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Edward Kidder Graham, UNC President, 1914-1918
Born on October 11, 1876, into a family steeped in the mission of teaching, Edward Kidder Graham received his early education in the public schools of Charlotte. He graduated from Carolina in 1898 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and was ranked second in his class. After earning his master's degree in English at Columbia University in 1903, he returned to Carolina, first as a professor of English, then as dean of the College of Liberal Arts. He became the University's eighth president in 1914, succeeding Francis P. Venable.
Graham is best remembered for his efforts to link learning in the classroom to service beyond the walls of the University, and for his encouragement to students that they develop an "intellectual way of life" open to inquiry, self-reflection, and discovery. Graham died on October 26, 1918, a victim of the Spanish Influenza epidemic that circled the globe at the end of World War I. Over the next decade, friends and alumni of the University raised private funds to erect a tribute to Graham's memory and to fulfill his desire for a place where students might gather, in the words of Walt Whitman, to "loaf and invite the soul." The Graham Memorial building opened as Carolina's first student union in 1931.
The James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence
Graham Memorial was renovated in 1998-2000 to house the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence. Described by its planning committee as a "democracy of learning," the Center's mission is to lead a renaissance in undergraduate education at Carolina.
Students come to the Johnston Center to learn about undergraduate research and Honors Study Abroad opportunities, to meet distinguished Carolina alumni and campus visitors, to participate in arts and cultural events, and to get to know their professors as scholars and people. With its state-of-the-art technology, the Johnston Center also serves as a laboratory for innovation in teaching and learning. Faculty and students use these facilities to engage in collaborative inquiry with peers both close to home and around the globe. The Center's teleconferencing facilities connect UNC programs abroad back to campus and give students in Chapel Hill access to academic experts from all parts of the world.
The Johnston Center is part of an ongoing north campus revival
supported by the College of Arts and Sciences' private fund-raising
efforts. More than 700 donors contributed $7.4 million to
finance the renovation of Graham Memorial. Key gifts included
$1.25 million from the James M. Johnston Trust; a $600,000
challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation of Troy, Michigan;
$500,000 from the John Motley Morehead Foundation; $350,000
from The Educational Foundation, Inc.; and $250,000 from the
William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust.
James Martin Johnston and The James M. Johnston Trust
The Center's name honors the late James Martin Johnston, a Chapel Hill native, born on December 8, 1895. Johnston attended Carolina from 1913 to 1915 and earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois in 1917. He was a pursuit pilot in World War I, serving in France and Germany.
Johnston was the principal founder of Johnston, Lemon & Company, a nationally recognized investment banking firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. He was also an ardent sports fan, who together with a group of business partners purchased the Washington Senators baseball franchise. Johnston's associates in banking and baseball found him warmhearted and generous, though he shunned the limelight.
Proceeds from those endeavors funded the James M. Johnston Trust for Charitable and Educational Purposes, which has given more than $25 million to Carolina through the Johnston Scholars program, one of the largest need-based academic scholarship programs in the South. The trust's gift to the new undergraduate center was part of its Bicentennial Campaign pledge.
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