I'm Jean Speer and I direct the Appalachian Studies program here at
Virginia Tech, and I want to welcome all of you. This is a really wonderful day
for us, and fortunately the weather cooperated.
And agreed it's very special day for Solitude and Appalachian Studies.
There are a whole lot of us who care a lot about Solitude and
a lot of those who care are you who are represented here today. A lot of you have
some ownership of the house because you have given
generous donations of both your money and your time
and your constant moral support and we really appreciate that.
We have two special events to share with you today. One is the awarding of the
Dorothy Foster McCombs scholarship for the first time,
and then the dedication of our historical markers to Solitude.
And when we finish that, we invite all of you to stay and join us in the house
so you can have a look at Solitude, if you haven't been in there, for our reception.
I think it's very fitting that these two events should be held together,
because as you know, Dorothy McCombs, our colleague, was a wonderful supporter of
Appalachian Studies, and certainly was an ardent supporter of Solitude.
So it makes very good sense to do both of these things on the same day.
Since I have so many of you -- can you hear all right with the bus? --
Since we have so many of you here there
are some people that I would like to recognize.
One is, earlier this morning we had the meeting of our Appalachian collection board.
This is our named collection in Special Collections in the library,
and a number of those members of the board are here with us, and I'd like to
recognize them. One is Gary Everhardt, superintendent
of the Blue Ridge Parkway [Applause]
Peter Wallenstein, who's in the History department here at Virginia Tech [Applause]
George Kegley from Roanoke, who writes for the
Roanoke Times, business editor [Applause]
and Don Piedmont, who is the public relations director with Norfolk Southern Foundation.
[Applause]
Also we have with us Roger Stelk, who is a humanities reference librarian
who's part of that board, and Laura Katz Smith who is the archivist
for that collection. [Applause]
I want to recognize a few other people and say a few
thanks since I have a chance to do this publicly. One is, I'd like to
recognize Joan Munford who is our state delegate who's here with us today.
A lot of you have seen the Solitude brochure that was designed for our
fundraising campaign, and I want to say a thank you to
Michelle Moldenhauer, who works here at the university, who designed that,
for Larry Hincker who's standing back there who helped support that effort,
and to Don Piedmont on behalf of Norfolk Southern who paid for the printing of
that brochure. And that brochure has now won
three awards for design excellence, so we're very proud of it. [Applause]
I want to say another quick thank you to John Beach who's standing in the back of
the physical plant who has managed somehow this last year to get Solitude painted
on the exterior, and every time I call him about a
problem in the house, it's fixed very quickly. I thank you for that, John.
[Applause]
We have just finished, and this is the last event of our April in Appalachia
celebration that we have every year and I want to say a quick thank you to
our committee, most of them students. Beverly Duncan
where are you Beverly? Beverly Duncan, Lori Marcus
around here's Lori Marcus. Dr. Fred Benfield in the Biology department,
Valerie Alder in the back, Clyde Kessler who's in the English department who's
back there, and Martha Prillaman. Jennifer Cathy
who's standing around somewhere. Women's programs who helped sponsor
some of our events: the women's undergraduate network who sponsored one
of the events, and the humanities program who helped
make a lot of it possible. I'd also like to thank the
Public Relations Student Society of America, because this whole year they have
devoted themselves to making Solitude important on this campus.
They did a series of articles for the newspaper, all fall they helped us with
the fundraising campaign they have continued this spring to go
around and speak to students [edit]. And that's Austin McCombs that's going
to present her with the award.
Lori, it gives me great pleasure on behalf of all the
numerous contributors to this scholarship
fund to honor you with this scholarship and wish you the best in your studies
and your vocational efforts after you
graduate from Tech. Good luck. [Applause]
I'm very honored by this award and I would like to thank Dr. Speer,
the Appalachian Studies department, and especially the McCombs family
for making this possible.
[Applause]
This is our Virginia Historic Landmark plaque that will hang on the house.
This is our very heavy bronze plaque that says it is on the
National Register of Historic Places.
[Applause]
If you all imagine yourself sitting here in the 1870s
and if you looked over your left shoulder, save for the automobiles,
you would see something now then like you see now.
Looking out this way of course you would see none of what
is behind me, and before you, you would see the sparse beginnings of a
land-grant university that has now become
really quite an extraordinary place with national and
international vision. It also is a university and I think
Solitude and the Appalachian Studies program show us how it is also a
university with a very real sense of its origin
and of its history. But I think Solitude and the studies program
do more than tell us about our origins or our history.
I think they help us understand that even now
a national and international university is embedded,
it is grounded in this place and that, it seems to me, is important for all
of us to understand and in some way live. This historical marker and plaque will
help us remember every time we come down the drive.
We'll help inform people who are new to
the campus of how important Solitude is to us and how important the
Appalachian Studies program is as well. So I thank on behalf of the
university, Chi Delta Alpha for this and for helping us all
you know preserve that sense that we are here and this
place is important. So thank you.
[Applause]
Thank you Dr Carlyle, and thank you Chi Delta Alpha.
Two things before we go to our reception.
I would be remiss if I don't recognize the members of the
Dorothy McCombs scholarship committee, because they're here with us today.
Dr. Elizabeth Fine, who's down here in the Appalachian Studies program,
Dr. Rosemary Goss, who teaches with us in Appalachian Studies,
and Sabrina Kirby, who's in the university advising center.
And I want to recognize a student who's representing the
residence hall federation who is presenting a check to us
on behalf of [audio cut]