the author or co-author of handbooks for
insurance professionals. He was a longtime volunteer with a Baltimore mission, where he
tutored men recovering from addictions. He
belonged to the Six Napoleons of Baltimore,
an organization for aficionados of the fictional
Sherlock Holmes. At UNC, he was intramural
debate champion in 1948. John Eugene
Pipes (’ 49 AB, ’ 50 MPH), 86, of Lynchburg,
Va.; Nov. 19, 2007. Pipes retired after a career
in public health. He worked for the health
department in Richmond and for the federal
government in Charlottesville and Atlanta. In
WWII, he was in the Navy and also was a
corpsman with the Marines. Jack McKee
Price (’ 48), 87, of Lumberton; Dec. 8, 2007.
Price retired after more than 30 years with the
Internal Revenue Service. In WWII, he was
with the Army in New Guinea and the Biak
Islands. Isabelle Noblitt Purut (’ 47 AB),
87, of Charlotte; Dec. 15, 2007. Purut was an
elementary school teacher in the Charlotte-
Mecklenburg School System. During most of
the ’50s, she lived in Turkey. Beatrix
Blanton Ramey (’ 49 MAEd), 94, of Lattimore;
Sept. 24, 2007. Ramey retired as professor
emeritus at Appalachian State University. An
education professor who supervised student
teachers, she served on the Faculty Senate and
numerous other committees. She was an educational consultant to school systems in a variety of N.C. counties. Charles Leslie
Revelle Jr. (’ 47 AB), 81, of Murfreesboro;
Nov. 19, 2007. Revelle was founder and retired
CEO of Revelle Agri Products and also founder
of Revelle Builders, both of which built structures for agricultural, commercial and industrial
uses. He was past president of the Carolinas
Grain Dealers Association, Murfreesboro
Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce. He
served on the town council. At UNC, he
belonged to Alpha Tau Omega, for which he
was house manager, and NROTC. Robert
Calvin Rice Sr. (’ 48 AB), 83, of New Bern;
Dec. 9, 2007. Rice was a federal service
employee in systems management for 35 years
for Navy Supply at the Marine Corps Air
Station in Cherry Point. He received the
Distinguished Civilian Service Award. In WWII,
he was a Navy supply corps officer in the
Pacific and remained in the Naval Air Reserve.
He was named elder emeritus after many years
of service to his church. Robert Vann
Richards (’ 44), 85, of Greensboro; Dec. 18,
2007. Richards was an executive in the automobile service equipment industry. When he
returned to North Carolina, he operated his
own body-and-frame equipment business. In
retirement, he served as a town councilman in
Topsail Beach. He was president of the P- 47
Thunderbolt Pilots Association. In WWII, he
was a Thunderbolt pilot in the Army Air
Corps. After the war, he worked for an oil
company and was posted in Malaysia and
Thailand and also was a co-pilot for the U.S.
Military and Air Attache to Siam, now
BILL CURRIE 1926–2008
‘Mouth of the South’ Called Them As Only He Could See Them
Tar Heel basketball and football fans are used the game. He just told what or two in
to getting their radio play-by-play straight he saw. You heard about what Pittsburgh, said Currie
up and by the book. It might be as exciting the cheerleaders looked like broke with the Tobacco
as the game itself, but one never wonders or what was going on in the network in the early 1960s
whether there’s going to be an off-color slip first row of the stands. and went to WBOT in
of the tongue. It’s been that way since Woody “Some of the things he Wilson, where he formed
Durham ’ 63 took over the microphone in 1971. said on the air, if there had the Carolina network.
COUR TES Y KDKA
But it wasn’t always. Those who recall been a five-second delay, you On the air with color
Durham’s predecessor, “Mouth of the South” wouldn’t have heard it.” commentator Bob Lamey
Bill Currie, always preface their recollections During the 1968 ACC and engineer “Rowdy”
with a warning that most stories about the Tournament game in which Richard Raley, Currie
colorful commentator are best left out of print. Duke and State mostly Bill Currie was a slave to no fashion but his competed with Reeve
It was Currie who got Carolina’s sports stood around and played to own, and when he spoke people often cringed — and always listened. and the Tobacco network
radio network off the ground in the 1960s, a 12-10 final score, Currie for a time, and gradually
drawing on his experience with the Tobacco said on the air that the action was about as all the schools formed their own radio net-
Sports Network, which broadcast games all exciting “as artificial insemination.” works. Currie continued with the Carolina
over the region, with loyalty to no particular He is said to have been in the habit of tak- network when he took a TV job at WSOC.
school. “The Mouth” left the South to take a ing naps in a casket he kept in his office He also broadcast for the Carolina Cougars
television job in Pittsburgh and more recently when he worked at WSOC in Charlotte. American Basketball Association franchise.
lived with his daughter in Yelm, Wash. “He was eclectic,” daughter Margaret A tribute in the Post-Gazette read in part,
He died there on Feb. 11 of a brain hem- Currie Granger told the Pittsburgh Post- “Dressed in sports jackets as loud as a Three
orrhage. He had had a series of strokes in Gazette. “He made sports interesting for peo- Rivers Stadium crowd with ties as wide as
recent years, but his daughter said he was alert ple who didn’t follow sports. He was a nut. the Ohio River, Bill Currie would pin a
and active to the end, still following and loving He was crazy. He was outrageous. He didn’t boutonniere into his lapel and, in a voice that
Carolina basketball and football. He was 83. care if people talked about him in a good dripped corn pone, mix Scripture with
“I listened to him every night,” Rick way or a bad way, as long as they were talking Shakespeare in sports commentaries that were
Brewer ’ 71, former UNC sports information and kept tuning in.” folksy, rambling, irreverent and laced with
director, said of Currie’s Tobacco network Currie grew up in High Point, where he color and the off-color, all at the same time.”
days as a color commentator for anchor Ray started as a high schooler writing sports for Durham said: “It took him a while to win
Reeve. “Tuesday they’d be at Clemson for a The High Point Enterprise for nothing but a over the Pittsburgh audience. He always,
game with Duke. Wednesday at USC. Thursday byline. He rose to sports editor there and later always wore the boutonniere. He said, ‘They
at N.C. State. Saturday they’d be over here. worked at the Salisbury Post. may not remember me, but they’ll remember
“He always admitted he didn’t know any- Durham, who followed Currie’s career the flower.’”
thing about the intricacies and strategies of after succeeding him and visited him a time
in
memoriam
