FALL 2015 The principal is my pal Making music Receiver and role model Uptown rising Alumni are boosting the heart of Greenville East The magazine of East Carolina University produced in partnership with the East Carolina Alumni Association Uptown rising 18 Led by Pirates, new businesses are giving uptown Greenville a lift. Making music 26 Students are crafting compositions from idea to recording. The principal is my pal 30 Steve Lassiter of Pactolus Elementary is N.C.’s principal of the year. Receiver and role model 36 Isaiah Jones aims to lead the Pirates on the field and in the classroom. On the cover: Bianca Gentile Shoneman ’99 ’08, president and CEO of Uptown Greenville, provides the vision for a thriving center city. Photo by Jay Clark Nearly two weeks of hard work culminated with cheers at nightfall June 26 when ECU students pulled back the walls of a giant kiln that had reached temperatures of 2,100 degrees Fahrenheit to reveal a 7-foot-tall ceramic fish. The sculpture was made possible by the ECU Ceramics Guild, which raised approximately $4,500 for the project, in collaboration with STARworks and the School of Art and Design in ECU’s College of Fine Arts and Communication. Photo by Cliff Hollis 1 FROM THE EDITOR MAKE A NOTE OF YOUR NEWS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS Complete this form (please print or type) announcements. Also, when listing fellow alumni in How do I subscribe? Our new partnership has lit our fire, too and mail to: Class Notes Editor, Howard House, your news, please include their class year. Mail Stop 107, East Carolina University, Greenville, ECU sends East magazine to Please send address changes or corrections to: NC 27858-4353. Please use additional paper as friends and donors. To begin Flip back one page to the table of contents—if you missed it—and be necessary when sending your news. You also can Kay Murphy, Office of University Development, FALL 2015 email your news to [email protected]. While Greenville Center, Mail Stop 301, East Carolina receiving the magazine, mail dazzled by the marvelous image of a huge, fiery kiln from which a ceramic University, Greenville, NC 27858-4353, or email: your check using the postage- VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1 East happily prints wedding announcements, fish sculpture emerged on campus in July. it is our policy not to print engagement [email protected]. paid reply envelope inside. East is produced three times a year by How much is up to you but The project was a partnership among the ECU Ceramic Guild, the nonprofit East Carolina University in partnership with the East Carolina Alumni Association. we suggest a $25 minimum STARworks and the School of Art and Design. It was a summer spectacle, contribution. NAME First Middle Last Maiden providing students with a one-of-a-kind experience made possible by bringing The ECU Foundation supports the right partners together. INTERIM EDITOR many scholarships. Learn how Mary Schulken ’79 CLASS YEAR E MAIL DAY PHONE EVENING PHONE to help a student struggling That’s a great example of why the university and East Carolina Alumni with finances at the foundation’s Association are now partners publishing magazine. Beginning with MANAGING EDITOR East Doug Boyd ’99 ADDRESS website, www.ecu.edu/ecuf. this issue, magazine and have merged into a unified Where is your money most EC Alumni East ART DIRECTOR/DESIGNER and comprehensive university magazine that serves (and reflects) all our needed? The colleges, schools Brent Burch CITY STATE ZIP constituencies: students, alumni, faculty, staff and supporters, as well as the and programs within ECU communities impacted by the work and reach of East Carolina. PHOTOGRAPHERS have defined their funding Jay Clark, Cliff Hollis YOUR NEWS priorities and posted them We did that because together, we can do things we could not accomplish here: www.ecu.edu/ecuf/ CONTRIBUTING WRITERS separately. We will be able to produce and publish a better quality magazine Crystal Baity, Doug Boyd, Harley Dartt, Jackie Drake, funding-priorities.cfm. sharing staff, sharing resources and sharing responsibility for our university’s Amy Adams Ellis, Jeannine Manning Hutson, Another way to support ECU Kathryn Kennedy, Doug Smith ’00 ’07, is to join the East Carolina story. You will be the beneficiary of our new partnership—along with the Spaine Stephens, Steve Tuttle ’09 ’12 institution we all love and serve. Alumni Association and CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER/ILLUSTRATOR receive the magazine as Just take a look at this issue. The cover tells the story of Pirate alumni playing Mike Litwin ’01 well as other benefits and pivotal roles in the economic and cultural rise of Uptown Greenville. Another services. Minimum dues are CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS $35. Visit www.piratealumni. story shows how our College of Education prepared North Carolina’s top Forrest Croce, Benjamin Ealovega, Linda Fox, John D. Kelly, Katie Gipple Lubbock, com to learn how to remain principal to serve youngsters and families in our state’s rural communities. Beowulf Sheehan, Doug Smith ’00 ’07, Ben Solomon connected. A new branded alumni section, Pirate Connections (page 42), offers COPY EDITORS Contact Us Jimmy Rostar ’94, Spaine Stephens everything you need to know to get ready for alumni association football n 252-328-2068 n [email protected] tailgates and homecoming this year—along with the popular Class Notes. ECU REPORT EDITOR n www.ecu.edu/east It also profiles this year’s alumni association award winners. Jeannine Manning Hutson Customer Service Our promise is simple. This new partnership will bring you more robust CLASS NOTES EDITOR To start or stop a stories about how our university changes lives and changes communities. It Joanne Kollar subscription, or to let us [email protected] know about a change of will provide more timely and complete information to help you get involved address, please contact at East Carolina. Each issue will connect the university’s impact and daily life EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATION, Lisa Gurkin, [email protected] PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND MARKETING or 252-328-9561. with all our constituencies and showcase the university’s values of scholarship, Mary Schulken ’79 leadership, service and discovery. Send letters to the editor to [email protected] or Howard House Oh, and one thing hasn’t changed: Feedback is always welcome, and letters to East Carolina University is a constituent institution of Mail Stop 107 The University of North Carolina. It is a public doctoral/ East Carolina University the editor are encouraged. Let us hear from you. research intensive university offering baccalaureate, master’s, specialist and doctoral degrees in the Greenville, N.C. 27858-4353 liberal arts, sciences and professional fields, including Send class notes to medicine. Dedicated to the achievement of excellence, [email protected] responsible stewardship of the public trust and academic freedom, ECU values the contributions of or use the form at left. a diverse community, supports shared governance and guarantees equality of opportunity. Mary Schulken ’79, executive director Marcy Romary, interim associate vice ©2015 by East Carolina University of communication, public affairs chancellor for alumni relations and marketing and interim editor of Printed by RR Donnelley East magazine C.S. 16-1234 29,500 copies of this public document were printed at a cost of $14,669 or $.50 each. 2 3 © be essential to the new school’s Fanning is owner/director of success, complementing services R.A. Jeffreys Distributing Co. Furnished and activities already offered, and general manager of the PHOTOGRAPHY BY CLIFF HOLLIS including the Office of Innovation Greenville location; she attended ECU REPORT and Economic Development, ECU. A 1985 graduate of ECU, Office of Technology Transfer, Normann is managing director of Small Business Institute, and the Normann Financial Group of Small Business Technology and Wells Fargo Advisors. Technology, an Honors College Development Center. The School and a School of Dental Medicine Vice Chancellor for University of Entrepreneurship is expected with community service learning Advancement Chris Dyba to be an active part of ECU’s Forrest Croce Forrest centers across North Carolina. said the new Heritage Hall, a proposed millennial campus, permanent place to recognize Before coming to Greenville, a site where the university J. Fielding and people of historical significance Ballard was a faculty member can collaborate with private Kim Grice Miller to the university, will be in the at the University of Oklahoma, companies to commercialize soon-to-be-built Student Services the University of Maine and research discoveries and offer Center in downtown Greenville. Bowling Green State University. advanced training to benefit the He has served as a chief research region’s high-tech industries. The board voted in February to officer, chief academic officer or create Heritage Hall as a location Miller graduated from ECU with chancellor for 18 years. “where those recognized are a degree in business marketing. presented in an authentic and After consultation with Ross, the In 2013, the university honored comprehensive context” and ECU Board of Trustees will form him with the Outstanding where “all members of the a search committee of trustees, Alumni Award. Pirate Family can make their faculty, students and alumni to Over the past 25 years, own value judgments of any identify Ballard’s successor. At ECU to establish region’s first CAPTRUST has grown under person recognized.” the conclusion of that search, the School of Entrepreneurship Miller’s tutelage from its board will forward a slate of at That vote followed months entrepreneurial beginnings to least three finalists to the UNC of discussion on the name ECU will create the first School placing it alongside universities become one of the nation’s president for consideration. The of Aycock Residence Hall, of Entrepreneurship in the East, such as Auburn, Clemson and the largest independently owned and new chancellor, upon nomination which honors Charles B.