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Alumnus Leaves $28.6 Million to UNC
Funds to Boost Scholarships,
Restructure Advising System
Bv Sophia Raff
Staff Writer
A UNC alumnus has donated $28.6 million to
the University, the largest single gift in the school’s
history, officials announced Thursday.
The bequest, from the estate of David Benjamin
Clayton, a member of the Class of 1949, was
announced at an after
noon press conference fol
lowing a Board of Trustees
meeting.
Officials said the
money would go toward
Benefactor's
Death Somewhat
Mysterious
See Page 5
funding more scholarships, restructuring the advis
ing system, endowing the School of Law and build
ing a freestanding black cultural center. “This is
enlightened philanthropy,” BOT chairwoman
Anne Cates said. “This is fulfilling a lot of needs we
have been talking about for a long time."
Clayton, who owned a number of H&R Block
franchises, died in 1978. Before his death, he
requested that the franchises be sold in 20 years
LAST WORDS
At 2 a.m. today, North Carolina executed convicted murderer Harvey Green. This week,
the DTH conducted personal interviews with Green and family members of his victims.
By Sarah Brier
Staff Writer
DTH: Tell me what happened at
the cleaners.
Green: I have no recollection of
going in there to rob the cleaners. I
didn’t take no weapon in there. ...
I went down to the mailbox to
pick up the mail ... and the next
thing I know I’m trying to rob the
cleaners. A customer came in and
the clerk said, ‘He trying to rob
me.’ Me and the man struggle and
I got him
off my
toes and
said lay
down. Just
get back
there and
Going Back to
The Night of
The Murders
See Page 5
lay down. They lay down and I
leave and he grabs me again.
The next thing I know I’m beat
ing him again. The weapon that I
used was already there. When the
thought came to rob the cleaners, I
don’t know. But this wasn’t pre
meditated or nothing like that. The
district attorney wanted to put it
JBfiKMfik. £.‘l
PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID STILLSON
Harvey Lee Green, who was executed this morning by lethal
injection, claimed his punishment did not match his crime.
and all proceeds given to the University.
Provost Dick Richardson said at the press con
ference the late Chancellor Michael Hooker
approved the plan for allocating the money before
he died of lymphatic cancer in June. “Many of
these initiatives were very dear to his heart,”
Richardson said. “We would have been excited to
have a gift that would do any one of these things.”
Student Body President Nic Heinke said the
beauty of the whole gift was that all the components
worked well to benefit the entire campus. “This is
something that embodies to me the University
community,” he said.
“These projects are things that have been prior
ities for so long. It’s great to see politics step aside
and really look at the needs of the University.”
A large portion of the money, $ 11.8 million, will
create a Chancellor’s Discretionary Fund to bene
fit University priorities. This year, some money
from the fund will be used to build a freestanding
Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural Center and endow
the School of Law. “I think it’s important for a great
university to have a great law school, and I think
that way.
They gave me a plea bargain for
just felony murder with no pre
meditation or deliberation but they
still used it.
So most peo
ple, I heard,
were looking
for me to get
a life sen
tence or two
life sen
tences. When
they came
down with
LIFE AND DEATH
JJI
A weektong series
exploring the death
penally in N.C.
death, it shot the whole thing open.
Now, looking back, if I had kept
my mouth shut about the whole sit
uation, I wouldn’t be here.
It’s human nature. You want to
do what’s right but you’ve also got
a side saying do what’s wrong.
So after a little old struggle I had
with myself, I had to go on and
confess for my crime which I did. I
told them I was very sorry for this
‘but this is eating me up and I gotta
get this off of me.’
See GREEN, Page 5
A man's dying is more the survivors' affair than his own.
Thomas Mann
Friday, September 24, 1999
Volume 107, Issue 81
We're in the Money! %
If fr-Hhe University received its largest donation in campus history Thursday from the estate of late 1
( and Benjamin Clayton. His bequest will benefit a medley of University programs 1
Skv j. ■ National Merit Scholarships. $600,000 annually to create about 400 jm
scholarships from sl2 million of the endowment.
fcsg|| i | ■ Undergraduate advising. $250,000 annually, from $5 million of the
B endowment, to help fund sweeping changes in how undergraduates
receive academic advising.
i rrrfyp’ ■ Chancellor's Discretionary Fund. $590,000 annually for high priorities
j jjT ' identified by late Chancellor Michael Hooker, including the completion of a
jr free-standing Black Cultural Center and academic enhancements at the
School of Law. These uses are supported by sll.B million of the endowment.
SOURCE: NEWS SERVICES
this money helps,” said Gene Nichol, dean of the
law school. “It’s a tremendous gift.”
Nichol said the money was part of a package
that would allow the school to hire a number of
new faculty members, open more scholarships to
graduate students and offer a broader curriculum.
“Gifts like this can make the difference in terms
of providing, quite literally, the best education in
the world,” he said.
Money from the endowment will be used to
build a freestanding BCC building. The Board of
Trustees authorized a plan Thursday to build this
: . S'?.. V. : ; 7 v- r y A-;'; •
4 fiy V, • ' '• -V:
. . .. ' ■' ■
DTH/DAVID SANDIER
Sister Joan Jurski, director of the Office of Peace and Justice of the Catholic Diocese in Raleigh, argues
with G.R. Quinn, a proponent of the death penalty, in front of Central Prison in Raleigh.
'I Think Justice Should Be Carried Out'
By Rudy Kleysteuber
Staff Writer
Editor's Note: Because The Daily Tar Heel
spoke with a husband and wife, speakers in
this interview are referred to on a first
name basis. Margaret Barnhill is the sister
of the late John Michael Edmondson, and
Bruce and Judy Bland are the parents of
Sheila Marlene Bland. Edmondson and
Bland were killed by Harvey Lee Green in
December 1983.
DTH: Maybe you could just tell me a
little bit about your daughter.
Bruce Bland: We had two children,
and of course at the time of her death
she was 17 and our son was 13....
So one of the bigger losses I guess
you would say, is our son losing her at
13 - made him grow up, become an
adult much faster than he should have.
Judy Bland: Of course you know she
was a senior that year, and she had got
ten this job (working at the dry cleaners)
$9 million center, with $6 million coming from the
Clayton endowment. Richardson said the building,
which will house classrooms, an art gallery, a
library and performance space, will be “a tremen
dous resource of which the entire state can be
proud.”
The BCC, founded in 1989, has been pushing
for its own building for eight years. “The Sonja
Haynes Black Cultural Center is a good, strong,
academic-oriented program,” interim Chancellor
See BEQUEST, Page 4
because she was trying to earn money to
go to college next fa 11....
She was all set for Christmas; she was
real excited. She had gone out and
bought gifts, and it was the first time she
had been able to buy gifts with her own
money. She just couldn’t wait ’till
Christmas got here.
Bruce. Of course, we got to deliver
her Christmas gifts for her.
See VICTIMS, Page 5
News/Features/Arts/Sports 962-0245
Business/Advertising 962-1163
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
© 1999 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved.
Wait Ends:
BCC to Get
Building
The freestanding building
will be located on South
Road between Coker Hall
and the Bell Tower.
By Geoff Wessel
Staff Writer
DTH/DANA CRAIG
Eight years ago, members of the
University community began an ardu
ous campaign to build a freestanding
black cultural center.
That fight ended Thursday after
noon, as University officials announced
that the Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural
Center would be among the programs
to benefit from a $28.6 million bequest
The BCC’s $6 million share of the
money will combine with its current
$3.5 million coffer to finance the full
construction of the freestanding build
ing. The BCC is currendy located in the
Student Union. The new building will
be located off South Road between the
Bell Tower and Coker Hall.
“I think it is quite an exhilarating
moment,” said Ishna Hall, a senior who*
has worked at the BCC for three years.
“(The funding) establishes a center that
contributes not only to the intellectual
climate of the University but to the state
and nation as well.”
David Benjamin Clayton, a 1949
UNC alumnus, established the bequest
before he died in 1978. His employees
were instructed to sell his franchises of
H&R Block 20 years after his death and
donate the proceeds to UNC.
Since its founding in 1988, the BCC
has sponsored a number of programs
intended to focus on multicultural
awareness, particularly among blacks.
See BCC, Page 4
INSIDE
Hey Heels, Help Out!
The UNC Department of Athletics has
found another way to help the victims
of Hurricane Floyd in Eastern North
Carolina. Football coach Carl Torbush
is asking all who attend Saturday’s
football game against Florida State
University to bring donations of
nonperishable items to gates 2 and 6
of Kenan Stadium. All proceeds will be
donated to the N. C. Food Bank and
passed on to flood victims. Several
UNC athletes will be on hand to
collect the canned food.
Seminole Stampede
Florida State, ranked No. I in the AP
poll, visits Chapel Hill for the first time
since waxing the Tar Heels 20-3 in
1997 at Kenan Stadium. Can UNC take
the ’Noles by surprise in '99 or will it
be blowout city? Check out the DTH’s
full-page coverage. See Page 7.
Here’s Your Chance
Applications for the Joanna Howell
Fund, which honors the memory of a
DTH editorial writer who died in the
1996 Phi Gamma Delta fraternity fire,
will be available at the DTH front desk
in Suite 104 of the Student Union and
are due by Oct. 4. The fund provides
$250 for a student to write an in-depth
article about an issue affecting the
University community. The article will
be published in the DTH in November.
Today’s Weather
Sunny;
Low 80s.
Saturday: Sunny:
Low 80s.