of Pembroke State University (now UNC-Pembroke),
Vardell Hall, Peace College and the Scottish College
Foundation. While a UNC student, he belonged to Pi
Kappa Alpha and Order of the Grail and was
The
Daily Tar Heel business manager. Frances Gath-ings Ramsey (’ 33), 96, of Asheville; Sept. 17, 2008.
Ramsey was director of the department of social
services in Madison County for 34 years. She began
her work as a volunteer when President Franklin Roosevelt instituted the Federal Emergency Relief Programs. There was money for programs but none for
administration, and she volunteered to help in her
home county of Anson. She was a member of the
same church for more than 50 years. Joseph
Peyton Tunstall (’ 39 BSPHR), 91, of Washington,
N.C.; Oct. 8, 2008. Tunstall, a pharmacist, had a
52-year career with Tayloe Drug Co. in Washington as
a partner and general manager. He was inducted
into the N.C. Academy of Pharmacy and served on
its foundation board for needy students. He was
elected to the statewide executive board of the N.C.
Pharmacy Association. His civic associations
included being vice president of the Washington
Jaycees and the Washington Chamber of Commerce,
a member of the local housing authority board and
a member of the United Way board. He served on
the Beaufort County Community College Foundation
board. In WWII, he was in the N.C. State Guard. At
UNC, he was a charter member and president of
the student branch of the N.C. Pharmaceutical
Association and a member of Phi Delta Chi.
Wilson Rodney Vincent (’ 38 AB), 94, of Greensboro;
Oct. 2, 2008. Vincent retired as supervisor of public
health in Alamance County and spent most of his
career as a public health inspector. In the early
’50s, he and his wife operated a grocery in New
Bern. In WWII, he was in the Marine Corps. Sara
Parker Ward (’ 33 AB), 96, of Spartanburg, S.C.; Sept.
25, 2008. Ward was active in her community and
church. She was president of The Assembly of Spartanburg and the Debutante Club and was chair of
the Spartanburg Committee of the South Carolina
chapter of the National Society of Colonial Dames of
America, among other activities. She was president
of Episcopal Church Women and was the first
woman in her church elected to the vestry. At UNC,
she belonged to Pi Beta Phi. Virgil Stowe Weathers (’ 34 ABEd), 95, of Shelby; Oct. 2, 2008. After a
long career in insurance, Weathers became manager
of Carolinas Ready-Mix Concrete Association and
served as president of the International Council of
Concrete Executives. He was president of Shelby
Rotary Club and a hospice volunteer, among other
civic activities. In the Navy in WWII, he was a beach
master, directing part of the landing on Omaha
Beach on D-Day, and he also took part in the assault
on Okinawa. He received the Purple Heart, a Presidential Citation and the French Croix de Guerre. At
UNC, he was president of the senior class and, the
next year while a first-year law student, president of
the student body. A member of the men’s basketball
team, he was named to the All-Southern Conference
team. He also was on the baseball team and
belonged to Golden Fleece and Order of the Grail. He
served as permanent president for his class. W.
David Wharton (’ 37), 92, of Chapel Hill; Sept. 12,
2008. Wharton retired as head of export sales for
Cone Mills in New York after a 40-year tenure. He
retired to Chapel Hill in 1970 and sang with his
church choir. He was in the Army in WWII, serving in
England and France.
’40s Jack Newton Behrman (’ 45 MA) of
Chapel Hill has received the 2008
Global Leadership Award from the
Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Behrman is the
Luther H. Hodges Distinguished Professor emeritus
at Kenan-Flagler, where he founded and directed the
MBA Enterprise Corps and served as director of the
MBA program and associate dean. Harvey Adolphus Jonas Jr. (’ 40 AB, ’ 42 LLBJD) of Newton participated in the Honor Air trip to Washington, D.C., for
veterans. The visit included a stop at the National
World War II Memorial. Jonas, semi-retired, continues
to drive once a week to the Jonas Law Firm in
Lincolnton. L. Barron Mills Jr. (’ 49 ABJO) of Asheboro has released his third book,
Randolph County:
A Brief History. Mills wrote his county history for the
N.C. Office of Archives and History in 1991 and
continued to update his work. Henry Thomas
“Toby” Webb Jr. (’ 43 AB, ’ 47 MAEd) of Albemarle
has been reappointed to the board of trustees for
Stanly Community College. Webb is a retired school
superintendent.
■ obituaries
Dr. Edward Utley Austin (’ 43), 85, of San Antonio;
Oct. 7, 2008. After graduation, Austin went on active
duty with the Navy in WWII and was recalled to active
duty in the Korean War. He practiced dental surgery
in Charlotte and was involved in many organizations,
including serving as a trustee of the American Dental
Association. His civic commitments included crusade
chairman for the American Cancer Society and 21
years on the Mecklenburg County Board of Health,
five as chairman. He was general chairman for the
Charlotte Mecklenburg Bicentennial outdoor drama
in 1968. He retired from the Navy Reserve with the
rank of rear admiral and received nine medals for his
service. J. Everett Aycock (’ 49 BSCOM), 84, of
Elizabethton, Tenn.; Sept. 16, 2008. Aycock was the
retired owner and operator of a real estate company
in Kingsport and an appraisal company in
Elizabethton. A WWII veteran, he served in the Army
Air Corps in Italy. Thomas Stuart Beach (’ 44), 83,
of Rockingham; Aug. 29, 2008. Beach’s career was
in North Carolina education, retiring as principal of
L.J. Bell Elementary School in Rockingham.
Previously, he was superintendent of Lenoir County
Schools. As a teacher and coach, he coached the
first basketball state championship in the history of
R.J. Reynolds High School in 1948. He served in the
Marines in WWII. At UNC, he was a member of Pi
Kappa Alpha. Jane Pitcher Bell (’ 46 AB), 83, of
Shreveport, La.; Sept. 9, 2008. Bell was a teacher
and librarian at Southfield School in Shreveport for 26
years. She was president of her church women’s
group. After living in Jefferson, Texas, for 10 years,
she returned to Shreveport. Joyce Harris Benson
(’ 49 AB), 83, of Garner; Oct. 15, 2008. Benson
retired after 21 years as a reference librarian for the
San Antonio Public Library. She served in the
Women’s Army Corps from 1953 to 1961 at Fort
Benning and Fort Sam Houston and as a recruiter in
Seattle. Harry Allen Billerbeck (’ 49 AB), 84, of
Shrewsbury, N.J.; Sept. 14, 2008. Billerbeck retired
as New York manager of advertising sales for
TV
Guide. He was named Salesman of the Year for TV
Guide in 1970. Earlier in his career, he worked for
Popular Mechanics and Newsweek. He was an Army
veteran of WWII, serving in Japan. At UNC, he
belonged to Alpha Tau Omega. Edwin E. Boone Jr.
(’ 44 BSCOM), 87, of Greensboro; Oct. 23, 2008.
Boone, who had recently moved to Frisco, Texas, was
a lawyer in Greensboro for 56 years, most recently
with the firm of Turner Enochs & Lloyd PA. He served
in the Pacific with the Marine Corps in WWII.
George Robert Brockway (’ 44), 82, of Palm Beach
Gardens, Fla.; May 15, 2008. Brockway was an engineering consultant for 22 years. Among his positions, he was a Palm Beach County building official,
served on the Palm Beach County Zoning Board and
was engineer for the South Florida Water
Management District. He both wrote and taught the
surveying course for Palm Beach Community College.
In WWII, he was in the Navy and was in the Navy
Reserve for 30 years in the Seabees. At UNC, he was
in the Marching Band and belonged to Sigma Chi.
Robert Parham Bunch (’ 49 AB), 84, of Winston-Salem; Oct. 14, 2008. Bunch retired as a minister of
the United Methodist Church. In 36 years, he served
nine Methodist churches in western North Carolina.
His final appointment was with Bethel United
Methodist in Winston-Salem. He served in the Navy
in WWII, much of that time on a carrier in the Pacific.
At UNC, he was in the Glee Club. Leonard Martin
Byan (’ 43), 87, of West Yarmouth, Mass.; Oct. 13,
2008. Before retiring to Cape Cod, Byan owned and
operated a liquor shop for many years in White
Plains, N. Y. In WWII, he was a chief radioman for the
Navy. Joseph Kincaid Byrd (’ 47 AB, ’ 50 LLBJD),
84, of Drexel; Sept. 18, 2008. Byrd was a lawyer for
more than 40 years, beginning with a solo practice
and retiring as senior partner of the firm he established. He was elected to the N.C. House in 1958
and elected to the N.C. Senate in 1965. An advocate
for mental health care, he was appointed to the
State Board of Mental Health. He was active in his
church for more than 52 years as a choir member,
deacon emeritus and Sunday school teacher. In
WWII, he served in the Army infantry in England,
France, Holland and the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.
He received the Bronze Star for missions behind
enemy lines in Germany. He served in the Army
Reserve for almost 30 years. At UNC, he was active
in student government. Russell Drewry Cherry
(’ 41), 90, of High Point; Aug. 27, 2008. Cherry retired
after 36 years in management with Fieldcrest Mills.
In his senior year at UNC, he enlisted in the Air Force
and served in WWII. His troop transport ship was
sunk by German military, and Cherry was one of a
few who survived, after spending seven hours in a
life jacket in the Mediterranean. He recuperated in a
South African hospital and continued his military service. Donald Charles Christensen (’ 45 AB), 83, of
Rochester, N. Y.; Oct. 10, 2008. Christensen was an
inventory controller for McCurdy and Co. and worked
for Rochester Savings Bank. He was a board member and fundraiser for the YMCA. After college, he
attended Navy Supply School and was on active duty
in Washington, D.C. He served in the Navy Reserve.
At UNC, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was in the
Marching Band and NROTC. William Olds Cooley
(’ 44, ’ 46 AB), 86, of Winchester, Va.; Sept. 8, 2008.
After graduation, Cooley joined the home-building
business, building subdivisions in Maryland, Virginia
and Washington, D.C. He held a number of positions
associated with the National Association of Home
Builders, including as founding director of the Home
Builders Association of Montgomery County. After he
retired, he joined the General Services
Administration as a buildings manager at various
field offices. Cooley interrupted his UNC education to
serve in the Navy in North Africa, Italy, Europe and
