WEDNESDAY, MAY 15,1974
THE DECREE
College Foundation
Votes Name Change!
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Professor Michael Maclagin, Thomas Pearsall, Dr. Thomas A. Collins talk over the campus during
the recent visit of the Lord Mayor. [Photo by West.]
Lord Mayor Visits College
Professor Michael Maclagan,
an eminent scholar, historian
and a former Lord Mayor of
Oxford, England, lectured at
N. C. Wesleyan College Tues
day at 8 p.m. in Garber Chapel.
An authority on the crusades
and medieval history. Profes
sor Maclagan has chosen this
historical era as his topic.
By the Queen’s royal ap
pointment in 1970, Professor
Maclagan became a Queen’s
Herald, one of thirteen in the
Royal College of Arms, with
the title Portcullis Pursuivant.
From 1946-74 he was a member
of the Oxford City Council and
served a term as Lord Mayor of
Oxford in 1970-71.
Professor Maclagan held po
sitions successively as dean,
librarian, vice president and
senior tutor of Trinity College,
Oxford University. He is the
author of “Clemency Canning”
published in 1962, which won
the Wheatley Gold Medal,
authored “The City of Con
stantinople” published in 1967,
and is the editor of various
textbooks.
He is the son of Sir Eric
Maclagan, director of the Vic
toria and Albert Museum in
London, and a grandson of the
Most Rev. William Maclagan
Littleton Alumni Assoc.
To Meet N. C. Wesleyan
The Littleton College Memo
rial Association will hold its
annual reunion on campus here
Saturday, July 14, with a full
day of activities planned for
returning members and visit
ors. Registration for the event
and an informal coffee hour will
begin at 10 a.m. in the
Wesleyan Library.
Dr. Thomas A. Collins will
welcome returning alumnae,
their friends and families, and
will open the reunion with
morning devotional. Dr. Ralph
Hardee Rives will be in charge
of the program and has an
nounced that special tributes
would be made to a former
teacher at Littleton College and
to others who have maintained
an active interest in Littleton
over the years.
Lunch will be served at the
conclusion of the morning ses
sion. The association’s business
meeting is scheduled after
lunch, and will be presided over
by Mrs. Nina McCall Ruffner of
Arlington, Virginia, who has
served as president of the or
ganization since July 1970.
who was Archibishop of York
from 1891 until 1909.
After graduating from Win
chester College and Christ
Church at Oxford with first
class honors. Professor Ma
clagan became a Fellow of
Trinity College there. His
professional career was tem
porarily interrupted by the
advent of World War II, during
which Professor Maclagan ser
ved England in a tank unit, in
military intelligence and on the
general staff as a major.
Professor Maclagan is a 1974
Visiting Professor at the Uni
versity of South Carolina and
Rick Watson To
Receive Degree
News Bureau—Richard L.
Watson, instructor of history at
N. C. Wesleyan College, has
completed the course of study
required for his doctoral degree
at Boston University Graduate
School, according to an an
nouncement by Wesleyan Pre
sident Thomas A. Collins. The
degree will be awarded this
month.
Watson joined the Division of
Social Sciences faculty at Wes
leyan in September 1972, and
his teaching specialties are
African and European history.
A former resident of Durham,
he received his B.A. degree in
history from Duke University
in 1967.
From 1968-70, Watson held a
teaching fellowship at Boston
University, where he was
granted his M.A. degree in
history, and for two years was
a lecturer there.
Watson is married to the
former Eileen-Philippa Rasch-
ker of Hamburg, West Ger
many.
his visit to Wesleyan was
initiated by Wesleyan’ Trustee
Chairman Thomas J. Pearsall
and Mrs. Pearsall, who pre
viously travelled on a historical
study tour with Professor and
Mrs. Maclagan, during which
the professor was head lec
turer.
The Rocky Mount Area
Wesleyan College Foundation,
which has served the college by
fund-raising in this area for
more than a decade, has
officially changed its name to
the North Carolina Wesleyan
College Foundation. The action
was taken at the foundation’s
annual meeting held on campus
March 28, 1974.
“This name change deletes
any geographical reference to a
specific area for raising funds
for Wesleyan,” stated Leon A.
Dunn, Jr., outgoing president
of the foundation, who presided
at the meeting.
Thomas A. Betts, Jr., was
elected president of the N. C.
Wesleyan College Foundation
for 1974-75 and David Wheeler
was elected vice president. As
vice president, Wheeler will be
the 1974-75 Campaign Chair
man, leading the foundation
directors in their annual
support drive for the college..
Wheeler succeeds Betts, who
held the fund-raising chair
manship during 1973-74.
Mrs. Carl E. Worsley was
elected foundation secretary,
John A. Hammond was re-elec-
ted treasurer, and new direc
tors were named for the Class
of 1978.
Retiring president Dunn
reported on the foundation’s
1973-74 efforts and challenged
the directors to continue their
strong support for Wesleyan,
not only within the Nash-Edge-
combe communities but to
expand the foundation’s fund
raising activities and not feel
limited by geographical boun
daries. Dunn presented engra
ved plaques for appreciation of
service to eight directors whose
terms expire in May.
Those receiving plaques
were: Mayo Boddie, Robert
Mauldin, Wade A. Register,
Jr., R. E. Siler, Jimmie Smith,
and Mrs. W. A. Wynne, Jr., all
of Rocky Mount; Russel C.
Harris of Tarboro, N. C.; and
C. T. Robinson of Nashville, N.
C.
New directors elected were:
David H. Peebles, Jr., Mrs. N.
B. Boddie, Jr., Mrs. J. B.
Brewer, Jr., Clarence Wiggins,
Richard I. Verrone, and Van C.
Watson, all of Rocky Mount;
and Mrs. Joseph Calvert of
Tarboro. Wilson Kemp of
Rocky Mount was named to fill
an unexpired term as a Class of
1975 director.
i
Among the newly elected foundation officers are Thomas A. Betts, Jr., right, president, and David
Wheeler, center, vice president. Outgoing president Leon A. Dunn, Jr., left, was presented an
appreciation plaque and inscribed gavel.
Poetry Reading Reviewed
RICHARD WATSON
By WILLIAM GREEN
A Review
A word of praise and an ex
pression of thanks are due the
North Carolina Arts Council,
which enabled N. C. Wesleyan
recently to host a timulating
evening of poetry readings by
two well-known poets, Jean
McCamey and Julia Fields, and
two promising student poets,
Elizabeth LaRue and Alex
Adams.
Ms. McCamey began the
evening by delighting the
audience with poetry in a
lighter vein but a nonetheless
serious mood, ranging from the
inlet’s longing for the sea in
“Pamlico” to down-home nos
talgia as realized in the lines, “I
miss that grandfather figure
drawn with the star-speckled
eyes of the child,” to the pathos
of the go-go girl, whose “face
just sits there over all that
agitating skin and flesh.”
Ms. LaRue gave readings
from her poetry, including her
prize-winning poem, “The
Stubborn Flowers of Mr.
McCracy,” published recently
in Wesleyan’s ASPECTS. Her
marked control of sentiment
was further evident in the
disillusionment of childhood in
“Egg Hunt,” and in her tribute
to Truman Capote in “The
Idol.”
Ms. Fields stirred the au
dience with her emotive
readings of her very visceral
poetry. Satirizing Sara Tea-
sdale’s philosophy of “Lire Has
Loveliness to Sell,” Ms. Fields
read “Mary,” a poem focusing
on the working black woman
who, though discriminated
against, insists on being
responsible for her own welfare
and thus her own identity.
Particularly poignant was her
reading of “East of Moonlight,”
in which the speaker travels “to
places behind their eyes to see
tomorrow,” and remembers
“farmers who are holy men, not
quack farmers who rape the
land for gains.”
Concluding the evening’s
readings, Mr. Adams read
several of his poems, evincing
an astute eye and a provocative
attitude. Noting the paradoxi
cal similarities between man’s
creative and destructive urges,
Mr. Adams read “Necrophi
lia,” one of his prize winning
poems in ASPECTS.
Perhaps the most distinctive
mark of the poets, evidence in
each of the readers, is the
ability to see life (and all that
word encompasses) metaphori
cally, thus enabling the rest of
us to see the world in new
ways, in new relationships.
Echoing Wallace Stevens, Ms.
Fields observed that every
thing is, after all, merely
fiction.