Alumni News 2008-2009

(please sent updates to louden@wfu.edu, Also love to receive photographs)
Earlier Alumni News can be found at Alumni Updates

Wake Debaters featured in Smithsonian Inaugural Program. What should President-elect Barack Obama do in his first 100 days of office? Should he push for universal health care? Intervene in the Israel-Gaza conflict? Put forward legislation to create green jobs? These questions were discussed by some of the nation’s top college debaters at The Inaugural Debate Series that took place Monday, January 19 at the National Museum of Natural History.The event is sponsored by Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in cooperation with the Debate Consortium, a pilot program that partners nationally competitive university. Wake is rpresented by Odile Hoebeika and Rohit Nath who debated Michigan State on Energy policy. The Wake Team was coached by Ross Smith, the event co-sponsored by Tim O'Donnell and Adrienne Brovero, both Wake MA Comm Alumni, who teach at The University of Mary Washington.. See Wake story & Smithsonian Story

Julian C. Burroughs ('51), the longtime communication professor who led the growth of radio station WFDD into the modern era and introduced film studies into the curriculum 40 years ago, died May 7 in Winston-Salem. He was 80. Julian attended Wake Forest College after enlisting and serving 13 months in the U.S. Army in Korea. He was student manager of WFDD radio station on the old campus from 1950 to 1951 before earning Master' s and Doctorate degrees at the University of Michigan. His dissertation on educational television at Michigan was one of the pioneering studies in what was then an emerging field.
In 1958, he returned to Wake Forest University as an assistant professor of speech communication and manager of WFDD, which he directed until 1981. Julian was among the station representatives who helped to create National Public Radio in the late 1960s, and WFDD became a charter member of NPR in 1971, the first radio station in North Carolina to do so.
In the 60s and early 70' Julian often helped Franlin Shirley out with the debate team, traveling to many tournaments over the years and helping host tournaments and workshops on campus.. Wake Forest University remberance. WFDD audio story

Brad Hall (BA 06, MA '08) continues his work with Al Gore in Nashville, researching, preparing speeches and congressional testimony. Brad is pictured (center back) with John Kerry and Al Gore and at a Harvard Seminar he helped prepare last fall.

The Rt. Rev. Clarence Hobgood (1936), Episcopal Bishop for the Armed Forces, Retired, 93, of Charlotte, NC, died Friday, February 29, 2008 He was a graduate of Wake Forest College, Yale Divinity School and Command and Staff College, Air University. He also studied at Episcopal Theological Seminary, Cambridge, MA and received a Doctorate of Divinity from Episcopal Theological School, Lexington, KY.

He served as Pastor of First Baptist Church, Hertford, NC, Associate Rector of Church of the Good Shepherd and Chaplain, NC State College, Raleigh NC, and Rector of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, Wilson, NC.

He began his military career as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army Air Corp in the China-Burma-India theater during WWII. He served in the Air Force in Thule, Greenland during the Korean Conflict, and in many other assignments including Senior Chaplain, Headquarters Command, Washington D.C. and Senior Chaplain, USAF Europe, in Weisbaden, Germany. He retired from the Air Force as a colonel, having served as National Chaplain for Civil Air Patrol and Command Chaplain for Strategic Air Command. Among his commendations are the Bronze Star, the Four Chaplains Award for Interfaith Relations and two Meritorious Service Medals.

He was elected Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces and consecrated in the National Cathedral in 1971. He oversaw Episcopal chaplains serving in the Armed Services, the Veterans' Administration and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and ministered to Episcopal service personnel and their families worldwide. Following retirement in 1978, he served as visiting Bishop to the Deocese of of North Carolina and Southern Virginia.

Henry Blair Huff, 84, of Mars Hill, passed away Saturday, October 25, 2008. He practiced law from 1954 to 1991. Mr. Huff served as president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention in 1975 and was vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1985 and 1986, and taught Sunday school for thirty five years. Henry Huff was a major debaters on one of Wake's golden eras in the late 1940s. Henry visited the 50th NDT when it was held at Wake Forest. Some history at this link

Cecyle Arnold O'Bryant, 79, died on Tuesday, January 6, 2009, at Duke Raleigh Hospital
Cecyle graduated from Wake Forest University, where she was a member of the Debate Team. In 1951, she became one of the first four women ever inducted into the National Forensics honorary, Pi Kappa Delta, at Wake Forest University. She went on to teach English, retiring with over 30 years of service in the Raleigh schools.

Elva Lawrence Hunt, Cecyle Arnold O'Bryant and Ann Kelly Leake were active and successful team participants. Partners Lawrence and Arnold traveled with the team to Pi Kap National in Oklahoma, but only after there was a special effort by Professor Shirley to get permission from Dean Lois Johnson for the girls to leave the campus for the long trip, even though it was a spring vacation week. In 1950 the team combined to win first place Women's negative team at Wingate College's Strawberry Leaf Tournament.