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Seed money planted for recovery
Hurricane Isabel reclamation is ongoing as farmers get word of available crop damage money.
Jobs,
university expansion funds go hand-in-hand
North Carolina universities are attaching the potential to create new jobs
to their push for state lawmakers to fund major projects.
Pumpkin
crop suffers because of weather
Pumpkin crops are smaller than normal this year due to wet and cool weather
in eastern North Carolina.
N.C. State
given land gift in Bull City
N.C. State is expanding its campus to Durham.
New firm
to help startups, investors
Lawyers and venture capitalists in the Triangle said there's a need for experienced
consultants who have seen the ups and downs of starting a company and running
it, and the timing is good.
Buses
head to the future
CAT wants riders to comment on five-year modernization plan
Hit the
trail
Dorothy Stowe walks at least two miles a day seven days a week.
Pack,
Canes team up
Relationship aids tonight's game
Editorial:
Growing leaders in the backyard
Management problems unearthed of late at East Carolina University have prompted
a warning to the school's administrators and trustees that, as the search
for a new chancellor begins, the university will be under a close watch from
the University of North Carolina system's administrators.
Point
of View: N.C. can make trade work
It is surprising to hear Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Republican, suggest that part
of the solution to our state's economic woes is to raise tariffs and ask for
more federal grants.
Vox
populi and public policy
"How can you tell whether a whale is a mammal or a fish?" a teacher
asks her third-grade class. "Take a vote?" pipes up one of the pupils.
Software
insurgent
cites Centennial Campus
Obit:
Durham notable dies at 95
Fances Hill Fox, contributor to NC State
Obit:
David C. Brumitt
member of NC State Theatre Endowment Board
Obit:
J. Marshall Thaxton
employee ofNCSU Research Farm
Seed money planted for recovery
Oct. 15, 2003
Daily Southerner
By Sue Stuart, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Daily Southerner
Hurricane Isabel reclamation is ongoing as farmers get word of available crop damage money.
Using emergency powers, Gov. Mike Easley Friday authorized the transfer of $294,060 in relief funds to assist the state's farmers who suffered losses from the storm.
Though Edgecombe County did not receive the hardest punch from the storm as compared to other counties, Edgecombe Agricultural Extension Agent Art Bradley said last month there were measurable losses.
"In a preliminary assessment, we figured there is $7.3 million in damage to crops and buildings," Bradley said. "Dollar-wise, the hardest hit crop was cotton. It was going to be a pretty good year (for cotton). Though not our best year, it was better than last year." (Edgecombe County went through a serious drought during the summer of 2002.)
According to Bradley, tobacco farmers in the northern part of the county were hardest hit, although much of the crop was already in the barns. He added that most of the farmers have crop insurance, but there will still be reports made to the federal government in the hope of financial aid.
Cotton and tobacco farmer Bert Pitt said the southern end of the county -- he farms in the Macclesfield area -- was so slight that the bulk of the funds should go to farmers in the northern sections. He said the Whitakers area was particularly hard-hit.
He said most of his tobacco was already in the barns and some of the cotton got tangled.
"This makes it a little harder to harvest," he said.
Easley's actions were prompted by a request from the Agricultural Advancement Consortium. The money will come from a leftover Hurricane Floyd account that the N.C. Agricultural Foundation Inc. oversees.
"Our farmers have suffered major losses and we must help them in their time of need," Easley said. "This transfer of funds will provide key assistance to farmers affected by Hurricane Isabel."
The storm passed over some of the state's largest production areas for cotton, peanuts and corn. There was also significant soybean and tobacco production in this region, along with swine and poultry operations.
In a letter to Johnny C. Wynne, interim dean of N.C. State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Easley requested that the funds remaining in the Foundation's account be used to support the Hurricane Isabel initiative proposed by the Agricultural Advancement Consortium to work with farmers to implement recovery programs in the declared counties.
The consortium, a group of 25 industry and public policy leaders, requested the funds to work with farmers on disaster recovery planning and recovery financing. Farming losses have been estimated at more than $155 million. Federal disaster assistance in terms of low interest loans will be made available to the farmers.
Agriculture is the state's No. 1 industry, accounting for $62.6 billion annually to the state's economy. Edgecombe County realizes $100 million in annual income from farm-related business.
In 1999, hurricanes Dennis and Floyd caused a combined total of more than $856 million worth of agricultural losses. In 1996, Bertha and Fran caused about $866 million worth of agricultural losses. Farmers experienced almost $400 million in damage to crops last year because of widespread drought conditions across the state.
Jobs, university expansion funds go hand-in-hand
Oct. 15, 2003
Daily Southerner; Winston-Salem Journal
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
RALEIGH (AP) -- North Carolina universities are attaching the potential to create new jobs to their push for state lawmakers to fund major projects.
First came UNC Chapel Hill's request that the General Assembly this year to back $180 million in loans for a new cancer hospital. The lobbying put as much emphasis on the potential for 2,400 new jobs as the hope for saving lives.
UNC Charlotte is making a similar pitch for a new bioinformatics center. Officials say the center would bring comparisons to Stanford, MIT and Duke, implying that inventions in the new building could create a high-tech job boom.
''There's more pressure on public universities to be accountable. The state legislators are now coming back to public universities and saying, 'OK, what do we get for that?''' said Steve Mosier, associate vice chancellor for research at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
''Today, we know the governor and the legislature want to hear we're creating jobs.''
The state university system is gearing itself to be able to make more of these claims. Public campuses are hiring vice chancellors specifically to team with private companies to turn more research into patents and jobs.
They're asking lawmakers to consider at least five building projects in the next year, including the facilities in Charlotte and Chapel Hill, that could require a total of $300 million in state backing. Part of the argument is that they will help create jobs, too.
More money is also available now. The Golden LEAF Foundation, a nonprofit that funds research with some of the state's $4.6 billion settlement with cigarette manufacturers, has received more than 150 applications from state universities. Each application has to project some potential economic benefit from the efforts.
The promise of jobs for money is not without risk, said Mike Walden, an economist at N.C. State who has applied for Golden LEAF grants.
Walden, who raises questions about many state investments in targeted fields like biotechnology, agrees it can be good for researchers to think about the practical effects of their research.
But like the investments of venture companies, some of the expensive research gambles may not pay off. And students encouraged to enter those fields are taking the same risk, Walden said.
''There's the risk we could be training students for an industry that doesn't pan out,'' he said.
Critics also say university supporters have figured out how to get state and federal grant dollars, but they haven't proved they create enough jobs for the money that's put in, especially in areas of the state that have been hit hardest with textile and furniture plant closings.
''If you look at where they're putting (economic development), that's not where we have the job loss,'' said Rep. Connie Wilson, R-Mecklenburg, who has been pushing the state to do more for workers laid off after the Pillowtex Corp. plant closed in Concord.
''I'm not saying the potential is not there. The success is not there.''
Startup money for the projects was postponed in last-minute discussions before the legislature adjourned in July, but Senate leader Marc Basnight's office is still looking into them. Also, a committee considering economic development proposals is expected to draft legislation that includes some version of the proposals next year.
Proposals for UNCC, UNC Chapel Hill, as well as Western Carolina, Eastern Carolina University and UNC Asheville have the support of House Co-speakers Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, and Richard Morgan, R-Moore.
Pumpkin crop suffers because of weather
Oct. 15, 2003
News 14 Carolina
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 TWEAN Newschannel of Raleigh, L.L.C. dba News 14 Carolina
Pumpkin crops are smaller than normal this year due to wet and cool weather in eastern North Carolina. The State Farmer's Market only has half the usual amount of pumpkin crop.
Scientists at N.C. State said rainy weather leads to smaller pumpkins and pumpkins also suffer more stress from bugs and disease.
Despite those changes, experts said pumpkin prices should stick to around the same as last year's prices.
N.C. State given land gift in Bull City
Oct. 15, 2003
News 14 Carolina
By Tim Boyum, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 TWEAN Newschannel of Raleigh, L.L.C. dba News 14 Carolina
N.C. State is expanding its campus to Durham. A group of Durham land owners handed over a chunk of land worth $1.35 million Wednesday morning. The Wolfpack may be moving into Blue Devil territory but it will benefit everyone.
To the eye, it appears to be rustic land, which is a rare sight in urban Durham. But when some people take a step back, they see much more.
“There’s a beautiful creek back here,” N.C. State Chancellor Marye Ann Fox said. “We can study ecology. We have 4-H students who can do things they wouldn’t normally be able to do in a normal environment.”
Briggs Land Corporation donated the Durham property, which is now in N.C. State’s hands.
“We have a lot of fun talking about sports from time to time but when it gets to talking about things important to our region, N.C. State is always at the top of our list,” Steve Stroud from Briggs Land Corporation said.
The project of preserving land is nothing new for N.C. State.
“We have land in almost every county that can range from a small office to really large research operations,” Fox said.
On the land, N.C. State students will learn about ecology and land preservation in an urban setting and the project goes way beyond preserving land. In fact, NCSU already has agreements with Durham Tech and also many elementary schools in the area. A hiking trail and a youth ropes course are also in the works.
N.C. State has already named the property the Expressway Conservation and Education Site. The university plans to begin using it next semester.
New firm to help startups, investors
Oct. 16, 2003
News & Observer
By Sabine Vollmer, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Observer
Max Wallace, a Triangle biotech entrepreneur with a long history of starting successful companies, has teamed up with three partners to form the Arbor Group, which will help manage startups and assess investment opportunities for venture capital firms.
The firm, which is setting up shop in Carrboro, has already worked on two biotech projects, both referrals from law firms.
Lawyers and venture capitalists in the Triangle said there's a need for experienced consultants who have seen the ups and downs of starting a company and running it, and the timing is good. Investments in biotech companies developing a product are expected to slowly rise over the next six months, said Ford Worthy of A.M. Pappas & Associates, a life-science venture capital firm in Research Triangle Park.
"Young companies need everything," said Jim Verdonik, a lawyer who represents startups. But the question for anybody working with such clients is, he added, "Can they pay?"
To help clients short on cash but long on needs, the Arbor Group will accept cash and company stock as payment, Wallace said.
Also, each of the founders are comfortable enough not to depend on a monthly paycheck.
"It'll be a fun group," Wallace said. "We're all at a point of our professional lives where we can choose to work with people we like and know."
Wallace was involved in founding four Triangle biotech companies -- Trimeris, Sphinx Pharmaceuticals, Sarco and Cogent Neuroscience. Except for Cogent, which went bankrupt last year, the other ventures still operate, either independently or as part of a larger company.
The remaining three founders of the Arbor Group are:
* Becky French, former general counsel of N.C. State University and MCNC, a nonprofit computing center and incubator based in Research Triangle Park.
* Kevin Moore, former chief operating officer of Carolinas Medical Center, a 777-bed teaching hospital in Charlotte, and a faculty member at Duke University's Health Administration graduate school.
* Grant Kornberg, chief executive officer of Largely Literary Designs, a specialty marketing company in Chapel Hill, and founder of Black Mountain Multimedia, a Web site targeting Fortune 500 companies.
Oct. 16, 2003
News & Observer
By Cindy George, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 News & Observer
RALEIGH -- To some riders, a five-year plan for the city's bus system will rattle its very bones.
To others, it's the only way to mature a system based on a skeleton of routes more than 25 years old.
In April, a firm commissioned to study the Capital Area Transit system released route and service recommendations for the next five years. Those suggestions broaden route options beyond the current hub-and-spoke system and create fixed routes that will allow passengers to move between regions of the city without going through the central bus depot in downtown's Moore Square.
The Raleigh Transit Authority adopted the plan in June.
Recommendations in the first two years of the plan include creating secondary hubs in each quadrant of Raleigh, offering Sunday service and creating more direct connections. The plan culminates with a recommendation that Raleigh tweak its system to mesh into a feeder service with the Triangle Transit Authority's regional rail system, which is expected in 2007.
"It's a balance and a trade-off," said Jimmie Beckom, the city's transportation director. "It has deleted some old service routes to serve these new locations."
A regional effort to consolidate Triangle bus systems is being marketed now to officials in cities and towns.
The Durham City Council endorsed the TTA proposal to merge bus systems, though some council members have expressed concern that the plan would shortchange Durham and Durham Area Transit Authority employees. The proposal is scheduled to go before the Cary Town Council this month, followed by presentations in Raleigh and Chapel Hill.
Today, the Raleigh bus system offers full service on 26 weekday routes and limited service on Saturdays.
Transit officials describe the new plan as a blueprint to correct an outdated matrix that doesn't reach some of the most-coveted destinations in Raleigh, such as hospitals, shopping centers and workplaces. Officials say these "service refinements" will result in a broader system that's ready for the regional rail and will attract more than the 2 percent of Raleigh residents who now ride buses.
Some say a more widespread system will allow those without transportation more housing options and access to jobs and shopping centers.
But bus riders see a mixed bag. Some like the potential access to more parts of the city, more frequent access to desired destinations and the possibility of Sunday service but lament reducing stops and service in older neighborhoods.
"I just don't feel they need to be changing. It's hard enough to deal with what they've got now," said Daisier "Tina" Watson, 40, who lives on West South Street and works at an N.C. State University Chick-fil-A restaurant. "Elderly people ride on these buses, and they're talking about making people walk farther."
Sandra Ortiz, 40, of Southeast Raleigh said bus routes need a makeover. While the WakeMed line she rides is often standing room only, she said, some long-standing routes circle deep inside neighborhoods where they're not needed, and others don't reach main thoroughfares in suburban areas or shopping centers where people want to go.
"Routes need to be extended. In North Raleigh, you can ride in certain areas and you won't have one pick up because people have cars," she said.
The deadline for public comment on the first year of changes is today. The Raleigh Transit Authority could approve the first-year plan at its November meeting. New routes and schedules could begin in April or May.
Today's bus routes essentially follow the skeleton laid out before 1975, when the city started running the system. All fixed routes lead to the "Rome" of the transit system, Moore Square.
Of the city's 26 routes, 18 have proposed changes in the first year. Among them are the two most popular routes, which serve WakeMed and Rex Hospital. The WakeMed line carries the most passengers, primarily because WakeMed is an employment and health center and the line offers the only link to Wake County Human Services, where people apply for food stamps and receive a wealth of social services.
The consultant recommends maintaining the main hub at Moore Square and creating secondary hubs in each quadrant of the city: WakeMed in Southeast Raleigh, NCSU as the southwest anchor, Crabtree Valley Mall in the northwest and Triangle Town Center in the northeast.
Other changes will mean the buses will run less-intricate routes in neighborhoods. Instead, they will run along major thoroughfares and extend farther into new employment centers and shopping areas miles from downtown.
The changes also mean the bus won't run down every street.
Laverne Meeks described how that would affect her in a letter to Mayor Charles Meeker, city administrators and transit officials.
Meeks lives on a cul-de-sac just north of downtown. She quit driving about a decade ago after she developed a seizure disorder. Today, she goes to work, grocery shopping, to the doctor -- everywhere -- by bus. The first-year proposal would cut the stop at the end of her street and force Meeks to walk one-third of a mile to either Wake Forest Road or Whitaker Mill Road to catch a bus.
Concerns also run high in Southeast Raleigh, the base of nearly one-third of the system's 26 routes. Of frequent riders, 75 percent are black, and a large chunk live in Apollo Heights, Worthdale, Biltmore Hills, Longview and Chavis Heights, established Southeast Raleigh neighborhoods.
With the proposed changes, routes won't move as deeply through those communities but will still provide service within a "reasonable walking distance," said Beckom, Raleigh's transportation director.
A particular bone of contention is the WakeMed route, the system's most popular line, running primarily along New Bern Avenue. The proposed changes would cut service from as frequently as every 15 minutes to once every 30 minutes.
Octavia Rainey, a Southeast Raleigh community activist, said cutting service on the WakeMed line, while adding hospital access via the Apollo Heights line, isn't the right compromise.
"I don't want to see those neighborhoods pitted against each other," she told the transit authority at a public hearing last week. "We lose 15 minutes so you can increase route 19."
Transit officials say the proposed changes will offer better access to the system for current customers and invite others to ride buses.
"At some point, we have to grow our system and change our system," Beckom said.
Oct. 16, 2003
The News & Observer
By Lynette Blair Mitchell, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
RALEIGH -- Dorothy Stowe walks at least two miles a day seven days a week.
In her 70s, she walks one day with the Weekly Walkers, a seniors group sponsored by the Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department. About 10 of its 36 members meet every Wednesday in Raleigh, Apex or Cary to walk their way to better health.
"It's not for people who want to poke along," said Stowe, who leads the group. "People meet to walk. We walk at a moderate pace, and sometimes certain members walk faster than that."
Stowe has been with the Weekly Walkers since the group began almost 10 years ago. The group grew out of an Encore class at N.C. State University. Encore offers classes, trips and special events for those 50 and older. Some people who had taken an Encore class on greenways wanted to continue walking together once the class ended.
An official with the Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department knew that Stowe was an avid walker and asked her to lead . Retired from the Atlantic States Bankcard Association, Stowe was initially hesitant. She didn't want another job. But after a little prodding, she agreed to lead the group on a volunteer basis.
"I didn't want to be responsible for the group," Stowe said. "Of course, it was years before I ever missed a week walking."
Stowe puts together a walking schedule every quarter and alerts members if plans change. The Weekly Walkers tackle a mixture of paved and gravel trails. Buckeye Trail, Apex Community Park and Schenck Forest are some of the trails they'll walk along this month.
Next month, Ironwood and Lake Johnson trails are on the schedule. And the walkers walk year-round, rain or shine. In severe weather, they move their exercise to the lower level of Crabtree Valley Mall. Interested members meet for coffee after the two- to four-mile walks are completed.
Stowe said that one of the neat things about the Weekly Walkers is that it attracts people from various cultures and backgrounds. There are walkers who have lived in Canada, Japan and Germany. Stowe encourages others who like to walk to join them.
"It's always good to have new members," she said.
Here Stowe talks more about her interest in walking and the Weekly Walkers:
Q. What initially got you interested in walking?
I had congestive heart failure in 1989, and I started walking on a regular basis. After I retired, I started walking every day because I had more time and to strengthen my heart. I also love outside and bird-watching. A lot of my walking incorporates bird-watching. But when I'm walking just for exercise, I don't take my binoculars.
Q. What's one of your favorite places to walk?
The Alleghany Trail Extension near Lassiter Mill Dam, that's a really nice trail. I like it a lot. Last year I spotted a great horned owl's nest. There were two babies in it. I used to go out to Black Creek Greenway in Cary, spending hours bird-watching. But there is so much development that it's not as fun much as it used to be.
Q. Why should seniors consider joining the Weekly Walkers?
It's a good way for people to find out about the greenways and walk places that they might be afraid to walk by themselves.
Q. Any health conditions that make it hard for you to walk sometimes?
I've suffered from osteoarthritis for many years and my knees aren't the best, but it's good to keep moving.
Correspondent Lynette Blair Mitchell.
If you are interested in the Weekly Walkers, call Steve White with the Raleigh Parks and Recreation Department at 831-6851.
Oct. 16, 2003
The News & Observer
By Chip Alexander, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
RALEIGH -- N.C. State will play Clemson tonight at Carter-Finley Stadium in a football game that ESPN wanted to televise and the Wolfpack wanted to play.
It's also a game the Carolina Hurricanes helped make possible for the Pack -- helping themselves in the process.
Initially, the Canes were to have a home game tonight against the Florida Panthers at the RBC Center. The Pack and Tigers were to face off Saturday. But the schedules were rearranged and the Canes game moved, resulting in a Thursday night ESPN game for NCSU and three ESPN2 slots for the Hurricanes, the only national exposures this season for the hockey team.
It was, both sides agree, another sign that their once frosty relationship has thawed, that there is a peaceful coexistence between the major league team that suddenly moved to town in 1997 and the university that long has thrived on college sports.
"There has been a lot of pulling and tugging in the past, but I think everyone is more comfortable now," said Jim Rutherford, president and general manager of the Hurricanes.
Quarterly meetings for team and university officials are held each year, providing more face time. NCSU chancellor Marye Anne Fox has a seat on the Centennial Authority, the appointed board charged with overseeing the RBC Center, where the Canes and the NCSU men's basketball team play.
The Hurricanes and Wolfpack Sports Marketing financed a new $1.4 million video board that rings the arena and is generating more advertising revenue to be shared. CanesVision, the hockey club's television production outfit, handled the recent telecast of the NCSU-North Carolina football game, shown on a pay-per-view basis by Time Warner Cable.
Fox calls the Canes "partners" and refers to the RBC Center as a "shared home." The working relationship, she said, is cordial.
"It was strained early," she said. "Whenever you have a start-up of any major facility, you can anticipate that. We had a lot of money invested -- $50 million from our perspective -- and there was a lot of money on the table."
It wasn't long ago that NCSU and Gale Force, the parent company that owns the Canes and manages day-to-day operations at the RBC Center, were arguing over nearly everything associated with the $167 million arena, which opened in the fall of 1999: concessions, parking revenue, suite money, even the color of the seats (not Wolfpack red, NCSU officials claimed).
And, of course, the naming rights for the arena, the biggest of the big-budget items.
"The Hurricanes made some mistakes that drove a stake into the relationship: scheduling conflicts, the seat-cover issue, cost overruns on the building, banners, other things," former Canes president Jim Cain said. "But the naming rights issue kept everything held hostage for a year and a half.
"Those were some frustrating times and times when it appeared that not only was it destined not to succeed, but there were individuals on both sides trying to scuttle the whole thing."
One reason, Cain said, is there are some "diehard Wolfpack people" who never wanted the Canes to succeed.
"Some would just as soon see the hockey team move on and State basketball be the primary tenant in the building," Cain said. "Those people don't understand the finances of the arena. But Marye Anne Fox does. The N.C. State board of trustees does.
"If N.C. State had to run the building, without the revenue from a pro sports team, it could be a $4 million to $5 million negative loss to the university."
Caught in the middle during the haggling was the Centennial Authority. The arena was built with money from NCSU, the Hurricanes, state taxpayer dollars and tax revenue from Wake County and the City of Raleigh. At stake in the financial negotiations was a lot of money for all parties.
"We felt like a matchmaker, trying to get two blind dates to start holding hands, to hopefully be in position where they call each other every day," said Perry Safran, a Raleigh attorney and vice chairman of the authority. "No one who sits on the authority can say there was no fear. We trusted level-headed people would prevail, but there were concerns."
The Hurricanes had some, too.
"We had dealt with universities before, but it wasn't nearly as complex as this relationship," Rutherford said.
The Canes' franchise was in Hartford, Conn., before moving to Raleigh, and shared the Hartford Civic Center with the University of Connecticut. But in Raleigh, Rutherford said, "There were a lot more who had to put their stamp of approval on things, making it a larger process."
A naming rights deal finally was reached in September 2002. RBC Centura Banks Inc. agreed to pay $80 million over a 20-year period. Gale Force was to get $41.4 million, the authority $21.8 million for capital repair and renovation and NCSU $16.8 million.
"It took a while to work through all the gory details," authority member Brent Barringer said. "Cash flow heals a lot of wounds."
Gale Force made one final concession: NCSU would receive 60 percent of future parking revenue at university events. That took care of the final snag.
"What you had was lawyers and money managers arguing," authority member Reef Ivey said. "I knew it would work in the end, but what I understood, and the Canes probably didn't, was N.C. State's methodology in negotiating. Historically, N.C. State will start at the far end and go screaming, kicking and hollering to a reasonable position.
"Once it was out of the hands of the money managers, it has been a very good relationship."
RBC Centura representatives along with NCSU and Canes officials attend the quarterly meetings, which Fox said had few agenda items. "It's just to talk about how things are going," she said.
Fox also has a seat on the authority -- a move approved in 2000 by the state legislature. Ivey, Cain and others believe the Hurricanes deserve a seat at the table, too, as well as RBC Centura.
"RBC Centura has more dollars in the building than any of the parties," Cain said. "But the good thing is that there is much more trust and cooperation than there was the first three or four years."
Late this summer, Rutherford, NCSU athletics director Lee Fowler and others met to discuss scheduling issues. Fowler said ACC associate commissioner Fred Barakat, the director of basketball operations, was brought in to discuss how the ACC schedule is arranged.
When the Pack wanted tonight's football game, which could have caused massive parking problems, the Canes didn't stand in the way of a schedule change.
"Jim Rutherford was very supportive," Fowler said. "It all came together quickly."
ESPN approached the NHL, which agreed to move up the Canes' game with the Panthers three days. The Hurricanes, in turn, got the three ESPN2 slots.
"That was quite a carrot and worked to the economic interest of both sides," Ivey said. "The fact the game is being played [tonight] is representative of how the two sides feel about each other now."
Staff writer Chip Alexander can be reached at 829-8945.
Editorial: Growing leaders in the backyard
Oct. 16, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Management problems unearthed of late at East Carolina University have prompted a warning to the school's administrators and trustees that, as the search for a new chancellor begins, the university will be under a close watch from the University of North Carolina system's administrators. If the system's people don't like how the ECU folks are handling things, East Carolina could lose "management flexibility" that allows individual campuses more than a little autonomy from the home office in Chapel Hill.
The warning came from UNC system President Molly Broad and Board of Governors Chairman Brad Wilson. It's appropriate enough, but the launching of another chancellor search within the system also brings to mind this sentiment: How refreshing it would be if the president and Wilson also encouraged those leading the search for a new chancellor to look first close to home for candidates. That's no judgment based solely on the just-resigned chancellor, William Muse, who came from the presidency of Auburn University and whose tenure was shortened by health concerns and a couple of critical internal audits.
It's a view that could apply to almost any school in the system. For some reason, whenever a top job comes open, search committees seem driven to hire high-priced "head hunter" firms to go 'round the country and find 'em a chancellor. In addition to being rather insulting to the people who already are on the campuses and presumably might find the chancellor's perch a job worth taking, it seems to contradict one of the university system's core purposes, which is to develop leaders for North Carolina.
Let your correspondent defend what some in the highfalutin towers of higher education might call a provincial attitude. Certainly we've been blessed with the hiring of some capable people who are not, as we say, from around here. And we don't want to fill every job, every time, with someone home-grown. Sometimes, a fresh, outside perspective is needed. But if the university system is not developing its own leadership for the future, then it needs to find out why not -- and how it can do better.
There are advantages in looking within a given university or the overall system for a chancellor. He or she presumably would be well-acquainted with the political scene inside and outside the university. A home-grown candidate of some years service to a particular campus or the system would -- one would hope, anyway -- come with built-in loyalty and would not have to be courted with corporate-type perks and a salary inflated by competition.
The whole national search thing has come into fashion because of an infectious belief that university leadership positions require the same management skills as those of a business executive. Some skills are similar, but not all. That attitude speaks in part to the need of campus presidents and chancellors to spend a lot of time raising money. Yet some of the people who've proved to be supremely competent at running a campus over long years in this state are products of "the academy" and learned a lot of what they know about management by listening to people and going on their own true instincts. I'd include in that group, for example, Patricia Sullivan of UNC-Greensboro and Jim Leutze, who just retired at UNC-Wilmington.
And what about our history when it comes to promoting from within? It's not bad. Bill Aycock (chancellor from 1957-64) was one of the most beloved leaders UNC-Chapel Hill ever had. He was picked for the job from the law school faculty by then-President Bill Friday. When N.C. State University went through its troubles in the athletics program some years back, then-President Dick Spangler promoted Dean Larry Monteith from the engineering school. Spangler also convinced a native son, the famed Julius Chambers, to set aside the practice of law and take over at N.C. Central University, which was Chambers' alma mater. Both men were brilliant choices.
It's true, of course, that there have been some terrific leaders who've come here from elsewhere. The late, very great John Tyler Caldwell of N.C. State was recruited from the presidency of the University of Arkansas. And people such as NCSU Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and UNC-Chapel Hill's James Moeser, both outside choices, may earn similar affections when they're done.
But why not try to discover the gems within as well as without -- and to do it through the knowledge of those on search committees and Molly Broad, who has a multitude of contacts of her own? It can be done. In 30 years, Friday never hired a search firm.
And yes, let's acknowledge -- to those who would try to undermine your correspondent's argument about the virtues of considering candidates who earned their spurs close to home with the facts -- that the UNC system's most storied figure, Friday, is indeed a native of Dallas.
It's in Gaston County. Fairly close to Ranlo and Belmont, and on the other side of the county from Bessemer City.
Deputy editorial page editor Jim Jenkins can be reached at 829-4513.
Point of View: N.C. can make trade work
Oct. 16, 2003
The News & Observer
By Roland Stephen, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
It is surprising to hear Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a Republican, suggest that part of the solution to our state's economic woes is to raise tariffs and ask for more federal grants. Some immediate help for displaced workers is necessary, and many of our state's leaders are working to improve funding for Federal Trade Adjustment Assistance. But there is a danger that too much focus on short-run solutions will distract us from what really needs to be done to prepare North Carolina for the future.
Nor is it justified to suggest that China alone is the source of our difficulties. There were complaints about Mexico yesterday, and no doubt there will be complaints about India tomorrow (such complaints have already begun, because of outsourcing in the information technology industries). North Carolina will never again be home to manufacturing that depends upon cheap labor to make a profit. There will always be somewhere else that is cheaper.
In fact, raising tariffs does harm to our interests in a variety of ways. The international system of free trade has already been battered by U.S. tariffs on steel, and by our bloated system of farm subsidies. Yet the effectiveness of our world leadership and the success of our struggle against fanaticism and terrorism depends upon the prosperity and stability created by free trade.
What is more, North Carolina is home to a variety of innovative industries, in all parts of the state, that export to the rest of the world. These firms have everything to lose from retaliation by others, which is only to be expected when we raise tariffs ourselves.
We would be better off in the long run, regardless of our international competitors, by adopting policies that foster skill-intensive and technology-intensive firms. Such businesses are already to be found be in both traditional and "new economy" industries. What they have in common is a culture of innovation and adaptation. What they need are skilled workers and cutting-edge technologies and techniques.
Dole is right to emphasize the role played by education in preparing us for the future. For far too long workers were content to obtain the minimum amount from their grade school education (even less than the minimum), knowing that there would always be hourly work on the factory floor. By the same token, management was content to rely on a cheap, unskilled work-force in order to make money, rather than choosing the more challenging task of innovation.
Instead, the people of North Carolina need to be prepared for lifelong change by engaging in lifelong education. This will be made possible by university and community college systems that teach not only specific skills but also the flexibility to adopt new ideas and new ways of doing things.
Just as employees need to change, so too does business management. Long-term profitability cannot be guaranteed by chasing low-cost locations to do business. Anyone can do that. Instead, innovation in new technologies and new ways of doing business allows firms to avoid competition based only on price, and instead yields long-term advantages based on quality and performance.
Many businesses will shift to regional and global production networks, in which different activities are located in different parts of the world, depending upon the advantages to be had from any particular place. The task is to transform North Carolina into a region best suited to the most creative, technologically sophisticated activities. Indeed, we must seek to become a region that produces its own crop of entrepreneurs, and which gives the small and medium-sized firms that such entrepreneurs create the necessary resources to go out and take on the world.
Public policy, of the right kind, has a role to play here. Our universities produce a tremendous amount of technology, but we need to smooth the process by which those technologies are transferred to business. Indeed the way universities engage with the larger needs of North Carolina needs to be comprehensively re-examined. More attention needs to be paid to the tax burden carried by entrepreneurs, and by businesses that wish to invest in new technologies. Infrastructure must be maintained, new infrastructures created -- for example, a comprehensive broadband network.
The bottom line, however, is simple. Our destiny is in our own hands, as it should be. Education and innovation will allow us to take advantage of the tremendous changes occurring in the world economy.
Roland Stephen is a faculty fellow at the Institute for Emerging Issues at N.C. State University.
Oct. 15, 2003
Albuquerque Tribune, Scripps Howard News Service
By Mark Minton, News & Observer reporter
© Copyright 2003 Scripps Howard News Service
- Never known as a fast-moving commodity, honey rocketed to record prices - and then it did what honey usually does.
It stuck there.
After a two-year run-up, consumers are paying stiff prices for honey. Shoppers perusing shelves of jars and bear-shaped squeeze bottles might not realize it, but they're being pinched by a force reshaping the North Carolina economy in larger ways.
Beekeepers in China work cheap, too.
Chinese labor has wiped out thousands of U.S. factory jobs, but honey reflects a different aspect of trade with China. U.S. officials clamping down on unfair trade imposed stiff tariffs on Chinese exporters.
Imports account for about half the honey consumed in the United States, industry officials said. But after U.S. producers accused exporters in China and Argentina of selling below cost, the Commerce Department in May 2001 increased duty rates as much as 184 percent.
"It went from approximately 45 cents a pound wholesale, and now (some varieties are) selling for as high as $2 a pound," said Jack Tapp, proprietor of Busy Bee Apiaries in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Though Tapp has raised prices, he said he is keeping them below the national levels in hopes of building customer loyalty.
A National Honey Board report shows that overall U.S. demand is relatively stable, although last year's consumption of 381.5 million pounds was down from 403 million pounds in 2000.
The record prices are enough to turn bees bullish. But no one is making fortunes in the clover fields, beekeepers said.
Trade barriers allow honey producers to rake in more money with little fear of competition, but a North Carolina apiarist Don Hopkins said most of the state's estimated 12,000 beekeepers are small operators who tend bees as a sideline or hobby.
J.D. Foust, president of the N.C. State Beekeepers Association, said many spend more on their bees than they make from them. "Most people who have 20, 25, 30 hives - they're not going to get rich selling honey," said Foust, who said he gives most of his honey to friends.
Though the tariffs are the biggest factor, bad weather for bees has contributed to the high prices by keeping honey harvests modest. At 171.1 million pounds, U.S. production was down 8 percent last year, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service.
But with prices high, foreign producers shipped more honey, and there were no real shortages, said Julia Pirnack, vice president of the National Honey Board.
"You saw honey coming in from lots of other places," she said. "As the price goes up, that happens."
With prices high, it has been profitable even for China to import. But an unapproved additive discovered in some Chinese honey caused U.S. trade authorities to halt honey imports from China last year. Tighter inspections of Chinese honey since are slowing the flow, said Troy Fore, editor of a trade paper called Speedy Bee in Jesup, Ga.
With the U.S. honey crop still coming in, opinions are split on whether consumers can expect honey prices to fall anytime soon.
Pirnack said they are starting to fall already.
But Fore said the 2003 harvest doesn't look like a big one and yields won't pressure prices. The harvest looked promising at first but disappointed, Tapp said.
Heavy spring rains in Virginia and North Carolina filled up the blossoms of tulip poplars and washed out the nectar, he said.
With the tariffs still in place, and demand holding up, Fore predicted continuing high prices.
"The demand is there for honey even at a higher price," he said.
Oct. 16, 2003
Washington Times
By Henry I. Miller
© Copyright 2003 Washington Times
"How can you tell whether a whale is a mammal or a fish?" a teacher asks her third-grade class. "Take a vote?" pipes up one of the pupils.
Although this suggestion may be amusing coming from a child, it is a lot less funny when applied by governments to the formulation of complex policies that involve science and technology. And it's an approach that is becoming increasingly common.
Britons had their say during
the summer, for example, on whether they want biotechnology derived, or gene-spliced,
products in their fields and their food. To gauge public opinion in advance
of a decision scheduled for later this month on whether to allow commercial
planting of gene-spliced crops, the British government at great expense sponsored
a series of public discussions around the country. Local governments and other
organizations held hundreds of additional public meetings.
The head of the British debates' organizing committee, Professor Malcolm Grant,
called them a "unique experiment to find out what ordinary people really
think once they've heard all the arguments."
But the reality argues otherwise. Mark Henderson, science correspondent for the Times, offered this view of the U.K.'s half-million-pound initiative: "The exercise has been farce from start to finish. I'm not sure I want the man in the street to set Britain's science, technology and agriculture policy. One of the six meetings ... spent much of its time discussing whether the SARS virus might come from [gene-spliced] cotton in China. It's more likely to have come from outer space."
Mr. Henderson went on to observe that the meetings were dominated by anti-technology zealots, the only faction that was well enough organized and cared enough about the issue to attend. This is consistent with reports that as many as 79 percent of the 37,000 questionnaire responses were orchestrated by activists.
The urge to make policy based on public opinion about such issues flourishes on this side of the Atlantic as well. The U.S. National Science Foundation, whose primary mission is to support laboratory research across many disciplines, is funding a series of "citizens technology forums," at which average, previously uninformed Americans come together to solve a thorny question of technology policy.
According to the NSF's abstract of the project, being carried out by researchers at North Carolina State University, participants "receive information about that issue from a range of content-area experts, experts on social implications of science and technology, and representatives of special interest groups." This is supposed to enable them to reach consensus "and ultimately generate recommendations."
The project, first funded in 2002 to support two panels and expanded this year under a continuing grant, calls for eight more panels each comprised of 15 citizens (who are "representative of the local population"). Their deliberations will be overseen by a research team "composed of faculty in rhetoric of science, group decisionmaking, and political science," that will test both "an innovative measure of democratic deliberation" and "also political science theory, by investigating relationships between gender, ethnicity, lower socioeconomic status and increases in efficacy and trust in regulators."
At a time when federal budgets are under pressure and laboratory research funding is tight, the NSF has seen fit to spend almost half a million taxpayer dollars on this politically correct but dubious project.
Getting policy recommendations on an obscure and complex technical question from groups of citizen nonexperts (who are recruited by newspaper ads) is sort of like going from your cardiologist's office to a diner, explaining to the waitress the therapeutic options for your chest pain, and asking her whether you should have the angioplasty, or just take medication. (It might help, of course, if there were specialists in the rhetoric of science and in group decisionmaking having lunch at a nearby table.)
The first of these NSF-funded groups tackled regulatory policy toward agricultural biotechnology, and recommended that the government tighten regulations for growing gene-spliced crops, including a new requirement that the foods from these crops be labeled to identify them for consumers. These proposals are unwarranted, inappropriate and contrary to the recommendations of experts, both within the government and in the scientific community.
Although involvement of the public is critical to their understanding of government policy, it is less useful for the formulation of policy. This is particularly true when complex issues of science and technology are involved. Science is not democratic. The citizenry do not get to vote on whether a whale is a mammal or a fish, or on the temperature at which water boils. Legislatures cannot repeal laws of nature.
The goal of policy formulation should be to get the right answers — in this case, that gene-splicing is essentially an extension, or refinement, of less precise genetic techniques that have been around for at least a half-century; that gene-spliced plants can make critical contributions to farmers, consumers and the health of the natural environment; and that, except as science dictates in specific cases, the products of gene-spliced organisms should be regulated no differently than other, similar agricultural and food products.
As the journal Nature editorialized a decade ago, "regulation of biotechnology products, whether in agriculture, medicine, pharmaceuticals or manufacturing, should be based on any inherent risk in the product, not on the process by which it is made."
The formulation of public policy towards science and technology can be difficult, to be sure, but if democracy is to take public opinion appropriately into account, good government must discount heuristic errors and prejudices.
The 18th-century Irish statesman
and writer Edmund Burke emphasized the government's responsibility to make such
determinations. He observed that in republics, "Your representative owes
you, not only his industry, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving
you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion."
Henry I. Miller, a fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Competitive Enterprise
Institute, was an official at the National Institutes of Health and the Food
and Drug Administration between 1977 and 1994.
Oct. 16, 2003
The Boston Globe
By Robert Weisman, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Boston Globe.
In 1998, shortly after moving his family to North Carolina, Matthew J. Szulik took a call from an old friend and business associate, Bill Kaiser, general manager of Greylock Ventures in Waltham.
Greylock had just become the first venture capital firm to invest in a free-software company, Linux distributor Red Hat Inc. in Raleigh. Now Kaiser was looking for someone to turn it into a profitable business. "I picked up the phone," Kaiser recalled, "and said, `Matthew, here's an opportunity to change the world. Are you interested?' "
Szulik, a New Bedford native who had been running technology companies for two decades, was interested. He had been watching the free-software movement evolve since his days leading Interleaf in Waltham in the early 1990s, and once had been Exxon's manager for Unix, the technology on which Linux open-source software is based.
Five years later, with the 46-year-old Szulik at the helm, Red Hat has helped transform Linux from an alternative operating system for overcaffeinated college students to a cheaper but viable option for many corporations. From its headquarters on the North Carolina State University campus, Red Hat has become the number one distributor of Linux software by giving it a less intimidating and more accessible look and feel. And Red Hat and its Linux cohorts have been gaining market share in the business of server operating systems.
Red Hat posted its first operating profit ever in the past quarter. And Szulik, who traces his work ethic to a job at the Acushnet golf ball factory while growing up in New Bedford, has emerged as a lion of the Linux camp.
In that role, he has challenged a representative of rival Microsoft Corp. to a debate before Congress on the merits of open-source vs. proprietary software. He has struck partnerships with companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard. And he has brought suit against SCO Group, which has threatened the open-source business by claiming to own intellectual property in the Linux code.
"Our goal is to become the defining technology of the 21st century," Szulik said on a visit to Boston last month.
Szulik, now president and chief executive of Red Hat (and still a Red Sox fan from afar), has become a thorn in the side of Microsoft, maker of the rival Windows operating system. He's a full-throated evangelist for a technology and a company that have been growing globally by distributing computer code without copyright restrictions. And he insists the recent parade of worms and viruses infecting Windows systems are playing right into his hands as he calls on Microsoft's customers.
"The issue of viruses over the last 90 days has pushed a lot of enterprise customers over the edge," he contended.
A growing number of companies, government agencies, and other organizations have been willing to give Linux a try, often by turning to Red Hat or other distributors for "wraparound" packages of open source applications, such as Web browsers, calendars, and spreadsheets, that provide disaffected customers with alternatives to proprietary systems. Technology companies like Amazon.com and AOL Time Warner, financial institutions like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, and municipal governments from Munich to Tucson have embraced open source, creating openings for Linux distributors.
When Massachusetts last month became the first state to adopt a strategy of moving state computers toward open-standard software, Red Hat was quick to set up a meeting with state officials assessing their software needs. Though still in the early stages of their evaluation, "we're very happy to talk to Red Hat," said Eric Kriss, the state administration and finance secretary.
Microsoft executives say they aren't overly concerned about the gains of Red Hat and other Linux distributors.
"Obviously, Linux has had some growth in the server space," said Martin A. Taylor, the Microsoft general manager of platform strategy in Redmond, Wash. "But they have less than 1 percent market share on the desktop side."
Even in server operating systems, Taylor said, Linux is gaining ground mostly at the expense of companies like Sun Microsystems that are selling servers running Unix, the multi-user operating system that is the basis for Linux.
"If you look at customers who are thinking about replacing Windows servers with Linux servers," he said, "that's a very, very, very short list."
Taylor noted that Linux systems are also susceptible to viruses -- and Microsoft executives point to a warning in a recent Red Hat regulatory filing that much of the code in its products is developed by independent parties over which Red Hat has no control.
"I look at security as an industry-wide problem," Taylor said.
Yet industry watchers took note when Red Hat posted its first operating profit of $240,000 on sales of $28.8 million for the three months ending Aug. 31 -- a milestone that seemed to vindicate Szulik's strategy for the company.
"Red Hat has been successfully moving its business from one largely associated with free downloads to a position where they have supportable products," said Dan Kusnetzky, vice president of systems software research for International Data Corp. "And that will help the Linux market because one of the concerns people have about buying Linux is they fear that the vendors aren't viable."
For Red Hat, the key to making Linux legitimate for busineses and organizations to adopt is after-market support. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux product, introduced in May 2002, has drawn 26,000 subscribers by combining the Linux operating system with higher-level software, support, and access to updates. Last month, the company rolled out "open source architecture," a framework enabling customers to run additional programs on top of Linux operating systems.
"What this allows us to do is to provide mission-critical applications" for customers, said Paul J. Cormier, the Westford-based Red Hat executive vice president of engineering.
One of Red Hat's proudest moments, ironically, was provided by Microsoft. At one point in its long-running antitrust trial, a Microsoft lawyer held up a box of Red Hat Linux to make the point that Microsoft indeed faced competition. Szulik keeps a framed news photo of the scene in his board room.
"This was at a time where our company had less than $10 million in revenue," Szulik recalled. "Go figure."
Today the company sells 10 times as much open source software. Szulik said Red Hat is on track to ring up more than $115 million in revenue this year. And he thinks that time is on his side.
"It's certainly my view," he said, "that 10 or 15 or 25 years from now, open source software will overtake Microsoft."
Obit: Durham notable dies at 95
Oct. 16, 2003
The News & Observer
Frances Hill Fox of Durham could have spent her long life in leisure. After all, she was the granddaughter of George W. Watts, one of the city's earliest business and philanthropic leaders. Her father, John Sprunt Hill, founded what would later become Central Carolina Bank. And her brother, George Watts Hill, led the bank for decades and played an important role in the creation of the Research Triangle Park.
But Fox was not the type of person to sit idle. In nine decades, she became a doctor, delivered babies, taught medicine, managed one of the largest herds of Guernsey cows in the state, built one of the first planned communities in Durham and started a charitable foundation.
A stroke slowed her down in recent years, but just two weeks ago, she wanted news about the stock market, said her son-in-law, George Beischer of Durham. She died at home, in her sleep, on Tuesday. It was her 95th birthday.
Beischer said that when you come from a family like Fox's, "I think you can develop a certain aura about you. She had that wonderful ability to have that aura, but also to be human, and to be able to laugh at it, in a way. When you're basically a big frog in a small pond -- that's Durham -- that has to do something to you."
Fox was born Oct. 14, 1908, in Durham, the daughter of Annie Watts Hill and John Sprunt Hill. She graduated in 1931 from Duke University and in 1935 from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, at a time when few women became doctors.
As a medical intern in Cleveland, she helped deliver the babies of poor women, said her grandson, David D. Beischer of Durham. He runs the Fox Family Foundation, which donated about $300,000 to 35 organizations last year.
In Cleveland, Frances Hill met another doctor, Herbert Junius Fox, and married him. They had two children, Susan and Randolph. Fox taught at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine before working with her husband on her family's two large dairy farms and beef cattle operation. In the 1960s, they built the Croasdaile residential community out of 500 acres of family farmland.
Fox served as a member of the board of Central Carolina Bank from 1946 to 1994. She donated time and money to Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State. There are several endowed professorships in her name.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Durham.
Staff writer Vicki Cheng can be reached at 956-2415.
Oct. 16, 2003
The News & Observer
DAVID C. BRUMITT, former director of technical support for SAS Institute and a man with an enormous zest for everything good in life, died Tuesday after a 21-month-long bout with cancer. He was 58.
He was the loving and devoted husband of Barbara Wiedemann whom he recently described to friends as "the best thing that ever happened to me in my life." The two met in August 1997 while Dave accompanied a friend to Logan's Nursery in Raleigh. That day, Dave found a loving and accepting wife; the friend got a schefflera. "I got the better of that trip, " he said two years later at his wedding in Chestertown, Md.
Dave was proud to work for SAS and of his accomplishments there. But more thrilling to him than being part of a successful, fast-growing and humane company were the dear friends he made there. Those friends include, but are not limited to, Jeff Perkinson, Dave Schlotzhauer, Larry Noe, Randy Betancourt and Jim Davis. Many years ago, Dave began a Wednesday "bad movie" night tradition among some of these friends. After dinner at a local restaurant, often Maximillian's in Cary where the owners always treated him so well, the boys would head to science fiction, thriller, suspense or shoot-em-up movies that their wives couldn't stomach. There's no telling how many marriages Dave saved with that idea.
Dave was a great athlete, enjoying skiing, camping, cycling and backcountry exploring. Just two months ago, he was fishing for salmon in Alaska. He was also a gourmet cook, a fan of the arts and an avid reader, especially of newspapers and magazines. In the last months of his life, he had undertaken an effort to read many of the great books one misses while majoring in economics: "The Deerslayer, " "To Kill A Mockingbird, " "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, " "Lonesome Dove" and "Travels with Charley" among them. His favorite piece of recent fiction was "Cold Mountain." He also had a great appreciation of Asian culture, an interest that he was able to develop in the two years that he served as the SAS chief of technical support for Asia and the Pacific. He took many trips through the region.
Dave was born on Feb. 4, 1945, the son of Mae Evans Brumitt and Roy "Bud" Brumitt in Calico Rock, Ark. Both are now dead. He had one brother, James, who was his hero. James died young while studying to be an Episcopal priest. The family moved to Bakersfield, Cal., while Dave was a boy. Roy owned and operated a grocery store there while Dave lived an "American Graffiti" childhood and teen life. He played football and baseball, skied and became enormously interested in cars. In recent years, Dave could be seen driving around his west Raleigh neighborhood in his black Porsche Boxster with the top down.
He graduated from Bakersfield Junior College and then earned a bachelor's degree from Idaho State University. Uncle Sam called in 1968 and Dave served two years in the U.S. Army. Although trained as an MP 9th Military Police Company of the 9th Infantry Division Dave served in a combat infantry role during most of his year in Vietnam. He carried and operated an M-60 machine gun and was awarded the Army Commendation Medal upon his honorable discharge. When he returned to the U.S., Dave became active in the opposition to the war but, throughout his life, maintained close contact with the members of his squad and was able to enjoy reunions with several of them this summer.
He earned a master's degree in economics from the University of Utah and spent his early career working for Utah state government in transportation and corrections. He moved to the Triangle to work as a computer programmer with SAS in March 1985. Under the guidance of friend and mentor Lee Richardson, Dave steadily moved up the ladder at SAS, becoming the director of tech support in 1999.
While dating, Dave and Barb both served on the N.C. State Theatre Endowment Board. She later told friends, "His unconditional love changed my life." When the two married, they decided to live a great life together. They traveled the globe, bicycled through North Carolina and entertained friends with their cooking often to repay them for watching Barb's dogs while the pair were off on their world journeys. In winter 2002, Dave was diagnosed with adenocarcinomal esophageal cancer. He underwent surgery the day after a 100-mile bicycle ride, and fought tenaciously through a five-month recovery. Dave was able to return to SAS and the co-workers he admired and respected. When his cancer returned, however, he and Barbara decided to pull out all the stops. They sold Dave's Boxster and purchased two Harley Davidsons that carried them to the sea and the mountains. They flew to Spain and Portugal to see the beauty of the Iberian Peninsula. They traveled to the wilds of Utah with friends Dan Wilkinson and Kate Dixon, and to New York City with friends Paul, Charlene and Michael O'Connor for a week of Broadway and Italian food. In late August, they enjoyed the wonders of Alaska with the Murdock family, and Dave proceeded to Utah to show his friend Jeff Perkinson the natural wonders of that state.
Dave had a life well lived. Dave's family wishes to thank Dr. Tommy D'Amico and staff at Duke University Medical Center for the surgery that extended Dave's life; Dr. Mark Yoffe and his staff for their warm and intelligent care which helped Dave live his life to the fullest; nurse Nancy Krombach of SAS for her friendship over the years and advice during his illness; Molly Kiefer for her wisdom and kindness; and Lee Readling of Hospice of Wake County for helping him to die in peace and comfort at home with his wife.
In addition to his wife, Dave is survived by his in-laws, Joe and Elke Wiedemann of Chestertown, Md., sister-in-law, Karin Wiedemann of Washington, D.C., brother-in-law, Peter Wiedemann of Seattle, Wash., cousin, Pat Hudson of Bakersfield, her son, Thom, of Hawaii, and other family members in California.
The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the Triangle Community Foundation, Dave Brumitt Fund, P.O. Box 75393, Charlotte, N.C. 28275-0393, or to Hospice of Wake County."I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." Atticus Finch, speaking to his son, Jem, in Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird."
Oct. 16, 2003
The News & Observer
JAMES MARSHALL THAXTON OF 561 WADE STEPHENSON RD., died Wednesday at Rex Hospital. A retired farmer and employee of the NCSU Research Farm, he was a Veteran of World War II. Serving in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946, he was a helmsman on LCI No. 529.
Funeral service will be 11:00 a.m. Friday a Kennebec Baptist Church. Burial, church cemetery.
Surviving: his wife of 56
years, Ezraleen Matthews Thaxton; daughter, Joye Thaxton of Holly Springs; son,
Ray Thaxton and his wife, Pam of Holly Springs; sisters, Frances Butts of Lillington
and Becky Westbrook of Siler City; brother, Howard Thaxton of Burlington; and
many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Tom and Thelma Thaxton; a brother,
Charles Thaxton and a sister, Betty Wharton.
The family will receive friends, 7-9 p.m. today, at Bryan-Lee Funeral Home, Angier.