Wake Forest Magazine December 2000
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c1+c4wake 1/10/01 10:55 AM Page 3 The origins of NASCAR The insidiousness of Western culture Wake For e st M A G A Z I N E Deacon hoopla The presidential debate returns to campus. Page 10 Volume 48, Number 2 December 2000 c2-01wake 1/10/01 10:58 AM Page 3 Wake For e st M A G A Z I N E Features 10 A Grand Old Party by Jennifer Bays (’01) and David Fyten With all the boisterousness of a circus bandwagon, the presidential debate stopped for a second show at Wake Forest. And quite a spectacle it was. 20 Fast and Furious by Pete Daniel (’61, MA ’62) The down-and-dirty early days Page 20 of stock car racing were rooted in the cultural transformation of the postwar South. Page 10 Profile 28 Resurrective Vision Departments by Amy Andrews Hoogervoorst Like the mythical Phoenix, 2 Campus Chronicle James Blackburn—the celebrated prosecutor of Jeffrey MacDonald who became the prosecuted— 34 Sports is rising from his own ashes. Essay 36 Alumni Report Page 28 31 The Winds of Change by Ashley Twiggs (’01) 45 Class Notes Should we be accountable when our culture encroaches on another, threatening its obliteration? 64 The Last Word Page 31 Volume 48, Number 2 December 2000 02-09wake 1/8/01 9:52 AM Page 2 2 Campus Chronicle ZSR gift is largest-ever long-term pledge to Wake Forest In perpetuity campaign: scholarships for The most prestigious of Wake students from middle-income Forest’s faculty honors, the N THE FIRST COMMIT- families and salary supplements Reynolds Professorships were Iment of its kind to any for faculty.” funded in 1982 with support organization, the Z. Smith The largest percentage of from the foundation. Reynolds Foundation of the gift—25 percent—will The remaining 20 percent Winston-Salem has pledged a fund scholarships for North of the gift will be used for perpetual gift of 3 percent of Carolina students from middle- special undergraduate programs The largest its annual income to Wake income families. Since Wake and needs. During the capital Forest University. Forest was founded in 1834, campaign, this money may percentage of In the first year, that gift is undergraduates from North be used to match gifts from predicted to be approximately Carolina have outnumbered individuals for endowed schol- $750,000 and is expected to those from any other state. arships for the College. the gift will fund grow each year thereafter. The Twenty percent of the The University’s partner- new gift is similar to adding commitment will support ship with the foundation began scholarships for $15 million to the University’s Joseph G. Gordon Scholarships in 1946 when Wake Forest endowment. Earnings from and 15 percent will support accepted the foundation’s $15 million in endowment Nancy Susan Reynolds proposal to move it from North Carolina would generate approximately Scholarships, both funded ear- the town of Wake Forest to $750,000 for the University lier by the foundation. Winston-Salem. Since that students from each year. “We are pleased to invest time, Wake Forest has received The pledge is the largest in the formation of young more than $63 million from long-term commitment ever lives and ultimately the future the foundation. middle-income made to Wake Forest by a of our state and region,” said This recent commitment foundation. It will be applied Jock Tate, president of the Z. comes in addition to a $1.2 families. toward the University’s capital Smith Reynolds Foundation. million annual grant the Z. campaign, which will have “We hope this partnership Smith Reynolds Foundation its public kickoff in April. will continue Wake Forest’s currently gives to Wake Forest. “I thank and commend efforts to empower students The foundation’s last gift to the Z. Smith Reynolds who want to use their educa- the University—$200,000 Foundation for its support tion to make the world a bet- annually to fund Zachary of our students and faculty,” ter place.” T. Smith Scholarships for said Thomas K. Hearn Jr., Another 20 percent of the North Carolina students— president of Wake Forest. foundation’s commitment will was in 1996. Wf “With this gift, the University be used for salary supplements will be able to address the top for promising young faculty two priorities of our capital members and to establish new Reynolds Professorships. Wake Forest December 2000 03wakeX1 1/8/01 10:09 AM Page 3 3 Campus Chronicle A state graced “I’ve never gotten lost,” The foundation has both Lambeth said recently as he responded to the needs of The breadth and depth of was driving to Charlotte to organizations seeking its grants Tom Lambeth’s mission meet with representatives of and begun initiatives where its organizations who are seeking trustees and advisory boards OME YEARS AGO, TOM grants from the foundation. have seen a need. Of its annual SLambeth, executive direc- The same could be said of him disbursement of roughly $20 tor of the Z. Smith Reynolds when it comes to issues affect- million, about $1 million goes Foundation, and Ed Wilson Jr., ing North Carolina and the to projects initiated by the a fellow at the foundation, foundation’s progressive aims foundation. The remaining drove on Highway 64 from in addressing them. $19 million is awarded in Murphy in the extreme west- The foundation was begun response to grant proposals. ern tip of North Carolina to with the inheritance of the sib- It has focused its grants Manteo on Roanoke Island lings of Z. Smith Reynolds, in broad areas such as race near the Outer Banks. The the youngest son of tobacco relations, women’s issues, nearly five-hundred-mile trip, magnate R.J. Reynolds and economic development, public which took twelve hours, Katharine Smith Reynolds. education, and the environ- allowed them to take the full “We have had great freedom ment. This year it has initiated measure of the state, from and flexibility,” Lambeth says studies on the hog industry winding mountain roadway, of the trustees that govern and and smart growth, helped ‘It has been a through the rolling Piedmont the staff that runs the founda- establish a voter education and the long sandhill straight- tion’s daily activity. “You real- project, and sponsored Bill constant learning aways east of Rocky Mount, ly only had one founder who Moyers’ speech in Raleigh to to the coast. lived long enough and whose North Carolina’s leaders on In some ways that trip was personality had great influ- campaign finance reform. experience, a a metaphor for Lambeth’s ence, and that was Nancy When Lambeth announced tenure at the foundation, which Susan Reynolds [who served his plans to retire earlier this constant geography will end when he retires Decem- on the board for half a centu- year, the Charlotte Observer ber 31. Much of his twenty-two ry before her death in 1985]. ran a story about him, sug- years with the foundation has She had a sense of what her gesting that his job was the lesson, a been spent on the roads of mother would have wanted.” second most important job in North Carolina. The foundation Katharine Smith Reynolds North Carolina, second only psychology class.’ was established “for the people was very progressive and phil- to the governor. “There are of North Carolina,” and all of anthropic. During her lifetime clearly people who think that its funds must be awarded to she built a model farm and just our saying something is non-profit organizations in the dairy, she established schools important and has a lot of state. Since its establishment in on the Reynolda estate for the impact on others,” Lambeth 1936, it has made no fewer children of all of its employees, said. “It’s a little immodest to than three grants in each of black and white, and she served say that, but I think that’s North Carolina’s one hundred in various elected offices of possibly true.” counties, and Lambeth has the local YWCA, which had a Early in the life of the traveled in all of those coun- great impact on young women foundation, board members ties, logging about 25,000 who had left their farm homes decided Winston-Salem need- miles a year and more than as jobs were becoming more ed a university to enhance its half a million overall. plentiful in Winston-Salem. cultural and economic life. It Wake Forest December 2000 02-09wake 1/8/01 9:52 AM Page 4 4 Campus Chronicle was these leaders who per- as administrative assistant to Preacher teacher suaded Wake Forest College Sanford for four years, being to move to Winston-Salem, at that time the youngest prin- Brad Braxton’s lectures are and it is the Z. Smith cipal assistant to a governor in sermons in themselves Reynolds Foundation that the nation. He worked for the has helped sustain Wake Smith Richardson Foundation OME MIGHT SAY there’s Forest as it has grown in and as administrative assistant Sa fine line between teach- reputation during the last half to Congressman Richardson ing and preaching, but for of the twentieth century. Preyer before becoming exec- Brad R. Braxton there maybe Gifts to the University’s tive director of the Z. Smith is no line at all. endowment from the founda- Reynolds Foundation in 1978. “Lord, we love you,” tion support professorships, Judge Thomas W. Ross, Braxton’s voice resonates as salary supplements for faculty, director of the Administrative he leads a dozen second-year and scholarships.