April 2023 Guilford College Magazine

April 2023 | www.guilford.edu

GUILFORD COLLEGE MAGAZINE Finding Their Groove

Guilfordians are making their mark in music

A VISION FOR GUILFORD’S FUTURE

Friends,

WHAT’S IN A NAME? In our case, a lot. Our county’s name is our name, too. It’s a bond steeped in history — 186 years together and counting. But to me the name we share is more than just a reminder of our past. It’s a reminder that Guilford College and Guilford County, as well as partners beyond our campus and borders, must work together to imagine and build a shared future. If that sounds a bit daunting, it shouldn’t. The College and the New Garden Quaker community have always served beyond our campus. From helping guide 19thcentury enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad to our Every Campus A Refuge program opening its doors and resources to newcomers today, we are inspired to action by our Core Values and commitments.

From presenting some of the brightest minds and their insights through the Guilford College Bryan Series to the Wiser Justice Program educating incarcerated men and women in our region for a new future, we are collaborators and visionaries with those around us. Yet I’m convinced we can do more. And we will. Since coming to Guilford College 15 months ago, I’ve made it clear I want to leverage the energy of our students and the talent of our faculty to make Guilford County and the rest of North Carolina a more vibrant, safe and innovative place to live. It’s about being “of” this community and not simply “in” it.

This spring, the College unveiled a strategic plan, Envisioning Guilford 2027. You can learn more about our plans on pages 8 and 9 of this magazine. There are many goals and priorities within the plan, but one of the most ambitious asserts that Guilford will be an educational anchor institution.

What does this mean? Quite simply it means we believe Guilford’s most precious resources — our students, faculty and alumni — are too valuable not to share beyond

our campus. This College is teeming with knowledge and talent that can help meet community challenges that intersect with the College’s mission and purpose. Wishful thinking on our part? Actually, we’ve already started. Earlier this year, Guilford and The Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship, a small-business incubator in Greensboro led by Sam Funchess ’98, agreed to explore ways we can partner on strategies for addressing common challenges around entrepreneurship in Greensboro and beyond, particularly where those challenges relate to refugees and immigrants.

We want to break down barriers by building up funding opportunities for entrepreneurs. At the same time, we want to create internship opportunities for Guilford undergraduate and graduate students through partnerships with existing Nussbaum businesses.

We’re not just limiting ourselves to Guilford County. I spent 10 days in Africa in February. During my time in South Africa, the College and the University of Pretoria, a public research university in South Africa, reached a similar agreement, one that allows for an exchange of faculty and students and establishes joint research programs between the two schools.

Envisioning Guilford 2027 also means acknowledging that the College is only as successful as the communities around us. There are many success stories coming out of Greensboro’s neighborhoods. We think Guilford can play a role in nurturing even more. To do this, we want to develop an on-campus office that works with communities across the county such as East Greensboro groups and Title I schools on engagement initiatives with Bonner-related programs.

I want the College partnering with North Carolina for

Community and Justice to build more respectful and inclusive communities free of bias, bigotry and racism. I want the College to grow the arts in Greensboro in conjunction with the Eastern Music Festival.

Guilford should support Title I schools by engaging students in the humanities, STEM, and the visual and performing arts.

We'll study programs already underway to determine whether they merit scaling and create new ones. And we'll engage our neighbors in shared problem-solving, doing the tough research on complicated issues that underpin inequity and help residents advocate for the policies and programs that will end it for good.

Partnerships like these benefit the College as well as organizations with which we are partnering. When we work with other institutions beyond our campus, the future of Guilford County and North Carolina come into more distinct focus.

Imagine where creativity and innovation give Guilford — the College and county — a competitive advantage, where our wonderfully diverse cultures make us one of the best places to learn, live and work, and where students and residents can think of no place they would rather call home. I’m excited about Envisioning Guilford 2027, and I hope you are, too. Let’s get started.

Best regards,

Kyle Farmbry President

“Guilford’s most precious resources — our students, faculty and alumni — are too valuable not to share beyond our campus.”

EDITOR

Robert Bell ’11

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Robert Lopez

DESIGN

Chris Ferguson

PHOTOGRAPHY

Robert Bell ’11

Jay Capers

Michael Crouch ’10 & ’12

COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING TEAM

Ty Buckner, Vice President of Communications & Marketing

Robert Bell ’11, Assistant Director of Communications & Marketing

Michael Crouch ’10 & ’12, Associate Director of Communications & Marketing

LaToya Marsh , Bryan Series Director

Hunter Neal ’22, Presidential Fellow

FUNDRAISING TEAM

LaDaniel Gatling II, Vice President for Advancement

Stephanie Davis, Director of Annual Giving & Donor Relations

Elizabeth Freeze, Director of Development for Major Gifts

CONTACT US

Office of Communications & Marketing

New Garden Hall

Guilford College

5800 West Friendly Avenue

Greensboro, NC 27410

P / 336.316.2239

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Guilford College does not discriminate on the basis of sex/gender, age, race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, genetic information, military status, veteran status or any other protected category under applicable local, state or federal law, ordinance or regulation. For our complete statement, please visit www.guilford.edu/nondiscrimination

The Gospel of Guilford

I first met Larry McMillian ’23 this time a year ago in the most unthinkable of circumstances. Larry and other students, faculty, staff and friends were gathered outside Founders Hall to remember another student, Ahmad Brewington ’23, who just two days earlier tragically died in an accident.

Nobody asked Larry to speak that day. He made that decision on his own. Perhaps he was moved by his friendship with Ahmad. Perhaps it was something more spiritual. Regardless, his words were as eloquent as they were comforting for a hurting community that morning. After the service, I made a point of tracking down Larry to tell him how much I appreciated his words. Larry being Larry, he blushed and smiled. “Thank you,” he said. “Ahmad deserved to have his story told.”

A few days later, I learned that Larry had a story worthy of telling, too (don’t we all?). His appears within these pages. So does the story of Andy Eversole ’02, who travels the world, banjo in hand, celebrating and uniting cultures. Grammyaward nominee Beau Young Prince ’13 has a story, too, one that was cultivated and nurtured during his four years at Guilford. And we might have never learned Political Science Professor George Guo's story were it not for the Tiananmen Square massacre. So many Guilfordians. So many stories.

As an alumnus, I couldn't be more proud of those whose roots run through this College. As editor of Guilford College Magazine, I'm honored to use this magazine as a vessel to tell your stories. I like to call those collective tales the gospel of Guilford (trademark pending).

I love preaching the stories of inspiring Guilfordians, your innovation and spirit of progress that make you and our College special. I hope you enjoy this issue of Guilford College Magazine. When you're done, I hope you're inspired to email me at bellrw@guilford.edu to share your own story.

— Robert Bell ’11 Editor

IN THIS ISSUE

4 A fresh take on learning

The future of higher-education learning is coming to Duke Memorial Hall’s Leak Room.

6 Pomp and celebration

Kyle Farmbry is installed as Guilford’s 10th President on a day of celebrating Guilford.

8 A roadmap to Guilford’s future President Farmbry sits down to talk about Envisioning Guilford 2027, the College's strategic plan.

10 Big man on campus (off, too)

Arkansas’s Hunter Yurachek ‘90 is one of the nation’s most accomplished athletic directors.

12 Following their own beat

They took different roads to their success in the music world, but their journeys all started at Guilford.

18 Have laptop, will travel

For more than 40 years Guilford’s Study Abroad program has helped students learn across the globe.

20 A double life

Larry McMillian ’23 is excited about life after Guilford. Just don’t expect him to talk much about it.

22 The man in demand

Political Science Professor George Guo brings clarity to U.S.-China relations.

24 Hail to the champs!

Fifty years later, Guilford’s men's national championship basketball team comes home to Guilford.

28 There's a new sheriff in town

John Thompson '04 wants to involve Greensboro's communities in helping make the city safer.

April 2023

On the Cover

Andy Eversole ’02 and his banjo travel the world bringing people together one song at a time.

FLIPPING THE CLASSROOM

The

C. ELMER LEAK HAD A VISION , one better suited for today’s post-pandemic world than when he came up with it in 1964: A classroom in Duke Hall with a seating platform that revolved 360 degrees, allowing students to view lessons beamed on walls. The World Culture Center, as it would be named, was a classroom far beyond its time. Maybe too far.

Ultimately the College didn’t share Elmer’s dream. One student wrote in The Guilfordian that Guilford was a college — not the New York World’s Fair, and said Elmer’s futuristic classroom would be “the biggest flop in the South since the Civil War.”

Against such pushback. the College and Elmer settled on the Leak Room, a modest six-tiered classroom in Duke Hall. Times change. Nearly 60 years later, Elmer is getting his wish. The transformation of the Leak Room in Duke Hall into an interactive, collaborative learning and presentation space is scheduled to be completed by August thanks to a donation from the Cannon Foundation of Concord, N.C., and a federal grant.

Plans for the Leak Room were shared during an open house in February. Those plans include replacing the fixed seating and transforming the hall into a space conducive to collaborative learning with seats that swivel so students can work with peers.

The room will be equipped with technology that will support front

and rear presentations and enable simultaneous displays from zoned panels. Each tier will have its own display panel for supporting group activities.

Additionally, laptop kiosks dispensing both PC and Mac laptops will be available on demand.

The foundation provided a grant of $130,000 toward renovation of the room with the remaining $195,000 coming from a $2.2 million Title III federal grant, which Guilford received in 2020. That grant remains the largest non-endowment of its kind awarded to the College. •

Leak Room in Duke Hall will be more mobile and flexible, allowing teaching and learning to happen in and out of the classroom.

AN OPEN HOUSE (ABOVE) WAS HELD IN FEBRUARY TO SHOW GUILFORDIANS WHAT THE NEW LEAK ROOM IN DUKE HALL WILL LOOK LIKE WHEN ITS RENOVATION IS COMPLETED IN AUGUST. BELOW, A RENDERING OF THE NEW SEATING THAT WILL ALLOW FOR COLLABORATIVE LEARNING.

An Enduring Gift

The Quaker Archives at Guilford College offers the most complete collection of southeastern Quaker history in the country. With artifacts dating back to the mid-17th century, there is no bigger collection. Suzanne Bartels, the director of Hege Library and Learning Technologies, says the archives “is really a jewel in the crown in terms of our library resources.” But all those historical records need to be managed and cared for by a professional archivist.

Earlier this year, Guilford received a generous gift that will help fund the Quaker archivist position. Damon and Mary Hickey made a $500,000 endowment challenge gift in honor of Carole Edgerton Treadway, an archivist who dedicated more than 30 years to caring for the College’s Quaker collection and mentoring other archivists as well.

One of those archivists was Damon (above), who worked at Guilford from 1975 to 1991. The Hickeys’ gift will match every pledge, dollar for dollar, up to $500,000. The College hopes to raise at least $1 million to fund the position.

A few days after the Hickeys' gift, Rachel Miller ’02 and her

husband, Henry, pledged $25,000 to the endowment.

The Quaker Archives houses manuscript records dating to the 1680s and routinely hosts scholars researching topics covering more than 300 years of source materials.

While there are several restricted and endowed funds associated with the Quaker Archives, they support a very small percentage of costs and financial needs. The largest financial need is sustainable funding for professional staff. Gwen Erickson, Guilford’s current archivist, collaborates with colleagues on campus and scholars to fulfill the Quaker Archives’ ongoing and evolving missions and goals.

Gwen also manages and administers all library and archives functions of the Quaker Archives, including the Guilford College archives.

For more information on how to support the Carole Edgerton Treadway Endowment Fund, please contact LaDaniel Gatling, Vice President for Advancement, at 336.316.2320 or gatlingl@guilford.edu •

Leave a lasting legacy by joining the Francis T. King Society

For many years, alumni and friends who made a planned gift to Guilford were considered members of the Heritage Society. In 2017, in conjunction with the celebration of the College’s 180th anniversary, the Heritage Society was renamed the Francis T. King Society to recognize the early contributions of this Quaker leader and philanthropist.

In 1887, Francis led the Baltimore Association to sell the Modern Farm in High Point that had been created by Nathan Hunt to practice and teach what we now know as sustainable agriculture. With $5,000 from the proceeds of the sale, the first endowment for Guilford College was created.

Guilford is committed to giving every first-time, undergraduate applicant generous institutional aid. In order to do this, Guilford relies on the generosity of those who support the college philanthropically, just as was done in the early years of the college’s founding.

Membership in the Francis T. King Society is granted to anyone who makes a documented planned gift to the College.

What does that gift look like?

It can take the form of a bequest (gifts made through a will), naming

the College as a beneficiary of your retirement plan or an insurance policy, charitable trust, or charitable gift annuity.

Planned gifts can be large or small and may be designated for a specific purpose or undesignated so that the College can use it where the need is greatest.

Making a planned gift is as simple as including a few sentences in your will specifying that a gift be made to Guilford College.

Some donors prefer to keep their intentions private and the College isn’t aware of the generosity until after their passing. For those who are willing to share their plans, however, it is an opportunity to have a conversation about your dreams and desires and to match those goals with the needs of the College. Some planned giving vehicles can even provide tax benefits to you during your lifetime.

If you would like to learn more about planned giving and joining Guilford's Francis T. King Society, please visit our website, giving.guilford.edu, or contact Danny Gatling, Vice President for Advancement at gatlingl@guilford. edu or (336) 316-2320.

A pledge from the late Damon Hickey and his wife Mary will help future archivists.

PROMISING PARTNERSHIPS

GUILFORD IS PARTNERING WITH two institutions — one across town and the other across the globe in South Africa — as part of Envisioning Guilford 2027, the College’s strategic plan unveiled this spring.

The College has formal agreements in place with the Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship in Greensboro and the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

The partnership with Nussbaum Center calls for Guilford and Nussbaum officials to explore ways for building and supporting local entrepreneurial businesses, particularly ventures involving refugees and immigrants.

President Kyle Farmbry, who traveled to Africa in February to talk with government and academic leaders in several countries, says many refugees and immigrants living in the Triad were entrepreneurs in their native countries but language and culture barriers, along with different business rules, create obstacles for them in their new home.

“We want to partner with groups that can help identify those obstacles and overcome them,” says Kyle. “We think Nussbaum is the perfect organization to help us do just that.”

Nussbaum president Lisa Hazlet says her group gets inquiries from many Triad organizations that work with refugee and resettlement organizations.

“We hear from other nonprofit leaders that their program participants could really use our assistance with starting

a business,” says Lisa. “There’s a real need — and a growing need — for a program like this. It was a natural choice to partner with Guilford College on this initiative.”

Want

Sam Funchess ’98, CEO of the Nussbaum Center has long partnered with the College in various capacities. In 2022 Lisa became President and Sam moved into a more strategic role with the Nussbaum Center when he was named Vice President of Investor Relations for Center offshoot Guerrilla RF.

Kyle says the agreement with the University of Pretoria, one of the largest research universities in South Africa, will facilitate student

and faculty exchange opportunities and research collaboration.

“I’m excited because there are going to be so many winners coming out of this partnership,” says Kyle. “The agreement means more study-abroad options for our students and research opportunities for our faculty.”

The partnerships are the first of many the College hopes to forge with institutions locally and globally that align with Envisioning Guilford 2027 Among its many goals, the plan aspires to transform Guilford College into an anchor institution in the Triad, helping find solutions to problems throughout the area. •

The collaborations with a South African university and a Greensboro business incubator align with Guilford’s strategic plan.

PRESIDENT KYLE FARMBRY AND UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA VICE CHANCELLOR TAWANA KUPE SIGNED AN AGREEMENT IN FEBRUARY THAT WILL ALLOW EXCHANGE OPPORTUNITIES AND COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE INSTITUTIONS.

to learn more about EnvisioningGuilford2027?

Read President Kyle Farmbry’s Q&A starting on page 8.

Second Guilford Dialogues examines education inequities

President Kyle Farmbry said the challenges facing educators today are sobering, but he walked away from the second annual Guilford Dialogues excited about possible solutions.

“We had so many people gathered to explore creative solutions for addressing the challenges around educational equity,” said Kyle. “Now we need to think about how to operationalize much of what was discussed.”

More than 130 attendees and panelists attended the Dialogues, the College’s two-day conference March 16-17 seeking solutions to education’s growing opportunity gaps.

Local and global experts across the educational spectrum shared their thoughts and experiences on ensuring equitable education opportunities for all students.

Guilford Associate Professor of Education Studies Anna Pennell said she was inspired by the attendees’ passion. “So many participants said that they felt energized by the conversations, particularly in the face of so many current

challenges to educational equity,” Anna said.

“Personally Guilford Dialogues was helpful in fostering a sense of being in community for me," she said. “Dialogues provided space to weave together ideas from many disciplines and perspectives.”

Winston McGregor, President of the Guilford Education Alliance and one of the conference’s panel moderators, praised Guilford for its commitment to the Dialogues series.

“Thank you, Guilford,” she said. “Thank you for having the conviction for putting together discussions like this that lead to change. This is what it’s like when a college is committed to the community around it.”

Kyle started the Dialogues in 2022, a few months after becoming president. The first conference mapped out problems with economic inclusion locally, nationally and globally. With those challenges more defined, next year’s Dialogues will return to that theme to address solutions to economic inclusion. •

Write stuff: A new boot camp will assist doctoral students

A NEW COLLEGE PROGRAM aims to help doctoral students across the country as they write and complete their dissertations.

The Guilford College Dissertation Boot Camp in June pairs faculty with students. Seulki Lee-Geiller, a Doctoral Fellow at Guilford, is organizing the program envisioned by President Kyle Farmbry, who envisions the program helping Guilford identify future faculty and put the College on the radar of doctoral

programs looking to place their graduates.

Seulki sees value in the program, too. Before arriving at Guilford last year, she stayed holed up in her cramped apartment in New York trying to write her dissertation. “I know this

program would have been something I would have benefitted from,” she says.

There are many dissertation “boot camps” hosted by colleges, But what sets Guilford’s program apart is that it’s open to all students across the country, says Seulki.

“We want to bring together students to work together and help each other through the research and writing process,” she says. “It really is something different.” •

STEVE BUMBAUGH OF THE COLLEGE BOARD, DEENA HAYES-GREENE ‘04 OF THE RACIAL EQUITY INSTITUTE AND SEDWYN ANTHONY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA IN SOUTH AFRICA WERE PANELISTS IN LAST MONTH’S GUILFORD DIALOGUES ON EDUCATION INEQUITIES.

SEULKI LEE- GEILLER

GUILFORD’S ROAD MAP

Last year Guilford embarked on a bold journey to develop its strategic plan, an ambitious collective vision for the College. Leaders met with and listened to students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends. In March the results of those meetings, Envisioning Guilford 2027, was unveiled. The plan is by no means a finished product, but President Kyle Farmbry and others are excited by the first steps. Kyle sat down with Guilford College Magazine to discuss the plan, its priorities and initiatives and potential partnerships that will help anhance and grow Guilford.

What exactly is a strategic plan anyway?

If we were in a business class, a strategic plan might be described as an organizational strategy and vision document. I like to think of Envisioning Guilford 2027 as a roadmap for a journey, albeit a long journey.

OK, but why does Guilford need one?

This is a critical moment in time for the College. The pandemic forced many organizations to take a fresh look at how they were conducting business. Colleges and universities were not spared from this process. Guilford has a generational opportunity to innovate and improve upon the liberal arts education we offer, one that positions our students and the College for the future. You can’t pursue a goal without first naming it. We want to be among the nation’s very best liberal arts schools. That’s a bold ambition, but Envisioning Guilford 2027 is going to help us claim that ambition.

What is the driving goal of Envisioning Guilford 2027 ?

There are two driving goals, actually. At its core, Envisioning Guilford 2027 is about our students. They are at the center of everything we do. We will

are invested in the plan, the more likely we are to achieve our objectives. It’s a roadmap for where we are headed as an institution, a reaffirmation of our historic values, and a commitment to some new initiatives that will strengthen our position as a leading liberal arts college. The stronger Guilford is, the more valuable it is in the eyes of the wider community and the more it can support the community.

What role has the Guilford community played in creating the plan?

never forget that because, when you think about it, Guilford's students are the only reason we exist. We want the efforts of Envisioning Guilford 2027 to focus on ensuring a quality learning experience for them, one that prepares them for whatever educational, professional, and personal journeys they face after they leave Guilford. Now, having said that, there needs to be a College. That’s where the plan’s second goal comes into play. This plan is going to help us develop strategies for strengthening the College to ensure its long-term stability for future generations.

Why should I care about Envisioning Guilford 2027 ?

The more all constituents of Guilford

Last summer we invited the community — students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the College — to participate in our focus groups and surveys. Their input was incredibly valuable. They helped identify priorities we should focus on that might not have surfaced otherwise. We then came back to ask them to narrow the list to a manageable number of five priorities.

What are some of those priorities? Of course every priority is important but again it all comes back to our students. We want the right Guilford students. By that I mean we want students whose educational goals and commitments align with Guilford’s mission and core values. Those values aren’t just buzzwords. Community, Diversity, Equality, Excellence, Integrity, Justice and Stewardship are deeply woven into a Guilford education. We want to attract students who

President Kyle Farmbry sits down to discuss EnvisioningGuilford2027 , and how the strategic plan will shape the College’s future.

“ [EnvisioningGuilford2027] will serve as our north star, providing not just direction, but clarity and focus every step of the way. ”

— President Kyle Farmbry

appreciate those core values as we do.

Once they get here we want to engage them in exceptional, high-quality learning experiences they can only find at Guilford, experiences that will lead to higher levels of student retention, completion and success after college.

Look, Guilford already has a strong reputation. This plan is going to build on that reputation. Not just on campus but out in the community. And not just the community but the world. Don’t tell me a tiny liberal arts college in Greensboro can’t have a global impact because we’re already making that impact. But we can do more, and we will.

By 2027, we want Guilford to be known as an anchor institution. Again, not just in Greensboro but across the globe. Wouldn’t it be something if Guilford affected change across the world through thoughtful dialogue, innovative research and scholarship unique to Guilford? We can’t do this alone and we don’t want to. We want to cultivate partnerships that align with our goals. If those partnerships are in Greensboro, great. If they take us to other parts of the world, even better.

What excites you most about Envisioning Guilford 2027 ?

I’m excited about the potential this plan has for bringing out the best in Guilford, which has always been committed to putting a values-based education into action. The plan provides new opportunities for that. It aims to meet the needs of today’s students and of the community, ensuring that Guilford is not only in Greensboro but of Greensboro. It builds on partnerships and collaborations that will not only strengthen the College but the wider community as well. It’s a plan I believe Guilfordians can get excited about and get behind. •

BIG MAN ON (AND OFF) CAMPUS

Arkansas’ Hunter Yurachek is one of the nation’s top athletic directors. The secret to his success traces all the way back to Guilford.

He is the longshot that keeps coming through, the kid who ended up at Guilford only because he wasn’t sure he was cut out for the cadet life at VMI, the basketball sub who wasn’t much of a scorer but was gifted at getting the ball to those who could, the unpaid grunt in the Wake Forest University athletic department now running his own major program.

There are bigger rags-to-riches stories than Hunter Yurachek ‘90, if only because Hunter will tell you he never viewed any low points in his career as rag worthy, but rather opportunities. Ever since those Sport Management classes he took as

electives at Guilford, he knew what he wanted to do with his life.

“And I wasn’t going to let anything or anyone keep me from doing it,” says Hunter, one of the nation's fastestrising athletic directors, his unlikely journey that started at Guilford having now thrust him into the demanding position as vice chancellor and athletic director at the University of Arkansas. “I knew from the start I wanted to run an athletic department in the SEC or ACC and I just made it my goal to get there.”

These days Hunter is one of the rare athletic directors of a Power Five conference school who is as revered by alumni and fans as the players and

coaches he oversees. That’s because, top to bottom, few Power 5 programs are oozing success more than Arkansas.

No, really. Pick a sport — any sport — and chances are Razorback fans are button-bursting proud. Last year the Razorbacks (take a deep breath)

“I knew from the start I wanted to run an athletic department in the SEC or ACC and I just made it my goal to get there.”

— Hunter Yurachek ’90

PHOTO BY FORT SMITH / FAYETTEVILLE NEWS

earned eight top-10 NCAA finishes and a remarkable 10 Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament championships, including SEC triple crown sweeps in both men’s and women’s cross country & track and field, a second-straight women's soccer regular season crown, the program’s first softball regular season title and a baseball regular season and tournament championship. Arkansas’ 10 championships doubled the next closest SEC program. You can exhale now.

Last year, Hunter was named one of four athletic directors of the year for the Football Bowl Subdivision by his peers in the National Association of

Collegiate Directors of Athletics. No wonder when Auburn University was looking for a new athletic director last fall, the first person they turned to was Hunter with an offer reportedly worth $2 million annually.

Arkansas wasn't about to let that happen. The school quickly stepped in, signing Hunter to a new deal that went into effect this year, raising his salary from $1.25 million to $1.5 million.

Hunter, who earned a Business Administration degree at Guilford, got a taste of his future during his last two years at the College. He enrolled in two Sport Management classes taught by Herb Appenzeller, the longtime athletic director who created the school’s Sport Studies program more than 40 years ago. Those classes inspired Hunter to pursue a master’s in Sports Administration at the University of Richmond, which he earned in 1994.

When it came time to put those degrees to work, Hunter applied for a paid fundraising internship at Wake Forest. He didn’t get the job, but that didn’t deter him. He asked if there was anywhere else in Wake’s athletic program where he might be needed. He even dangled the words “unpaid internship.”

That did the trick. For the next six months Hunter worked an unpaid marketing internship for the Demon Deacons. “I didn’t mind because it never felt like work,” says Hunter. “I loved what I was doing.”

Eventually, the school found a way to pay him $1,000 a month and Hunter was on his way.

What followed was a blur of success wherever he landed: Vanderbilt, Western Carolina, Virginia and Akron. His first job as an athletic director came in 2009 at Coastal Carolina, where Hunter turned a sleepy program into a regional power on and off the field.

In Hunter’s first year at Coastal Carolina, athletic department revenue was at $560,000, counting ticket sales and sponsorships. Under Hunter, the program’s revenue nearly tripled to $1.4 million. That caught the eye of the University of Houston, which hired him in 2015.

When Arkansas came calling two years later, Hunter said yes without ever visiting the campus.

David Yancey ’90 remembers Hunter, his basketball teammate, coming off the bench and always providing a spark. “He played just so hard, relentless really,” says David, who remains a good friend to Hunter. “When we were down or a little sluggish and all of a sudden Hunter’s in there running around and in his opponent’s face and diving after balls, that sort of thing reminded us that’s what we need to be doing.”

David says some athletes leave that passion on the court after college. With others it follows them for life.

“Hunter’s always been committed to bringing his best and that’s why it’s so great to see the success he’s had,” says David.

Hunter says some people are naturalborn leaders. He says he picked up those qualities and others putting in those long anonymous hours in the gym and classrooms at Guilford. “I don't think that I'm sitting where I am today without Guilford,” says Hunter, who was recruited to Guilford by the late Jack Jensen.

“Coach Jensen gave me more than just an opportunity to play basketball,” Hunter says. “He gave me a chance to be a student-athlete and to be a part of a team and to learn hard work and leadership qualities and organizational skills, time management skills. All those things I use today I learned at Guilford.” •

ATHLETIC DIRECTOR HUNTER YURACHEK HAS HELPED TURN THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS INTO ONE OF THE SEC ’ S TOP ATHLETIC PROGRAMS.

Beau Young Prince ’13

SHOWTIME. THE HOUSE LIGHTS DIM. A bright lantern pierces the dark, bathing the stage in a pale blue almost too perfect for this world. That’s fine with the audience. It is Friday night in Washington D.C., and the crowd is expecting to be carried away to somewhere else. Beau Young Prince ’13 knows this. He’s on stage, the one with the obligatory hip-hop cap, the one with the mic in a gloved hand, the one with the bouncing, shoulder-length dreads, and Grammynominated song in his setlist.

Quick-fast, the audience pulls out their cellphones, transforming Songbyrd Music Hall into a starry cosmos.

All to say, homie looks every bit the hip hop superstar he is. Beau’s come a long way since those impromptu performances at The Greenleaf in the basement of Mary Hobbs Hall and Serendipity spring gigs. Hip hop artists are, as a professional class, gifted at the art of self-flattery. Beau, by all appearances, has reason to swagger.

After graduating from Guilford with a degree in Criminal Justice, Beau went home to D.C. with another career in mind. He added Prince to his last name because he wanted to be among his hometown’s elite hip hop stars. A brazen title to try to claim, but so far he’s living up to his royalty. He signed a deal with Def Jam in 2018, moved to Los Angeles, and contributed songs to everything from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to Madden NFL 20. The former, “Let Go”, earned Beau a Grammy nomination and, last summer, a double-platinum plaque.

More importantly, and the part that excites Beau and the rest of the hip hop world, is his unshaken belief he’s got even further to go as an artist. Define Beau’s music at your own peril. His beat is a blend of hip-hop and R&B with a whiff of rock and country to name just a few styles. “I think my music’s fun, it’s upbeat,” says Beau. "But I tell people to listen to my music and tell me what they think it is.”

Where lesser artists might leave those genres to stand on their own, Beau’s voice threads them together seamlessly. He raps his financial, carnal and pharmacological accomplishments like many hip hop artists, but he’s just as comfortable, vulnerable even, sharing other parts of his life, including growing up in Southeast Washington and, later, attending Guilford.

His platinum song “Let Go” pulls from a dark period of his life when a cousin and uncle both died of natural causes.

But he’s just as easily influenced by brighter times, like weekend parties at the old apartments at Guilford or spring days just riding a bike across campus. Bike rides and a college degree don’t exactly scream street cred where hip hop is concerned but Beau is not most hip hop artists. “Guilford is part of who I am,” he says. I remember it being so diverse. It opened my eyes, which opened my music. People that I normally wouldn't have chilled with back home I was like hanging out with on weekends. Now those experiences find their way into my music.”

“Guilford is part of who I am. I remember it being so diverse. It opened my eyes, which opened up my music.”

STOP RIGHT THERE. Andy Eversole ’02 has been playing banjo for 25 years. If you do the math, that’s… 25 years of banjo jokes. So chances are he’s heard them all.

Like the one about banjo players spend half their lives tuning and the other half playing out of tune.

Or what do you call a good musician at a banjo contest? A visitor.

“Heard them all,” he says with a strained laugh. “I mean, some of them are funny, but to me they’re funny because they’re so far from the truth.”

These days Andy is getting the last laugh. An accomplished banjo player since he was a freshman at Guilford, Andy juggles his days as a licensed consulting hypnotist and professional banjo player.

He plays in and around Greensboro, but he also takes his act on the road. And by road, we mean China, India, Brazil, Peru and, earlier this year, Mexico.

The backstory: As a student at Guilford, Andy took part in the College’s Study Abroad program, spending a semester in China. “That really opened my eyes to the world and other cultures. I wanted to go back,” he says.

He did in 2016, the first stop on his own Banjo Earth tour. The idea behind Banjo Earth is to bring

Andy Eversole ’02

together local musicians to collaborate with Andy on recordings. An album is created in every country he visits. Five countries later, Banjo Earth is only growing in popularity, as Andy and his crew document different cultures and music. “It’s a lot like Anthony Bourdain,” he says, “but instead of food there’s a banjo.”

The first time he heard a live banjo was when he was 13 and walking down a street in Boone, N.C., when they came across a man in a floppy hat playing. “I’d never heard anything like it in my life,” he says.

When he turned 16, Andy got a banjo for Christmas. He took formal lessons, but mostly learned on his own at Guilford, where he played for the Quakers’ golf team. When he wasn’t on a golf course he was playing weekend festivals like Merlefest in Wilkesboro, N.C., one of the largest annual folk festivals in the South.

“I would just go, camp out, stay the weekend and play around campfires,” he says. “More than anything else that’s how I learned to play.”

Andy says his Philosophy degree helped him learn how to think. “But let’s face it,” he says, “you’re not going to go into a high-ranking position as a professional philosopher so the music really helped me out with bills."

In recent years, Andy and others have reclaimed the banjo’s rich heritage. It’s lately enjoying an upsurge in pop culture, where it exudes a positive heartland vibe. (Banjo) still isn’t for everyone, but I love playing,” he says. “And to make something of a living at it? All the better.”

Helen Gushue ’11

IT TAKES A VILLAGE to pull off "Shrek Junior, The Musical." What, you think spiral staircases and castles appear out of thin air? Maybe in fairy tales, but at Henry H. Houston Elementary School in Philadelphia, staircases and castles require hammers, saws and elbow grease. There are costumes to sew and fairies — so many fairies! — to feed. And have you ever choreographed a musical whose cast is packed with kindergarteners through eighth graders? So, yeah, it takes a village.

And a director, too. Someone who can keep a stern eye on those eighth-graders (because even ogres and princesses have hormones) and possess a big heart for tired, cranky kindergarteners at the end of a school day.

Five days a week, music teacher Helen Gushue ’11 — Miss Gushue to everyone who roams Houston’s hallways — walks into this chaos with a smile. And why not? Like many of her students, Helen fell in love with music early in life, too. First at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., where she became an accomplished saxophonist, and later Guilford where she’s convinced the College helped leverage her love of music into a sustainable career in music.

Helen actually transferred to Guilford after a year at Indiana University. Too big, too competitive. Guilford was everything Indiana was not. “There was this built-in community and feel at Guilford from the start,” she says, “everyone was super welcoming.”

Much is made of Guilford’s open and diverse student body. Helen says that ethos seeps into its teaching. “Guilford teaches you to be a creative thinker and that’s what I want for my students as musicians. I try to encourage that creativity. I like the idea of allowing the kids to guide their own learning, and not for the teacher to hold their hand through it. Music shouldn’t come from someone telling you what to play or how to play, music has to come from you.”

“[Guilford's Study Abroad program] really opened my eyes to the world and other cultures.”

Chris Chickering ’92

FOR AS LONG AS HE CAN REMEMBER , Chris Chickering ’92 has been drawn to a guitar. It was only several years and iterations into his career that his musical and professional worlds melded. Now they are inseparable.

Chris was 13 and living in Maine when a friend started playing "Proud Mary" on his guitar. The big wheels started turning. “I was obsessed with learning how to do that,” he says. “once I started playing my guitar pretty much went with me everywhere.”

Including Guilford. When the College asked Chris what he was looking for in a roommate he didn’t hesitate. “I told them to just put me in a room with guitar players.”

Chris’ freshman year was spent in a Bryan Hall suite with seven other guitar players. “I don’t know about the other students around us, but we had a blast,” he says.

These days Chris blends his work as a therapist with his passion of music effortlessly, offering doses of lyrical advice that centers three concepts.

“Hope, healing and inspiration,” he says. “I didn’t always live my life guided by those ideas, but that’s how I try to live my life now. Every single time I sit down for a writing session, I

make sure the songs are centered on those concepts. That’s the message I want to bring for others. That’s my journey.”

It’s a journey that, shortly after Guilford, started as a firefighter before veering to sales and later as an agent for some of the biggest personal and professional growth speakers in the country. Speakers like Brian Tracy, Bob Procto and Deepak Chopra.

Eventually Chris, an English major at Guilford, went back to school and received his master’s in Counseling. His practice specializes in solution focused brief therapy, an approach that incorporates positive psychology principles and practices that help patients change by creating solutions rather than focusing on problems.

“You keep focusing consistently on your problems you’re going to feel like crap,” he says, “I want to help people see what’s going right in their lives and focus on that.”

His music — more than 120 songs and five albums — reinforces that positivity therapy. So do the events where he plays. Bars are out. Venues that promote spiritual or personal growth are in. “That," he says, "is what’s meaningful to me.”

“Hope, healing and inspiration. I didn’t always live my life guided by those ideas, but that’s how I try to live my life now.”

Phillip Williams ’20

YEARS FROM NOW, when Guilford’s fledgling Music Production track has grown into a wildly popular program for students, they’ll have Phillip Williams ’20 to thank. What’s that? You’ve never heard of Phillip? That’s OK. The College’s first graduate with a recording track gets a lot of that. Such is the anonymity that accompanies a recording engineer. Oh, sure, some of hip hop and rap’s biggest artists know Phillip. Artists like Lil Yachty, Blocboy JB, Lakeith Stanfield, Playboi Carti and others. It’s Phillip’s job to keep them center stage while he and his technical skills work just outside the spotlight. There was a time Phillip thought he’d like to bask in that warm glow of fame himself. Then he started dabbling in the technical side of music and and found his passion.

These days Phillip is more than just a recording engineer at Blue South, a recording studio in Atlanta. He’s a teacher, therapist, cheerleader, and coach –whatever hat he needs to wear to inspire his clients.

When an artist comes in with a beat in their mind, it’s Phillip's job to bring that beat to life. “I make the music sound good, make sure the session flows smoothly,” he says. “I help the artist find a beat and keep them in a vibe.”

For all those hats he has in waiting, Phillip knows there’s a line not to cross. “I’m helping create but I’m not performing,” he says. “I’m not the one with the music and the vision. But I help them make that music and vision to life. That’s what I love is bringing it all together.”

Benjamin Matlack ’15

IN THE EARLY MORNING , New Orleans’ French Quarter is quiet. At times you don't spot another soul except the workers cleaning up the aftermath of the nightly party that is Bourbon Street. As day turns to night, music envelopes the area and people crowd the sidewalks after work. That's when Benjamin Matlack ’15 shows up for work.

Benjamin has an unconventional and demanding schedule playing into the small hours of the morning for five different bands. And don’t even get him started on Mardi Gras where it’s jazz 24/7.

But all that jazz – is it really work? Not in Benjamin’s eyes or ears.“I’m so grateful to be doing this full time without needing a day job,” he says.

Benjamin plays on Frenchmen Street, where revelers can throw beaded necklaces and easily hit a dozen well-known clubs.

The music he makes comes naturally, a tribute to Benjamin’s roots. His grandmother was born in Cuba. His grandfather is from Puerto Rico. “I grew up listening to a lot of Latin music, which is very trumpet-centric,” he says.

It didn’t take long before a horn was in his hands. He was just 7 years old. “I was lucky enough that my parents got me a rental trumpet before it was offered in school, so I always had a step up (on mother students),” he says.

“By the time I was in high school, I knew it was what I really wanted to do.”

Have Backpack , Will Travel

SARAH SEGUIN ’22 WAS LOST and loving every minute of it. She was studying in Munich in 2019. Going in, she knew she would be walking a lot. She would have to familiarize herself with train schedules. And, she would have to trust the people around her.

“Putting myself in that situation made me grow as a person,” she says. “It made me more independent. I didn’t really have access to cellular data. I had to learn to understand my surroundings, be confident when someone started speaking fast German. It made me laugh at myself to hear how bad my German was compared to native speakers, but those conversations also helped me grow in my language skills.”

Sarah is one of 3,700 students who’ve studied abroad since the College established its international programs in the early 1970s.

Guilfordians and their sense

of discovery have ventured to 47 countries over the years. Japan, Ghana and Germany are among the destinations slated for 2023.

During a series of semester-long and three-week programs, students will engage in medical shadowing in Spain, learn about childhood in Mexico, and experience the spectacle that is Oktoberfest in Bavaria.

“Traveling makes learning more meaningful,” says Eric Mortensen the John A. Von Weissenfluh Professor of Religious Studies, who has led programs in Asia. “Being on the ground in a marketplace in coastal Myanmar is infinitely different from sitting inside the four walls of a classroom. The

For almost a half century, Guilford students have expanded their cultural awareness by studying overseas.

BY ROBERT LOPEZ

GUILFORD RECOGNIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF PREPARING STUDENTS TO BE SUCCESSFUL CITIZENS IN THE GLOBAL SOCIETY. THAT'S WHY THE STUDY ABROAD PROGRAM EXTENDS THE COLLEGE'S CLASSROOMS TO EUROPE, ASIA AND SOUTH AMERICA.

“The subtleties of cultural experience make people want to know more, and make them understand what they’re learning in far more nuanced and lasting ways.”

— Eric Mortensen, Religious Studies and Ethics Department chair

material becomes less theoretical. The subtleties of cultural experience make people want to know more, and make them understand what they’re learning in far more nuanced and lasting ways.”

Munich has traditionally been the most popular destination for Guilford students. The semester-long program, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, couples students with host families, and offers classes on German art, history and politics.

German Professor Dave Limburg says students pick up more of the language when living with families. “They’re definitely able to have more of an appreciation for how people live, their customs, their traditions,” says David,

who has been taking part in the Munich program since 1996.

The Brunnenburg program, centered on a 13th-century castle in the Italian Alps, is another popular draw.

Kathleen Herbst ‘19 met Mary De Rachewiltz, the daughter of poet Ezra Pound at Brunnenburg (which hosts the Ezra Pound Center for Literature), while studying there in 2017.

“She’d always have four o’clock tea time, and we would talk about poetry,” says Kathleen. “And it would rarely be about her father’s poetry.”

Kathleen says that Mary, through connections with her father, knew e.e. cummings and Marianne Moore. “We would talk about them,” Kathleen

College students who study abroad have improved academic performance upon returning to their home campus, according to several national studies. Your gift to Guilford can help grow the College’s Study Abroad program for all Guilford students. To give, simply scan the QR code below and under the green bar labeled ‘Choose your area of support’, click “Study Abroad Program” to give today.

recalls. “At one point, I was sitting in this yellow chair, and (Mary) mentioned, ‘Oh, that’s the (poet William) Yeats’ chair.’ ”

Whenever Eric takes a group of students abroad, he hopes they walk away with an understanding that “difference is a good thing.”

“Studying abroad really helps students open their minds to the possibility that the way they live and think are not the singular ways of being,” he says. “The affirmation and celebration of cultural differences is a way to a more beautiful world. And friendship and respect internationally are the pathways to a more harmonious world.” •

A DOUBLE LIFE

BY ROBERT BELL ’11

FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS , Larry McMillian ’23 has been living a double life. He’s a student who loved playing baseball until he found his interests expanding at Guilford. Beginning in his sophomore year, he alternated between two disparate worlds, at turns a Cyber and Network Security major, and a hush-hush computer programming intern for the National Security Agency.

He studied software and learned about memory-safe languages, codehardening defenses and operating system configurations at Guilford. Then he took those skills to the NSA, the branch of the Defense Department that operates the largest electronic surveillance capability in the world.

Over time, he found himself dreaming less often about spraying line drives across an outfield and more about safeguarding a computer system.

"There’s just something about (programming) I feel comfortable with,” says Larry, who skipped the 2021 fall semester at Guilford when the NSA offered him an internship in Ft. Meade, Md. He came back to Guilford in the spring of 2022 to resume his education and, of course, baseball, trading in dress clothes from his internship and slipping back into his joggers and slides for his life as a student-athlete. Last summer he was back in Ft. Meade, programming again for the NSA.

Late last fall, the NSA offered him a full-time job after graduating. He quickly accepted. "It feels good to work hard for something and then get it," says Larry. “I never thought I’d be so into what I’ll be doing, but I love it.”

Shifting interests

Larry didn't start out wanting to be a computer programmer. Instead he would parlay his childhood love of Legos into an Engineering degree at N.C. A&T State University, a Division I program just down the road. He’d even help pay for college with a baseball scholarship. Big school, big plans.

Except those plans blew up months before Larry’s high school senior year when he injured his shoulder and couldn’t compete at an A&T summer baseball camp. There was no scholarship, which meant Larry couldn’t afford A&T.

These days Larry smiles telling his story because, well, let’s be honest. There’s a lot to smile about after drawing up new dreams.

As far back as third grade, Larry remembers being attracted to computers. He was the student elementary school classmates relied on to get past those oh-so-boring educational websites in the school library for the fun (read: zero learning) games. “Nothing to it,” says Larry, who chose Guilford after receiving a J. Floyd “Pete” Moore ‘39 Scholarship.

Computer programmers pride

themselves on logic. They’re constantly in pursuit of neat, compact and elegant solutions to the most complex of problems. Larry says he first saw glimpses of his ability in fourth grade, sitting at the family’s kitchen table with his mother after bombing a math test on order of operations.

You remember the order of operations and the acronym PEMDAS — parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction — your math teacher drilled into your head? Larry felt overwhelmed staring at every tangled math problem on the table.

Valdenia McMillian sat her son down and the two of them untangled the problems, one by one. “I was looking at the whole test and just trying to get

Larry McMillian is excited about life after Guilford. Just don’t expect him to tell you much about it.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CROUCH

it done, but my mom showed me how to break down a bigger problem into smaller problems,” he says.

That’s when it hit Larry. Sometimes those strategies for solving a math problem apply to life, too. That’s how he got past playing Division I baseball. How he applied for the NSA internship. How he managed to hold his own at NSA surrounded by other interns from Maryland and UC-Berkeley and Harvard. How he juggled everything in his life — work, baseball, school and relationships — to graduate next month with honors and a job offer.

Ellis Stokes ’21 played baseball with Larry, first at Dudley High School in Greensboro and then at Guilford. "Larry shows me and others what we can do,”

says Ellis. “He’s accomplished so much for his age and he’s still got more to go.”

Larry doesn’t understand the fuss. “It sounds like a lot but it’s not if you break it down,” he says. “That’s what I do when I have a lot of things going on in my life. I try to look at a problem in pieces of what I can solve individually before I put it all back together to formulate a solution. When I break things down, life’s not so overwhelming.”

That same way of thinking goes into Larry’s work with the NSA, which collects electronic intelligence communications and makes and breaks codes. If you’re looking for more insight into what Larry’s new job will be, you can stop reading here. Larry speaks softly — so softly that you sometimes

have to lean in to hear what he is saying. He's even harder to hear when he talks about his work at an intelligencegathering facility, one that, starting at the NSA's main security gate, has four more check points before Larry can sit down at his desk and go to work. His phone stays in his car.

But back to the job. “Let’s just say the work I've done so far will automate processes that will make a very tedious and complex job easy to complete with a click of a button,” he says.

Larry appreciates other buttons Guilford has clicked for him. “Guilford’s activated a sense of advocacy in me that I didn’t know I have,” he says. “When I see something wrong, I say something's wrong. Whether it's me or any of my friends, we go after it. If something doesn't add up, it means the math is wrong and we need to fix it.”

He appreciates his four years at Guilford especially as it is coming to an end. Which is why, with graduation so close, Larry has mixed feelings on leaving. On one hand he’ll miss Guilford. On the other, he’s looking forward to his new life, where he will pull on a collared shirt and dress shoes, sliding back into that other mysterious life — when, like most people as Monday rolls around, he's due back at work. •

LARRY MCMILLIAN SPENT HIS LAST TWO YEARS AT GUILFORD COMPLETING HIS CYBER AND NETWORK SECURITY DEGREE WHILE INTERNING AT THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY IN MARYLAND. AFTER GRADUATING IN MAY, HE’LL START WORK AT THE NSA.

“I try to look at a problem in pieces of what I can solve individually before I put it all back together to formulate a solution. When I break things down, life’s not so overwhelming.”

— Larry McMillian ’23

HE’S THE MAN IN DEMAND

BY ROBERT BELL ’11

IT WAS 1989 AND THE CHINESE Communist Party had big plans for Xuezhi Guo, plans he was eager to be a part of, too. Xuezhi had already earned a degree in Engineering in China, and was pursuing his master’s and doctoral work in West Germany on a fellows scholarship before returning home for a plum position designing ships with the country’s Ministry of Transport.

Life, of course, had other plans. Like most of the world that spring, Xuezhi was captivated as pro-democracy students and residents protested in Tiananmen Square, Beijing’s massive city square. After seven weeks and no movement from either side, Chinese soldiers put a bloody end to the protests, opening fire and killing thousands.

Thirty-three years later, the images from that day are no less crisp for residing on the distant edge of Xuezhi’s memory. “Senseless, so senseless,” he says. “(The government) didn’t have to do what they did. There was no excuse for it.”

Within days of the massacre, Xuezhi made the decision. “I couldn’t go back after that,” he says. “Not after what they did. How could I?”

These days, Xuezhi has a different home and a different job. He even answers to a different name. “It’s a life I never expected until that day, but it’s a life I’ve loved if that makes sense,” says George Guo, Guilford’s Lincoln Financial Professor of Political Science.

Shortly after the massacre, George was granted political asylum in West Germany. He later applied for and received permission to complete his master's and doctorate in Public Administration at the University of Virginia. One day after class, Xuezhi asked a professor why he was never called upon to answer questions.

The professor unblushingly told Xuezhi it was because he didn’t know how to pronounce his given name. The

theory to the role of the Communist Party’s core leader Xi Jinping.

No issue looms as large as China’s growing economy. The country is expected to overtake the United States to become the world’s biggest economy in 2028, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.

Historically, he says, global powers in economic decline yield their influence without conflict. He points to Great Britain as an example of a country that did not resist America’s growing economy which eventually surpassed Great Britain in the early 1920s.

This time, says George, America is not yielding quietly. As China’s influence grows, the conflict and tension between the countries (like February's Chinese surveillance balloon incident) is only escalating.

two came to an agreement. Xuezhi would henceforth be known as George.

“From then on I answered a lot of questions," he says, laughing.

These days George is on the receiving end of those questions — and not just from students. National and international media seek out George for his insights into China’s changing economy, its leaders and culture. He’s written three books on the country — from traditional Chinese political

Growing up in China, George would have never imagined teaching at Guilford. When George reached high school, he and thousands of other villagers were forcibly herded to communes in China's countryside to work hours of manual labor and be re-educated as part of the Great Leap Forward — a disastrous economic and social campaign launched in 1958.

There, millions of citizens — intellectuals to housewives, workers to peasants — attended classes where Communist ideology was always taught. “Mobilization,” as George puts it, was carried out on a scale never before seen. The extent of Chinese Communist

As China flexes its economic and political power across the globe, Political Science Professor George Guo is the one experts rely on to make sense of it all.

“I love teaching at Guilford. Bigger universities have everything set up and there’s no room to change, but Guilford gives us freedom to teach what we think is appropriate..”

— Professor George Guo

propaganda was so unprecedented that the Western world coined a different term for it: “brainwashing.”

When he wasn’t consumed with manual labor and Communist ideology, George was a 17-year-old high school teacher in his commune. “I was very good in math and the other subjects, but I didn’t want that for me. I could see early that it was going to be a hard life.”

George took a national test for college, finishing second in his region. That was his ticket to college, to West Germany. And while life didn’t turn out quite the way the Communist Party intended for George, he has no regrets.

“I love teaching at Guilford,” he

says. “There’s so much freedom and flexibility at a college this size. Bigger universities have everything set up and there’s no room to change, but Guilford gives us freedom to teach what we think is appropriate.”

That freedom can be seen in the courses George has taught for more than 22 years. At a larger university, George says he might teach five or six classes. At Guilford, he's taught more than two dozen classes, many shaped by the times and headlines.

Like any discipline, George says Political Science has evolved over the past century. That evolution accelerated following Sept. 11, 2001.

“Most of social science has been influenced by the Western-centered, European-centered idea on theories and approaches,” says George. “But after September 11 the huge change has been that Americans should understand different customs. Now we realize we need to understand more about other cultures. We’re trying to understand their cultures, their philosophies and ideas. That’s a huge change (of thinking) from not so long ago.”

That new lens for viewing and teaching Political Science is on display in all of George’s classes. “That’s the freedom we need to grow our students. Guilford gives us that freedom.” •

POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR GEORGE GUO HAD PLANS ON EARNING HIS MASTER'S IN WEST GERMANY BEFORE RETURNING TO CHINA FOR A PRESTIGIOUS POSITION WITH THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY. TIANANMEN SQUARE CHANGED ALL THAT.

PHOTO BY ROBERT BELL

GOLDEN MEMORIES

Fifty

BY ROBERT BELL ’11

TIME IS FLYING BY, THE WAY IT DOES when you’re young and you don’t even notice its swift passing, the way it does when you show up to every practice, every game for six months so focused, so obsessed with one goal that nothing else matters, not even time itself. Ten players, one goal.

And then there you are, standing on a ladder, scissors in hand, snipping your own piece of net you always knew was meant for you. Ten players, one singular memory.

Fifty years. Has it really been that long? A half-century since unseeded Guilford College stunned the basketball world? Because time plays tricks on all of us. It teases with fits and seizures, dragging its way through one year only to skip wildly forward the next. In the blink of an eye, babies are born, coffins disappear into the ground, wars are won and lost, and boyish young men transform, like butterflies, into, well, older men.

But even now, all these years later, the inexorable march of time is no match for Guilford’s 1972-73 men’s basketball team. Because to a Quaker, they remember that improbable run to the 1973 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) championship like it was last week.

“How can we forget?” asks Teddy East ’73 of Winston-Salem, N.C., not waiting for an answer. “From the first week of practice, winning

was everyone’s goal. Even with the freshmen it was made clear that anything less was unacceptable. So, yeah, we’ll always remember what we did. It was a heck of a story.”

A story that never gets old telling: Tiny Guilford, an afterthought heading into the NAIA Tournament in Kansas City, won five games in six days. By the time they walked onto the court for Saturday night’s championship, everyone was emotionally and physically sapped. Even after upsetting Maryland-Eastern Shore, 99-96, in the title game, first-year Robert Kent ’76 remembers sitting in the stands watching his teammates cut down the nets. “And I didn’t even play much,” he says. “That's just how draining the week was.”

A Time to Celebrate

On a cold weekend in February 2023, those memories and the players who made them came together at Guilford to celebrate the accomplishments and friendships forged 50 years ago. Newspapers fade, trophies crack and tarnish, but friends endure. As players walked into Alumni Gym, where the Quakers almost never lost, there were smiles and hugs to go around. Memories, too. Like the nights Doug Gilmer, a longtime Guilford cafeteria employee and manager, would leave a back window open in the school kitchen for players to climb through and grab a bite to eat after road games. Like the Saturdays players would

head over to married teammate Steve Hankins’ ’75 apartment to watch college basketball because Steve had something the rest of the players didn’t — a 19-inch Zenith color TV.

Not all the memories and reunions are rosy. When Coach Jack Jensen died in 2010, players gathered for the funeral of the man who had a hand in bringing them together. “A good coach,” says Robert Fulton ’74 of Clemmons, N.C., a member of the team, “but an even better human being. For a lot of us Coach Jensen was like our father when we were at Guilford away from our fathers back home, you know? We never wanted to disappoint him on the court or off.”

Two years later, in 2012, teammate Greg Jackson ’74 of Brooklyn, N.Y., suffered a heart attack and died. Many

years later, Guilford’s 1973 men’s basketball team gathered on campus to celebrate a remarkable run in Kansas City.

of the players piled into a van Steve's wife owned and drove north for the funeral. Niel Welborn ’75 of Rock Hill, S.C., says Greg made it a point to call him every Christmas Day at 10 a.m. “You could set your clock by that call,” he says. “I miss him.”

Packed with Talent

That Guilford was the last team standing in Kansas City in 1973 is all the more remarkable given the depth — or lack of it — the Quakers possessed. The team played five games in six days in the tournament relying almost exclusively on six players.

M.L. Carr ’73 of Wallace, N.C., who, along with Teddy, was one of two senior captains on the team, played for nine years in the NBA, winning two

championships with the Boston Celtics. “People asked me after we beat the (Los Angeles) Lakers (in 1984) if it could get any better and I always told them what we did at Guilford will always be right up there,” he says. “There was a closeness, a bond we had because the only way for us to win it all was if

everyone played their role. And you know what? All of us did just that. From the starters to the guys off the bench. We played our hearts out.”

Teddy and M.L. were the Quakers’ starting forwards, sophomore Ray Massengill ’75 was the rail-thin center from down east, and freshman Lloyd Free ’76 and Greg, were the guards. If you’re keeping score, three of those starters, M.L., Lloyd, who later changed his name to World B. Free, and Greg, went on to play in the NBA.

Even the sixth man, Steve, had a backstory. The former Marine showed up at Guilford after serving 44 months of combat duty in Vietnam. At 28 and balding, Steve was believed to be the oldest college freshman basketball player in the country. “I got a lot of

GUILFORD ’ S 1973 MEN ’ S BASKETBALL TEAM WON THE COLLEGE ’ S FIRST NATIONAL TITLE 50 YEARS AGO THIS SPRING IN KANSAS CITY.

“There was a closeness, a bond we had because the only way for us to win it all was if everyone played their role. And you know what? All of us did just that. We played our hearts out. ”

— M.L. Carr ’73

kidding from the younger guys,”he says. “They liked to say when I pooh-poohed, I pooh-poohed dust.”

There was Johnny Ralls ’76, a teammate of Robert's at Western Guilford High School, just down the street from the College. They grew up waiting in the long lines outside Alumni Gym just to watch Guilford's games.

Despite the presence of future NBA players, M.L. quickly dismisses the notion that this was a team top-heavy in talent. “The only way we got better was because the guys we practiced with pushed us every practice.”

‘Late in the Fourth Quarter’

In commemoration of their accomplishment, the ‘73 team was honored with a reception and dinner Friday on campus. On Saturday they met with President Kyle Farmbry for brunch before heading over to Ragan-Brown Field House where they were honored at halftime of the men’s basketball team’s regular-season finale.

Players walked onto Jack Jensen Court waving to the crowd, a mix of current students who were just learning their story and old classmates who smiled and waved back.

“I think all of us are aware of where we are in life,” says M.L. “We’re very much aware we’re late in the fourth quarter. That’s what makes getting

back together again so special. Time isn’t waiting for any of us.”

Except, maybe, for one weekend in February back at Guilford. One weekend when time ground to a halt, the way it does when you're surrounded by old friends, sharing stories and memories that never get old, not wanting any of it to end. •

ABOVE: GUILFORD'S 1973 BASKETBALL TEAM THAT WON THE 1973 NAIA CHAMPIONSHIP RETURNED TO THE COLLEGE IN FEBRUARY FOR A 50TH REUNION. BACK ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): NIEL WELBORN, ROBERT KENT, M.L. CARR, RAY MASSENGILL, STEVE HANKINS, TEDDY EAST AND BUZZ DUNNING. FRONT ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT): JOHNNY RALLS, GREG SPEAS, MARSHA JENSEN (LATE COACH JACK JENSEN'S WIFE) ROBERT FULTON, AND KEN BUNKER. BELOW: MEMBERS OF THE 1973 TEAM WERE HONORED AT HALFTIME OF A GAME AT RAGAN-BROWN FIELDHOUSE.

COMMUNITY NOTES

A Guilfordian leads Greensboro’s police department

The year was 2003 and the police officer, in his mid-20s and still relatively new to law enforcement, was about to make two choices that would define his life.

First he joined the Greensboro Police Department and then he enrolled at Guilford College.

In hindsight, both are proving good career moves for John Thompson ’04. In December, John was named the chief of Greensboro’s police department. With about 780 sworn and non-sworn employees, the department is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency run by a Guilfordian.

“It’s an honor and privilege to lead this department,” says John, who was sworn in Jan. 10 with his family by his side. “I’m looking forward to working with our communities to make Greensboro and our neighborhoods safe.”

John previously served as Greensboro’s assistant chief of police. Another Guilfordian, Teresa Biffle ’03. had been serving as the city’s interim chief. Teresa retired Dec. 31.

After earning an associate’s degree at Randolph Community College (N.C.), John joined the Asheboro (N.C.) Police Department as an officer in 1998 and thought he was set for life. It wasn’t until he learned larger police departments like

Charlotte required four-year degrees that he realized he might not be as set as he initially thought.

After joining the Greensboro police force, John enrolled as an adult student in Guilford’s Continuing Education program, where he juggled his work life with classwork. “It was nice being in classes with more traditional students,” he says. “I think they learned a little from the perspective I brought and I certainly learned from them.”

John earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Justice Policy Studies Administration from Guilford and a Master’s in Business Administration from Pfeiffer University. He is also a 2016 graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police and the Southern Police Institute Administrative Officers program at the University of Louisville in 2013.

But it was his time at Guilford, John says, that prepared him to lead Greensboro’s police department. “Critical thinking and my writing skills — I wrote so many papers at Guilford — are the two most essential skills that I mastered at Guilford I still use every day on the job,” he says. “It’s nice to know my investment in Guilford College paid off.” •

Wes Gavins '92. a former captain in the Marine Corps with a specialty in Communications and Information Systems, is the new Vice President, Head of Cybersecurity at LA28, the Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Before his new position, Wes served as the IT Directorate at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Lisa LoweHall '10, a healthcare executive with 14 years of experience in healthcare operational management, is the new Executive Director of the Women's Birth & Wellness Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. The center provides people of diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds with comprehensive primary, maternity and lactation healthcare.

“Critical thinking and my writing skills are the two most essential skills that I mastered at Guilford I still use every day on the job.”

— John Thompson ’04

Megan Gibbs ‘09 has published her first book.

Spiritually Parented: A Foot in Both Worlds weaves together stories, gifts and lessons learned from being raised in a household with a devoted sacred practice. It is a mother-daughter story rooted in love, authenticity, and walking a shamanic spiritual path together as a family.

Stephanie Steed ‘92 has been named president and CEO of 18 Degrees, a family services agency in West Springfield, Mass. Stephanie has over 30 years of experience serving children, young people, and families. After Guilford, Stephanie received her master’s in education with a concentration in mental health counseling from Cambridge College.

We Want Your News

James Beverly ’90 is serving a second term as minority leader in Georgia’s state House of Representatives. James received a Biology degree at Guilford. He later received an Optometry Degree from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, an MBA from Wesleyan College and a master's in Public Administration from Harvard.

Share your news with classmates and friends! Submit your Community Notes online to our Alumni Directory via magazine@guilford.edu. The deadline for the October 2023 issue is August 4.

Note: Community Notes may appear in print or online. Please share information that is appropriate for all audiences.

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REMEMBERING GUILFORDIANS

The following Guilfordians died recently, and we offer condolences to their families and friends. A more complete list of obituaries is available on the Community Notes page at www.giving.guilford.edu.

Jud Franklin crunched numbers by day, played notes by night

Judson Franklin ’67 got his first break in the music industry before he could tie his shoes. He was four years old when an AM station in Richmond, Va., invited him to come down to the studio and sing a few Christmas carols live.

“That did it,” says his wife, Carol Franklin. “That’s all it took. He was a born musician and was hooked the rest of his life.”

Jud, who died Dec. 10 at the age of 78, enjoyed a successful and satisfying career in banking with many institutions like Bank of America, Wachovia and, later, Wells Fargo. But his true passion was expressed outside those banking hours and deep into the night in local night clubs and restaurants across the Triad.

After a year studying at the University of North Carolina – a year Carol says Jud “probably spent having too much fun in Chapel Hill” – he transferred to Guilford in his hometown of Greensboro.

“That was where Jud needed to be from the start,” says Carol. “Guilford set him straight and put him on his intellectual journey.”

While at Guilford in the 1960s, Jud taught himself how to play

the guitar by ear and formed a folk music trio with two Greensboro College students.

“The Landsmen,” as the group was known, even made an album and sold copies at Moore Music Company in downtown Greensboro. In the late 1970s, Jud formed a rock band, Cut Glass, with some friends. Carol jokes the band’s enduring legacy wasn’t so much their music as it was their polyester bell-bottom jumpsuits. After retiring in 2008, Jud enrolled in the UNCG School of Music to study jazz and improve his guitar skills. He performed with many players and groups over the years before settling into his niche as a free-lance jazz guitar player. He was a regular at Milner’s American Southern Restauraunt, and other restaurants and clubs around the Triad.

Carol says the one downside to being married to a musician is you sit alone in the crowd. “I went stag to so many dances and concerts, but that was okay,” she says. “It was wonderful that Jud had this talent and others were enjoying and loving it. I loved it, too. His music enriched our life together tremendously.”

For over 38 years, Martha Cooley was an advocate for nurturing Guilford’s faculty

Martha Cooley, Charles A. Dana Professor of History emerita at Guilford College, died Jan. 28.

Martha served as vice president and academic dean from 1995-2000, working full-time with the faculty, academic support administrators and their staff. During her tenure as Dean she spearheaded the overhaul of the general education curriculum, and consistently strengthened the role of faculty as a whole in developing the general education curriculum.

Martha was a model for others in balancing work and family commitments, and devoted her career and deep

compassion to Guilford. Her love of hospitality, which she shared with her husband Jim Cooley, fostered a warm sense of community that many of us vividly recall and aspire to uphold.

In 38 years on the Guilford faculty, from 1965-2003, her teaching was wide-ranging — from Russian and Soviet history to 19th and 20th century European history and modern world history. She directed Study Abroad from 1987-92, and again from 2001-02. While director, she guided the development of the Guadalajara, Munich, Siena, China, Brunnenburg, Japan and Ghana semester programs.

Marcy Maury possessed a gift for serving the Guilford community

Marcy Maury ’74, a dedicated volunteer who served on the Alumni Association Board of Directors as well as the Friends of the Library and the Quaker Club boards, died Jan. 6 in Greensboro.

It was often said of Marcy that if the College needed help with an event, Marcy was there to provide that help.

Marcy was also a longtime reunion organizer for her class. Indeed, at the time of her death, she was helping with preparations for next year’s 50th reunion. She volunteered as an American Sign Language interpreter for Guilford’s Commencement ceremony for a number of years. In 2020, the College honored Marcy with its oldest Alumni Association award, the Charles C. Hendricks ’40 Distinguished Service Award.

Carole Stoneburner, founder of the College’s Women’s Studies program and a former Director of Faculty Development, died Dec. 28. Carol drew many faculty into reading groups on gender issues and creative educational initiatives.

John Owensby ’67, owner and publisher of The Kernersville (N.C.) News, died Nov. 4. John started in advertising at The News and was managing editor and publisher. He was an avid runner, who copmpeted in more than 120 marathons.

J. Clyde Branson '58, a third-generation Guilford grad who led a life of professional fundraising for nonprofit organizations, died May 13, 2022. Clyde taught others the importance of giving and there are now nonprofts thriving from his talents.

William “Billy” Ragsdale III ’66, who worked in the textile industry and ended his career as president of Oakdale Cotton Mills, died Feb. 28. Billy was passionate about his hometown of Jamestown, N.C. He served on the town council and he was mayor for five terms.

Bob Milan hitting the mark above Herb Johnson

THAT ’S ME WITH THE BOW AND HERB JOHNSON. The photo was taken in the fall of 1970 for our yearbook senior photo. Herb and I went to high school together in Elkin, N.C., and were roommates at Guilford. Two of my best lifelong friends I met while living in Milner Hall. I received a good education at Guilford, but campus life was equally important. There was a lot going on in the world when I was at Guilford. It was the height of the Vietnam War and racial unrest around the country. But for me, Guilford was like being in the eye of the hurricane, where these and other issues could be addressed in a peaceful way. I’m not Quaker, but my exposure to Quaker philosophy at Guilford has been an important influence in my life. Several of my professors were conscientious objectors during World War II, and served time in prison because of their beliefs. Quaker principles of peacefulness, non-violence, and respect and tolerance toward others would shape my value system the rest of my life.˝

Bob Milan ’71

Do you have a photo and memory of Guilford you want to share for Last Look? Send them to Robert Bell at magazine@guilford.edu.

2023-24 Guilford College Bryan Series Speakers

“HEROES IN OUR MIDST”

Sept. 14, 2023

Sully Sullenberger Heroic Pilot

Nov. 9, 2023

Lynsey Addario

Pulitzer-winning Photographer

April 9, 2024

Judy Woodruff

Trailblazing Journalist

Oct. 12, 2023

Walter Parkes

Innovative Movie Maker

Feb. 8, 2024

Charles Bolden Space Explorer