Celeste Ulrich Alumni Breakfast Comments

Three Score and Counting

The vantage point of eighty one years lends a clarity of vision, Such vision, however is tempered with nostalgia and hence there is the tendency to see history in lovely pastels that blur the vibrant hues that were a part of reality. My colleagues from the Class of '46 will provide the realistic framework to my memories. So let me caution you this morning to add the brush strokes of your own experiences to the portrait I am about to concoct. Dean Perrin’s painting is factual, mine is sensual.

The freshman and sophomore curriculum at WCUNC was heavily weighted with courses in liberal arts and sciences. It was not until your junior year that you began to take those courses labeled "professional". If your grades justified, you were allowed to increase your course load to 21 hours each semester. Consequently, I was able to earn credits in both biology and sociology that added to my major in physical education. However, my professional insights were gleaned from my physical education instructors and those insights were to provide for me the texture of my life's work in higher education.

Foremost among my memories of my Physical Education professors was Mary Channing Coleman, the head of the department and an awesome and demanding figure. Miss Coleman always wore a hat and brought her wire haired terrier, Bonnie, to class, who was as fearsome as her mistress. As my freshman major class gathered for the first time, Miss Coleman warned us that "three fourths of you will not be here at graduation time". She advised us to be studious and persevering and noted that we had an obligation to our heritage. We realized that from hence forward we would be known as "Miss Coleman's girls" and at that junction it seemed a reputation we could not hope to earn.

During our sophomore year Miss Coleman taught a course in country dancing and surprised us all by kicking off her sensible cuban heeled shoes and participating in the "light fantastic". Country dancing was as much about the geography and history of various countries as it was about dancing and we were schooled about the Outer Hebrides and the mystic Isle of Skye, the "back of beyond", even as we learned the Scottish sword dances.

Miss Coleman brooked no nonsense and demanded that we arrive at our classes punctually. Once when the entire class had been detained past the closing bell of a swimming class, we charged up the steps of Rosenthal Gymnasium to attend Miss Coleman's class a few seconds late. The door to the classroom was closed. Not to be deterred by a late arrival that was not our fault, I opened the door carefully to allow all eighteen of us to slip into the room. Miss Coleman loomed from the ether and not too gently, pushed us back into the hallway. "This door is closed", she announced. Eighteen bewildered girls stood in the hallway. We thought that she hadn't given a chance to explain our tardiness so this time we knocked at the door only to have our austere department head open the door and reiterate, in no uncertain terms, "This door is closed". Eighteen of us stood outside the doorway taking turns to hear the lecture through the door and transmit what we heard to the rest of our colleagues. At the end of the hour, the door was opened and Miss Coleman and our two petrified colleagues, who had been excused from swimming, emerged. Not saying a word, Miss Coleman strode through the mob and descended the stairs. We were never late again.

We were always advised to "act like ladies" and were not allowed to wear our gym clothing on campus unless it was covered by a "respectable length rain coat". When addressing one another we were to call our class mates by their first names and nicknames and last name addresses were not tolerated. One of our class was named Christine Cherry and most of us thought that "Cherry" sounded more feminine that "Christine". One afternoon as Dorothy Perry was running down the hall, she cried out to her room mate "Hey Cherry, wait for me!" only to feel an arm reach out of a doorway and pull her into Miss Coleman presence. The rest of us stopped dead in our tracks and wondered what was going to happen to Dorothy. In a few minutes, Dorothy emerged from Miss Coleman's office visibly upset. "What happened?" we all asked. "Nothing", said a chastened Dorothy as she turn to her room mate and said "Thanks for waiting for me Christine".

One time during my junior year while I was in Miss Coleman's office arranging my semester's schedule, she had a phone call from Dr. Friedlander, the revered eminent Shakespeare professor, who asked her if one of his advisees could be excused from the physical education requirement since the girl had her own horse stabled at Sedgefield and would be riding six mornings a week. Miss Coleman noted that she had in her office an advisee who would promise to read Shakespeare religiously every morning and "would it be possible to excuse her from the required freshman English course?" "I see your point", a demure Dr Friedlander responded.

At graduation time, all of the Department Heads sat on the platform of Aycock Auditorium with Chancellor Jackson and it was customary that as each of "the majors" received our diploma we were to look at Miss Coleman, nod and mouth a silent thank you. Her pride in us was apparent as she nodded back and quietly said, "Good Luck". Others on the staff of the Physical Education Department were almost as impressive as Miss Coleman, Ethel Martus was an apt successor as Department Head. She was less imposing and softer, but she too expected us to do our best. Marge Leonard, ever critical of our behavior did not hesitate to correct us as she insisted on propriety. Dorothy Davis was always humane in her demeanor and provided for us an example of gentle behavior which was exact in its adherence to great expectations. Ellen Griffin, the whimsical, skilled athlete made you try harder as you analyzed your activities and she knew how to correct you with kindness and sensitivity. Virginia Moomaw helped us understand the value of dance. It was a remarkable staff who provided for me the essence of professional expectations and who quietly shaped my professional future.

When I returned to Woman's College as an Assistant Professor of Physical Education, I had the opportunity to join Gail Hennis and Rosemary McGee as colleagues. As the only staff members with doctoral degrees, we had the awesome opportunity of molding the graduate programs. It was a challenging venture and the three of us taught both graduate and undergraduate classes, coached basketball and advised and counseled as well. The students that we mentored during those years have since proven themselves worthy of their heritage. Jo Safrit, Mary Lou Thornburg, Waneen Wyrick, Dot Harris, Jayne Ackerman, Sayde DunnDot Germain, to mention only a few have more than exceeded the expectations of their teachers.

Later when Pearl Berlin, Marian Solledar, Kate Barrett, Marie Riley. Doris McKinney and Frank Pleasents joined the staff our initial ranks were enriched with a diversity of experience and expertise that was transmitted to an ever growing bevy of students who would continue to fulfill the College's motto of "service". We were a bit apprehensive when Ethel Martus' tenure came to an end not knowing if the Department's reputation would continue to be paramount in annuls of our profession. We had little to fear, the succeeding leaders gave of their best and helped cement our conviction that we were "second to none".

I have watched the Department of Physical Education expand from the Department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance to the School of Health and Human Performance with five divisions and a dedicated and clairvoyant Dean heading a astonishing vital staff, buffeted by a Chancellor who has provided her enthusiastic support and concern. I have watched the endowment grow from a single check for one hundred dollars in Mis Martus' desk drawer and no research funds to the $79,000 endowment and 2.5 million in research cited by Dean Perrin. But most of all, I have glorified in the knowledge that as the University anthem decrees. "an unbroken chain of loyal hearts and true" continues to be the modus operandi where the past is connected to the present and both portend a rich tapestry for the future.

For me, personally, my experiences in the Woman's College Department of Physical Education would prove to be the platform of all subsequent endeavors and would remain as colorful today as they were over a half century ago. If my College experiences were glazed with gold, it appears that those of yours, the current contingent, will be brushedwith speck of diamonds. I wish for all of us such a bejeweled future.