1990-1999

Julius L. Chambers

Julius L. Chambers (1936-2013) was a noted civil rights attorney and chancellor of North Carolina Central University. Chambers opened his law practice in Charlotte in 1964 and the practice became the first integrated law firm in North Carolina. The firm successfully litigated civil rights cases and won landmark U.S. Supreme Court rulings. In 1984, Chambers left the firm to become director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York. He returned to North Carolina in 1993 to become chancellor at North Carolina Central University.

Glenn L. Bushey

Glenn L. Bushey (1905-2006) served as president of UNC Asheville’s predecessor institution, Asheville-Biltmore College, from 1947 to 1962. He presided over a number of critical transitions in the University’s history and helped prepare the institution to become a four-year university. When Bushey became president of Asheville-Biltmore College, it had an enrollment of 250 and was located on Merrimon Avenue. Bushey oversaw the college’s moves to Seely Castle on Town Mountain Road in 1949 and to the present location in 1961.

James R. Schlesinger

Longtime civil servant James R. Schlessinger currently serves as senior advisor to the investment banking firm of Lehman Brothers and is chairman of the MITRE Corporation Board of Trustees. He first rose to prominence when President Nixon selected him to become chairman of the Atomic Energy Comission in 1971, a post he held until he was named director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1973. Later that year, he was appointed secretary of defense, a post he held until 1975. In 1976, President-elect Carter asked Schlesinger to become assistant to the president, charged with drafting a plan for the establishment of the Department of Energy and a national energy policy. Schlesinger became the nation’s first Secretary of Energy in 1977 and held this post until 1979. He has received numerous awards, including the National Security Medal and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Distinguished Service Medal. Schlesinger holds a doctorate from Harvard University.

Claudio Malo Gonzalez

Claudio Malo Gonzalez, a leading figure in intellectual and cultural affairs in Ecuador, served as Fulbright Visiting Professor of Humanities at UNC Asheville in 1989, helping to expand cultural understanding and internationalize the curriculum.

Wilma Dykeman Stokely

A native of Asheville, Wilma Dykeman Stokley (1920-2006) was a venerable Southern writer. She began writing as a child and earned degrees from Biltmore Junior College and Northwestern University. She and her husband, poet and nonfiction writer James R. Stokley, collaborated on several books. In addition, Dykeman Stokley wrote radio scripts, short stories and articles for Harper’s, New York Times Magazine and Reader’s Digest. In all, she published more than sixteen books, including the acclaimed “The French Broad” and “The Tall Woman.” Dykeman Stokley received many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the 1985 North Carolina Award for Literature.

Charles Kuralt

Native North Carolinian Charles Kuralt (1934-1996) was an esteemed newsman. During his 37-year career at CBS News, he and his “On the Road” camera crew visited every state many times. For 15 years, Kuralt was also the host of “Sunday Morning” on CBS. His work earned three Peabody Awards and 14 Emmy Awards. He is also a well-known author. Kuralt published six books, and his memoir “A Life on the Road,” was the number one non-fiction best seller of 1990. Hailed by Time Magazine as “the laureate of the common man,” Kuralt began his journalism career at UNC Chapel as editor of the “The Daily Tar Heel.”

Leah and Morris Karpen

Leah, who grew up in Asheville, was on the first individuals to earn a master’s of liberal arts degree from UNC Asheville. Morris (1916-2002) who moved from New York to the Asheville area for an intended retirement, went on to found Karpen Steel Products Inc. and Laser Precision Cutting Inc. in Weaverville. They have been generous donors to educational and community causes in Western North Carolina. UNC Asheville’s Karpen Hall is named in their honor.

Irwin Belk

Charlotte philanthropist Irwin Belk is the retired president of the Belk Group of department stores. A generous contributor to higher education in North Carolina, Mr. Belk served two terms on the UNC Board of Governors. He is a former state senator and was appointed a U.S. delegate to the 54th United Nations General Assembly. Belk served as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee and as president of the American Cancer Society Foundation.

Dudley E. Flood

Dudley E. Flood is a popular inspirational speaker and well-known educator. He has served as a high school teacher, school principal and associate state superintendent. Flood is executive director of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators.

Rodrigo Borja Cevallos

Rodrigo Borja Cevallos is former President of the Republic of Ecuador. He acted as president from 1988-1992. A native of Quito, Ecuador’s capital city, he helped found the Party of the Democratic Left, a socialist political party which quickly gained strength. He served several terms in Congress, and ran for the presidency three times before successfully winning office. Like all Ecuadorian presidents, he was not allowed to seek a second term. After his presidency, he remained the leader of the Party of the Democratic Left.Beloved Southern author Clyde Edgerton has achieved national acclaim with his short stories and novels, including “Walking Across Egypt,” “Raney” and “Killer Diller.” Considered an authority on Southern literature and founder of the Algonquin Books publishing company, Edgerton was a distinguished professor of English at UNC Chapel Hill. He served as editor of several literary journals, including the Hollins Critic and the Southern Literary Journal. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993 and the Lyndhurst Prize in 1991.

Clyde Edgerton

Beloved Southern author Clyde Edgerton has achieved national acclaim with his short stories and novels, including “Walking Across Egypt,” “Raney” and “Killer Diller.” Considered an authority on Southern literature and founder of the Algonquin Books publishing company, Edgerton was a distinguished professor of English at UNC Chapel Hill. He served as editor of several literary journals, including the Hollins Critic and the Southern Literary Journal. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1993 and the Lyndhurst Prize in 1991.

Louis D. Rubin Jr.

Editor, novelist, essayist, teacher and publisher Louis D. Rubin Jr. (1923-2013) had an immeasurable effect on a generation of North Carolina writers and readers. A native of Charleston, S.C. and a World War II vet, Rubin held a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and master’s and doctorate degrees from Johns Hopkins University. As a graduate student, he co-edited his first book, “Southern Renascence,” which established Rubin as a major figure in Southern literature. He continued to write prolifically, publishing more than 40 books. Following a distinguished newspaper career, Rubin taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Hollins College before joining the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill, where he stayed for 22 years.

Lloyd Dobyns

Retired NBC broadcast journalist Lloyd Dobyns was a correspondent and program anchor from 1969 to 1986. He received 28 major awards, including a George Foster Peabody Award, a Humanitas Prize and two Christopher Awards for writing. Dobyns has worked in 47 states and 46 countries, including two years as Paris bureau chief and European correspondent and two years as Tokyo bureau chief and senior Asia correspondent. He specializes in international economics and the worldwide quality movement and is co-author of “Quality or Else” and writer-narrator of the Public Broadcasting Service documentary “Quality… Or Else!”

Jason McManus

Jason McManus is Time Warner’s fourth editor-in-chief. He joined Time Inc. in 1957 as a summer intern with Sports Illustrated magazine, then worked at the company full-time as a writer in Time magazine’s World section after wrapping up a Rhodes scholarship at New College, Oxford University. He was the magazine’s first European Common Market reporter and directed the creation of a European edition. As senior editor from 1969 to 1976, he directed the magazine’s coverage of Watergate. McManus holds a master’s degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

Gail Godwin

Best-selling author Gail Godwin is a native of Asheville. A graduate of UNC Chapel Hill’s journalism school, Godwin began her writing career at the Miami Herald. Later she earned a master’s and doctorate degree in English from the University of Iowa. Her thesis became her first published novel, “The Perfectionists.” That book launched a prolific writing career; she has published nine books and has been nominated for a National Book Award three times. Three of her recent books were New York Times bestsellers. Godwin lives in Woodstock, N.Y., with her longtime companion, the composer Robert Starer.

Arnold Kimsey King

Arnold Kimsey King (1901-1992), former vice president for University of North Carolina Institutional Studies, was a longtime friend of UNC Asheville. He was instrumental in the decision to bring Asheville-Biltmore College, UNC Asheville’s predecessor institution, into the state university system. In addition, King served as acting chancellor in 1977, while Chancellor William Highsmith recovered from a serious illness.

Eugene Pleasants Odum

Distinguished scientist Eugene Pleasants Odum (1913-2002) was widely heralded as “the father of modern ecology.” He brought the word “ecosystem” into common parlance by making it the organizing concept in his groundbreaking 1953 book “Fundamentals of Ecology.” Through that textbook, which was translated into 12 languages, and through his many other books and articles, he led the way toward the study of nature in terms of ecosystems and powerfully influenced the development of ecosystem ecology. Odum grew up in Chapel Hill and earned his A.B. and A.M. in zoology from UNC Chapel Hill. He held a doctorate in zoology, with a major in ecology, from the University of Illinois in 1939.