Carolina Alumni Review - July/August 2008

Lifelong Learning

Arboretum Tour Leads Alumni Down Memory Lane Amy Morse Bilich ’ 58 sashayed into the Coker trees are lopsided, having lost Arboretum in a white peasant blouse, sassy skirt limbs on their north side in and sneakers, looking for all the world like the college an ice storm in 2002. The cheerleader she was 50-some years ago. Stepping south side of the trees suf-through the wrought-iron gate on the corner of fered less damage because the Raleigh Road and Cameron Avenue, she reminisced ice melted faster on that side. with her former roommate, Janie Clement Peebles ’ 58. Most of the time, Stern con- “It was so much fun to stroll in here with your siders himself lucky that he fella,” Bilich said. can work in the shade, The sun broke through the rainclouds minutes though, swatting away a mos-before Dan Stern, Arboretum curator, led the first of quito, he cautions, “If you’re several dozen alumni on a tour of the Arboretum. in the shade, so are the bugs.” About 60 alumni signed up for the hour-and-a-half Only two trees in the walking tour through the five and a half acres of flora, Arboretum predate Coker: a much of it native, that botany Professor William C. sprawling swamp chestnut Coker began designing in 1903. The May 8 tour was along the western edge and a an appetizer to the events of spring reunion weekend Walter’s pine, which might be that would begin in earnest the next day. the world’s oldest. Cognizant “Are all of you Carolina alums?” Stern asked. Heads of the Davie poplar’s damage nodded, and someone shot back, “Are you?” from lightning, Stern vows “I will be Monday,” Stern said. After nearly a decade that nothing similar will hap- of part-time study while he worked at the N.C. pen to the two oldest trees _Dan _Stern, _curator _of _the _Coker _Arboretum, _explains _to _alumni _how

KEITH KING ’ 82

Botanical Garden, Stern was to receive his bachelor’s on his watch. A lightning rod botany Professor William C. Coker more than a century ago turned _degree _in _biology _at _the _May ₁₁ _{graduation. hovers} _inches _from _thewhat was a soggy pasture into one of the most popular and biologi- _cally _diverse _places _on _campus.

Until 105 years ago, the Coker Arboretum, a part of Walter’s pine. the N.C. Botanical Garden, was a soggy pasture that “I wake up in the middle of the night worried that then-UNC President Francis Venable would stride a storm will get it,” he said. through on his way to work. At Venable’s behest, Coker Progress took a slice of the Arboretum in 1948 membership took on the challenge of transforming it into a botani- when construction began on the Morehead matters cal respite and, for his purposes, an outdoor classroom. Planetarium. Students were outraged that the building

Coker began by installing a mile of underground would encroach on their refuge and referred to it as drainage pipes that shunted excess water down to the “Planthead Moratorium.” The then-curator Bolin Creek. He selected many plantings native to installed a dense wall of pines to hide the building, but North Carolina, in hopes of nudging the public to be the trees also blocked the sun. They were thinned after more mindful of conserving natural areas by recogniz- grudging acknowledgment that the planetarium was ing the ornamental value of native plants. Discovering one of the campus’s more attractive buildings. Today, that North Carolina’s climate was similar to that of the Arboretum entrance from that corner is being Southeast Asia, he diversified the garden with plantings opened even more with a brick terrace and walkway. from that part of the world. As the tour wound back to the stone palazzo off

The arbor along the south edge of the Arboretum is Cameron Avenue, Ginny File Williams ’ 56 and her one of the most recognizable icons of Carolina, in the husband, Lou ’ 58, commented on the Arboretum’s company of the Old Well and the Bell Tower. Built in beauty. Neither admitted to having spent much time 1913 of black locust, it was covered first in Carolina there as students, perhaps because of its reputation as a jessamine, then a wisteria that turned out to be an place to steal more than a few kisses. invasive plant. As its senior gift, the class of 1997 paid “We did most of our courting under the Davie for the arbor to be rebuilt — a foot taller and with poplar,” Lou Williams said. improved drainage under the gravel path — and cov- Peebles and Bilich, who as nursing students were ered it in native vines. The arbor was dedicated in allowed into Carolina as freshmen, remember “studying” memory of the five students who died in the Phi in the Arboretum, to which Bilich flashed a sly grin. Gamma Delta fraternity fire the morning of the May “She had a boyfriend,” Peebles explained. 1996 graduation. Bilich made no comment, other than, “I don’t

Two natural disasters — Hurricanes Hazel and Fran remember there being so much sun in here back — have shaped the Arboretum by opening pockets of then.” ■ sunlight in the otherwise shady refuge. Some of the