Hill Reunion experience, I am sharing with you the outline and challenge which our distinguished GAA President Doug Dibbert wrote to his 1970 classmates.

“Most importantly, we need -and ask- your personal commitment to attend and encourage other classmates to attend.  Only by personally reaching out (via an old fashion visit or a call, email, Google Meets, Zoom, Skype, messenger, etc) can you be certain that all those you most want to see will know that you are going and that you really want them to attend, too.

Even if it is your first return visit since graduation, NOW is the time to start making your personal plans to come to Chapel Hill.  If you have friends who live in the Triangle, please don’t wait for them to reach out to you to stay with them.  Contact them and invite yourself to be their guest.  Yes, be bold, and if you live in the Triangle and have classmates with whom you really want to share this special weekend, reach out to them now and offer them your guest bedroom(s).

If you do not have friends in the Triangle but have classmates with whom you’d like to share the weekend, why not consider coming together at an area Airbnb?  Many did just that in previous reunions and reported that they had had one grand, nostalgic renewed

Carolina Jubilee weekend experience.

Our individual journeys over the past 50 years have been varied – with joys and sorrows, successes and failure, dreams fulfilled and aspirations unmet.  We will come together in 2022 because we are fortunate to able to travel again and are anxious to share this very special, once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

So for now, please simply affirm the following by emailing reunions@unc.edu.  (Also, request to join our Facebook Group, UNC Class of 1972)

• I/we will be there!
• I/we will contact other classmates. (GAA members have 24/7 access to your online UNC alumni directory. If you are not a GAA member, you may send me the names of those you’d like to contact and I will check the directory for you.)
• I/we will serve on the Reunion Planning Committee.
• I/we have the following suggestions for the Reunion Weekend.
• I/we live too far away to serve on any Chapel Hill based committees but are willing and interested to participate in Zoom or Google Meets Planning Sessions.”

Let’s embrace our GAA President’s outline.  Let’s roar and be bold for our 50th.  No more Homecoming Mums to sale but many more homecomings to share and one awesome Reunion Golden Anniversary Weekend to experience next Spring.

I am anxious to hear from each and every one of  you.  Let’s get together to make this one of the most memorable events of our lives.  We are the Class of ‘72 – We are not Through!

Go Tar Heels,

Lee Hood (a roaring ‘72)

Lee Hood Capps
President, Class of 1972
leehcapps@gmail
(804) 761-4282

Dear Classmates,

Nathaniel Hawthorne is quoted as saying, “Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.”
And it was UNC’s own Thomas Wolfe who stated, “You Can’t Go Home Again.” We stand in the
shadow not only of passing time, but of the events that have made up our lives to this point.
We’re almost fifty years out and yet we are still a very positive force in the history of UNC. And
each of us, in our own way, wants so much to “go home again.”

It’s been fifty years since most of us walked to class accompanied by the welcoming sound of
the Bell Tower’s carillon; since we had lunch or a beer with a professor at the Rat; since we
rushed by The Scuttlebutt for a coffee on the way to class, stashing a copy of the DTH under our
arms as we hurried. It’s been fifty years since we marched against a seemingly endless war and
since we protested in favor of cafeteria workers. We cried with faculty members over the
deaths of Kent State students. We saw more and more brick sidewalks laid over foot-worn
paths in both McCorkle and Polk Place. Many of us have journeyed back to the Hill for
classmate Roy Williams’ basketball teams, football teams led by classmate and former player
John Bunting, baseball games, soccer matches and any number of sporting events that have
kept alive the spirit we shared as undergrads. Others made the trip back to observe the passing
of a loved one, a chance to meet old friends and former professors, the opportunity to attend
seminars, or graduation. My own trips back to Chapel Hill have included tailgating in crisp
autumn air at football games and screaming at the top of my voice at a couple of basketball
games each year. And I can’t forget that one trip to Houston in 2017 where our hearts beat
furiously and then broke all within about four seconds. We also make a yearly pilgrimage to the
“Bosh” for baseball and an evening meal downtown in our efforts to complete the Franklin
Street experience.

I majored in Radio, Television, and Motion Pictures. I remember those eight o’clock RTVMP 58
classes taught by department chair, Dr. Wesley Wallace. Over the years, I have watched
personalities Rick Dees, Deborah Potter and Bill Leslie ply their trades, pointing out to my kids
proudly that I knew these guys when they were students! Same with athletes, Kim Huband,
Dennis Wuycik, Bill Chamberlain, Paul Miller and Lewis Jolly. Like you, I take so much pride in
my university. Upon each trip to the Hill, I take time to gaze upon the once ivy-covered walls of
Gerrard or walk by the old well remembering the freedom we enjoyed having come this way in
our youths.

Now, please take the time to join us for the 50th reunion May 5-8, 2022. We will welcome the
class of ’70 and even some from ’71 to join us as their reunions were cancelled or postponed
due to COVID-19. The class of ’72 is unique as most of us will have turned seventy-two years of
age on this our 50th Reunion date. See you next May in Chapel Hill.

Sincerely,
Frank G. Carter, Jr.
Class of ‘72
A Southern Writer

Take a peek at the 2020 Spring Reunions Weekend brochure.  Please note, this brochure is for viewing only. An updated event schedule will be posted for May 2022.

View the list of Spring Reunions Weekend hotels.