Submitted to the Daily Reflector March, 2007
New Histories Help to Celebrate ECU Centennial
Special to the Daily Reflector by Matthew Reynolds
As part of the preparations for East Carolina University’s celebration, Chancellor William Muse commissioned an illustrated history of the University’s first 100 years. This task fell to ECU faculty member Dr. Henry C. Ferrell. Ferrell, who was appointed University Historian in 1992, is uniquely qualified to write such a history as he has seen so much of it unfold since coming to Greenville to join the Department of History in 1961. He has surpassed this directive by providing the Pirate Nation with two works that will help the faithful remember their past while celebrating the dawning of the institution’s second century of service to the people of eastern North Carolina.
Edited by Ferrell, Promises Kept: East Carolina University 1980 – 2007, is intended to pick up where Mary Jo Jackson Bratton’s East Carolina University: The Formative Years, 1907 – 1982 left off. He explains the significance of the title in the preface writing, “The university successfully spent the last third of its first century keeping promises made in the past. With the first century’s conclusion, despite false starts and external interruptions, East Carolina prepared to greet its second.” Promises Kept was compiled with the assistance of University Archivist Suellyn Lathrop. It features twelve chapters, each written by a different author, that focus on various aspects of University history over the last 27 years. A diverse set of authors from across campus discuss such topics as academic programs, faculty, student life, and athletics. Through use of fact, entertaining anecdotes, and insightful personal narrative, they vividly tell the story of an institution striving to fulfill its simple yet complex promise “To Serve.”
Ferrell’s second book is a stunningly illustrated history entitled No Time for Ivy: East Carolina University, 1907 – 2007. The work, also compiled with the assistance of Suellyn Lathrop, traces the history of the university as it transitioned from the East Carolina Teachers School (1907) to East Carolina Teachers Training College (1921) and East Carolina College (1951), to its current incarnation as East Carolina University (1967). An incredible collection of images taken mostly from the University’s archives accompanies the text and vividly portrays the evolution of the institution. Ferrell has described the work as “…the peoples history. We talk about students, town folks, and we pay attention to the changes in administration as well.” Both books are sure to be welcomed by students, faculty, alumni, and historians alike.
Area residents, as well as members of the ECU community are welcome to use the North Carolina Collection, located on the third floor of the Joyner Library. For more information, call 252-328-6601 or visit our website at www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/ncc/index.cfm.
Matthew Reynolds is a librarian in the Verona Joyner Langford North Carolina Collection.
