Celebrating 75 years!
May 5, 2014
This year, I’ve traveled with our Advancement staff (formerly External Affairs), faculty members, chairs and others to a number of 75th-anniversary events. We’ve been honored to meet and reconnect with so many alumni. Several became emotional when they recounted how a faculty member found support for them when they otherwise might not have been able to attend our School. I was particularly moved to talk with Dr. Ira Laster at our Washington, D.C., event. He had been at the School when African-Americans could not take our health education classes on campus but took classes instead with our faculty members at what is now N.C. Central University. Phyllis Verhalen, wife of alumnus Dr. Robert Verhalen, recalled that the School once was small enough for all our students, staff and faculty members to enjoy a picnic on the front steps of Rosenau Hall. Now, we often gather to celebrate in our wonderful Armfield Atrium, a place of calm and peace (that can be transformed into a bustling social scene) that unites the mature Rosenau, the middle-aged McGavran-Greenberg and the youthful Michael Hooker buildings. They come from different eras, but each building is united, as are the people who inhabit them, in common purpose.
—Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH
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The Gillings School’s 75th anniversary presents a unique opportunity to celebrate achievements, reconnect with faculty, students and alumni, and give thanks for the opportunity to shape the history of public health. We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity. Renew your Carolina spirit by sharing your time and resources. Let’s continue the School’s tradition of excellence for the next 75 years!
—Roy J. Ramthun (MSPH, HPM, ’87) Chair, 75th Anniversary Campaign Cabinet
Carolina Public Health is a publication of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health. To view previous issues, please visit sph.unc.edu/cph.