News

Evensong - Franklin County, North Carolina

WILSON, N.C. — Barton Art Galleries will host the work of acclaimed painter J. Chris Wilson in an exhibition titled "From Murphy to Manteo-An Artist's Scenic Journey." Although a native of Georgia, Wilson has resided in North Carolina since the early 1970s and brings to the audience a serene visage of natural wonder found in the state.

"From Murphy to Manteo-An Artist's Scenic Journey" will be on display from November 8 to December 9. The opening reception is Sunday, Nov. 8, from 2 - 4 p.m. This event is open to the public free of charge, and the community is invited to attend. J. Chris Wilson will present a lecture on his work immediately following the opening reception. The lecture is open only to members of the Barton Friends of Visual Arts. For membership please call 252-399-6357, or join the Friends of Visual Arts at the event.  The exhibition will run until December 9.

In his paintings, Wilson presents an intimate detailed view of the splendor of the North Carolina landscape. Such an endeavor has often been the subject of photographs and etchings, but never before has there been as diverse a look at the natural environment undertaken in oil. The breadth of images in the series reflects an intense devotion to the state and the ideology of being from North Carolina. "I suppose, in retrospect, this entire journey began when I started to see myself as no longer a South Georgian and began feeling that I was now a tried-and-true North Carolinian," said Wilson.

The paintings in this series did not materialize overnight, but have been developing for over a decade. Wilson's intention is to produce 100 scenic views of North Carolina stretching across the state following US-64, literally from Murphy to Manteo. "My objective," said Wilson, "was to seek what I considered to be the most visually impressive and interesting natural scenery whether that scenery was created totally by natural forces or by the hand of man."

Wilson's paintings began to take shape after returning from Japan, where he taught at a sister institution to Barton College. Having been previously exposed to Japanese wood block printing, Wilson found inspiration in the work of Ando Hiroshige, who produced serial prints focusing on scenic views along important rivers in the country. Returning to America, Wilson felt driven to produce his own series of works eliciting his home environment.

Rivers have had a long-standing history for serving as transportation routes. Wilson contemplated this notion and considered painting scenic views along the Tar River, which runs past his Edgecombe County home. Deciding there was not enough visual variety along the Tar, however, Wilson looked to a different artery of transport for his inspiration: US Highway 64.

The exhibit displays both studies for the monumental series as well as completed paintings. The latter of these are tremendous in scale, completely covering some of the galley walls. These large canvasses draw the viewer in filling their visual field creating the sense that one is actually there, standing in nature.

"Wilson has captured the essence of land," said Gerard Lange, director of exhibitions at the Barton Art Galleries. "From rolling hills, to rushing water, to pensive mist-filled fields, one can become lost in the scenes as a Romantic poet might in their own introspections."

In the paintings, Wilson has highlighted the grandeur of the land and also captured the emotion of bearing witness to the land. The result is a quite personal yet telling portrayal of North Carolina. It is Wilson's hope that the viewers of his works will walk away with a heightened awareness of their state. "Perhaps these works may contribute to a new sense of appreciation for the essential good of the North Carolina landscape," he said.

Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the exception of holidays.  For additional information, please contact Gerard Lange, director of exhibitions, at 252-399-6475 or email: glange@barton.edu.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

Wilson, N.C. - Barton College is pleased to welcome renowned historian and Lincoln scholar Dr. David E. Long as the featured speaker for the upcoming BB&T Heritage Lecture in American History scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 20.  Dr. Long's lecture is titled "Lincoln, Davis, and the Civil War: The Dahlgren Raid."  Scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Hardy Alumni Hall, this program is open to the public free of charge and the community is invited to attend.  Sponsors for the evening include BB&T, the Barton College Heritage Committee, the Department of History and Social Sciences at Barton College, and the Wilson County Historical Association.

In the upcoming lecture, Dr. Long will address a controversial cavalry raid on Richmond in 1864 that involved Lincoln in an attempt to assassinate Jefferson Davis.

Twelve years background as a trial lawyer and prosecutor give Dr. Long a somewhat unique perspective on Lincoln among the community of scholars who have written about the sixteenth president. Dr. Long understands the meaning of what it is to "think like a lawyer" and, to understand Lincoln, one must be able to understand that the man's career had been in advocacy, and that he was able to serve that role from either side of the bar.

Graduating from the Ohio State University in 1969 and the OSU College of Law in 1972, Dr. Long began his career as a lawyer. His first courtroom appearance as counsel of record was in a first-degree murder case in 1973. Though his client was innocent, the jury found him otherwise, and the judge sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment. Refusing to accept that such an injustice could be permitted to stand, Dr. Long pursued the trail of evidence in the case and ultimately learned the identity of the real killer.  After a difficult appeal process, he was eventually able to get the court to award a new trial. At that second trial, Dr. Long was able to establish his client's innocence by proving the guilt of someone else. Nearly three years after his client was first arrested and charged, the wrongfully imprisoned defendant was found not guilty by the second jury, and gained back the freedom that had previously been forfeited as a result of a life sentence.

Dr. Long practiced law for 12 years before returning to graduate school in 1987 at Florida State University, where he earned his Master of Arts degree and Ph.D. in nineteenth century American history, and almost immediately published his dissertation "The Jewel of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln's Re-election and the End of Slavery." The book was nominated for five of the most prestigious prizes in the field of U.S. history, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Lincoln Prize.

For additional information about the program, please contact Dr. Jeff Broadwater, chair of the Department of History and Social Sciences, at 252-399-6443 or email: ojbroadwater@barton.edu.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

WILSON, N.C. - The Barton College Friends of Visual Arts and the Barton Art Galleries will welcome J. Chris Wilson, artist and art professor at Barton College, to lecture on the legendary North Carolina native Hobson Pittman and his paintings on Tuesday, Oct.20, at 2 p.m. The event will be held in the Lula E. Rackley Gallery in the Case Art Building on campus. The event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is encouraged to attend.

Originally by invitation only for the Friends of Visual Arts, this program has been opened to the general public because of increased interest in the "Hobson Pittman: At Home & Work" exhibition currently on view at Barton College. The exhibition will be on display in the Lula E. Rackley Gallery until Friday, Oct. 30.  Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the exception of holidays. For additional information, please contact Gérard Lange, director of exhibitions, at 252-399-6475 or email: glange@barton.edu.

Hobson Pittman -
Born in the rural Edgecombe community of Epworth near Leggett in 1899, Pittman showed artistic promise at a very early age and was encouraged to pursue his creative talent by his first art instructor, Molly Rouse. He attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1925, continuing his studies at Columbia University. In 1928, Pittman was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and traveled to Europe for the first time, where he visited major art museums and completed a series of watercolors. From that point forward, Pittman traveled between the United States, Europe, and the Orient, teaching and studying painting.

Although he never lived in Edgecombe County again, Pittman took the memories of his home-place with him. Often devoid of people, these paintings of spacious Victorian rooms and southern gardens are romantic and nostalgic, and hearken the sense of a distant memory. "He often would exaggerate the massive windows and doorways he remembered from his childhood, that seemed larger than life," shared Buddy Hooks, director of the Hobson Pittman Memorial Gallery in Tarboro. The stark wooden homes with 10 and 12-foot ceilings, enormous doors and windows provided strong elements to mix with Pittman's imagination creating compelling and somewhat mysterious scenes. Pittman once shared, "I have always been interested in painting things of the past - things I have loved and still do. Things I feel and understand." The quiet ambiance of the scenes is often deafening in the solitude, which is depicted. Charged by the subtle mix of interior and exterior lighting, one gets a sense that the world has stopped turning in a moment where a youthful recollection is pondered by a mature mind.

From the late 1950s until the end of his life, Pittman used a riotous palette of color. Throughout the course of his life, blue-greys, fawns and taupes, muted greens and wines gave way to tangerine, watermelon, turquoise, hot gold and chartreuse. Likewise, his subject matter waxed and waned covering all sorts of styles and genre. It was for his floral still lives that Pittman won notoriety in the 1920s and 1930s. In these canvasses, one can sense the influences of Henry McFee, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Fernand Lèger, and the German Expressionists. "If I have made any contributions to painting, I firmly attribute it to a concentrated study of the masters," said Pittman. "I try very hard not to be biased in my opinions or in my appreciation, but to be tolerant of all types and periods of good painting."

Pittman earned high regard throughout the United States for his oils, pastels, and watercolors. He was also considered one of the best art instructors in the nation and was sought by numerous colleges, universities, and art organizations to lecture and teach.

Pittman's career was sparked by numerous awards, and his works are included in many public collections including the Corcoran Gallery and the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Philadelphia Museum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. Works in this exhibition are on loan from the Hobson Pittman Memorial Gallery, located within the Blount-Bridgers House in Tarboro.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

Wilson, N.C. - Barton College will welcome Wilson writers Merry Simmons, a science fiction author and realtor; Willis Briley, a poet, playwright, freelance writer, film writer, director, and producer; and Lucien Stark, a novelist and educator, for the upcoming Victor R. Small Writers Series this fall semester.

The program is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 19, at 7:30 p.m., and will be held in The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center on campus.  This event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is invited to attend.

Simmons has a varied background, earning degrees in English from Southern Methodist University and then teaching English for 15 years until she switched to a career in real estate, "realizing that more people wanted houses than grammar." She is currently a realtor with First Wilson Properties. Developing as a writer later in life, she has had many stories appear in "Asimov's Science Fiction" and "Paradox Magazine." Her first published short story, "Magpie," was the Grand Prize Winner in "Writers of the Future XVII." Three of her tales have made the initial ballot for the Hugo Award presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America.  Her most recent story, "The Well of Forgetting," is forthcoming in "Realms of Fantasy."

Briley grew up in Wilson, graduated from Davidson College, and did graduate studies at New York University. In the U.S. Army, he began a career in film and eventually joined Craven Films in New York as writer, producer, and director of educational, instructional, and motivational films for National Geographic, The United Nations, The Office of the Oceanographer, all branches of the United States Military, the United Negro College Fund, and the Federal Reserve Board. Many of these films won awards. His play, "The Street of Yellow Echoes," was the runner-up in the 2000 Paul Green Playwriting Competition judged by Ken Howard. He is currently at work on the poetry collection "Quadrants."

Stark is a native of Wilson with degrees in English from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Virginia. After 25 years of teaching, he retired and returned to Wilson to live. Currently, he is out of retirement and in his second year of teaching at Greenfield School. He won accolades as a teacher and appeared in Who's Who Among American Teachers six times. His first novel, "The Noise Upstairs," was published in 2005, and he has just completed his second novel, "The Principal Said NO: A Week of Hell."

This program is sponsored by the Department of English and Modern Languages.  For additional information, please contact Dr. Kathy James, chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages, at 252-399-6455 or email: kjames@barton.edu.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

WILSON, N.C. - Living in a world of 24-hour news, we are notified within moments of disasters occurring across the globe.  But with the technology of instant news, is there also a greater responsibility? Is it possible that today's world requires us to be a people of response: coming together through a worldwide partnership to offer assistance in a multitude of forms to those affected by tragedies of natural and human catastrophes?

Barton College welcomes the Reverend Amy Gopp, director of Week of Compassion, on Wednesday, Oct. 14, to share an update about recent worldwide relief efforts coordinated through the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The event will be held at 7 p.m. in The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center. This program is open to the public free of charge, and the community is invited to attend.

During her visit to Barton's campus, the Reverend Gopp will also speak to students about a new partnership between Barton College and Week of Compassion, the relief, refugee and development ministry fund of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The two Disciples-related institutions have partnered to develop and initiate a pilot program called Campus Compassion. This new initiative has been designed to educate and motivate young adults to respond to the global needs of the world.  To fund the program, Barton and "Week of Compassion" were awarded two grants from the College/University Grant Fund of Higher Education and Leadership Ministry (HELM) of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Oreon Scott Foundation.

"As Disciples' ministries operating in different manifestations of the Church, Barton College and Week of Compassion have a responsibility to find new ways to engage young adults on the journey of spiritual maturity, social consciousness, and faithful stewardship," shared the Reverend Hollie Woodruff, chaplain of Barton College.  "Exposure to the needs of the world is a critical piece of that journey.  We want to create an innovative strategy to explore what working relationships can emerge between Week of Compassion and Disciples-related colleges and universities.

"The grant funding for this exciting project will do more than just allow Barton College and Week of Compassion to work in partnership; it will offer an environment where our students are truly engaged in their education through study groups, volunteer opportunities, and an Alternative Spring Break work trip to Slidell, Louisiana," Woodruff added.  Objectives for the program include educating students about the causes of poverty, researching opportunities for relief work, and creating a stronger global awareness.  The program is designed to inspire students and impart tools to help them make a positive difference in their communities and across the world.

"This year-long pilot program will conclude with a retreat hosted by Barton College that will involve chaplains from all Disciples-related colleges and universities," continued Woodruff.  "The retreat will provide an opportunity to process, share, and promote continued collaboration with Week of Compassion.  Barton hopes this retreat initiative, planned tentatively for June 2010, will be a springboard for other Disciples-related schools to become more involved in offering support to Week of Compassion efforts across the globe. Our hope is that Barton's Campus Compassion program will serve as a model, catalyst, and challenge for other Disciples-related colleges.  By bringing Disciples-related college chaplains together, we look forward to sharing our experience of working together while generating partnerships and ideas for future efforts."

Week of Compassion is recognized across the world for providing emergency and long-term assistance to people in the aftermath of natural and human catastrophes.  Partnering with other Christian Ministries and national government organizations, Week of Compassion responds with help, hope, and hospitality.  And, Week of Compassion works to eradicate forces of injustice and provide hospitality to all who are in need.

"Week of Compassion is an extraordinary program that creates boundless opportunities for students across the nation to participate in assisting with worldwide issues that are often minimized," shared Barton freshman Rachel Warren.

"The Campus Compassion program personifies the partnership of a living covenant between Barton College and the Christian Church (DOC) to respond to this calling to faith," concluded Woodruff.  "We are living out the mission of not only of Barton College, but also of Week of Compassion and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)."

For additional information about Campus Compassion, please contact the Reverend Hollie Woodruff, chaplain of Barton College, at 252-399-6368 or email: hewoodruff@barton.edu.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

Steve and Ruth Smith

WILSON, N.C. - Barton College is pleased to welcome Steve and Ruth Smith as the featured guests for the 2009 Allan R. Sharp Religion in Life Series set for Thursday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. The Smiths' performance and lecture, to be held in Hardy Alumni Hall, will focus on "The Role of Music in Religion in Appalachia."  This event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is invited to attend.

Steve and Ruth Smith have been playing Celtic and Appalachian music together for over 30 years. For this year's Allan R. Sharp Religion in Life Series event, the duo will perform and discuss Celtic influences on Appalachian religious music. Ruth plays the hammered and Appalachian mountain dulcimers, while Steve joins in on acoustic guitar and banjo.

Ruth studied music at the University of Illinois, and her hammered dulcimer compositions have been featured on NPR's "All Songs Considered."  Steve earned a Master of Arts degree in Appalachian Studies with an emphasis in Appalachian music and folk life from Appalachian State University.  Since 1997, he has taught audio production/recording at Appalachian State University.  Steve is an American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers award winner, and both Ruth and Steve have worked in the music industry in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Hawaii, and they have traveled internationally as ambassadors of Appalachian music. Their 2007 CD, "Dancin Cross the Strings," was featured on Fiona Ritchie's "Thistle & Shamrock." For additional information about the Smiths, visit their web site at www.steveandruth.com.

Established in 1991, the Allan R. Sharp Religion in Life Series brings to campus each fall semester distinguished performers and lecturers who focus on topics of practical Christian significance for the general public relating to contemporary issues. This lecture series was named in honor of Dr. Allan R. Sharp, professor emeritus of religion and philosophy, at the time of his retirement.  The late Dr. Sharp served on the Barton College faculty from 1953 - 1991.

For additional information, please contact Dr. Rodney A. Werline, Marie and Leman Barnhill Endowed Chair in Religious Studies at Barton College, at 252-399-6447 or email: rawerline@barton.edu.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu

WILSON, N.C. - Edgar Award winning author James W. Hall will be the featured speaker at the Barton College Friends of Hackney Library fall dinner scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 6. The evening's festivities, to be held in Hardy Alumni Hall, will begin with a book signing and wine reception at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and the program at 7 p.m.

Tickets for the dinner event are $35 per person, with reservations accepted until Oct. 2.  Members of the Barton College Friends of Hackney Library may reserve tickets for $30 per person.  Table reservations must be for a total of eight persons. Please contact Cynthia Collins at 399-6503 or fohl@barton.edu for reservations or additional information.

Hall's 15 novels to date include, but are not limited to: "Under Cover of Daylight" (1987), "Bones of Coral" (1992), "Blackwater Sound" (2002), "Off the Chart" (2003), "Forests of the Night" (2004), and "Magic City" (2007). His latest release is "Hell's Bay" (2008).

Born in Kentucky but a long-time Florida resident, Hall is best known for his series of 10 crime novels featuring the hard-bitten, reclusive character Thorn, with settings usually in south Florida locales. According to Hall's FAQ page, the character of Thorn is a combination of several people, both real and fictional: "A neighbor of mine in Key Largo many years ago heavily influenced his creation…There's also a little Travis McGee [fictional detective of author John D. MacDonald, who influenced Hall's writing] in him of course. And, he's a loner like I am, someone who spends a great deal of time in a room crafting small beautiful objects (fishing flies) that only a few people in the world truly appreciate."

A number of Hall's works have garnered such recognitions as the John D. MacDonald Award, the San Francisco Review of Books Critic's Choice Award, and the Shamus Award for best P.I. novel. In addition, several of his books have been chosen as Literary Guild and Book-of-the-Month Club selections and have been translated into a dozen languages. But fiction is not the only genre in which he works; Hall has written four books of poetry, collections of short stories (one of which, "The Catch," received the 2006 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best short story) and a collection of essays, as well as two screenplay adaptations for his books. Hall also has contributed to a variety of periodicals, including "American Scholar," "Antioch Review," "Georgia Review," "Kenyon Press," "North American Review," "Poetry," and "Southern Poetry Review."

Hall holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature from Eckerd College (formerly Florida Presbyterian College) in St. Petersburg, a Master of Arts degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in literature and creative writing from the University of Utah. He has been teaching literature and creative writing at Florida International University in Miami for over three decades. One of his more celebrated former students is author Dennis Lehane who wrote "Mystic River" and "The Given Day."

Hall and his wife, Evelyn, divide their time between south Florida and the mountains of North Carolina.

This event is sponsored in part by BB&T.

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Questions?  Contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

Wilson, N.C. - Barton College will welcome poet Jaki Shelton Green as the featured speaker for the annual Joyce T. Boone Southern Authors Series.  The lecture will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 22, in The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center at 7:30 p.m.  The program is open to the public at no charge, and the community is invited to attend.

Green was selected as the first North Carolina Piedmont Poet Laureate in 2008.  She received the Sam Ragan Award in 2007 and the North Carolina Award for Literature in 2003.

Her publications include "breath of the song" (2005), "singing a tree into dance" (2003), "Conjure Blues" (1996), "Dead on Arrival and New Poems" (1996), and a play, Blue Opal. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as "The Crucible," "The African American Review," "Ms. Magazine," "Callaloo," "Obsidian," and in "Poets for Peace" and "Black Poets Lean South Anthology."

Green's poetry has been choreographed by the Chuck Davis African Dance Ensemble in conjunction with the Kennedy Center and Duke University's Nasher Museum as well as by Danca Nova Dance Company.  She has performed her poetry and led workshops throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Europe, and Central and South America.

Collaborating with human service and non-profit organizations, Green teaches creative writing to marginalized populations such as the incarcerated, the newly literate, the writer-as-survivor, and the homeless.  She lives in Mebane.

The Joyce T. Boone Endowed Lectureship for Southern Authors was established in memory of the late Joyce Thornton Boone by her husband, Doug Boone.  This endowed lectureship supports special programs featuring visiting Southern writers.

Boone graduated from Atlantic Christian College with degrees in business administration (1978) and nursing (1988).  An enthusiastic advocate for students and alumni of Barton College, Boone believed in the mission of the small, private, liberal arts college.  She served on both the Barton College Board of Trustees and the Barton Alumni Council.  Boone was president-elect of the Barton College Alumni Council when she passed away in October 2004.

For additional information about this program, please contact Dr. Rebecca Godwin, professor of English and director of The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center, at 252-399-6364 or email: rlgodwin@barton.edu.

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Questions?  Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

September 11 Remembrance Ceremony

WILSON, N.C. - The stately colors of the United States stood at half-staff across America on Friday in remembrance of the horror of September 11, 2001. With flames and destruction, that terrible Tuesday roared to the world the hideous reality of human depravity; but, like a crucible, that day also revealed the golden gleam of heroism, as the world witnessed America's first responders jeopardizing their own safety to save others. To honor Wilson's first responders and show gratitude for their continual service to the Wilson community, Barton College's Volunteer Services Organization held a ceremony of remembrance this September 11 at noon by the Hamlin Student Center fountain.

As the College remembered the events of eight years ago, her flags flew at half-staff to honor the dead. Several times throughout the morning, the Alumni Bell Tower pealed to signify the moment of each plane crash and each collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

At noon, an honor guard from the Wilson Police Department presented the national and state colors as the crowd, which had gathered around the Hamlin Student Center fountain, looked on.  A third member of the honor guard, leading a contingent of first responders, placed a memorial wreath by the lectern in front of the Student Center.  Then, they saluted the flag; and senior mass communications major Drew Johnson sang the national anthem.

Kellie Lewis, a junior English major, and Brittnee Parker, a sophomore majoring in the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, welcomed those assembled and introduced the program.  Each took turns recounting the key moments of the morning of September 11:

"8:46 a.m. - Flight 11 hits the first World Trade Center."

"9:03 a.m. - Flight 175 hits the second World Trade Center."

"9:30 a.m. - Flight 77 hits the Pentagon."

"9:59 a.m. - The second World Trade Center collapses."

"10:03 a.m. - Flight 93 crashes in Pennsylvania."

"10:28 a.m. - The first World Trade Center collapses."

The assembly then paused for a solemn moment of silence.

Student Government Association President Will Cobb, a senior religion and philosophy major, shared the sentiments of a popular email written from the perspective of God as He stood with the dying on the planes and in the World Trade Center.

Cobb then spoke of first responders, honoring those who worked so selflessly eight years ago and those who do so today.

"I would imagine that those who rushed to the scene first in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania would not want to be recognized," said Cobb.  "They would say that they were just doing their jobs; but today we recognize and acknowledge those unsung heroes from New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, and all the first responders in this country, especially here in the city of Wilson, North Carolina.

"Thank you for, not only what you do today, but everyday of our lives, to protect us here at Barton College and around the great city of Wilson, North Carolina.

"May God bless you, and may God bless this country, the United States of America!"

Cobb led those assembled in a round of applause for Wilson's first responders and then presented the first responders with posters signed by the Barton College community in appreciation "for all the work you do to serve the Wilson community and our country."

Concluding the ceremony, Lewis said that "remembrance ribbons" had been sold earlier in the week to raise money for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum and for a "foundation for families and children who lost loved ones in the September 11 tragedy."  She then invited the first responders to lunch in the dining hall of the Hamlin Student Center.

Each day we take our freedom and safety for granted.  Let us always be thankful for those who fight to protect us and for those who rush to our aid.  And, may we, in the words of our national anthem, "Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!"

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Questions?  Contact Ken Dozier, web services manager, by email at kdozier@barton.edu or by phone at 252-399-6596.

WILSON, N.C. - Barton College is pleased to announce Susan Maxwell Bane, M.D., Ph.D., as the featured speaker for the 108th Opening Convocation.  The annual campus event is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 11 a.m. in Howard Chapel.

Dr. Bane practices Obstetrics and Gynecology at Greenville Obstetrics and Gynecology, a Division of Physicians East, in Greenville, North Carolina.

In addition to her medical practice, Dr. Bane serves as a clinical professor at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, where she teaches medical students and undergraduate students.  She also serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Science at ECU.

A native of Currituck County, Dr. Bane graduated in 1987 from Barton College (then Atlantic Christian College) with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry.  Continuing her academic studies, she completed a Master of Science degree and a Ph.D. in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois in1989 and 1995, respectively.  Dr. Bane earned her medical degree from the University of Illinois in 1997, and she completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University in 2001.

Dr. Bane is the daughter of Mary Ellen and Bob Maxwell of Currituck County.  She and her husband Art, also a 1987 Barton alumnus, make their home in Greenville with their two sons: Archer (17), and Maxwell (6), and their daughter Riley (13).

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.