by Charly Mann

Since I was six years old I have hiked up and down the unmarked trail from Greenwood Road to Gimghoul Castle thousands of times on my way to and from various locations in Chapel Hill. Long before I was born another man often walked through these woods. His name was Horace Williams, and he was a professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina from 1890 until the time of his death in 1940. Even though I never knew him I often felt his spirit on my path.

Horace Williams (1858 to 1940). He was the gadfly of Chapel Hill and a UNC philosophy professor from 1890 to 1940. His house is now home to the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill.

Williams was an unusual man who believed a teacher's job was to help a student find himself. His favorite subject was Socrates, and he taught students about him by making his classroom a pure Platonic experience. Williams believed everything had meaning. He once said "There is no abstract knowledge." He would never allow his students to make assumptions or speak in abstractions. He was by all accounts as much a gadfly in Chapel Hill as Socrates had been in Athens. It was even said by some who knew him well that he not only practiced Socrates, he was Socrates.

This followings recounts one of my walks on this trail when I was accompanied by the spirit of this man.

Entrance of the trail from Greenwood Road up to Gimghoul Castle. Much of this land was owned by Chapel Hill novelist Betty Smith.

Horace Williams: Excuse me young man; I understand you are interested in me.
Charly Mann: What – where did you come from – do I know you?
Horace Williams: Were you not recently visiting my house?
Charly Mann: Yeah – oh I get it... you must be an actor the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill hired for their open house.
Horace Williams: No my friend, I am Socrates.
Charly Mann: Look buddy... cool... whatever you say. Now I want to get back to my walk.
Horace Williams: So you do not think I am Socrates?
Charly Mann: Look, you can be whoever you want to be, but just so you know Socrates died over 2500 years ago after drinking hemlock.
Horace Williams: Yes, my soul did leave my body, but my presence is alive as long as people like you think about my ideas.

Charly Mann on side of trail leading up to Gimghoul Castle.

Charly Mann: Okay – I'll play along for a while. You can be Socrates, and I'll ask you some questions. Why don't you walk along with me? I'll slow my pace down on account of your age.
Horace Williams: I will enjoy walking with you, but let us walk faster. Fast walking does for the body what thinking does for the mind.
Charly Mann: Hey that's a good line. So here is a question I would ask the real Socrates. Can one find happiness in life?
Horace Williams: Life is not for making you happy, but for perfecting your character. To strengthen oneself requires great challenges. Does your life give you those?
Charly Mann: Yes, I know from experience that life is a series of great challenges.
Horace Williams: That is very good. Life should be a psychological gymnasium that gives you opportunities to work on yourself.
Charly Mann: Out of curiosity Sir, I always thought Socrates spoke in Greek. You seem to have mastered English quite well since the time of your death.
Horace Williams: Ah yes, there is only one language to know if one is fortunate to spend time in the company of the Divine, and that has been English for almost 200 years.

The enchanted trail up to Gimghoul Castle has been the site of many strange occurrences.

Charly Mann: Okay so why is that?
Horace Williams: God has a small group of souls that she spends much of her time with. When we gather it always includes someone you may have heard of named Jane Austen, who sits on the Supreme's left side. Being in God's presence is the most blissful experience one can imagine, but even the Divine seems overwhelmed when Jane reads to us.
Charly Mann: I see, and would I know anyone else in this select group?
Horace Williams: Yes there are only two others, Marcus Aurelius and George Washington.
Charly Mann: A rather small group considering all the souls who must reside in heaven.
Horace Williams: Yes we are all fortunate to have escaped the cycle of birth and death and gain eternal life, but much of heaven is reflected in your own world. Each soul is an individual that has its own interests.  Everyone is in a constant state of joy and peace of mind, but few even in heaven have much desire to learn more. For the most part they are all intoxicated by the serenity of their eternal existence and seek nothing more.
Charly Mann: I must say that sounds wonderful.
Horace Williams: It is not enough for me, and those who are closest to God. The real health of the soul comes from continuous growth. My gift has been to provoke and even annoy others to come to know themselves, for only in this way can we ever really be close to God. Jane Austen, for example, has written hundreds of books since she came to us, each much better than the previous. On the other hand, most of the great writers, philosophers, composers, and artists you know from your world simply ceased creating and growing when they settled in heaven, being satisfied with perpetual bliss.
Charly Mann: So let's get back to earth for a moment, I have long had an interest in how to best find contentment in this world.
Horace Williams: Almost all of one's discontentment on earth stems from an inability to sit quietly with oneself.
Charly Mann: You mean like meditation?

Gimghoul Castle has been the home of the UNC secret society, the Order of the Gimghoul, since 1926.

Horace Williams: No, meditation usually means emptying your mind. Your mind is meant for thinking and learning.
Charly Mann: And what types of things should I be doing then?
Horace Williams: The best way to use time is by improving yourself through other men's writings so that you can come easily to what others have labored hard to know.
Charly Mann: Alright, but there are many responsibilities and distractions one encounters each day which make it difficult to find much time for this kind of self-improvement.
Horace Williams: Nonsense. You should focus on excellence and learning whether you are at work or at play. There should be no distinction between the two.
Charly Mann: There are so many bad things in this world. Can I do anything to improve it, or should I leave that for God?
Horace Williams: God has sent help to this world, and it is you and every other person who inhabits this earth.
Charly Mann: But the problems seem immense. I really don't think someone like me can make much of an impact.
Horace Williams: The problem with you and almost everyone else on this planet is that they think like you. They refuse to aim too high in their ambition because they are afraid they will miss their goal, so instead, they aim too low and they reach it.

Battle Seat is at the top of the trail to Gimghoul Castle. For most of the 19th century this was a favorite spot  for UNC students to relax and enjoy an incredible view of Durham an Raleigh. Today trees block most of that view. The seat was built at the same time as the castle in 1926. Many of the rocks used in it were placed near this spot many decades earlier by former UNC President Kemp Plummer Battle (1831 - 1919) who was a friend of Horace Williams.

At this point we reached Battle Seat at the top of the trail. Horace Williams sat down and I continued on my walk.

 by Charly Mann

Much of what makes Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina such a memorable place comes from a family who emigrated to Chapel Hill in 1939 from Vienna, Austria. That family is the Danzigers. Many of us recall Papa Danziger and his Old World Restaurant & Gift Shop, and his son Ted's Rathskeller, Zoom-Zoom, Ranch House, and Villa Theo. Yet the most extraordinary Danziger, in my opinion, is Ted's younger brother Erwin.

Erwin Danziger, UNC Class of 1951 at age 22

Erwin was born in Vienna on December 9th, 1928 into a family of candy makers and merchants. His grandfather had owned coffee houses in Italy and what is now Croatia. He also had a pastry and candy shop in Vienna. Erwin's father, Edward "Papa D" Danziger owned a candy factory in Vienna as well as candy stores in Berlin, Baden, and Vienna before he came to the United States. He was also the Austrian distributor for the top three premium chocolates in the world; Lindt and Tobler (both Swiss) and Droste (Dutch).

When the Danzigers moved to Chapel Hill in May of 1939 Erwin saw his father working 18 hour days for the next four months to get his store, Danziger's Candy and Coffee Shop, ready to open on Franklin Street by September. Once the store was open his Dad cut back to working 12 hours a day. Even though Erwin was eleven in 1939 he also worked in the new Danziger's Candy Store along with his mother, Emily and brother Ted.

One of the first ads for Danziger's Candy and Coffee Shop from 1939

Erwin left Chapel Hill in 1948 to serve in the US Army and was stationed in Germany. He returned to Chapel Hill in 1950 to attend UNC, and received a BA in business administration in 1951. He then returned to Germany and worked for the Army in a civilian capacity learning skills that would today be similar to those of a systems analyst. In 1952 he came back to UNC to get an MBA which he received in 1954. The entire time Erwin lived in Chapel Hill, from junior high school until he finished graduate school, he always worked at his father's store. The family has a tradition of working hard and being smart. His brother Ted, who was Chapel Hill's greatest restaurateur, graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UNC in only 2.5 years with a degree in chemistry.

After receiving his MBA Erwin decided to break from the family tradition of owning a restaurant or being a candy maker and try something else that would give him more time to enjoy life. He had seen how hard and long his father had worked to be successful as a candy maker and merchant, and by this time his brother Ted had established the Rathskeller and the Ranch House, he saw the physical toll this was taking on him. Erwin decided he could to enjoy life more if he worked for someone else. For the next ten years, from 1955 to 1965, Erwin worked as a Programmer and Systems Analyst for a succession of the top corporations in the United States including Chrysler, Dow Chemical, General Electric, and RCA. At this time large companies were just beginning to use computers to automate some of their processes. Computers before this had been used primarily for military and scientific purposes. Programming computers was a slow and tedious task that required writing code in the binary language of "0s" and "1s" which is all computers really understand. It was not until five years later, in 1960, that the "higher level" language COBOL was introduced to make programming vastly easier for business applications.

Erwin Danziger, Director of UNC's Administrative Data Processing 1965 to 1989 

After ten years in industry Danziger again returned to Chapel Hill to take on the challenge of bringing UNC into the computer age. For the next twenty-four years, from 1965 to 1989, he was the Director of Administrative Data Processing for the University of North Carolina. In addition to this, from 1965 to 1987 he taught a class in Business Systems Analysis for the department of Computer Science, as well as a computer course for UNC School of Public Health from 1975 to 1980. He was also one of three UNC representatives for TUCC, the Triangle Universities Computer Center, which was established in 1965 as a cooperative venture between Duke, NC State, and UNC-Chapel Hill to provide mainframe computing services to the three universities, the Research Triangle Institute, and other schools in the area.

Joe Ragland, TUCC Information Services manager, Erwin Danziger, TUCC Board member from UNC, Leland Williams, TUCC Director

Over Danziger's years of managing the UNC's ADP Computer Center there were several large mainframe computer systems that the University used including a UNIVAC 70/7 and a IBM 370. These were huge computers that took up several thousand feet of space and had to kept in specially designed rooms. In the beginning most of the programming and data was entered into the computer by punch cards. The ADP department eventually included around 120 programmers and systems analysts. Today almost all this work is done by personal computers that are networked to UNC's central computer.

1960s UNIVAC computer system. Today's laptop computers are many times more powerful than these machines.

In the summer of 1968 Richard Nixon, who was running for President, visited the UNC computer center to talk to Erwin about a program developed for Manpower Development Corp (MDC) that would match unemployed people to jobs with their skills. The meeting was covered by all the major network news programs and most national newspapers.

Erwin Danziger talks to Richard Nixon in 1968 shortly before he was elected president

Today Erwin Danziger is 81 and in good health, still enjoying life and the hobby he has had since he was a young boy, stamp collecting. Working for someone seems to have added longevity to his life. His Brother lived to 46, his Grandfather 72, and his father to 78. Erwin Danziger has also had a long and happy marriage. He married Betty Heath, daughter of UNC Economics Professor Milton Heath Sr. and they have two daughters, one who is now married to a Law Professor at George Mason University, and the other who is married to a Chemistry Professor at N.C. State.

Richard Nixon's visit to Chapel Hill in 1968 to meet Erwin Danziger

This is William Strowd of Chapel Hill who graduated from Medical School at UNC in 1909

On the right is Annie Strowd's UNC graduation picture and information from her 1923 yearbook . In those days there were less than 200 students in the senior class, and everybody knew everyone else. For years graduating seniors merited not only a description about themselves, but height and weight were always given in the class yearbook. Age was given for men, but not for women. Only about 6% of the class was female.

  
Mae Braxton Strowd was Frank Strowd's daughter. This is her graduation photo from UNC in 1933. When she was a little girl she had a pet turkey named "Billy Sunday" that she would often walk with up and down Franklin Street.

by Charly Mann

Dr. Isaac "Ike" Taylor was one of the most driven men ever to live in Chapel Hill. He came here at 18 in 1938 as a freshman at UNC and left in 1971 after serving as Dean of the UNC School of Medicine. Ike was born and brought up in the small town of Morganton at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. His grandfather, Dr. Isaac Montrose Taylor, moved to Morganton in the 1870s to take a job at the Western Insane Asylum (now called Broughton Hospital). He quickly became one of the most respected men in the town. In 1901 he set up a small private hospital called Broadoaks to treat the mentally ill.

Dean Isaac M Taylor of the University of North Carolina Medical School in his office from 1966.

Ike's father, Alexander Taylor, married Theodosia Haynes in 1920. She was from a well-to-do Massachusetts family, a state that has been connected to Ike and his family ever since. Theodosia gave birth to Ike in June of 1921. She had her then 64 year old father-in-law deliver the baby. Somehow she got a uterine infection during childbirth and died two weeks later. Dr. Taylor blamed himself for Theodosia's death and died in grief two months later. The double tragedy of his wife and father's deaths turned Ike's father into an alcoholic. He was incapable of caring for and raising Ike. Sarah Taylor Vernon, Alexander's sister, who had been Theodosia's roommate in College, raised him.

This is a picture of Ike Taylor at UNC in 1941.

Ike was a smart and driven youth who was determined to become a physician like his namesake, yet the tragic nature of his birth and upbringing, an only child without a father or mother, gave him a morose personality. As a student at UNC from 1938 to 1942, Ike displayed an intensity rarely seen in Chapel Hill. He not only focused at excelling in his academic pursuits, but also found the time to be an officer in an array of student organizations and as well as compete on the track team.

After Taylor received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina he went to Harvard Medical School and received his M.D. in 1945. In 1946 he came back to Morganton for a short stint as a resident physician. During that time Gertrude "Trudy" Woodward, a Massachusetts native who Ike had met while at Harvard, came down from Boston by train to visit him. They were engaged to be married and planned to have a formal wedding in Boston, but after meeting her at the train station in Salisbury Ike convinced her they could not wait and should instead get married then and there. They were married by a judge at the Salisbury City Hall, and then drove to Morganton to enjoy their first night as newlyweds.

Isaac M. Taylor's UNC senior picture

As you can see Ike Taylor had his time very full with memberships in three fraternities and many other UNC organizations. He was also taking a challenging course load and received "A" s in all of his classes.

Ike returned to Boston in the fall of 1946 for a one year internship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He followed that with a year as an assistant resident in medicine for the hospital, and in 1948 became the senior resident in medicine. Also in 1948 he was hired by Harvard University as an assistant medical advisor. By the end of 1948 Harvard named him a research fellow in medical science. For the next two years he held this position at Harvard while serving as a clinical fellow in medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1951 Dr. Taylor became the chief medical resident at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Taylor had a bright future ahead of him at Harvard and Massachusetts General, yet he gave it all up to return to his native state. He began his career at the University of North Carolina on January 1, 1952 as an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine. He was a standout from the start as a professor of medicine at UNC, and In 1954 he was named a Markle Scholar, the highest honor awarded to promising new teachers in academic medicine.

Isaac "Ike" Taylor in his UNC track team outfit 1942

Starting in 1955 Dr. Taylor took a two year leave of absence from UNC to fulfill his Military Service from which he had been exempted during college and medical school. He served as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, setting up a medical dispensary in McMurdo Sound in the Antarctic. He had been offered an assignment at Bethesda Naval Hospital outside of Washington, D.C., but instead volunteered for service at the South Pole even though it would keep him isolated from the world and his young family. (He then had five children ranging in age from three to eight.) Those who knew him well say that after his return from military service he remained distant from his family for the rest of his life. The only real time he spent with his family was on summer vacations at Martha's Vineyard.

Isaac and Trudy Taylor's young family circa 1954. Left to right, Alex, James, Kate, Livingston, and Hugh Taylor

Upon his return to the UNC medical school his rise through its ranks was meteoric. In 1958 he was promoted to associate professor and then became a full professor in 1964. Also in that year at the age of only 43 he succeeded Dr. W. Reece Berryhill on Septenber 1st as Dean of the UNC School of Medicine. Ike Taylor simply excelled as a medical administrator, doctor, and researcher. During his years as dean he spent countless hours in his third floor office at UNC Memorial Hospital. People I have spoken to who knew him in those years describe him as tall and lean with rugged features and always having an intimidatingly serious countenance. He was also usually well tanned and in great physical condition, which was probably attributable to his primary means of relaxing: sailing and fishing.

Taylor enjoyed the challenge of being the Dean primarily because he wanted to implement ideas he had formulated since graduating from Harvard. He initiated a series of programs designed to make the UNC Medical School one of the best in the nation. He first wanted established doctors in the state to be made aware of all the new medical procedures and technologies being taught at the medical school. To that end, he made sure that a major function of the school became offering continuing education for practicing physicians. He also introduced the Second Chance program that allowed medical students who had flunked a course to repeat it. He believed this would ensure that almost every student who entered UNC's medical school would get an MD degree.

This is a picture of Dr, Isaac Taylor from 1964, the year he became Dean of the UNC Medical School.

Dean Taylor ensured only the best students got into his medical school. He believed that an applicant's personality was the key ingredient for success as a medical student. The trait he thought most important was being "motivated to do hard work." During Taylor's tenure the medical program averaged 350 applicants a year. Of those only 70 were admitted. Only 5% of the medical students enrolled at UNC flunked or dropped out while he was dean.

Politically Dr. Taylor was very liberal, to the left of almost every major politician of his era. He was an early advocate of socialized medicine and said in 1964 that "medical care must be made available to all". He served on many boards and became an outspoken advocate for improving the nation's health care system. He was a fellow of the NC Coastal Plains Heart Association, and a member of N.C. State Board of Mental Health. In 1965 U.S. Surgeon General Luther L. Terry appointed him to serve as a member of the National Advisory Research Resources Committee of the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Isaac Taylor stepped down as Dean of the Medical School in September of 1971 and was replaced by Dr. Christopher C. Fordham III. He died in November of 1996 at the age of 75 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston where he had worked for several years before coming to Chapel Hill.

On February 9th, 2009 Trudy Taylor, ex-wife of former UNC Medical School Dean Isaac Taylor will be interviewed by the current Dean of the UNC School of Medicine William L. Roper. Later that day at 5:00 PM Dr. Taylor's only daughter, Kate, will appear at the UNC Student Union for a screening of Kate Taylor: Tunes from the Tipi and Other Songs from Home. After the screening, Kate, who is also the sister of musicians James and Livingston Taylor, will perform some songs and answer questions about the film. The film includes a history of the Taylor family in Chapel Hill. The event is free.

On February 12th Kate Taylor will be performing at Marsh Woodwinds in Raleigh at 8:00 PM.
 

by Charly Mann

Bruce Strowd and friend Ernest Hutchins on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill in 1903. The Methodist Church now stands where the house behind them is.

Bruce Strowd was born on August 18, 1891 in a large house on what is today Davie Circle. The house was called Plum Nelly because it was "Plum out of Chapel Hill and Nelly to Durham". Today this area is considered part of central Chapel Hill and is located less than a mile from the center of town. As you drive up Franklin Street from Estes Drive almost all the land you pass was at the time part of the Strowd estate which consisted of about 1200 acres. The hill you go up towards downtown has been known as Strowd Hill for more than a century. It was not until 1950 that this area became part of Chapel Hill.

This is a photo of Plum Nelly, The Strowd House on Davie Circle, from 1985. It use to be one of the grandest houses in Chapel Hill.

This is a photo of Plum Nelly from 1978.

William F. Strowd was Bruce Strowd's grandfather, a U.S. Congressman, and one of the largest landowners in the area in the late 19th century.

Bruce's family was one of the most prominent in Chapel Hill at the beginning of the 20th century. His grandfather W.F. Strowd (Dec. 7, 1832 - Dec. 12, 1911) had been a two term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1895 to 1899, and was largely responsible for the building of a railroad to Chapel Hill. His father R. L. "Bob" Strowd was Vice President of the Bank of Chapel Hill, and had been the Chapel Hill postmaster, and a local merchant. A building that he built on Franklin Street is still standing and is called the Strowd Building. Sutton's Drug Store is now one of the tenants there.

Both Pickard and Strowd were involved in many Chapel Hill businesses. At the time of this ad in 1907, Mr Pickard also had a livery stable and a hotel. In the 1950s through the 1970s Leadbetter Pickard Stationery Store was a leading business downtown, first on Henderson Street and then in the center of Franklin Street.

 
R.L. Strowd was a leading Chapel Hill merchant all of his life. This is a 1909 ad. His son Bruce established the first car dealership in town.

R.L. Strowd was a banker during most of his career in Chapel Hill. His house, "Plum Nelly", was one of the largest in town. This ad is from 1931.

From an early age Bruce had a fascination with internal combustion engines and automobiles. In 1903 the Dean of the School of Pharmacy, Vernon Howell, brought the first automobile to Chapel Hill. This new contraption fascinated Bruce and by the time he was sixteen in 1907 he built his own rudimentary automobile using parts from a sewing machine, wheelbarrow and a boat motor. It only went about five miles an hour and made a terrible racket that scared the horses in town when he drove it down Franklin Street. It had a smokestack that billowed out a cloud of smoke as it roared by it went "chooka, chooka, chooka, pow, pow, pow, pow." Chapel Hill soon banned him from driving the thing in town saying it was too noisy and unsightly.

Drawing of early automobile built by Bruce Strowd in1907 called the Strowdmobile

Bruce worked hard from an early age and was employed at Carr Mill in Carrboro for most of his teenage years. In 1911 he left Chapel Hill to learn more about cars by working in a car manufacturing plant in Wisconsin. In 1914 he returned to Chapel Hill and opened the first auto repair shop, in what is now Porthole Alley behind the Carolina Coffee Shop. The location had been a livery stable, and horses were still the primary mode of transportation in town. He was the only person in town who could work on cars. There were then thirteen cars in Chapel Hill. Bruce also got the rights to sell Ford Motors cars which people could special order from his shop.

This is Bruce Strowd's Garage and first Ford Dealership in 1914. It was behind where the Carolina Coffee Shop is today. Before this the building had been a popular livery  stable for many decades.

The Strowd Ford Dealership in about 1946. This was the largest retail space in Chapel Hill with over 20,000 square feet. In later years the Zoom-Zoom, Logos Books, Copytron, and even a short-lived 5 and 10 cent store would occupy some of this space. In 1970, when I was twenty, I ran a music management company from an upstairs office here. 

His car business grew slowly, specializing in used cars for much of the depression era 1930s. Eventually he opened the first modern car dealership in Chapel Hill at the corner of Columbia and Franklin Street.

Bruce Strowd in October 1937 with 1914 Ford 

This is the auction for the sale of the huge farm that the Strowd family  owned in Chatham County. It was almost 3,000 acres. It was never a very profitable farm. The R.L. Strowd  family  owned 1200 acres that are now part of central Chapel Hill. The auction occurred on May 22, 1928. Land and real estate prices plummeted in Chapel Hill a few years later during the Great Depression.

Bruce was an outgoing and gregarious man and in 1937 the Chapel Hill Kiwanis Club named him Chapel Hill's "Most Valuable Citizen" for that year. He was an avid Tarheel basketball fan long before the team attracted much local attention.

This is Johnson Strowd Ward furniture store on West Franklin Street in 1965. It was the only furniture store in town in those days and also sold televisions. One of the owners was Gene Strowd

Bruce Strowd retired in 1953 and sold his Ford Dealership to Crowell Little. He died in 1955.

Well into the late 1940s Strowd Motors sold more used cars than new ones. These are prices for some of their used cars in 1937.

This is the corner of Franklin and Columbia Street in Chapel Hill in 1925 soon after the building was built and Strowd Motor Company moved in to sell Ford cars and ESSO gas. If you look closely you can see a pump at the corner of the two streets. 

Thanks to Susan Prothro Worley for the Strowd House photos

by Charly Mann

Almost every day Chapel Hill Memories receives one or more e-mails or comments from someone trying to track down a friend from the past. Over the course of our lives we have made many friends, and for most us the majority of these people are only a fading memory. Every time we make significant changes in our lives such as moving or changing careers we lose our connections to the people we knew before. One of the saddest realizations in life is that the majority of people we have known are no longer around.

 
Kat McKay Chapel Hill High School Class of 1967 Senior picture

There are more than a dozen names that people keep asking about and this has inspired me to begin a series called Where Are They Now. The first one is on Kat McKay who is someone I barely knew or thought of when growing up, but six people have asked about her in the last nine months. She was one or two grades ahead of me in school, and as far as I know we never had any friends in common. My only memories I have are a vague recollection of her mother being an impressive figure, and that her parents owned a company that made premade sandwiches. I also think she lived in one of the large houses at the beginning of Laurel Hill Road. These are just my memories from about the time I was 13 to 14, the only time we even attended the same school, so they may well be faulty. I look forward to other readers providing more information.

Kat McKay, Chapel Hill High School Sweetheart Queen

The purpose of this series is for other Chapel Hill Memories readers and hopefully the person themselves to fill in the details about where they are and what they have done with their lives. I hope this feature will reunite some old friends and help overcome the consequences of losing touch in the passage of time. 

Kat McKay was the star and leading scorer of the 1967 Chapel Hill High School Kitten's basketball team

Anyone looking to reunite or find out about old friends from Chapel Hill or UNC days are welcome to use this column. Simply write up a small piece about the person, and e-mail it to chmemories@gmail.com. Please send one of more photographs of the person. Chapel Hill Memories now has more than 15,000 readers a month, so there is a good chance you will soon have more information on your old friend.

by Stanley Peele

Roland Giduz was a writer, scholar, reporter, Chapel Hill historian, photographer, cable TV host, and civil leader – among many other accomplishments. He was a beloved and well-known citizen of Chapel Hill who passed away in January of 2009.

Roland Giduz (July 24th, 1925 - January 23rd, 2009)

Roland Giduz called himself a "notorious hometown ne'er-do-well." He was notorious, for sure, and definitely hometown. But he has never been and will never be a "ne'er-do well"!

He was born in 1925 and was a veteran of WWII. He earned an AB degree in journalism at UNC and an MS in journalism at Columbia. For more than 50 years, he was a writer, photographer and editor. He was editor of the Chapel Hill News Leader (1954-59) and then alumni editor for the University; and wrote the "Newsman's Notepad" column over a period of 35 years. He also was a columnist for the Chapel Hill Herald.

He was the original publisher and editor of a weekly visitors guide magazine, The Triangle Pointer.

He published "Who's Gonna Cover Em Up?" in 1985, and "Conversations On The Wall," in 2000. In the latter book he documents his conversations with his friend and idol, Cameron Henderson. He also collaborated with Jim Shumaker to publish "Shu" in 1995.

He was a member of the Board of Aldermen of Chapel Hill for 12 years. He was quite active in local civic life, and was a gifted public speaker. He was the host/producer for "The People's Channel" on cable TV.

This is only a short list of some of his accomplishments: it is not possible to list them all in this article. Yet, he was self-deprecating. He explained himself this way: "I haven't got any more sense than any other d___ fool!"

Here are some quotes from Roland:

"I have suddenly realized, "By God, I'm 80 years old." . . . .But, I don't feel old – I feel FREE. . . . . I am free to plan each day, I have no obligation to an employer or to society. I have willingly passed on the torch of service to society to the younger generation. Best of all, I don't look back. I look ahead. I find true satisfaction in public service – a thing I used to accept as an obligation. Through all of this I find peace – contented peace. I know there are a limited number of years ahead for me. If it all ended tomorrow I'd have no regrets."

Roland was a member of what has been called, "The Greatest Generation." His service in World War II left an indelible impression on him. Here are his words:

"Let me take you back to the fierce days of WWII and how we felt about it. We were preparing to enter the military. We certainly did not feel "great." But – we did not feel any doubt. We were a bit fearful, and not anxious to lead a charge. But we had absolutely no doubt about the cause and outcome of the war that was thrust upon us.

"There was nothing heroic nor great, to us, about serving. It was simply our time. That generated a quality of patriotism that has never left us through these 60 years since.

"It was a fearsome time for most of us. Appreciation of freedom is born of patriotism – of a belief in the dignity and integrity of every human being.

"Earlier [last] year I revisited a combat scene of our 100th Infantry Division in France. On that 60th anniversary of the liberation of the town of Bitche, we were welcomed by those citizens. Their heartfelt gratitude to us, three score years later, gave us the ultimate appreciation of patriotism.

"I hope you also feel patriotic about our country."

Roland Giduz stood for the enduring spirit of Chapel Hill. His words beautifully express a feeling about our country that is hard for young people to understand. The quality of our movies and TV sinks lower every year. The condition of corporate America is gloomy at best. Our neighbors regard our government as corrupt and greedy. Yet Roland Giduz stood tall in the midst of all of it. He reminded us of the highest and best that is within us. When he wrote about his "belief in the dignity and integrity of every human being," these were not just words on a piece of paper. He believed it – and his life was guided by this principle.

Chapel Hill Memories would like a life-sized bronze statue of Mr Giduz in this pose we call "The Oracle of Chapel Hill" created and placed on the stone wall on the south side of Franklin Street

by Charly Mann

Harold McCurdy was a truly extraordinary man, A UNC Kenan Professor of Psychology who was probably Chapel Hill's most knowledgeable resident and the epitome of what is referred to as a polymath. He was a man who excelled in many things and had an almost limitless capacity to learn and become accomplished in any subject that interested him. He came to UNC in 1949, the same year as my father, William Robert Mann, and they quickly became good friends. I learned much about McCurdy from my Dad.

Harold McCurdy - UNC Psychology Professor and Polymath of Chapel Hill

A subject that McCurdy was keenly interested in was what factors most contributed to someone becoming a genius. After considerable study of the lives of twenty geniuses McCurdy wrote The Childhood Pattern of Genius. His first conclusion was that genius was most common among children who spend the majority of their time with adults and little time with children near their ages unless they were siblings. His research actually showed that preteen children who are sent to school and must do their socializing with their peers are significantly impeded in their intellectual and character development. Boys he found are particularly impaired if they begin interacting with people their age before 14. His second discovery was that highly intelligent and socially mature children are usually immersed in the interests of adults around them, and are allowed the time and loving support to naturally master these subjects. Children who grow up in this kind of environment develop a high degree of intellectual and artistic creativity. Finally he found that most geniuses were given a high degree of family responsibility from a young age that builds self-respect and confidence. This often meant making things that could be useful or even sold, and at a minimum taking a major role in maintaing their home. What this all means is that home schooling is far better than public schools for primary education. Children, McCurdy found, are just not socially or academically mature enough for institutional education until they are teenagers. Children in fact are negatively socialized by having to spend their early youth interacting with other children, and become less creative and much more likely to have mental and emotional problems throughout the rest of their lives.

McCurdy was also an expert on William Shakespeare and wrote a book on his personality. He also did extensive writing and research on D.H. Lawrence and Emily and Charlotte Bronte.

McCurdy was an outstanding poet and several volumes of his poetry were published. Harold McCurdy died in Chapel Hill in November of 1999. The following poem by McCurdy showcases his genius and his love of God.

Meteor

When softly and slowly fell the other night
That meteor flaring through my screen of trees,
Maybe I only was privy to the sight.

Eastward it fell of great Orion's knees
And his dog Sirius; southward of Jupiter;
And it was very bright, brighter than these.

If others glimpsed it (as, say, Lucifer,
Or some dull chunk of matter being consumed),
Let their view of it be as they prefer.

To me it was a miracle, subsumed
Within the ancient mystery and profound
From which the whole starred universe once bloomed.

For look! I was alone on private ground
Awed by the starry heavens at Christmas Eve,
Yet sorrowful, and in self-pity drowned,

Pleading, as one who clamors to believe,
"Oh God, whom none can see and live, do you
Care in the least for us? Did you conceive

Us and this world and come incarnate too
To lodge here? "Me, Lord, have you loved? Me, heard?"
--And then, abruptly, silently, fell and grew

That flare of light, that bright, that lordly word

Old or young we all enjoy the circus. One hundred years ago circus wagons drawn by teams of horses were a yearly sight on Franklin Street, signaling that the circus was coming to Chapel Hill. Fifty years later, William Meade Prince and Carl Boettcher created the Circus Parade carvings that were originally placed in the Circus Room snack bar on the UNC campus to commemorate this event. These exquisite carvings now adorn a hallway in the alumni center on the north side of Kenan Stadium.

 
Closeup of Charly Mann in Circus Parade Animals Under the Big Top. See the full version of this work of art.

One of my earliest memories was being in the Circus Room and imagining how it would be to be the first person to spot the circus wagons heading into Chapel Hill. I would see myself running up and down Franklin Street crying out, "The circus is coming to town again!" Then I would shout "Tigers, Clowns, and Elephants" as the parade drew closer.

Detail of the white tiger from painting inspired by William Meade Prince's Circus Parade.

What excited me the most after looking at the carvings was the idea of the circus being set up the next day and going by to see all the animals. "Wouldn't it be fun to ride on an elephant?" I thought.

The original wood carving of this elephant is in the UNC Alumni Center on Stadium Drive.

This year I took my daughter to see the Circus Parade carvings and she created this painting as she imagined William Meade Prince would have painted the animals with me today as the ringmaster.

To see the full version of this painting, which is 42" by 24", see the following article: Chapel Hill's Newest Work Of Art

   
Closeups of giraffe and seal from Circus Parade Animals Under the Big Top, by Kathryn Mann.

To see some of the original carvings from this painting and more information on the Circus Parade history, see The Circus Room and The Circus Parade

by Stanley Peele

The year was 1959. I was a senior in law school, about to graduate; and looking for a job. I walked into the Office of Judge L. J. Phipps on Henderson Street in Chapel Hill, (right by the post office). The office was Spartan – very small by today's standards. It had two small offices in the back and two secretaries in front; no library, no break room, no conference room.

Alice Oldham, the senior secretary, told me I could go into his office.

I walked into his office. Most of the space of the small office was taken up by a large desk. On top of the desk was a mountain of papers. Behind the papers sat Judge Luther James Phipps.

With great fear and trepidation, I said, "My name is Stanley Peele, I am about to graduate from law school, and I am looking for work."

Judge Phipps smiled and said, "When can you start?"
"Right now," I replied.

"OK, Mrs. Oldham will tell you what to do." He said. And from that moment, I was hired. No resume. No questions. No conversation about salary. That's the way it was in the 'good old days' between people who trusted one another. Instinctively, I trusted him. Absolutely.

Judge Phipps was a kindly man with a soft voice. Yet he commanded great respect – which, for me, amounted to awe. I never called him "Jim." It was always "Judge Phipps." His abilities were legion.

In 1921, as a student in UNC, he received the Major Wm. B. Cain award for the math student who "demonstrated a high degree of mathematical ability and originality." He had a phenomenal memory and was the leading title lawyer in this area. He could examine old deeds and diagram property lines with lightening speed and uncanny accuracy. In fact, the map of the properties given to the University prior to 1920 were drawn up by Judge Phipps; and the map is in use to this day.

He was a stickler for the law, and did not drink. He was extraordinarily careful about driving, and would not go even 1 mile over the speed limit. This made it very hard on me when I drove him. If I drove 57 in a 55, he would say, "I believe the speed limit here is 55." So I would meekly slow down.

On the other hand, Charlie Hodson, the lawyer, was always late to court and would consistently speed. One time, Judge Phipps was driving to Hillsborough, and made a complete stop at an intersection. Charlie Hodson was driving behind him; and did not expect the Judge to make a complete stop; and plowed right into the Judge’s car.

How the courthouse gang made fun of Charlie about that!!

Judge Luther James Phipps (1898-1969)

Judge Phipps and I were both so busy, that our time together was rare. Yet I remember a few times that I witnessed him doing complex title work. Once I had been wrestling with trying to map out adjoining properties, and I had not been able to do so. Judge Phipps looked at the deeds, and then, with lightening speed, put them all together in a perfect fit.

"How did you do that!?" I exclaimed. He just smiled. Sometimes checking title was like trying to assemble a jig-saw puzzle.

He was a staunch supporter of UNC and seldom missed a home football game. He and Vivian would walk from his home to Kenan Stadium. He had massive knowledge about UNC football.

He was a supporter of the Boy Scouts, and would often be called upon to present the Eagle Scout award at presentation ceremonies.

He had property and title files for Orange County and Chatham County. The Orange County files were the best ever seen at that time. Other attorneys would come over to use them. His files were so good that I could sometimes check 7 titles for bank loans in one day.

People thought Judge Phipps was rich because of his high-volume business. But he was not. His charges were very low. "Temper the wind to the shorn lamb." he told me.
Bill Olsen, the realtor, remembers his mother, Sarah Olsen, telling him if you wanted advice, you went to Jim Phipps. He was the authority. When Mrs. Olsen sold property, she would take the buyer and seller to Judge Phipps. He would draw the contract, check the title, draw the deed and mortgage and close the deal in his office. He would handle the whole transaction, start to finish. And how much would he charge? $1 for the deed and $20 to check title.

He was town attorney for the Town of Carrboro, and never charged a penny for that work.

He knew so many people that on some weeks he went to 3 or 4 funerals.

He was the leading expert on Orange County Churches. He had title cards for every Orange County Church, which showed every deed into or out of the church, together with every mortgage they gave. Hugh Lefler wrote a book titled Orange County. Judge Phipps wrote a chapter in that book, called "The Churches of Orange County." Many years ago, I read that chapter, and was absolutely stunned by the amount of information cited there. I thought I knew something about local churches; but compared to him I was hopelessly ignorant.

In his quiet way, he was a political force. If you wanted a job at the post office in Chapel Hill, you would first have to see him. Those seeking political office would check with him. Not to do so would have been a major blunder. In his quiet way, he was a master politician.

He was judge of the Recorders Court in Chapel Hill for many years. He was Orange County’s representative to the NC Legislature. He was very active with the American Legion, particularly with the Chapel Hill Post; and was commander of the NC American Legion, 1963-64. He drew up the bill to establish the Hillsboro Historic  Commission, which became law in 1963. He was active with the democratic party, and was considered a leader in that area for many years, having various offices on the executive board, including president. He was a staunch conservative, and in those days he and others kept control of the Orange County Democratic Party.

One year he went on a vacation and therefore could not attend the annual meeting of Orange County democrats. When he came back, he found that local liberals (under the movement for Eugene McCarthy) had taken over. This was a dark day for him.

He, together with his wife, Vivian, and his two children, "Snookie" and Dana, lived in an imposing house on Pittsboro Street. It was then 4 houses south of McCauley St., approximately across from the present State Employees’ Credit Union. The home was razed by UNC and is now occupied by UNC buildings. The pillars in front of his home were imposing, giving it an elegant appearance. When I went to his house I always felt out of place – kinda awkward. Yet the rooms inside were modest.

In 1968, he became Orange County’s first District Judge. He was very happy to have this job, for the job of Chapel Hill Recorder’s Court judge, was only a municipal office, unconnected with other judges. The new judgship was a part of a Statewide system; a vastly improved court system. He set up a plan for the district, which was Orange, Chatham and Alamance Counties. The present system in Orange County is based on his original plan.

He died in 1969. Even after all these years, I still miss him. The sky was never quite as blue after he was gone.

Editor's Note: Phipps taught mathematics at UNC from 1943 to 1945. He got an S.B. degree at UNC before his law degree (That is the same as a B.S. degree today then known as Scientiæ Baccalaureus) 

by Charly Mann

I have previously discussed the history of Dr Kluttz and his general merchandise store that was dominant business on Franklin Street from 1883 to 1923, but there was much more to this man than this. The most important thing in his life was his wife, Ora Jane, who he married in 1890. She was a beautiful red head from Goldsboro who was born on March 27, 1868. Dr Kluttz grew up outside of Salisbury and was born on July 7, 1857. Together they were the most respected, well liked, prosperous, and generous couple in Chapel Hill for half a century.

When they first married, Dr Kluttz was working hard to get his store established, but he always seemed to have time for other interests. One reason for this was Ernest Thompson, a black man, who was the de-facto manager of Kluttz's store. He was so competent that most townspeople and students joked that Dr Kluttz was the only person in town who did not work. A popular poem in town in those days went:

Ernest runs the business,
Doc Chews cigar butts
Everybody works in this town,
But A.A. Kluttz

Actually, Dr Kluttz did more before most people got up than the average Chapel Hill citizen did in a day. He was always up by three or four in the morning to work in his vast vegetable and flower garden. He and his wife had purchased the Sam Phillips house and law office across from the University President's house at 407 East Franklin Street in 1894 for $2,800. Dr Kluttz and his wife thoroughly enjoyed this property and got the maximum use out of it.

407 East Franklin Street soon after Dr and Mrs Kluttz bought the house in 1894 

What Dr Kluttz's called his garden was actually a small farm extending back to Rosemary Street. In it he grew a variety of vegetables including tomatoes, radishes, squash, cucumbers, cabbage, green beans, and a wide variety of flowers. He owned a dairy cow that often grazed where Spencer dorm is today which provided the sweetest cream in Chapel Hill. He also grew several types of corn including a variety called County Gentlemen which he was renowned for. It was a sweet white corn that had just been introduced in 1890 and had irregular rows of very deep and narrow kernels. Almost all his guests and boarders recalled its wonderful flavor and texture. His garden was large enough to provide fresh vegetables almost all year for the meals of the Kluttz's, their boarders and the many people they entertained. It also supplied an almost year round supply of fresh cut flowers for their house, and for the Presbyterian Church each Sunday, which he and Ora attended for more than thirty years.

Ora Kluttz was just as amazing as her husband. In 1897 the Kluttzs took over the running of the Central Hotel, which is where the Battle-Vance-Pettigrew building stands today across from the downtown post office. Since Dr Kluttz had his store and "farm" to attend to, it was Mrs Kluttz who really managed the place. The hotel was then dilapidated and catered mainly to students who could not find accommodations in a dormitory. A few years later Mrs Kluttz took her knowledge of hotel management to the next level by turning the Kluttz's home into the finest boarding house in Chapel Hill.

The Central Hotel on Franklin Steet across from what is now the Post Office. It was torn down in 1912 and replaced with the Battle-Vance-Pettigrew building.

Ora Kluttz was a highly refined and dignified woman, and she ran her boarding house like an elite country club. Only a select few were allowed to stay at the Kluttz's, and those who did enjoyed the best rooms, finest meals, and the most stimulating companionship in Chapel Hill. The rooms were rented exclusively to bachelor professors or single professional women who Mrs. Kluttz deemed worthy of her establishment. It was considered a great honor to be allowed to room at the Kluttz's.

Mrs. Kluttz was an imposing presence, and had an aristocratic style that made many who met her feel they were in the presence of royalty. Indeed she was often referred to as the Queen of Chapel Hill. She wore her hair in a pompadour and her manners and taste were impeccable. She loved to entertain and had the finest cook and staff in Chapel Hill to help her provide sumptuous feasts for her guests. She was particularly well known for her stag dinner parties, where eligible bachelor professors would be introduced to ladies she deemed worthy of their attention. Many love affairs began at these soirees.

The Adam and Ora Kluttz boarding house

The greatest love of Ora Kluttz's life was for her husband. They were perfectly matched and totally complimented one another. At their house Mrs. Kluttz did most of the talking, though Dr Kluttz often had the last word. While she always behaved and conversed in an elegant style, Dr Kluttz loved to find humor in almost everything. For example when they had a new guest to dinner he would pass them a plate of biscuits or deserts and startle them by saying "take a lot, take two, take damn near all of them." When a man he didn't care for came calling for one of the female boarders he would say, "Come in! Tell me all you know, it won't take you long." One boarder recalls that a rather large lodger was piling his plate rather high at dinner when Dr Kluttz turned to him and said, "here just take another plate." Mrs. Kluttz always seemed to enjoy her husband's wit. Throughout their life together they always called each other "Bay" which was short for "Baby".

Sam Phillips law office (far left) at northeast corner of Hillsborough and East Franklin Street 1920. Next door is the Kluttz house.

After dinner Dr Kluttz enjoyed sitting on the swinging chair on his front porch and exchanging greetings with every person who walked by his house. When it was cold he enjoyed sitting next to the fire in his living room. There was a steady stream of visitors to the Kluttz's every evening. Almost everyone in town, including all the other merchants and professors at UNC enjoyed sitting in the Kluttz's parlor and discussing a wide range of topics. Among the regular visitors was the esteemed UNC botanist William C. Coker, who landscaped most of the UNC campus and downtown Chapel Hill, and M.C.S. Noble, Dean of the UNC School of Education.

Sam Phillips law office in 2009.  (401 East Franklin Street)

The Kluttz house was built in 1856 by Samuel Field Phillips. The small stucco building next to it on the corner of Franklin and Hillsborough, which the Kluttz's also owned, was originally Phillips law office. and was constructed in 1843. After Mrs. Kluttz died their home was left to her niece Sudie Coenen. Since 1978 the house has been the Tri Delta (Delta Delta Delta) Sorority.

The Kluttz house today at 407 East Franklin Street which is now the Tri Delta sorority

By 1916, the Klutzes were the wealthiest family in Chapel Hill, primarily due to good real estate investments. They owned several downtown buildings including those that in later years housed the Varsity Theater, Jeff's Confectionery, Lacock's Shoe Store, Max Snipes Barber Shop, and the N.C. Cafeteria. They also owned four other downtown houses. After Dr Kluttz died Mrs. Kluttz became the town's leading advocate for improving the local public schools and urged for an increase of the school tax on property. Since she was the town's single largest taxpayer this affected her more than anyone else in town. She was also a generous contributor to the Playmaker's Theater.

 Dr Kluttz died in 1926, while Mrs. Kluttz lived on another 21 years until May 31, 1947. They are buried next to one another at the Chapel Hill cemetery.

by Dan "Arthur" Gifford

Long before snicklefritz came to mean a batch of bad marijuana or the name of a cartoon cat in modern American popular culture, it was for centuries a German term of endearment for a small boy. And it was with that word and a pinch on the cheek that "Papa" Gustav Danziger used to greet me when I would visit his Viennese Candy Kitchen and Old World Restaurant -- simply called "Danziger's" -- or the Rathskeller below it with my father.

Edward "Papa" Danziger at Danziger's Old World Restaurant and Candy Store Chapel Hill

The greeting was quickly followed by a slice of peanut cake or Vienna Kranz or some other central European goodie to keep me occupied while Papa, sometimes joined by his son Ted, and my father would sip coffee and converse in German. For hours it seemed they would sip coffee and speak in German, and if they happened to be joined by Werner Friedrich (always "Doctor Friedrich" to me then), my father's Swiss born comparative literature professor, it could actually be hours.

 
"Papa" Danziger caricature logo showing him reading Goethe's Faust

By then I was wandering around the store and into the kitchen where I would learn special secrets about the candy that filled Danziger's Franklin Street display window. So when my elementary pals pressed their faces on that glass after school and salivated about the mystery of white chocolate (an object of fascination then), I could tell them with authority that it wasn't really chocolate. That would take us inside for a Papa D explanation, in English, about the difference between cacao and cacao butter und a schnitzel of each. Now, Freidrich at least noticed when my antsiness was nearing critical mass and would begin quizzing me on the German pronouns, or the names of states or countries outlined on cards he always seemed to have with him or the meaning of the "Famous Quotes" painted on Danziger's wall or he'd offer a synopsis of what was being discussed even if I didn't really understood what he was talking about. Tried explaining Hegel, Kant or Goethe to a five or six year old? Freidrich gave it a good shot, though. "Vhat can you zink ov zat you vant zo badly zat you vould zell your zoul to ze devil to have it as Faust did, Arthur?" ... "Uh, Black Forest Cake?"

Inside Danziger's Old World Restaurant and Candy store Franklin Street Chapel Hill. For the last 35 years this has been the located of the Shrunken Head.

Yes, there's a reason Papa D's caricature in this Danziger's ad is reading Faust. He had seen poor choices made on a mass scale and was looking for answers. So was my father, and that was their main common ground so far as I can tell.

Papa was Jewish according to the Nazi's definition, saw the handwriting on the wall, and left Austria. In fact, his family had been Lutheran for two generations. He was also a philosophical man with many questions about the roots and appeal of that master race evil that replaced the residual protections of the Hapsburg and Hohenzollern reigns. A mild anti-Semitism may have been part of the natural social order in both countries just as it was all over Europe, but why would millions of people sell their souls to Hitler and go along with an extermination of Jews and others who had been their friends?

 
This is the Quotation Wall inside Danziger's Old World Restaurant and Candy Store

Unlike the Japanese Imperialists he had fought who were not signatories to the Geneva Conventions and had no cultural concept of either honorable surrender or protection of civilian noncombatants, the German volk had a history of all three yet had trashed the lot of it. Why? My father wrestled with that question and many others about a people with a humanistic history descending into Nazi hell while also struggling against his warrior nature and the civilian he was trying to be.

He was already in the Army when Pearl Harbor was hit and had served in both theaters of W.W.II and then Korea. As a forward artillery observer and scout, he generally snuck around behind enemy lines and either liked it or didn't depending on the time of day and his mood. The "liked it" eventually won and he went back in the Army for for twenty five years of special combat units on the East German border and three tours in Vietnam. He was truly the proverbial man you did not want to meet in a dark alley and I noticed early on those in Chapel Hill, a town filled with war veterans, showed him that deference. But he was a hard man with a sense of honor who was troubled by the soulless Nazis and SS, as opposed to the typical Wehrmacht soldier, he had encountered. He admired the SS martial skill and ferocity, but he was also aware that many of those uniforms were filled with some of the worst degenerates humans had produced and were little better than rabid animals that needed killing for the sake of the sane.

Henry Gifford the man who "saved" the Rathskeller by installing steel beams to keep the ceiling from collapsing

In the meantime, he was attending UNC and doing construction contracting on the side. I used to hear Ted Danziger say that my father was the person who had saved the Rathskeller he had started under the candy shop by installing several steel I beams to keep the sagging ceiling nobody else had noticed from caving in. He also did some shoring of the several side rooms like "The Cave" Ted literally dug out (hauling the dirt away in the trunk of his car) sans building permits to expand the Rathskeller.

Dan "Arthur" Gifford and his father Henry Gifford in 1956 in front of their house at 738 East Franklin Street  Chapel Hill

"The Rat" was a place I especially liked visiting with my father because of its high student energy -- drinking lots of beer will do that -- and the fact that everything was said in English. That meant I could take in the "my hard times during the depression were harder than your hard times during the depression" and the "my war experience was more terrifying than your war experience" stories everybody seemed to have. Papa D would occasionally come in and shake hands but "The Rat" didn't really seem to be his scene. It wasn't mine for a few weeks either after my mother asked me what I did with my father that day. My enthusiastic reply: "I watched daddy drink tea outa the bottle at the Rat."

That's when snicklefritz learned not to rat on what he learned at "The Rat."

Inside the newly opened Rathskeller - The Rat - Amber Alley Fanklin Steet Chapel Hill 1949

by Charly Mann

James Paul Goforth was the most financially successful person in Chapel Hill in the 1980's. He created a home real estate empire that started in Chapel Hill in the 1970's and eventually spread throughout the eastern part of North Carolina. Goforth built quality homes in every price range from condos in the low $70,000's to magnificent executive estates that often sold for more than $300,000. He was Chapel Hill's greatest developer, creating more than half a dozen meticulously designed and beautiful communities. He built real neighborhoods instead of housing tracts. Goforth dedicated almost every waking hour of his day to his business. J.P. was also an honorable man who worked hard to be fair to his customers, while maintaining the highest quality standards in construction. Today, twenty years after his death, his name is still often attached to a real estate listing to denote a house of quality.

This is a Goforth Properties of Chapel Hill advertisement from 1982. Note fixed rate mortgages are 14 7/8 percent and variable rate are 12 3/8.

J.P. Goforth came to Chapel Hill in 1968 to attend UNC in the same freshman class as me. He was from a poor farm family that lived near Statesville. As an undergraduate he began working as a real estate salesman to help pay his way through school. By the time he entered UNC law school in 1973 he had already started Security Building Company, and in 1976 formed Goforth Properties to develop subdivisions. A partial list of the local neighborhoods he created are Stoneridge, Village West condos, Ironwoods, Falconbridge, Northwood, The Oaks II, Sedgefield, and Coker Hills. By the early 1980's, J.P. also owned Triangle Mill Work, Chapel Hill Grading, Boyce Supply, and Chapel Hill Electric, all of which supported the building trade. His companies employed more than 180 people.

Entrance to J.P. Goforth communities Stoneridge and Sedgefield off Whitfield Road in Chapel Hill

Real estate development and construction are extremely cyclical businesses. The 1980's was volatile period for real estate in North Carolina. Despite this, J.P. seemed to have the Midas touch and weathered the 1980 to 1983 recession better than any of his peers. Starting in 1984 J.P. began to expand his empire throughout the entire eastern half of the state, broadening his model of well-designed upscale communities into areas that were demographically different from Chapel Hill. By 1990 the United States found itself in another economic recession, this time brought on about primarily by the sudden collapse of the real estate housing bubble that started in 1984. Housing prices crashed throughout the United States, especially in the high end market that Goforth specialized in. J.P. had large investments in land that had become unviable for development, and also had a huge inventory of houses that could not be sold.

J.P. Goforth built home by his company Security Builders in Chapel Hill

Goforth's businesses were under a mound of debt, and tax officials from Orange and Durham counties were hounding him to pay property taxes on the land and houses he could not sell. J.P. was a master businessman, but because of complications from kidney surgery he was no longer able to dedicate himself fully to his business. His cash flow was now well below what he needed to pay his suppliers and employees. Almost everyone who he owed money to, including the state, agreed that Goforth was an honorable and nice person, but they all wanted their money. Goforth worked diligently liquidating assets to slowly pay off his debts, but it wasn't fast enough for District Attorney Carl Fox .

Stoneridge tudor style house in Chapel Hill built by J.P. Goforth

Goforth saw his world closing in around him. He knew that being out of work for much of the last few years had hurt his business. He also admitted that he miscalculated the severity of the real estate downturn. Several of the largest developers and home builders in the state filed for bankruptcy because of the real estate bust, but this was  anathema to J.P.'s honor. The final blow came on Friday April 13, 1990 when DA Carl Fox made a media splash announcing a call for the State Bureau of Investigation to look into Goforth's business. Fox was concerned that Goforth had been bouncing checks and not paying his real estate sales people commissions they were owed. That evening, J.P. Goforth, 49 years old, took his own life.

Another house built by J.P. Goforth and Security Builders in the heavily wooded Stoneridge neighborhood in Chapel Hill 

For J.P. Goforth suicide was not painless or a coward's way out of a problem. Like most of us, he feared death far more than what seemed like the financial collapse of his company and the ruin of his reputation. However, because some recent investors of his businesses who were worried about his health had insisted he take out a $12.5 million life insurance policy, he saw that his death was the best way for him to honor his obligations. Because of the insurance policy, after all the suits and claims were settled, his estate was able to pay off his $7.4 million in debts and still have $5 million dollars left. James Paul Goforth is buried in Statesville at the cemetery of the Hebron Baptist Church.

J.P. Goforth's Goforth Property sold primarily houses his companies built, but the Lake Forest home at the bottom right is not one of his homes. 

by Charly Mann

Corrine Howell, UNC Coed

One of the lessons I learned as a freshman at the University of North Carolina in 1968 was that Aristotle believed that there was a set of universal standards for physical beauty. The most important he said were balanced bodily proportions including symmetry. According to scientists symmetry is a very accurate predictor of one’s genetic ability to stay healthy. Our brain by nature responds positively to a beautiful face. I have always believed that Chapel Hill has the highest proportion of highly symmetrical women of any place on earth.

Nina Ford, UNC Homecoming Queen 1980

Over the decades I have amassed a vast collection of Chapel Hill and University of North Carolina photos going back more than 150 years. Contained in my library are several thousand photos of beautiful women. The following is a random selection of these photos from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s that represent a sampling of perfect Carolina symmetry. I have also created a musical medley that pays tribute to all the women of Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina.

Madonna Bentz 1971 (at 16), cover of The Trangle Pointer weekly, photo by Roland Giduz, Madonna managed A Southern Season in the 1980s

Janet Fullenwilder, UNC Coed 1970

by Dr Harold Kushner

I first met Professor Mann in the fall of 1958 when he walked into my math 15A classroom in Phillips Hall. He was dressed in a tan gabardine double breasted suit fashionable in the 1930's, a white shirt with the collar buttoned and no tie. His hair was reddish brown, abundant and unruly, and he was thin, but full cheeked with ruddy complexion. He looked like a young English vicar but he could have been a student, for in those days there were lots of older students implementing their GI bills. He was 38 and the youngest full Professor on the faculty.

Painting of former UNC Mathematics Professor Robert Mann by his grandaughter Kathryn Mann

But, he assumed his position in the front of the class and began teaching immediately with great authority. He spoke in fluent and eloquent paragraphs with exquisitely precise language, but pronounced in soft southern syllables. About five minutes into his presentation, a young male student asked no one in particular who he was. He stopped, and said, "I'm sorry, my name is Bob Mann." And wrote "Robert Mann" on the blackboard.

That began my 48-year relationship with Professor Robert Mann. I took six courses from Professor Mann and when it was time to apply for medical school, I went by his office and asked him if he would write me a letter of recommendation. He was standing in the office smoking a cigar and blowing the smoke into a cigar box which had holes cut into it, and the holes were covered with Saran wrap. He explained that he was investigating the mathematical description of exhaust gases from rockets in the then very nascent space program. When I asked him if he would write a letter for me, he responded with great alacrity: "of course." And he stopped what he was doing, picked up a lead pencil and a yellow legal pad and proceded to write the most beautiful and persuasive letter a prospective med school applicant could ever have. He tore the page from the pad, and handed it to me and said to use it as I saw fit.

His knowledge was encyclopedic; his brilliance was luminous. He formulated the Mann Iteration for fixed point analysis, wrote an advanced calculus textbook which was the standard college text for many years, and he taught with such passion and inspiration that it was a wonderful gift to be in his presence. I used to sit with him at Emerson Field and watch baseball games just for more exposure to his wisdom and judgment.

"Bob" Mann in his office on the third floor of Phillips Hall at UNC Chapel Hill where he enjoyed nothing more than helping his students

Once after a particularly trying and rigorous exam period, I showed up at his office, unkempt, bleary eyed and unshaven, dressed in raggedy Bermuda shorts and a tee shirt (and this was in the days when boys dressed in khakis and oxford blue shirts from Milton's) to see what my grade was. He gave me the news, and then asked if I would like to accompany him to Danziger's Tea Room to have lunch with Mrs. Mann and him. I demurred because of my appearance; but he was completely oblivious to my inappropriate dress. It was unimportant to him. He saw through the superficial.... straight to the heart of a person or a problem.

I recall that we had an earnest student in the class named Mendenhall. He asked Dr Mann a question one day, and Professor responded with great patience; "As usual, Mr. Mendenhall, your problem lies with the ambiguity to the antecedent of the relative pronoun." And he advised me on several occasions, even into the 90's, to attempt to avoid pronouns in my discourse if possible. He was a very strict prescriptive grammarian. Once a student asked for his help on a problem, and Dr Mann asked him where he was going with a step. The student said, I really don't know where I'm going. "In that case," Dr Mann said, "you should read Alice in Wonderland." When the student looked perplexed, Dr Mann reminded him of the Cheshire Cat's admonition to Alice: "if you don't care where you are going, it doesn't matter which direction you take", and he reminded us that Lewis Carroll taught Math at Cambridge.

Once, he asked me to baby-sit for him when he lived in the house on Old Mill Road in Greenwood, before he moved to Whitehead Circle. I agreed, and we went out in the parking lot to drive over to his home in his car. We must have spent 30 minutes looking for his car, before he remembered that he didn't bring his car that day, and had been dropped off.

I left Chapel Hill in 1961 and wrote him erratically. Then in 1980, my daughter came to Chapel Hill and took one of his classes. He was already family folklore. So when I went up to visit her, she arranged for us to have lunch together, and we resumed our friendship. He came to see me each year for 8 or ten years, and I would come to visit him in the house on Whitehead Circle, and met his friends. He loved to dance, and play tennis with much guile and wickedness, and read philosophy and study theology, and fight against what he thought were the destructive currents of academia. When he came to see me, he enjoyed walking on the beach, the conviviality of a good meal and wine with friends, and he even went to surgery and watched me operate. He never lost his sense of wonder or his love of learning. I have long since forgotten the math that he taught me. But he taught all of his students to think clearly, objectively, and logically, and to communicate with precision and exactitude. I often recall his lessons when I have a difficult problem to solve, and think how he would approach it. In a man's life, perhaps one has two or three teachers who have been profound influences on his direction and maturation. I can say one person stands head and shoulders above the rest, as the prime mentor of my life, save my own father. My relationship with Professor Mann shaped and enhanced my life as it did to countless others, and we have been made so very much richer by the association. I am deeply grateful to him for all that he gave me. 
 

Professor William Robert Mann congratulates the first three black undergraduate students to be admitted to the University of North Carolina on September 15, 1955. He is shaking hands with Leroy Frasier. His brother Ralph Frasier is on the right and on the left is John T. Brandon.

At this time there was strong resistance in Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina to admit black students. Robert Mann was the only professor to formally greet the students. A few years later, in 1957, a leading member of the UNC medical faculty, Dr. W. C. George, wrote a four piece article entitled The Negro Race is Biologically Inferior for the Daily Tar Heel that argued against ever integrating the races. Even then, few on the campus or the community took issue with this belief.

The W. Robert Mann Award is given each year for excellence in actuarial science. Plaques bearing the names of winners are located in the undergraduate study room in Hanes Hall.

In 1967 Professor Mann received the Tanner Outstanding Teacher Award from the University of North Carolina.

W. Robert Mann Fund

This is a fund of the Curriculum in Mathematical Sciences that honors the outstanding undergraduate teacher who retired in 1986 after a 37-year career at UNC-CH. The fund enriches the educational experience for students in the curriculum by providing career information, support for technology, and possibilities for interaction for students in that program.

Contributions to this fund can be sent to:
     Ms. Rhonda Inman
     Department of Mathematics, CB #3250
     Phillips Hall
     University of North Carolina
     Chapel Hill, NC 27599

You can also contribute through the UNC Development Office by mailing a check made out to:
     UNC-Chapel Hill to Office of University Development
     Post Office Box 309
     Chapel Hill, NC 27514-0309
and designating that it go to the Department of Mathematics. You can contribute online through the web site carolinafirst.unc.edu
 

Final words from Amanda (a college professor and artificial intelligence researcher)

While it's not as exciting as my friend who managed to buy a many-hundred-dollar-valued autographed book for a couple of bucks recently, I had what I think was a very cool used book experience yesterday. I spotted a copy of Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind on the $1 rack outside the local used book store, which I've been curious to skim. Well, it was on the cheap rack because there are notes scattered through the margins of the book, but they're tidy notes, so I decided to buy it anyway. However, on closer examination, the book was labelled as having belonged to a "W. Robert Mann", which any math major will immediately identify as the name of one of the authors of Advanced Calculus the classic . Granted, it's plausible that multiple people would share this name, but the previous owner was also kind enough to note that the book was purchased at McIntyre's Book Shop, which is in Pittsboro, NC, not far from UNC, where Dr. Mann is listed as a professor emeriti. And the comments clearly come from someone fluent in mathematics. So, I am going to chose to believe that I'll be reading the criticisms of the man whose textbook introduced me to advanced mathematics. His very first note reads:

One of the seductive fascinations of mathematics is that every subject turns out, in the long run, to be merely a small part of something else.
William Robert Mann

by Charly Mann

Chapel Hill was the launching pad for the man responsible for the most beloved television show of all time, The Andy Griffith Show. Andy Griffith learned acting, singing, and acting here, and it was his attendance at UNC football games at Kenan Stadium that inspired the vehicle that made him a star.

Cover of the extended play (EP) 45 of What it Was, Was Football 1953

Andy Griffith graduated from UNC in 1949 with bachelor’s degree in music. He was president of the UNC Glee Club, a member of the Carolina Playmakers and belonged to Phi Mu Alpha, the music fraternity. In 1952  while he was driving from Chapel Hill to Raleigh he created the hilarious spoof of college football he entitled What it Was, Was Football. In the monologue Griffith takes on the persona of a country bumpkin named Deacon Andy Griffith who is swept up by a crowd ascending the wooded hills surrounding Kenan Stadium and finds himself attending an event he will never forget. He recalls seeing opposing crowds on two sides of a cow pasture watching men hit each other and throwing others to the ground as they try to get control of something that resembles a pumpkin. He was appalled to see convicts in striped shirts following the men up and down the pasture, and police standing all around the stadium doing nothing to stop the mayhem.

Andy Griffith in Chapel Hill at Kenan Stadium performing  What it Was, Was Football, Fall of 1954

The routine was recorded at a Jefferson-Pilot insurance convention in Greensboro in 1952. Orville Campbell the incredible owner of the Chapel Hill Weekly released the record on his new label Colonial Records, which would go on to rival Sun Records as an incubator for great artists including George Hamilton IV, Billy “Crash” Craddock, and John D. Loudermilk. The record was soon so popular that the rights were sold to Capital Records where it went on to sell more than one million copies. The attention Griffith received from this record vaulted him into the national spotlight and gave him opportunities to show his acting talents in movies like A Face In the Crowd and No Time For Sergeants, and eventually The Andy Griffith Show.

MAD MAGAZINE's illustrated version of Andy Griffith's What It Was, Was Football

Griffith has stayed close to Chapel Hill and his alma mater throughout his career. He recently gave UNC’s Wilson Library his papers, letters, and memorabilia including his own penciled and marked-up scripts of every Andy Griffith Show episode, as well as those from Matlock. I think his best gift to Chapel Hill though was a time on the Andy Griffith Show in which he told his “son” Opie that if he wanted to go to the University of North Carolina he would have to study hard.

1949 Game that may well have inspired What it Was, Was Football. That is 69, Bob Cox, leading the blockers for the great Charle "Choo-Choo" Justice ,22, against William and Mary in Kenan Stadium. 

This is the forest surrounding Kenan Stadium Andy Griffith would have seen in his UNC years 

by Charly Mann

Thomas Wolfe, one of the greatest writers of all time, entered the University of North Carolina at the age of 15 in September of 1916. When he was a senior he was editor of the Daily Tar Heel. During his college years he was also an editor of the Yackety Yack and a member of the Playmakers. Like many other UNC students, at the time, he often paid for the services of prostitutes in Durham brothels.

Thomas Wolfe 1918 Debater and Orator for UNC Dialectic Society

Thomas Wolfe (center) on the porch of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity 1919

Wolfe loved Chapel Hill more than any place on earth, and shortly before graduating in June of 1920 wrote his girlfriend in Asheville the following: I hate to leave this place. It’s mighty hard. It’s the oldest of the state universities and there’s an atmosphere here that’s fine and good. Other universities have larger student bodies and bigger and finer buildings, but in Spring there are none, I know, so wonderful by half. I saw Carolina graduates when I was home for Christmas who were doing graduate work at Yale, Harvard, and Columbia. It would seem that they would forget the old brown buildings in more splendid surroundings, but it was always the same reply: “There’s no place on earth that can equal Carolina.” That’s why I hate to leave this big fine place. (May 17, 1920)

UNC campus 1919 when Thomas Wolfe was a senior

UNC campus 1916 when Thomas Wolfe was a freshman

Thomas Wolfe’s honors and activities at UNC, listed here from the 1920 Yackety Yack, far exceeded those of everyone else in his graduating class. Note it is said, “He can do more between 8:25 and 8:30 than the rest of us can do all day, and it is no wonder that he is classified as a genius.”

Thomas Wolfe's  UNC senior yearbook photo and accomplishment list. (Note the reference to Gooch's where Wolfe would often eat his meals late in the evening - see previous article.)

Thomas Wolfe's dipolma from UNC, June 1920 

Wolfe is most famous for four lyrically eloquent autobiographical novels. The first, Look Homeward, Angel was published in 1929. The second, Of Time and River was published in 1935. His last two great novels, The Web and the Rock and, You Can't Go Home Again, were published after his death. Wolfe came down with a highly unusual case of pneumonia in September of 1938. He was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore where it was finally determined he had tuberculosis in his brain. The best brain surgeon in the country operated on him, but found the entire right side of Wolfe's brain was covered with tubercles. Nothing could be done, and he died at age 37 on September 15, 1938. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville.
 

by Charly Mann

What makes Chapel Hill great is the people, and great people usually come from incredible families. The Harry and Sybil Macklin family was one of these. Besides owning and running one of most quintessential Chapel Hill eateries, they produced three remarkable children: Ralph, Arlene, and Rosalie.

Harry (and later Ralph) Macklin House on Noble Street in downtown Chapel Hill

Ralph has made his mark on Chapel Hill in a variety of ways from restaurateur and top-notch poker player, to one of the most lighthearted souls to inhabit the Southern Part of Heaven. I also know several very bright people who knew him well who say he is incredibly smart. Ralph graduated from UNC with a degree in Industrial Relations.

Ralph Macklin, Chapel Hill High School 1957 Senior picture

His sister Arlene is also very bright, but my impression is that she is much more practical and focused than her brother. I started noticing Arlene when I was in the 7th grade at Chapel Hill Junior High School and she was an 11th grader at the High School next door. She made an indelible impression because she had a maturity and seriousness that was years beyond her actual age. She also was one of the best-dressed and most attractive young women in Chapel Hill. These attributes swept a Durham boy named Barrie Bergman off his feet, and they were married just a few months after she graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 1963.

Arlene Sharon Macklin, at 17 in 1962 - Junior Year Photo

Arlene and Barrie opened the Record Bar on Henderson Street in 1963, which was the first of more than one hundred record stores that Barrie would go on to open all over the United States. Arlene and Barrie now live in Santa Barbara.

FRONT ROW: Arlene Macklin - Senior Class Treasurer, Gale Green - Secretary, Eva Blaine - Associate Justice
BACK ROW: George Thompson - Vice-President, David McConnell - President

Arlene Sharon Macklin and other members of 1963 Chapel Hill High School Senior Class. The quote under her name says, "A little word in kindness spoken, a motion or a tear, has often healed the heart that's broken, and made a friend sincere,"  which is from A Little Word by Daniel Clement Colesworthy

Arlene and Barrie Bergman House - 612 Greenwood Road (This house was on my paper route before the Bergman's owned it)

Barrie Bergman – Mr. Arlene Macklin

Barrie Bergman, Arlene’s husband, lived in Chapel Hill most of his adult life. Barrie also long ago switched allegiance to UNC over his alma mater Duke.

Barrie is deservedly a legendary figure in the music business. His vision and hard work created a chain of more than 200 stores, The Record Bar and Tracks, that has never been rivaled in quality, selection, or customer service. Many of my contemporaries incorrectly believe Barrie lucked into the music business because his Dad owned the Record Bar in Durham in the early 1960s. The truth is that it was Barrie's uncle who owned that store, and that Barrie learned the music business from working with him, starting as I recall, at about the age of twelve. Barrie's Dad, Mr. B, as he was known, was a wonderful man who really cared about his customers, but it was Barrie who knew music. When Barrie's Dad took over the record store in Durham, it was already Barrie's intention to make his mark in the music business. I have heard from several people who knew Barrie that he planned to go to New York City in the early 60's and get a job in the music business.  I am confident he would have been very successful at starting a record label that would have rivaled the likes of Atlantic, Electra, and A&M Records. After all he had a passion and an early background in the music business, and certainly had better connections to southern soul, rock, and folk than anyone else in the industry.

As luck would have it Barrie agreed to work for his Dad for a few years to expand the Record Bar, first in Chapel Hill, then to Raleigh, followed by a second store in Durham. Under Barrie’s leadership the company doubled its size almost every year until 1989 when the chain was sold to the Dutch company Superclub for, as I recall, about 200 million dollars. It is true that Barrie got his start in the record business at the best possible time, just as he sold out as the decline of the music business began, but no one else could do what Barrie did so well, and that was running well stocked record stores, primarily in malls, run by people who loved music and loved selling it to others. A unique trait of Barrie’s is his ability to learn and not repeat mistakes. He candidly admits several terrible senior personnel choices he made, but throughout his career he has gained from those experiences and become one of the best judges of business character on the planet. 

by Charly Mann

In the 1950s and 1960s Chapel Hill High School was located on West Franklin Street, but played its home football games in Carrboro in Lion’s Park located on Fidelity Street. I cannot recall that the team was ever known for its offensive dominance or overpowering defense, but it had something no other team in the country had that made all the difference, George Cannada, better known as Cat Baby, who always enthusiasticly led the Wildcats onto the field.

"Whatta Ya Say Cat" - Cat Baby 1980 photo submitted by Robert Humphreys

Cat Baby was omnipresent in Chapel Hill throughout the 1960s and 70s. He was also probably the most well-known and well-liked person in the community. He enjoyed talking to anyone. He was a large man in both heart and body. He usually had a cigar or chewing tobacco in his mouth when he made the rounds of his town. He was also the “unofficial” greeter every Sunday at the Carrboro Baptist Church.

Some say he was the unofficial mascot of Chapel Hill High School, but I think he was actually the mascot and quintessential spirit of all of Chapel Hill. Cat Baby managed to eke out a living throughout his life as a paperboy. Cat Baby died at 58, in 1993.

by Charly Mann

There are many reasons I love Chapel Hill, but the primary reason is its beauty. Much of what we consider beautiful about Chapel Hill is because of one man, William Chambers Coker. He came to UNC in 1902 to teach biology, but his love for natural beauty, and his wise decision to marry the then President of the University's daughter, Louise Venable, gave him the eye and the power to transform a rather bland campus into the southern part of heaven. At the beginning of the 20th century there were few trees, shrubs, or paths on the campus, and more than five acres of it were nothing but swamp.

During the 1920s he had sidewalks built and beautiful trees and shrubs planted to unify the look of McCorkle and Polk Places. He also used his own money to make an arboretum out of the swamp. Over the course of nearly forty years he continued to add trees and plants to this place, including many that are native to Asia. The wisteria arbor on Cameron Avenue was built of native black locust in 1911.

William Coker (1892 - 1953)

right portion of this view is Coker Arboretum

by Charly Mann

Dean Smith Center

Like Baron von Haussmann, who almost single handedly designed and built Paris, Joe Hakan is the person most responsible for the Chapel Hill we all love. He designed and built the Dean Smith Center or Dean Dome, the tower and facilities for UNC-TV, the sundial outside the Morehead Planetarium, Manning Drive, and the Siena Hotel. He was also the Chief Engineer at the University of North Carolina in the fifties. In his lifetime he was literally responsible for hundreds of projects in the Triangle area. He loved UNC sports, knew all the coaches as friends, and if you did business in Chapel Hill you almost always had a connection to Joe.  Joe died in May 2006, at the age of 80.

Joe Hakan

I had several connections to Joe, including the fact that my father-in-law married Joe's ex-wife Virginia. The above set of interviews of Joe, broadcast on WCHL some years ago, will teach you more about Chapel Hill history than any other source. My assocation to WCHL goes back to its beginnings with Ty Boyd in the late 50s. I would go by the station and he often gave me "rock" 45s that the station received. WCHL did not stray into playing "rock" music until the 1970s. In those days they were pure easy-listening. The station's owner, Sandy McClamroch, was also the mayor of Chapel Hill from 1961-1969. He and his family lived in my neighborhood of Greenwood ,at the intersection of Stagecoach and Greenwood Road. Below are a  couple of pictures of me with his daughter, Ginny, in my driveway from July of 1954.

Charles Mann, Ginny McClamroch, & Karr Orr at Mann residence on Old Mill Road