(Roger Winstead / Creative Services)

"Patches" Meares, right, receives the 2002 Menscer Cup from Darrell Menscer, left, as NC State Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, far right, looks on.

Merlin A. "Patches" Meares, an alumnus of NC State and retired president of A.E. Finley & Associates, has been awarded the 2002 Menscer Cup by the NC State Foundation in recognition of his lifelong service to the university.

Meares, a native of Chadbourn, N.C., and a 1947 graduate in mechanical engineering, serves on the NC State Alumni Association board of directors, the Campaign for Excellence steering committee, the board of directors of the Friends of the Library, and the board of directors of the Wolfpack Club — a group he has served for 25 years.

A Chancellor's Circle Partner, Meares has been inducted into the R.S. Pullen and W.H. Page Lifetime Giving Societies and received the university's highest honor, the Watauga Medal, in 1999.

He received the Menscer Cup in a ceremony Nov. 14 at the Cardinal Club in downtown Raleigh. The NC State Foundation created the Menscer Cup award in 1997 to honor Darrell and Carolyn Menscer of Murrells Inlet, S.C., for "exemplary leadership of advancement efforts" at the university. While chairing the foundation and co-chairing the Campaign for NC State Students, Darrell Menscer led university fundraising, endowment management and alumni services.

During the award ceremony, Menscer praised Meares' lifelong commitment to both academics and athletics at NC State, and noted his special interest in the Caldwell Programs, named for Meares' friend, the late John T. Caldwell, university chancellor from 1959 to 1975, and his establishment of the Caldwell Program Trust for Athletics and Engineering.

Meares interrupted his studies at NC State to serve in the Army Air Corps from 1944 to 1945. As a student, he was a member of Blue Key, Golden Chain, Tau Beta Pi, Pi Tau Sigma and Theta Tau, and served as representative and president of the Engineers' Council. He also co-founded the NC State-Raleigh chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Following his graduation in 1947, he married Dorothy "Dot" Swain, a graduate of Peace College and UNC-Chapel Hill, and began work at A.E. Finley & Associates, a prominent construction-equipment distributor. Named president of the company in 1987, he is recently retired from that position.

In addition to his contributions to NC State, Meares has served on the boards of directors of numerous North Carolina institutions and businesses, including the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Bank of North Carolina and NCNB. He is an active member of the Edenton Street United Methodist Church, a past president of the Carolina Country Club and a member of the Raleigh Exchange Club since 1954.

Posted November 22, 2002

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