was elected to the N.C. Senate, representing Forsyth
for 16 years. He was honored by Appalachian State
University for accomplishments and contributions to
education, and in 2000, an elementary school was
named in his honor. For two summers, he taught
physics courses at UNC. William Henley Watson
Sr. (’ 45, ’ 47 BSCOM; ’ 50 LLBJD), 85, of Greenville;
Nov. 14, 2008. Watson practiced law for 55 years
and served as Pitt County attorney, was a past president of the N.C. County Attorney Association and was
named N.C. County Attorney of the Year. He served
on the Pitt County Memorial Hospital Foundation for
more than 25 years, was exalted ruler of the
Greenville Elks Club and served on the Salvation
Army advisory board. He also was a knight in the
Priory of Saint Thomas à Becket. He volunteered as
legal counsel and board member for the Michael
Jordan and Ronald McDonald House celebrity golf
tournaments. He received the Order of the Long Leaf
Pine, the state’s highest civilian honor. In WWII, he
served in the Navy, and he continued his service in
the Navy Reserve’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps
until 1982. At UNC, he belonged to Delta Sigma Pi.
Fletcher Merritt Winstead (’ 41, ’ 43 AB), 90, of
Raleigh; Nov. 30, 2008. Winstead retired as agency
superintendent with Seibels Bruce Insurance Group.
In WWII, he served in the Navy. He was one of eight
children, all of whom graduated from UNC. He was a
member of Phi Delta Theta at UNC. Mary Alice
Whitfield (’ 47 CPHN, ’ 60 BSPHN, ’ 62 MPH), 94, of
Wilmington; Nov. 18, 2008. Whitfield retired as an
instructor in the nursing department at UNC-Wilmington. She also worked as a public health
nurse and at Rex Hospital. She was active in the N.C.
Public Health Association and the N.C. Nurses
Association, serving as president of Districts 14 and
22. She was involved with her church and was elected Lay Person of the Year of the Wilmington District.
Katherine Settle Wright (’ 49 LLB), 82, of Salem,
Va.; Dec. 21, 2008. A lawyer, Wright practiced law in
Chicago and later was with law firms in New Orleans
and Chapel Hill. She was active in the civil rights
movement in New Orleans, especially in connection
with school integration. In 1968, she was one of the
first women to practice law in Orange County. While
in law school at UNC, she belonged to Order of the
Coif and Law Review.
’50s Roger William Ackerman (’ 54 AB)
of Sumter, S.C., has received the
Order of the Palmetto. Ackerman,
retired president of Ackerman Management Inc., was
honored for founding Coins for Alzheimer’s Research
Trust, which has funded innovative Alzheimer’s
research programs in the U.S. James Tully Beatty
(’ 57 AB) of Charlotte was the grand marshal at the
Lenoir-Rhyne University homecoming parade and
spoke at the dedication of the university’s new track
and field and soccer complex. He also was guest
speaker at the monthly
meeting of the Charlotte 50th Class of ’59: Senior Forum. Beatty May
8–10, 2009
Reunion
was the first man to run
a mile indoors in less than four minutes. He served
on the GAA Board of Directors from 1967 to 1970.
Robert Wendell Eaves Jr. (’ 58 BSBA) of Chapel Hill,
husband of North Carolina’s new governor, Beverly
Perdue, has become North Carolina’s first “first gentleman.” Lewis Jefferson Hardee Jr. (’ 59 AB, ’71
MA) of New York has published Of Home and the
River, a history of Southport and Brunswick County
since the Civil War. Hardee is professor emeritus at
Wagner College. John Hosea Kerr III (’ 58 AB, ’ 61
LLBJD) of Goldsboro has retired from the N.C. General Assembly after 22 years. His service began in
the House in 1987 and continued in the Senate in
50s
1994. Kerr served on the GAA Board of Directors
from 2001 to 2004. William Oliver King (’ 59 AB)
of Durham has received the Chief Justice’s Professionalism Award from the Chief Justice’s Commission
on Professionalism. King is a member of Moore and
Van Allen. A former trial lawyer, he practices alternative dispute resolution. King is an adjunct professor
at the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law at
Campbell University. Dr. Daniel Milton Lotz (’ 59
AB, ’ 63 DDS) of Raleigh was the guest speaker at the
Al-Pam Republican Club’s Christmas banquet. Lotz,
retired from his dental practice, served on the GAA
Board of Directors from 1981 to 1984. C. Knox
Massey Jr. (’ 59 BSBA) of Atlanta has received the
William R. Davie Award from UNC. Knox was president,
chairman and CEO of Tucker Wayne & Co. before
retiring in 2000. He has supported UNC through the
C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Awards, which
he created in 1980 to recognize UNC employees. In
1983, he and his wife, Mary Ann Keith Massey (’ 59
ABEd), with Van Louis Weatherspoon (’ 54 BSBA)
and his wife, Kay, who is Massey’s sister, created the
Massey-Weatherspoon Fund to support those
awards. The Masseys, with John Woodfin Burress III
(’ 58 AB) and his wife, Mary Louise Bizzell Burress
(’ 58 ABEd), also established the Ruel W. Tyson Distinguished Professorship in the College of the Arts
and Sciences. Massey served on the GAA Board of
Directors from 1983 to 1986. William Howard
Redding Jr. (’ 58 AB) of Asheboro has received the
Humanitarian Award from Regional Consolidated Services, a nonprofit human services agency serving 11
counties. Redding is president of Acme-McCrary
Corp., a director of Randolph Hospital and a trustee
of the Randolph-Asheboro YMCA. He served on the
GAA Board of Directors from 1973 to 1976. James
Horner Winston (’ 55, ’ 54 BSBA) of Jacksonville, Fla.,
has received the William R. Davie Award from UNC.
WILLIAM CARL PAGE JR. ’ 50 1926–2008
Page’s Company Put the President on His Rocker
in
memoriam
There’s a lingering image of the late Carolina baseball team captain Jack Powell ’ 19 that gave a user a curve to fit into.
President John F. Kennedy sitting in his — put Kennedy in touch with Page. When Travell contacted the company, she
rocking chair — in the Oval Office or perhaps Kennedy had more praised the rocker’s design for its
on a porch in Hyannisport — getting relief than a dozen of the oak- lower arm rests as well as for the
from the back that gave him so much pain. and-cane rockers spread concept of bending the posts.
That rocker can be traced to William Carl around the places he fre- Elizabeth Page said the chair
Page Jr. ’ 50 of Asheboro and the company quently visited. company closed at the time of
that produced it, the P&P Chair Co. Page died When news of her husband’s death. The family
Nov. 15, 2008, at age 82. The chair company Kennedy and his rocker would like to find the right
closed about the same time. hit the media, the small company to take over making
Page’s father, Bill Page Sr., and his business company was deluged the rocker. “It’s all in limbo right
partner, Arthur E. Presnell, started the company with orders, visitors and now,” she said.
and began making rocking chairs in 1926, the media. In fact, when Bill Page Jr. served in the
believing they could improve on the old- Kennedy invited the Page Navy in WWII before attending
fashioned model. Presnell left the company a family to the White UNC, where he belonged to
few years later, and P&P continued as a family House to express his Alpha Tau Omega. His wife
GREENSBORO NEWS & RECORD
business. appreciation, Page noted that two of their grand-
Bill Page Jr. ’ 50 declined a chance to
Fame came when Kennedy, then in the declined — he was too children are now attending
meet President Kennedy at the White
U.S. Senate, visited Dr. Janet Travell for help busy making rockers. House because his company was too busy UNC. Laura Brentnell, a sopho-
filling orders.
with his back and sat in one of the rockers in Why this rocker? As more, is a Morehead-Cain
her waiting room. Travell — who became the Page’s widow, Elizabeth, explained, it had a Scholar. Jonathan Brentnell is a first-year law
White House physician for Kennedy and unique bend in the back posts, a bend in the student.
