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FEATURE: 2022 Homecoming Alumni Awards
distinguished service award MARTY RAMSEY
Marty Ramsey ’85 literally grew up on the Western Carolina University campus and, with the exception of a stint working with a transportation and logistics company, has remained in Cullowhee for the rest of his life, serving the university in leadership positions with the Department of Athletics and the Division of Advancement. Marty retired as director of alumni engagement effective Oct. 1 after a career spanning more than 28 years at WCU.
Marty and his family moved to Cullowhee in 1964 when his father, Harry Ramsey ’59, who later served as assistant to the chancellor for WCU programs in Asheville, accepted a faculty position. His mother, Sue Ramsey, worked as a “dorm mother” in Robertson Hall, where he and his sister, Gina, lived in the family’s ground floor apartment during much of his childhood.
After graduating from WCU in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in business administration, Marty worked in corporate sales and management for nine years with Roadway Services. He answered the call of his alma mater to return to campus in 1994 to become director of the Catamount Club, the university’s athletics fundraising unit. He remained in that role until 2004, when he was appointed director of alumni affairs, now called alumni engagement. WCU’s longest serving alumni director, he held the dual role of director of alumni affairs and the Catamount Club in 2003 and 2004.
Marty has served as a member of Catamount Athletic Hall of Fame Committee for 28 years and the Chancellor’s Leadership Council for 10 years, and has co-chaired the University Homecoming Committee for 20 years. In his role as alumni director, he has helped introduce three WCU chancellors (John W. Bardo, David O. Belcher, and Kelli R. Brown) to alumni across the Southeast and overseen the Alumni Association Board of Directors.
He also established alumni engagement traditions including the annual Purple and Gold Reunion, Legacy Pinning Ceremony and Alumni/Student Job Shadowing Program and, in 2020, launched the Western Wednesdays series to help keep alumni connected online throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. During his tenure, the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund has grown from $40,428 to $366,613. In honor of his service as executive director of the Catamount Club, its Board of Directors established the Marty Ramsey Summer School Endowed Scholarship for Student-Athletes.
Having spent more than 50 years of his life intimately associated with WCU, Marty possesses a vast pool of institutional knowledge that will be difficult to replace, said Jamie T. Raynor, vice chancellor for advancement. “From a youngster who made the WCU campus his childhood playground to the man who has been the ‘go-to guy’ for thousands of members of the Catamount family, Marty has helped dramatically increase the involvement of alumni in the life of their alma mater over the past few decades. We are grateful for his leadership and celebrate his accomplishments,” she said.
After growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s on the upper part of campus, Marty said he recalls his childhood as “a magical time.” “I have fond memories of sitting on the grassy bank at old Memorial Stadium watching Catamount football with my childhood friends, visiting my dad’s office in the Bird Administration Building, and sneaking in the Townhouse for a heated honeybun and Coke,” he said. “I knew at a very early age that Western is where I wanted to go to school, Western is where I wanted to work, and Cullowhee is where I wanted to live. I’ve been so very blessed and fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for my beloved alma mater.”
distinguished service award PHIL & CONNIE HAIRE
Among a select few couples selected to receive Western Carolina University’s Distinguished Service Award, R. Phillip Haire and Constance “Connie” Haire MAEd ’84 have dedicated their lives to public service – individually and as husband-and-wife. Phil is a former member of the N.C. House of Representatives, representing District 119 (Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties) from 1999 to 2013 and serving as House Democratic whip. Connie retired after 25 years of service to Southwestern Community College, stepping down in 2011 as vice president of its campus in Macon County.
An attorney, Phil was a member of WCU’s Board of Trustees from 1992 until 1998 and served for 12 years on the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history in 1958 and his law degree in 1961, both at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He was a captain in the U.S. Air Force from 1962 to 1965. In 2018, he received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest honor bestowed by the governor upon those who have made significant contributions to the state and their communities through exemplary service and exceptional accomplishments.
Connie received her bachelor’s degree from Erskine College in 1965 and her master’s degree in education from WCU in 1984 before earning her doctorate in adult education from N.C. State University in 1997. She joined the administration at SCC as director of resource development in 1986, continuing in that capacity until becoming dean of institutional development in 1997. She also served as SCC’s vice president for student and institutional development before taking her final position as vice president of the Macon campus. She was executive director of the SCC Foundation for the entirety of her career at the college.
Phil was Sylva’s town attorney for 27 years, and donated the property that houses the Awake Children’s Advocacy Center for abused children in Jackson County. He was among the attorneys on the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, better known as the Watergate Committee, in 1973-74. He has served as vice chair of the N.C. Bar Association Board of Governors, chair of the Senior Lawyers Division, and chair of the N.C. State Bar District. A member of the planning committee for the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Phil is among the founding members of the Catamount Club, serving as its president from 1970 until 1972. He also served on the board of Haywood Arts Regional Theater.
Connie has an extensive record of service on numerous regional boards, including chairing the Mainspring Conservation Trust, Blue Ridge Public Radio Board of Directors, Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, Cashiers Historical Society, and Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and membership on the Jackson County Historic Preservation Commission, Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, and Angel Medical Center Board of Directors. She is a member of the WCU Foundation Board of Directors, and previously sat on the WCU Alumni Association’s Board of Directors and was chair of WCU’s Friends of the Arts board.
They have made more than $250,000 in contributions and pledges to WCU, including a gift of $100,000 in 2017 establishing the Phil and Connie Haire College of Arts and Sciences Endowed Scholarship, Phil and Connie Haire College of Fine and Performing Arts Endowed Scholarship, and Phil and Connie Haire School of Music Endowed Scholarship. They are members of First United Methodist Church in Sylva, both having served on the church administrative board, with Phil active in previous fundraising efforts for the church building fund. They have a blended family with four children: Tate, Scott and Phillip Haire, and Anne Collins.
academic achievement award JAMES ALLEN QUEEN
Lifelong educator J. Allen Queen ’73 MAEd ’74 characterizes his admission to Western Carolina University in 1969 as one of the two greatest gifts in his life. After his applications to other colleges were rejected, he received an acceptance letter from WCU, putting in motion a series of events that would set him on the path to a 40-year career in education and lead to that other greatest gift in his life: Only two weeks into his first semester, he met his future bride of 50 years, Patsy Short Queen ’73 ’75.
Growing up in a mill village in Lincolnton in the 1950s and 1960s, Allen was the youngest child of a large, extended family and the only one to finish high school and attend college. He built a large newspaper route while in elementary school, and worked weekends and summers in the mill’s company store to help support his family. At WCU, Allen received the Phi Delta Kappa Award for outstanding senior and was a member and officer in Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He served two years in the National Teacher Corps during his senior and graduate years while continuing his studies.
After his first teaching stint in the public schools, Allen received a teaching assistantship to the University of Virginia. There, he majored in education in the areas of curriculum, instruction, and administration, earning his doctorate in education in 1978. During his last year of study, he was elected president of the UVA Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa as a graduate student and was awarded membership into the UVA Raven Society for high achievement and potential in scholarly leadership.
During his 40 years as an educator, Allen has been a classroom teacher, school principal, college professor, and administrator. Much of his teaching, research, and academic service integrated into the areas of business, industry, and government, and he has published numerous books and articles on those topics. He has conducted seminars and workshops in all 50 states and numerous countries from The Netherlands to China and from Saudi Arabia to Costa Rica. His areas of expertise include time and stress management, children’s safety and health, and block scheduling, and he is now writing a book on mastering time management.
Allen’s first major publication was in the September 1980 edition of The Journal of School Health in an article titled “A Workshop on Childhood Abuse and Neglect,” coauthored with wife Patsy, who was an instructor in the nursing program while both were teaching at Gardner-Webb University. The impact of the article and a series of radio and television presentations and related workshops throughout North Carolina conducted by Allen and Patsy brought about major changes in local and state laws and in how educators identified and reported suspected cases of childhood abuse or neglect.
Allen spent the last half of his career as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he served as chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and supervised more than 50 doctoral dissertations. He retired in 2014, holds the title of professor emeritus, and lives in Kings Mountain with Patsy, who earned bachelor’s degrees in education and nursing from WCU and a master’s degree in nursing from the University of Texas. They have one son, Alexander H. Queen, who is on the faculty at Boston’s Tuft University, and two granddaughters. Allen is a fifth-degree black belt in karate, has been a karate instructor, and wrote the first internationally published karate book for children.
Joey Blake ’12 is in his sixth season on the staff of the National Football League’s Los Angeles Rams and his second as director of performance nutrition and wellness for the defending Super Bowl champion team. Joey is responsible for educating and directing all players on their nutrition and hydration related to health and performance.
He has established and manages a robust food service system that has been able to change the way the team’s players and coaches view food and performance. He also conducts all body composition testing for the players, created and implements a sleep program for players and coaches, writes all Young Alumni Award of the menus for team meals, and individualizes all of the players’ pre and post-training and gameday routines. In addition to his player performance role, Joey spearheads the Rams Employee Wellness Program, which is aimed at helping all employees reach their best self in terms of health and wellness. He also is a member of the Rams Inclusion and Diversity Council.
Joey said the primary goal of his job to “help our guys get in tune with their bodies and understand that diet affects how they feel.” He told The Magazine of Western Carolina University in 2019, following the Rams’ appearance in Super Bowl LIII, “I’m not the food police. I’m not a guy who hovers over their shoulders telling them not to eat something. I’m here to help them create an edge to their performance and see how nutrition can give the team a competitive advantage.”
Prior to joining the Los Angeles Rams organization, Joey served as director of football nutrition for the University of South Carolina from 2013 until 2016. At the time of his hiring he was the first full-time football-only sports dietitian in collegiate athletics. During his tenure, he was responsible for planning all team meals, counseling athletes on their performance nutrition needs, analyzing body compositions, and assisting in team travel operations.
Originally from Long Island, New York, Joey grew up in the Western North Carolina town of Canton. He is a 2007 graduate of Pisgah High School, where he was a member of the football and basketball teams. After high school, he worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville for a brief stint before enrolling at WCU and earning his bachelor's degree in nutrition and dietetics. He completed the year-long post-graduate internship requirements to become a registered dietitian and went on to pass the credentialing exam. He is a member of the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitian Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Joey was among the L.A. Rams players, coaches, and staff members receiving Super Bowl rings in July. “It’s a whirlwind of emotions. You realize that you’re at the pinnacle of your profession. That’s what 32 teams are competing for. You’re the one left standing. It’s a really, feeling,” Joey told The Mountaineer newspaper of Waynesville after the Super Bowl victory.
young alumni award JOEY BLAKE
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professional achievement award PAUL JOHNSON
Although Paul Johnson ’79 did not play football during his time at Western Carolina University, that did not prevent him from becoming widely regarded as one of the most innovative football coaches in college football. Paul retired as head football coach at Georgia Tech in 2018 after 11 seasons. That stint included nine bowl game appearances, threebowl wins, three Atlantic Coast Championship games, and 82 victories, making him the fourth winningest coach in Georgia Tech history.
In addition to being named ACC Coach of the Year three times (2008, 2009, 2014) while leading the Georgia Tech program, Paul was selected 2008 National Coach of the Year by CBS Sports. His patented “flexbone” spread option offense has been hailed as one of the most innovative offensive schemes in all of college football.
Prior to joining Georgia Tech’s program in December 2007, Paul was head football coach at the U.S. Naval Academy for six years. He took over at Navy prior to the 2002 season, with the Midshipmen coming off the worst two-year stretch (1-20) in the academy’s 123-year football history. After going 2-10 in his first season at the helm (Navy’s 19th losing record in 21 seasons), he steered Navy back into national prominence, compiling a 43-19 record (.694) with five bowl appearances and two bowl victories in his final five seasons in Annapolis (2003-07). Paul was named the Bobby Dodd National Coach of the Year in 2004 after leading Navy to a 10-2 record, tying the school record for wins set in 1905, and only the fifth bowl victory in program history.
Paul’s head-coaching career began with five seasons at then-Southern Conference member Georgia Southern, leading the Eagles from 1997 through 2001. Taking over a program that went 4-7 the year prior to his arrival, he compiled a gaudy 62-10 record (.861) in five campaigns at the Statesboro, Georgia, school while winning five-straight Southern Conference titles and two NCAA Division I-AA national championships, in 1999 and 2000. In his five seasons at Georgia Southern, he was named the Division I-AA National Coach of the Year four times (1997-2000).
Prior to becoming a head coach, Paul served as offensive coordinator at Georgia Southern, the University of Hawai’i and Navy. His coaching career began with roles as offensive coordinator from 1979 to 1980 at his high school alma mater, Avery County High, in the North Carolina mountains, and at nearby Lees-McRae College from 1981 to 1982. His only position on the defensive side of the ball was as defensive line coach at Georgia Southern from 1983-84.
A native of Newland, he earned his bachelor’s degree in physical education from WCU, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order, before going on to receive a master’s degree in health and physical education from Appalachian State University in 1982.
He met his wife, the former Susan Propst ’80, when both were attending Western Carolina, Susan as a social work major. The couple married in 1980 in Susan’s hometown of Shelby, and their daughter, Kaitlyn, was born in 1993. Paul and Susan currently reside at Grandfather Mountain Golf and Country Club in Linville.
Paul announced his retirement on Nov. 28, 2018, effective following the team’s bowl game against the University of Minnesota.
