September 29, 2005
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will celebrate its 212th birthday on Oct. 12 with a speech and awards presentation in the newly renovated Memorial Hall.Students, faculty, staff and the public are invited to attend the University Day ceremony at 11 a.m. in Memorial Hall.

Christopher Mead Armitage, an English professor who joined UNC’s faculty in 1967, will be the keynote speaker. Armitage specializes in 17th and 20th century English and Canadian literature. He was awarded the first UNC Professor of Distinguished Teaching in 1995, the Nicholas Salgo Outstanding Teacher Award, and two Bowman and Gordon Gray chairs for undergraduate teaching.

University Day was created by the UNC Board of Trustees to commemorate the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the nation’s first state university building, on Oct. 12, 1793. The university was chartered by the state legislature in 1789 and welcomed its first students in 1795.

University Day became a college holiday in 1877 and an all-day celebration in 1900. In 1906, Dr. Edwin A. Alderman, former university president, received an honorary degree, the first given on University Day. That practice evolved into the Distinguished Alumna and Alumnus Awards, first presented in 1971 to “alumni who had distinguished themselves in a manner that brought credit to the university.”

 

Photograph of James Merchant

Photograph of James Merchant

This year’s recipients, who will be recognized at the Memorial Hall event, are: James Arthur Merchant, Dr. Ana Lucia Almeida Gazzola, Thomas Forrest Kelly, and Roy Hampton Park, Jr.

Merchant, who earned a degree in public health from UNC in 1973, is dean of the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health. Merchant was part of UNC’s faculty for two years before becoming director of the Division of Respiratory Disease at the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. Merchant is an advocate for workplace safety and health. His work in North Carolina on the respiratory effects of cotton dust led to increased regulations and a decrease in brown lung disease.

Gazzola earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in comparative literature from UNC in 1974 and 1978, respectively. She is now a literature professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Brazil. She has received the Medal of Honor from the Juscelino Kubitschek Institute and the academic Order of the Palms from the French government. She specializes in the travel writing of women from American and Europe traveling to Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Kelly earned his bachelor’s degree from UNC in 1964 and has served as chair of the music department at Harvard University since 1999. Kelly has written seven books, one of which was named a “Notable Book of the Year” by The New York Times. After graduating from UNC, Kelly studied in Paris with organist and composer Jean Langlais, worked at the Institut de Musicologie, the Institut Gregorien, the Schola Cantorum in Paris and the Royal Academy of Music in London. He is the Morton B. Knafel Professor of Music at Harvard.

Park earned his bachelor’s degree from UNC in 1961 and is now president and chief executive officer of Park Outdoor Advertising in Ithaca, N.Y. He has generously supported the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Park and his family created the Roy H. Park Fellowships for graduate students in 1997. The family also established the Triad Foundation, from which the journalism school receives annual support equal to a $40 million endowment.

 

 

For more information, visit: http://www.unc.edu/universityday/

News Services contacts: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093 or lisa_katz@unc.edu Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595 or karen_moon@unc.edu

For further information please contact Ramona DuBose by telephone at 919-966-7467 or by e-mail at ramona_dubose@unc.edu.

 

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