Lees McRae College - Ontaroga Yearbook (Banner Elk, NC)

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DYKEMA ADDRESSES 56th GRADU TIO CLASS Dr. Bradford L. Crain, President, and James A. Stone- sifer, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College, conferred 92 associate in science and associate in arts degrees at the commencement exercises. Dr. Wilma Dykeman, noted author and novelist, delivered the com- mencement address at the graduation exercises. VJ i i .A , . S... Picon? Principals in the Fifty-Sixth Lees- McRae College Graduation Exercises IL-Rl: Dr. Bradford L, Crain. Presi- dent: Wilma Dykeman. Graduation Speaker: James Stonesifer. Vice Presi- dent for Academic Affairs. Dr. Crain congratulates ualedictorian Maria Braswell. Graduation 183

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SCULPTURE U VEILEU AT CEREMO Y PRIOR TO GRADUATIO When President Crain focused on the theme of Roots and Wings' in his inaugural address he did not imagine that those words would become visual in the form of a sculpture. The two greatest gifts, Crain stated, that we can give our students are roots and wingsg roots for un- derstanding our heritage and wings for discovering our futuref' Crain observed, The sculp- ture has a strength and character that makes it fit well into this rugged country of mountain peaks and mountain people. Probably long after a casual observer forgets its title the piece will continue to reflect - and perhaps even stimulate - its symbolic power of making us reach upward for our vision of what Lees-McRae College should be. Sculptor Wayne Tripp stated, Lees-McRae is one of probably only two colleges in the state with public sculpture. I think it's great that Lees-McRae and the Banner Elk community are sup- porting art in this way. Once people know what the sculpture represents, and the idea behind it, they usually come to like it. The entire project, with the landscaping and the placement of puddingstone rocks and shrub- bery, is a focal point for the cam- pus and community activities. A new sign, along with the sculp- ture, invites visitors to the col- lege. The new sign is made of bronze which gives the effect of liquid gold and links the histori- cal past with the present by imaging the traditional college seal next to the new Lees-McRae logo. ln the parting words of Dr. Crain, Together the new sign and sculpture form an invitation for people to stop and linger on a campus that is old but forever newf' ,xx . R f ' ' 3f':'A35i 1 i .ig-iii. fxij Sculptor Wayne Trapp in front of model of Roots and Wings. ,U f - R R U ,f M R ta A ig , wi' Q?-R R U ' . f W-HR, A J , wi,-fm f . 4, . - R X ' W3S,.g5 'fl - 1 if if - ,,,,. , . .ft--2 :R is .Q sl? -s A Y ,K f I ' Ri R R if Riit rf-y-F l L-fx? Hb 4-ii NX? 'R tt,, U, f f I A V , 3 2 1 ff: 0 , A I :WFT 1 9 W' ' Utt it nn.-vii . Q, E J? Dr. Crain addresses audience at unveiling of sculpture me-rf Www if i .Q 1 y, . wav: in?-givin V .. fi.. K ,,, so i 'R-wg, in Riii 5 f- . f ,- R ,i'Fo'5R?f'f , , ' ' ff f -- 1 i . , ,tls ,t,.,,, , , J V- . sg, 4 , wif , ff f 1 p F rgfeifw f' - ' ' ' , 3 ,, if ' A - +R .f ,pf , . , -.fo li J H1',f,,e , ' - - 'if V - ' , 1' 7' ,., '.i K: ffv, . 4 V, ,,,, in 'fr' ' 55 g m A -A K V ,kg V. V '- , 1 1 ,.,, , 2 Z1 W 7: ,'- i S - . . - I ff f' :Ii'ef, ff? .,f' J fn'-r -4, s V, -'F' nik

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DYKEMAN SPEAKS AT GRADUATION . . . Drawing on her travels to Germany, Greece and China, novelist Wilma Dy- keman told the Lees-McRae College Graduating Class to share the educa- tion they received with their commu- nities and the world. Dykeman also encouraged her au- dience to appreciate the word 'work,' a much rnaligned term todayf' Call- ing it what binds a person to himself and a community or civilization to- gether, she quoted Sir Laurence Oli- vier on 'work,' that blessed yoke without which we cannot live. She told graduates to approach their life's work with discipline and imagination. Discipline is associated in most minds with prisons, parents and professors, she said. But it is discipline that leads people to choose whether to spend their time shoddily or well. Imagination, often associated with the poet's flights of fancy, re- leases us from the prison of ourselves and is not an escape but a plunge into the reality around usf' While visiting the amphitheaters in Greece, Dykeman realized that three centuries before Christ people had been pushing and rushing and hurry- ing to go to the theater to attend there a reflection of the human experience in some of the greatest tragedies that have ever been written and some of the most lancing comedies as wellf' They shared part of the human experi- ence that is still part of our western heritage today, a common experi- ence of learning, enriching the human psychology and the human spirit. While visiting the city of Peking, the 75 acres of temples and palaces and libraries and gardens with some of the greatest artistic creations known to the oldest continuous civil- ization in the world today and realized these treasures had been contained strictly for the royal family in the For- bidden City. It became kind of a symbol for our learning and our challenge and par- ticularly your learning today because you are a part of America in the sense that you are educated. You have a vi- sion of how much more education you need, how much we all need. But it is not just learning for your own little 'forbidden city,' for your own self. It is that of the theater of the Greeks to share, to go out and reach out to oth- ers and make their experience part of the great human experience in your own relationship, not just to your own tiny community, although it must be- gin there, but also to the great broad community of people wherever they may live? sw W 5, ' L , ,E 1-, Za ,, N . ,, Dykeman related she walked through