SUPPORTING STUDENT VETERANS
Gifts totaling $350,000 will provide scholarships, programming, resources
Donald Ray Taylor receives his paver from Air Force ROTC cadet Alexis Lupton during a ceremony in the Main Campus Student Center. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)
COURAGE AND SACRIFICE
Memorial Walk brick paver dedication ceremony remembers heroes who served
Donald Ray Taylor joined the Navy in 1952, bound for basic training in San Diego before being assigned to an aircraft carrier during the Korean War.
He was a landing signal officer on a carrier running missions in the Sea of Japan, a world away from his hometown of Roanoke Rapids.
Taylor returned to eastern North Carolina in 1956, when he enrolled in what was then East Carolina College. The name had just changed from East Carolina Teachers College, and by the next decade would be known as East Carolina University. “I feel like I was in on the birth of ECU,” Taylor said.
His friend Anthony Britt remembered Taylor’s service with an engraved brick paver unveiled on March 5 during ECU’s dedication ceremony. Taylor was one of eight individuals honored with a permanent marker. The pavers have been placed along Memorial Walk beside Christenbury Memorial Gymnasium, headquarters of the Army ROTC program’s Pirate battalion.
Britt and Taylor, along with several friends, meet for coffee just about every Saturday morning. Britt has secured bricks for others in his family — his father, brother and uncle — but wanted to honor Taylor while he could be recognized.
“I wanted to have a chance to thank him for his service,” said Britt, senior associate director of ECU’s Office of Academic Outreach, Continuing and Distance Education. “It’s a small way to say thank you for their sacrifice and service to our country, and for us to enjoy the peace and freedom we enjoy every day.”
Taylor spent two years as a reservist while studying business at ECU. He retired from Bridgestone in Wilson.
“This is such a tribute,” said Taylor, 87, whose son also attended ECU. “I feel very honored. It’s heart-rending, really, to be recognized.”
Taylor thought about his fellow seamen who were killed in duty, off ship or during training exercises. “There’s no easy, safe thing when you’re onboard a ship,” Taylor said. “Even if you’re not in direct conflict, it’s dangerous.”
In addition to Taylor, the following were honored by donors:
Shane Brumfield by Karen Brumfield
1st Class Joseph A. Whitman by Dr. Audy Whitman
John Douglas by Mary Munday
Billy Dye by Casey Dye
W. Atkinson by Melissa Atkinson
Jim Daniels by James Daniels
Col. Douglas Monroe by Charles Moore
Dr. Kirk Little ’82 delivers the keynote address at the brick paver dedication ceremony in the Main Campus Student Center. The event was moved inside due to the threat of rain. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)
During the ceremony, keynote speaker Dr. Kirk Little ’82, vice president and chief operating officer for Apogee Solutions Inc. and Air Force veteran, shared the story of John Christenbury, for whom Christenbury gym was named, and technically the only undefeated football coach at ECU, Little said.
Christenbury also taught health and physical education and organized a successful intramural program on campus. But as World War II started, Christenbury volunteered and enlisted in the Navy. He reported to duty in 1943. After training, he was sent to Port Chicago, California, to supervise the loading of cargo and munitions onto warships.
“They sent him for a job he was not prepared for,” Little said. “He didn’t blink an eye. He just got involved loading ammunition on a ship.”
One of the worst home disasters of the war occurred on July 17, 1944, when an explosion leveled Port Chicago, killing more than 300 and injuring another 350 workers. Among the dead was 34-year-old Lt. Christenbury, who had been supervising a group of predominantly African American men who had been inadequately trained for their dangerous work, Little said.
The explosion and subsequent investigation set off a chain of events that ultimately would lead to desegregation of U.S. armed forces.
“When I think about the lessons of service, I think about friends, family, loved ones, ones that I don’t know, friends of the military who stepped up to help out — it just touches every area,” Little said.
Before his work in the commercial sector, Little completed a career as an Air Force space operations officer. He amassed more than 4,200 contacts on a variety of satellites and spent more than nine years working on classified national security programs. During 1985-86 while assigned in Turkey, he supported the tracking of debris from the space shuttle Challenger disaster, monitored the first operational test of a U.S. anti-satellite weapon, and tracked 10 ballistic missile test launches conducted by the Soviet Union.
Little attended ECU on a four-year Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship and received his bachelor’s in business administration. He serves as chair of the student affairs advancement council and is a member of the ECU Distinguished Military Service Society and Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society.
To learn more about donating a paver, call Dr. Mary Smith, director of alumni outreach for the ECU Alumni Association, at 252-328-1953 or email smithmary19@edu.ecu.
-by Crystal Baity
Helping student veterans succeed is the goal of two recent donations to East Carolina University.
As of fall 2019, more than 860 student veterans and almost 700 military dependents were enrolled at ECU.
Now, two gifts totaling $350,000 will help the Student Veteran Services (SVS) office in the ECU Division of Student Affairs.
SVS helps facilitate service members’ transition from the military to university life. From navigating federal VA benefits to connecting with resources on campus and in the community, SVS aims to ensure student veterans have a positive experience at ECU.
The Masons recently contributed to provide two annual Warrior Scholar student scholarships, a scholarship endowment and to fully fund the Veteran to Scholar Bridge Program, which helps ease veterans’ transition to campus life and coursework before classes start. (Contributed photo)
One of the gifts will fully fund the ECU Veteran to Scholar Bridge Program, which helps ease veterans’ transition to campus life and coursework before classes start. Mason (who goes by one name) and his wife Kim Mason of Fort Worth, Texas, pledged $250,000 over five years for the bridge program, as well as two annually funded Warrior Scholar student scholarships and a scholarship endowment.
“Our purpose is to give a hand up and not a handout,” Mason said. “As business owners, military service proved to be a key indicator of loyalty, dependability, dedication and accountability when searching and selecting team members. Our hope is that the grant helps ease the pain and aids veterans in continuing their formal education.”
Mason served in the Marine Corps from 1974 to 1978 before earning a degree in business administration from ECU. He said he passed the CPA exam on his first sitting because of the dedication of ECU faculty members.
“I will always be thankful for the sincere interest that all of the professors and staff took in my journey,” Mason said. “My education at ECU was a major factor in business success, almost as important in partnering with my wife, which has provided the means to fund the veterans grant.”
Mason’s father served in the Navy, his uncle served in the Marine Corps, and Kim’s father served in the Army. “My wife and I both believe that more needs to be done and can be done to support those that have volunteered to serve this great country,” Mason said. “We personally wanted to give back in some way that directly supports our veterans.”
ECU ROTC cadets stand with Dr. Anisa Zvonkovic, dean of the College of Health and Human Performance, where ROTC programs are housed, and Dr. Betty Beacham, second from right, who recently contributed funds to support students. (Contributed photo)
Dr. Betty Beacham of Greenville recently gave $100,000 to name the SVS lounge in Mendenhall Student Center and to support scholarships and programs for veterans.
Beacham has spent 25 years at ECU, where she has been engaged in service and outreach to eastern North Carolina as director of the STEM-Corps East and Teacher Quality Partnership programs. She has developed and managed AmeriCorps and VISTA programs to provide tutoring and mentoring for K-12 students in the region.
“This commitment to service also defines my personal life,” Beacham said. “It was a natural next step for me to support our ROTC and student veterans by providing educational scholarships. Being able to help our students in this way is very rewarding.”
For SVS, the donations will provide much-needed scholarships and resources for student veterans.
“Opportunities for scholarships are an incredibly important feature of a military-friendly university,” said Nicole Jablonski, associate director of SVS. “Scholarships diminish the need for students to take out loans and help ensure they finish the degree they wish to complete.”
Ben Byma, back, and Steven Wimmer participate in Storm the Stadium on March 7.
(Photo by Rhett Butler)
At ECU, many veterans transfer their post 9/11 benefits to their spouse or children, leaving the veteran to cover the cost of college with loans and other sources of funding, Jablonski said. Some have used their benefits at other schools or change majors, meaning they run out of benefits before finishing their degree, forcing them to take out loans or leave school before graduating. Also, student veterans are often older and have families, mortgages, car payments and other responsibilities. While post 9/11 benefits are generous, some veterans at ECU have to take out loans to bridge the gap between what the benefit pays and household expenses, she said.
To raise funds for scholarships and programs, SVS hosted the fifth annual Storm the Stadium event on Saturday. About 180 competitors walked or ran 3,200 stairs in the lower bowl of ECU’s football stadium, making the event one of the longest stair climbing challenges in eastern North Carolina.
Kirk Little ’82, chair of the student affairs advancement council and an Air Force veteran, recently donated an Xbox game system to the SVS office.
Runners and walkers at the Storm the Stadium event on March 7 helped raise funds for scholarships and programs for student veterans at ECU. (Photo by Rhett Butler)
PIRATE NATION GIVES
If you would like to contribute, supporters from around the world will come together on ECU’s day of giving called Pirate Nation Gives. Originally scheduled for March 18, this day has been postponed due to university guidelines related to the coronavirus outbreak.
It’s a 24-hour online fundraising event to give back to the university. Alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends are encouraged to donate to the ECU college, fund or program of their choice.