Classes of ^69, 35, ^62 lead
in giving to Alumni Loyalty Fund
When the fiscal year closed on May 31, 1989, gifts to the Alumni Loyalty
Fund from alumni totaled $28,373.98. This represents gifts from 481 in
dividuals who comprise 5 per cent of the total membership fo the Alumni
Association.
The Class of 1962 is recognized as having given the largest gift total among all
classes to the Alumni Loyalty Fund with $2,230. The Class of 1969 had the most
members giving to the Alumni Loyalty Fund with 26 members contributing.
In judging participation by per cent of the elgibile donors to give, the Class of
1934 was the leader among all classes with a participation rate of 45 per cent.
The Alumni Association recognizes these three classes for their leadership
efforts in giving to the Alumni Loyalty Fund and wishes all classes the best of
luck in reaching the top ranks for the 1989-90 Alumni Loyalty Fund year, which
ends on May 31, 1990.
Death claims Maggie Bridgers,
Vice Chairman of Trustees
The funeral for Mrs. Maggie Boone
Bridgers, 79, who died Sept. 3 in her
home on Creeksville Road near Jackson,
was conducted Sept, 5 at Creeksville
Baptist Church. Burial was in the church
cemetery.
Mrs. Bridgers, widow of the late J.
Grady Bridgers, was active in education,
politics and Creeksville Baptist Church,
of which she was a member. Sunday
School teacher and treasurer.
A retired public school teacher, she
taught mathematics at Jackson High
School, Seaboard High School, Gates
County High School and Northampton
County High School, East, before
retirement.
She was a member of the N. C. State
Democratic Committee. She served on
the Board of Trustees of Chowan College
and was vice chairman. Mrs. Bridgers
was a 1932 graduate of Chowan.
Her survivors are a son, Lanny B.
Bridgers, of Atlanta, Ga.; grand
children, Hillary Bridgers and Land
Bridgers, also of Atlanta; and several
nieces and nephews.
Memorial donations may be sent to the
J. Grady and Maggie B. Bridgers
Scholarship Fund at Chowan College.
M.
Ly first four weeks in office have been most gratifying and
rewarding. My family and I have been graciously received by the college
family and the community. It is both an honor and a pleasure to serve as
Chowan’s 20th President.
One of the major issues with which we are dealing is whether or not
Chowan should remain a 2-year institution or become a 4-year institution.
When I met with the Prusidential Search Committee, there was strong
feeling that this issue needed to be studied again, as the “jury is still out”
on the decision that had been made some five years ago. In talking in
dividually with over 90 faculty and staff members during my first month
in office, it became obvious that the Search Committee was on target in
their assessment.
Since the college had just successfully completed its Southern
Association Self-Study, it appeared that this was the best time to study the
2-year versus 4-year issue again. In its meeting in September, the Board of
Trustees approved the study of this issue again, that the Chairman ap
point the committee and the committee present its final report by June 1,
1990.
The members of the committee are: Dr. Joyce Elliott, Professor of
Speech, Chairperson; Mrs. Phyllis Dewar, Professor of Chemistry, Dr.
Calvin Owens, Chairman of the Department of Mathematics, Mr. David
Parker, Chairman, Department of Art, Mr. Robert B. Spivey, member of
the Chowan College Board of Advisors, and ex-officio members Mr.
Thomas M. McCrary, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Dr. Frank
Lowe, Dean of the College, and Mr. Ben Sutton, Business Manager.
Please contact any of the committee members or me if you have any
thoughts on this issue. We will be pleased to hear from you.
The invitation is open for you to visit the campus anytime you are in
the area. It is always a pleasure to visit with alumns and friends of the
college.
—Jerry F. Jackson,
. President of the College
Miss Betsy: A tough act to follow
By GUY FRIDDELL
Reprinted from the September 8,1989
edition of
The VIrginian-PUot
If you have even been around
Elizabeth Camp Smith of Franklin, you
would have met her, a great-niece
remarked the other day, because
wherever she was, she introduced herself
immediately to everybody.
“She left us a real act to follow,” said
Betsy Rawls Agelasto of Virginia Beach,
thinking about her great-aunt, who died
Wednesday in Franklin at age 92. Mrs.
Smith was the last surviving child of
James L. and Carrie Savage Camp. “Big
Jim” Camp was one of six brothers, three
of whom founded Camp Manufacturing
Co., which became Union Camp Corp.,
after a merger in 1956.
As with all the Camps, Elizabeth was
tall, gregarious, generous and extremely
bright, said historian Parke Rouse, Jr.,
whose "The Timber Tycoons” traces the
founders and three generations of
progeny.
She was so happy and vivacious that a
roommate at Westhampton College
6—CHOWAN TODAY, December, 1989
called her “Betsy Bumps,” a nickname
that persisted through the Camp
generations. Agelastor recalled that she
talked about her so much in college that
a classmate, upon meeting Mrs. Smith,
exclaimed, “I’ve heard so much about
you, Mrs. Bumps.”
“We would go into a restaurant,
trailing her, and she would know 50
percent of the people and stop at their
tables and move to meet the others,
talking, her hands flying, with
everybody, no matter the age, color or
what. She was stately so she came forth
as a strong person. Peggy Ray says he
kind of swooped into a gathering. She
was deeply religious, and, entering
church on Sunday, she stopped for a
greeting at every pew.
“She had no children so she was
everybody’s mother or grandmother. She
kept a closet full of blocks and a bottom
drawer of a chest with coloring books and
crayons and paints ready for us. And she
was as interested in the families of the
servants as she was in us. She just
adopted people, and each felt he or she
was the object of her special attention.
“I’ll tell you something real special:
The Camps always met for coffee at
somebody’s house every Sunday, but on
Christmas Eve we gathered at Betsy
Bumps’, 120 of us, for an elegant lunch,
all kinds of cheeses and tons and tons of
desserts. Her brother, Jim, had a
beautiful voice and we sang carols
around the piano for 45 minutes. It just
set the tone for Christmas.”
Agelasto’s father, Sol Rawls, Jr.,,
recalled that Elizabeth Camp entered the
first class to attend Westhampton
College. Dr. George Modlin, former
president of the University of Richmond,
observed Thursday that her very
generous support of the university in
cluded memorials to her classmates.
She established a chair at Chowan
College honoring Colgate W. Darden, Jr.
He and his brother, Pretlow, and sister,
Katherine Lindsay, were “close as;
cousins” to the Camps of their
generation.
“A dear, dear sweet soul!” Mrs.
Darden commented Thursday. “There
was never anybody like her. She just
loved people.”
In his childhood, Rawls said, “her
house was a wonderful place to visit
because we could get away with things
there we could never do at home.”
She insisted that her teenage nephews
dance with the daughters of her friends,
and when one 14-year-old was dilatory
about the duty, his aunt walked behind
the girl and gave him a stern eye, along
with a glimpse of a $5 bill, a
simultaneous carrot and stick that moved
him quickly. “She wanted everyone
around her to enjoy life as she did,”
Rawls said.
“She created a scholarship fund and
took an interest in everyone she helped,”
he said. “They’d visit her between
semesters.”
She loved the outdoors and was one of
the first women in Southampton County
to ride a horse astride instead of
sidesaddle, going early every morning!
with her father about the farm.
“She was just a great, outgoing lady,”
Rawls said.
And his daughter, thinking of Betsy
Bumps, said, “What she stood for
remains.”