Reunions
Jim Scott ’ 60, a Virginia legislator from
Fairfax,Va., recalled some of the differences between the reunion march Sunday
and his original Commencement. Rain
on his graduation day forced the ceremony inside to Woollen Gym. Though
the sun shone in a Carolina blue sky
this year, the 2010 graduates stayed in the
Kenan Stadium stands, as is now the custom, and did not get to go onto the field.
“Another difference today,” Scott said
as he fell in line with his classmates, “is
there is a little less hair, for sure.”
This Time, No Rain,
Less Hair
By the time the class of
1960’s reunion dinner rolled
around Saturday night, Wade
Smith ’ 60 had talked with so
many long-lost friends that he’d
lost his voice, a rare occurrence
for a lawyer. Fortunately, Smith,
the 1960 class president, already
had formally addressed his
classmates as a speaker at the
Old Students Club Luncheon the day before. He whispered his way through his
duties as master of ceremonies, then turned the mic over to his former roommate,
1960 student body president Charlie Gray ’ 60, and then to Fred Kiger ’ 74, who narrated a slideshow.
“I’ve seen people here I haven’t seen in 50 years,” said Smith, who played football
in the 1959 game in which UNC trounced Duke 50-0. A piece of the goal post
from that game was displayed at the Alumni Center earlier in the day and outside
the banquet hall at The Carolina Inn during the dinner. “At first, they were like a
slide that has to come in focus,” he said of greeting classmates before he recognized
them. “Spending time with these people,
laughing and remembering, is such a joy.”
“At first, they were like a slide that has to come in focus,” Wade
Smith ’ 60 said about recognizing former classmates.
Finding Friends,
Losing His Voice
PHOTOS BY SARAH MCCART Y ARNESON ’96
JIm Scott ’ 60 remembered a rainy graduation day.
During her student days, the then
Ginny Woolard ’ 60 was always at the end
of line, alphabetically. Then she married
a Morton and moved up to the middle
of the pack.
Marching into Kenan Stadium on
Sunday morning “was even better than I
expected,” said Morton, now of Nellys-
ford,Va. “Having so many friends back for
the reunion made it even more special.”
Moving Up in the World
While many of the class of 2010 had
messages to Mom taped to their mortarboards or scrawled across poster board
signs they waved on this very special
Mother’s Day, one 50th-reunion celebrant
marched onto the field with a “Hi, Son!”
sign pinned to her Carolina blue gown.
Sending a Mother’s Day
Greeting, From Mom
Gerald Griffin ’ 60 of Florence, S.C., and
Vaughn Bryson ’ 60 of Vero Beach, Fla.,
missed their Commencement 50 years ago.
Both on Carolina’s baseball team, they’d
played so well that the team was on the
road in Gastonia over graduation weekend,
playing in the regional tournament. Both went on to play in the
College World Series in Omaha.
On Sunday, this time they made it to Commencement, and Griffin
wore a Carolina baseball cap in lieu of a mortarboard and tassel.
(Baseball) Cap and Gown
Vaughn Bryson ’ 60
and Gerald Griffin
’ 60, wearing cap,
made the lineup at
Commencement
this time.
We Don’t Know Any More
Now Than We Did Then
As the dessert plates were whisked
away at his class’s reunion dinner, former student body president Charlie
Gray ’ 60 talked to classmates about
what they had in common. When they
came to Carolina, they were all kids
from Small Town, USA, rough gems in
need of polishing, a task accomplished
by the joys and heartbreak of life over
the past 50 years.
The following morning, the class of
1960 would don caps and gowns and
step onto the field at Kenan Stadium.
“We don’t know what lies ahead of
us,” Gray said, “just as we didn’t know
at Commencement 50 years ago.”
GORDON PALMER ’ 82
Former student body president Charlie Gray ’ 60, with
wife Kathy, said the future is still as hard to see now
as it was at his class’s original graduation.
