By Steve Gilliam, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 4-21-08
Coach Kay Yow
GREENSBORO, NC – Three North Carolinians – a basketball coaching legend, a former judge who is now a college president, and the state’s former poet laureate – will receive honorary degrees from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro during its 116th commencement at 10 a.m. Friday, May 16, in the Greensboro Coliseum.
The recipients are:
• Sandra Kay Yow, women’s basketball coach at N.C. State University, Doctor of Humane Letters.
• Thomas W. Ross, president of Davidson College, Doctor of Laws.
• Fred D. Chappell, North Carolina poet laureate emeritus and UNCG professor emeritus of English and creative writing, Doctor of Fine Arts.
Yow has been women’s basketball coach at N.C. State University for more than 30 years, but she has been an inspiration to the state and nation for her valiant battle with breast cancer. A native of Gibsonville, she started her college coaching in 1972 at Elon College. Yow was named the first head coach of the NCSU Wolfpack women in 1975. She has a college career record of 729-337, the fifth best in women’s basketball, and a 672-318 record in 33 seasons at NCSU.
She led the Wolfpack to the 1998 Final Four and has taken NCSU to the NCAA tournament 15 of the last 19 years, including nine “Sweet 16” appearances. In the Atlantic Coast Conference, she holds five regular-season titles and four tournament championships. In addition to coach-of-the-year awards, she is the only women's coach to win a Gold Medal at both the Olympics (1988) and World Championships (1986). In 1987, Yow was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has overcome the illness and has helped raise $1 million for the Lineburger Cancer Institute at UNC-CH. An East Carolina University graduate, she earned a master’s degree at UNCG.
Davidson President Tom Ross
Ross’s most recent challenge came last August when he became Davidson College ’s 17th president, after three decades of leadership and public service in North Carolina. In addition to serving as a superior court judge and director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, he was executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation from 2001 to 2008. He has been recognized nationally for his work as chair of the Sentencing and Policy Advisory Committee.
That work revised the state court system’s sentencing guidelines, and for his efforts, Ross received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence from the National Center for State Courts. Chief Justice Rehnquist, now deceased, presented the award personally to Ross in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court. In 1999, Ross was appointed as director of the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts. He served on the UNCG Board of Trustees from 2003 to 2007, and as chair from 2005 to 2007. A Davidson graduate, he earned his law degree at UNC-Chapel Hill. Ross will also be this year’s commencement speaker.
Poet and professor Fred Chappell
Chappell retired from UNCG in 2004 as the Burlington Industries Professor of English emeritus, where he had taught advanced composition, poetry and fiction in the MFA Creative Writing Program since 1964. He is the author of seven novels, 16 volumes of poetry, a book of essays and two books of short stories. A native of Canton, Chappell was North Carolina Poet Laureate from 1997 to 2002.
His major literary honors include the 1999 Leila Lenore Heasley Prize, presented by Lyon College; the 1996 Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry, which is presented by the Sewanee Review; the 1993 T.S. Eliot Award for Creative Writing from the Ingersoll Foundation in Rockford, Ill.; the 1986 O. Max Gardner Award from the UNC system; and as joint recipient of the 1985 Bollingen Prize in Poetry from the Yale University Library. In 2002, he received the Mihai Eminescu Medal from the Republic of Moldova. In 2005, he received the Thomas Wolfe Prize from UNC-Chapel Hill. Chappell holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Duke University.
UNCG’s 116th graduation will be the final one for Chancellor Patricia A. Sullivan, who is retiring on July 31. UNCG will present degrees at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels, and more than 2,400 students are candidates to complete degrees during second semester.
From her first commencement in May 1995 through last December’s graduation, the Sullivan years have seen a total of 35,484 degrees awarded – 24,357 undergraduates, 10,097 masters and 1,030 doctorates – or approximately one-third of the total degrees UNCG has awarded in its history.
Notable in this year’s commencement are:
• Two former University Marshals are retiring, Dr. Robert Calhoon (Department of History, 44 years) and Dr. Bert Goldman (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, 43 years). Both will attend and Goldman will hood six graduate students who have completed their PhDs.
• The first Ph.D. in Nursing will be awarded.
• Stephanie Turner of Greensboro, an adult student majoring in religious studies and history, is graduating from UNCG a century after her great grandmother graduated from the State Normal and Industrial College in 1908. Her mother (1960) and grandmother (1931) also graduated from UNCG.
In addition to Sullivan, other participants will include UNC President Erskine Bowles; Provost David H. Perrin; Kathryn Crowe, chair of the Faculty Senate; Stephen C. Hassenfelt, chair of the UNCG Board of Trustees, along with other trustees; Betsy Ervin, president of the UNCG Alumni Association; Dr. James Petersen, dean of the Graduate School; N.C. Rep. Alma Adams; and Paris Lofaro of Reston, Va., who is the speaker for the Class of 2008.
Also taking part in the ceremonies will be UNCG’s academic deans; mace bearer Dr. Terence Nile and chief marshal Meredith Andrews of Hillsborough. At the conclusion, the University Bell will be rung by Rascha Kriegsman of the Class of 1958, and GaBriana King of Asheville Class of 2008 alumni representative, and the tassel-turner will be Dedrick Curtis of Lenoir. The Commencement Band and Chorus will provide music.
Diploma/Recognition Ceremonies
In conjunction with commencement exercises, the professional schools and many departments in the College of Arts and Sciences will hold diploma ceremonies. A complete listing is available on the University Registrar’s Web site at http://www.uncg.edu/reg/Com/Comm_Event_Web.pdf.
More details are available by visiting the Commencement Central website, http://www.uncg.edu/reg/CommencementCentral.html.
