Three Generations of Pirates
Memories shared by Ann Banks Stocks, Class of '82 & '84 in commemoration of Founders Day, 2006. Share your memories with us too.
East Carolina has always figured into my family's life. My parents, Greenville Banks, Jr. and Martha Ann Johnson Banks, were the first
members of their respective families to attend college when they did so in 1953. East Carolina College was where they met. They married after graduating in 1957. They were business administration and education majors, and remember many of their professors and classmates from that time. They have often talked about how the landscape of the university has changed since their campus days -- the original Austin building, Flanagan, Graham, and Wright were some of the major buildings. Garrett, Umstead, and Joyner Library were built during the time they attended school. They enjoyed participating in the business honor fraternity, Pi Omega Pi.College was always a goal stressed for me by my parents, and East Carolina University was a logical choice for me when it came time to make that decision. Since we resided in Greenville, my parents decided that I should have the experience of living in the dorm. I lived in 1016 White Hall, the floor known as the "penthouse" since it was the top floor. Our room afforded us a nice view, but it was a long trip back up the stairs, or an even longer wait for the elevator after an early morning fire drill. I am a morning person, so 8:00 classes were good for me, except they almost always seemed to be on the third floor of Brewster on the other side of campus! While I attended the university, I worked as a self-help student at Joyner Library in the Circulation Department. As I planned to pursue a Master of Library Science degree after I completed my B.S. in English, I anticipated that the experience there would be beneficial to me. Little did I know that I would gain full time employment in the Cataloging Department while I was in graduate school, and I continue to work there still, although now I am in the Systems Department.
In terms of changes to the architectural landscape of the campus, one of the neatest things to me was the preservation of the original columns that were there in 1954 when my parents returned as sophomores to the "new" library. Those columns were composed of separate sections, and were carefully threaded on multiple steel rods in their current position today when the addition and renovation were completed in the late nineties.
East Carolina will continue to figure in my family's life as my oldest son has accepted ECU's invitation to enroll as student in the fall of 2006. Three generations of Pirates!
