Big Events

Memories of national and local events shared by ECU alumni in celebration of Founders Day 2006. Share your memories with us too.

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1960 - JFK Campaign Visit

In the Fall of 1960 I was a senior at East Carolina College. John F. Kennedy came to Greenville campaigning and the event was held at the football stadium. My girl friend (Betty Rose Frazier), who has been my wife for 44 years and the ADPi's were in their red, white and blue outfits (white straw hats with RW&B bands)to welcome JFK. He leaned out of the convertible he was in and told all the girls how much he appreciated their coming out to welcome him. These ladies will never forget this experience. He was a very charismatic man who left a lasting impression.

~ Paul Gibbs, class of 1961

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1963 - JFK Assassinated

If you are old enough, you remember where you were the day that President John Kennedy was assasinated. I was sitting in my freshman English I class (1963) and the instructor was Prof. Antionette Jenkins. The class met at 1:00 PM. She came in on November 22nd and said that someone had shot the president while he was in Dallas. I immediately thought to myself, "Why would anyone want to shoot President Leo Jenkins and why would he be in Dallas, TX?" (He was the president of our, then, East Carolina College and no relation to the professor, I don't think.) I didn't verbalize my question, but was very confused about the situation and found it difficult to concentrate. We went on with class and after about 20 minutes, Dr. Jenkins stated that the president must have died because they were lowering the flag out front to half mast. You see, we were in Old Austin and our classroom window faced the front lawn right where our American flag flew. Well, as I recall, none of us said anything. We were all kind of dumbstruck. Only then did I realize that our English professor was talking about our United States President -- JFK. We silently left the classroom and Old Austin. I began walking back to Umstead Dorm and the whole campus seemed to be mute and in shock.

~ Miriam Alligood Lambert, class of 1967

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1970 - Total Eclipse of the Sun

My favorite memory of ECU occurred 10 years before I was a student there. It was Saturday, March 7, 1970, a bright, clear day, when the path of totality of a solar eclipse went through eastern North Carolina. I was living and working in Raleigh and drove to Greenville in time to find a place on the ECU campus to watch in the early afternoon. Several people had telescopes set up in an area that I think was near the book store. As the disc of the moon crossed the sun, the sun remained too bright to look at with the naked eye right up to the "diamond ring" effect just before totality. The sky did not get night-time dark, but dim. We might have experienced the "shadow bands." There was a slight chill in the air. Some birds flew around. Mercury and Venus were visible in orbit around the sun that displayed its corona and prominences. It was a crowd pleaser. Totality lasted only a couple of minutes, but the memory remains. This was not the same eclipse as the one immortalized a few years later in "You're So Vain."
~ Elizabeth N. Stinson, class of 1980

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1979 - Festival for a Humanitarian Renaissance

In the spring of 1979, several brave students and faculty joined in celebrating humanity with the first and only Festival For a Humanitarian Renaissance. Students Jay Stone and Jeff Whisnant organized the event and Professor Jeff Daniels MCd the event. Numerous campus and local groups spoke. Area musicians contributed their time. The whole event was staged in the long meadow running down the middle of main campus. For one day, the whole University celebrated being human. All the best, Jeff Whisnant, former leader of Students for Economic Democracy, Phi Sigma Tau National Philosophy Honor Society, and 1985 graduate. Pictures can be found in the 1979 East Carolina Year Book. Thanks for the memories!!!!!!
~ Jeff Whisnant, class of 1985

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2001 - September 11

I have so many stories from College, so many professors who shaped my life, so many friends who I had precious little time with. One memory stands out as unique to a selective group of individuals who attended the University during one of America's most tragic events. Walking to class one day on September 11th, I noticed a huge group of students hovering around Mendenhall. Some had tears in their eyes, others stood in shocked amazement. I wondered what had happened on that average, sunny morning, so I stopped and went inside. Huddled around the televisions, students watched as the towers burned. Stunned. That is the only way to describe it. We were all surrounded by people, yet each of us was alone in our grief, and amazement that in a few moments our world had changed. As the first Tower collapsed I heard myself say "Oh, my God." This struck me as odd, being generally a person who struggles to be empathetic (a great character flaw.) A young man beside me said, "those people. My, God, those people." He started to weep opening, giant sobs of a collective pain felt across the nation. I touched his arm, and looked to him through my own blurred vision. As if we had always known each other, he moved to embrace me. His tears stained my jacket, as we watched the second Tower follow the first.

All through that day a hollowness opened inside me. I saw the greatest magnitude of human tragedy, yet all around me compassion sprang forth. Students were in full force, collecting money for the victims, giving blood which we all hoped would be needed, and packing the auditorium so full that not all who wanted to come mourn were allowed in. An entire class feeling the same way for a singular event. Solidarity like none that has been felt by my generation. Students were intrinsically changed forever. Those who attended at that time certainly recall the following classes were sorrow eventually gave way to pride for who we are as a people. With all of our collective faults, that day we, the young naive ECU students, became young Americans. The most valuable lessons taught that week were not inside the classrooms, but in the lines formed to give blood, and outside the student store to give money. However we could help, we did, and this is how I will always remember my graduating class as one.

~ Victoria Kidd, class of 2001

As I was reading the September 11th memory written by Victoria Kidd, class of 2001, I felt as if I had written it myself. I coincidently was in the exact same place at the exact same time she was when I heard the news. The feelings she had that day matched my feelings exactly. I was only a first semester freshman when it happened, but it made me realize from that day on how much of a family the students are at ECU. In the face of tragedy, we came together as one. I remember a candlelight ceremony they did outside of Mendenhall in the brickyard that week. It was one of the most emotional things I have ever experienced. So many students attended it and there was not a dry eye. I love and miss my ECU family so much. I can't imagine what life would have been like if I had not picked ECU as my college, go pirates!!

~ Caroline Martz, class of 2005