brought his Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra to
UNC’s newly remade Memorial Hall, and
Thorp took in a performance of Congo
Square, a large-scale work Marsalis co-wrote
about the history of his New Orleans home.
Also an accomplished writer, Thorp
compared it with a performance he heard
of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in a column
he wrote for Wake County Physician.
“The scope, glory and originality of
these works are hard to describe. The
vision of composers with the courage to
create these epics is startling: the enthralled
audience and the huge ensemble make for
an electrifying performance. And having
your 11-year-old sax player sitting and
cheering along with you doesn’t hurt.
“After hearing Congo Square, I was
reminded of the good decision I made
25 years ago to learn the bass and improve
my skills on the piano so that I would
have an easier time getting gigs. It worked,
because I’ve had a great time playing
music in my life.
“And once again, Wynton reminded me
that it was a good idea to have a day job.”
THE NEWS & OBSERVER/JOHN ROTTET
In the four years he directed the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, Thorp took a hands-on role in producing better shows and righted the fundraising machinery that probably will lead to
replacement of the beloved but aging Zeiss star projector.
‘Yes, I had fun’
In a recent TV documentary, E.O. Wilson jammed his 79-year-old hand into a
nest of fire ants. He knew as well as anyone
on Earth what would happen: He’d be in
white-hot pain for a brief time, but it
would pass soon enough, and there’d be no
lasting damage.
Wilson is a scientific giant who helped
shape the world’s thinking about biology
and biodiversity during the key period in
which a much clearer understanding of
genetics came into play. As he approaches his
ninth decade, he is one of the most astute
and articulate advocates of preservation of
the world’s diverse life forms. His point with
the fire ants seemed to be that we humans
act as if we’re afraid to go beyond certain
limits in discovery; only 1. 8 million species
of plants and animals are known, he says, of
maybe 10 million, or maybe 100 million —
we haven’t taken the whole plunge.
The mention of his hero sends Holden
Thorp to the bookshelf so he can show off
an inscription that includes a drawing of an
ant. Research that Wilson started as a child
led him to be the pre-eminent authority on
ants and their behavior, and from there the
bigger picture of biodiversity opened up to
him — precisely what Tom Meyer said hap-
‘It’s evident to me that Holden
was the quintessential team player.
It wasn’t his area of expertise
or maybe even interest. I want
to say he took one for the team.
The flag went up the pole, and
he saluted it. It was a high-risk,
high-visibility project.’
Bob Gotwals
former director of education programs,
Morehead Planetarium and Science Center
pened to Thorp when he ventured into the
research lab as a Chapel Hill undergraduate.
“Ed Wilson embodies so much of what
we look for in academic life: great scholarship and a passion for bringing it to the
public,” Thorp said.
The four years that Thorp ran the
Morehead, 2001-05, can be viewed as a
great opportunity, but also, arguably, as a
dirty-work interruption to his chemistry
pursuits. Here was the University’s iconic
front door, through which thousands of its
alumni had their first encounter as school
kids (Thorp among them), losing attendance to logistical problems like parking
and a place to eat lunch, and also badly
outdated show production, and stumbling
through the fundraising needed to revive
itself. Chancellor Michael Hooker ’ 69
scowled at it, others in his administration
winced, and the town feared the loss of a
Franklin Street anchor.
“It’s evident to me that Holden was the
quintessential team player,” said Bob Gotwals, who was hired to run educational
programs in the center. “It wasn’t his area
of expertise or maybe even interest. I want
to say he took one for the team. The flag
went up the pole, and he saluted it. It was a
high-risk, high-visibility project.”
Gotwals describes two priorities: the
making of a broad-based science museum
that started with building a children’s science camp program from scratch — Thorp
delegated that; and bringing the star theater
shows into the 21st century. On the latter,
Thorp may have been thin on astronomy,
but show production, he knew.
Some long-term planetarium staff were
ushered out the door. “The shows were
very simple, simplistic science and graphics
sophisticated by 1955 standards,” Gotwals
said. “Holden was directly responsible for
