Carolina Alumni Review - July/August 2010

Memorial Grove Cited
As Unfair Competition

In the article titled “The Beloved Unknown” (May/June Review), the author appeared to present the Memorial Grove (owned, managed and sales actively promoted by the University) as a simple alternative to burials in the Old Cemetery. It is much more problematic. Some 200 burial sites remain unoccupied in the Old Cemetery and as such are commercially viable until occupied. These are all privately owned property. The Umstead Act prohibits any entity of state government from directly competing with private economic interests. The development and promotion of the Memorial Grove is a blatant violation of both the letter and spirit of the Umstead Act and adversely impacts the owners of the 200 remaining commercial entities in the Old Cemetery. This effort was one of several assaults on the integrity of the Old Cemetery during the Moeser regime and remains problem-

HonkIfYouKnowDelmar/ThePastLiesBuried CAROLINA May/June2010 ALUMNI REVIEW

atic to those who
own burial plots in
competition with
the University’s
commercial sales of
adjoining burial opportunities in proxim-
ity to the Old Cemetery. Fair is fair, and
this is not — it’s illegal.

Splendor
and Sacrifice
Students Tell Stories
of What Shaped
Their Years on the Hill

Steve Moore ’ 70 Chapel Hill Chair, Chapel Hill Cemetery Advisory

Board

A Birthday Toast

Congratulations, Dr. Friday. You were president of the Consolidated University when I was at Carolina, when you were still famous for being such a youthful president (and at some point the youngest major university system president in history). I have had the chance to return to Chapel Hill for a few football games. Amazingly, I have seen you in the crowd virtually every time I returned, always

with a wide smile or grin, talking to friends.

While at Carolina, my father, a high school history and math teacher, told me he had taught you in school. I didn’t believe it, but he eventually found a yearbook with your picture and name (sad to say, since misplaced). By the way, this was the same school where he received a letter from the chairman of the school board absolving him of the allegation that he was teaching the theory of evolution. I am sure a thoughtful schoolboy such as you believed this issue would have been settled by your 90th birthday.

P.S. Dr. James Wharton, chancellor emeritus of LSU, sends his regards.

Dr. Barry Dellinger ’ 71 Professor of chemistry, LSU Baton Rouge, La.

This letter was in response to “Happy Birthday, Mister President,” featured in the June issue of “Out of the Blue.” Alumni

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