Joe Liles - Generations apart from your ordinary art teacher

by Brian Faircloth

first published in NCSSM Magazine, Summer 2004, Volume 5

[NCSSM Magazine, Summer 2004; Other Campus & Student Publications; NCSSM Digital Collection]

Here's what most people know about Joe Liles: He's an artist.  He's been at Science and Math forever.  He has a pony tail that is longer than a young child's arm.  He has an interest in Native American culture. 

Here's what many people may suspect about Joe Liles: he's a hippy, he grew up in a commune with weird parents, and his interest in Native American culture is some deliberate manifestation of his hippy ways. Clearly, he's not Native American, so all this Native American business must be invented. 

This is what you may suspect about Joe, and if you do, this is where you're about as wrong as Joe is genuine. 

211 Woodside Drive

211 Woodside Drive, right in the middle of Wadesboro, North Carolina, was where Joe was raised, in what now seems to Joe as "one of the first brick ranches ever built." His father was a World War II Navy veteran and downtown businessman. Joe's mother worked as a medical technician—the only medical technician, actually—at the local family practitioner's office on Thursdays. The other six days she was busy raising Joe and his three siblings. 

Pine-studded and All-American, Woodside Drive flowed down an incredibly steep hill to a dead-end. It was every child's winter dream and every licensed adult's worst automotive nightmare. "There was a device at the bottom of the street in the dead-end that we called a breakneck," Joe recalls, the slight hint of a smile creeping into the corners of his mouth as if remembering a number of hair-raising adventures. "It's sort of like a concrete cliff. We called it a "breakneck" because, if you went off the road for whatever reason and continued into the dead-end, you would certainly break your neck." 

It sounds idyllic, and it was in many ways - the small town setting, the neighborhood kids riding bikes up and down the streets on humid summer evenings, the mother and father who were known and respected by everyone in town. Joe's childhood was good and pleasant in a postcard sort of way; but, there was more to that happiness than the steep street with all the pine trees. In fact, the other half of the picture may be one that Joe holds even dearer to his heart: 

Cows. 150 of them. 

There were also two mules, endless fence posts, and miles of barbed wire. On top of that, the farm had watering holes for the cattle that doubled as fish ponds, and a railroad track on a raised bed of gravel and timbers that carried the weight of Atlantic Coast Line boxcars. These things were as much a part of Joe's life as was the life in town. In addition to running the family business, his father also carried the responsibility of keeping up the family farm that Joe's great-grandfather built on the outskirts of town. 

"I had the best of both worlds growing up," Joe remembers. "I had the comfortable home in town and all my friends nearby and everything we needed, but I also had this huge family farm of 500 acres that I spent a lot of time on as well." 

On the farm was where Joe felt most comfortable, digging fence posts and stringing barbed wire and fishing for bream and bass and catfish. With Bermuda grass under his feet and the sky overheard, Joe felt at peace. 

Taos, New Mexico. 1967. 

In Taos, on a hot summer afternoon, 17 year-old Joe Liles' life took a significant turn. 

A Boy Scout since he was a small kid, Joe had landed a summer job as a handicraft instructor at the Philmont Scout Ranch in nearby Cimarron. Seeking a change of pace and scenery, Joe often went into Taos on his time off. 

One afternoon while walking through town, he heard the steady beat of a drum and the rise and fall of voices deeply involved in an intricate song coming from behind a motel. Intrigued by what he heard, he followed the disembodied sounds until he came upon a group of tourists gathered in a half circle. Joe made his way to the front of the group. 

Before him were two Native American men, beating out a rhythm on a tight-skinned drum. Around them several dancers kept time with the music. In that moment, Joe's life changed forever. 

"I wasn't so interested in the dancers, [but] I was drawn to the music that those two guys were singing," Joe says. "I just stood there for the longest time, listening, trying to figure out how they could possibly be singing this totally complex music." 

In time the songs ended, the dancers ended their dance, and the tourists melted away. 

All except for Joe. He was transfixed. 

For three more summers Joe returned to New Mexico, where he absorbed as much as possible about Native American music. Eventually, he too began to sing. 

Under his wing. 

"Here's one of the things about Joe Liles," Linwood Watson says. "He can flat-out sing those songs." 

The man I'm talking with is a member of NCSSM's Class of 1993. He is a Haliwa-Saponi Indian, a physician practicing family medicine in Pembroke, NC, and a close friend of Joe. They've been friends since Linwood was a student at NCSSM, where Joe took him and other Native American students under his wing and helped them through their time at the school. 

"I'm not artistic," Linwood says. "Let me just say that. So I never aid get around to taking an art class. But I heard that Joe was into Indian culture and so that's how I became aware of him."  Joe, Linwood, and other Native American students at NCSSM formed an Indian culture group at Science and Math called Akwe:kon, a Mohawk word that means "All of us together." Through the group they hosted NCSSM's first powwow to promote the school to Native American communities throughout North Carolina. The NCSSM Powwow has become one of the largest in the state. For many people, it has also become Joe's signature achievement, the thing most readily associated with him outside of his artwork. 

Today, Linwood, Joe, and nearly 25 others, including additional NCSSM alumni as well as Native Americans unaffiliated with the school from tribes all over the state, participate in a singing group called Southern Sun. The group keeps a busy schedule, often traveling out of state to perform traditional songs. 

"We go to these different events sometimes to sing and we'll all gather around and I'll see these other Indians that don't know us sort of looking at Joe like 'What's he doing here?' And I tell 'em, 'Look, he can probably sing these songs better than you.'" 

At a naming ceremony for a newborn child in a small rural Indian community just outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Joe met a medicine person named Eddie Benton. Joe was now in graduate school in Ann Arbor, traveling "all over the place" every chance he got with friends from U of M, visiting with Native Americans in rural communities throughout the Great Lakes region. 

There was an instant connection between Joe and Eddie. Eddie offered him a job teaching art at a school, called The Red School House, that he was starting through the American Indian Movement in St. Paul, Minnesota. Like the experience in Taos, New Mexico, this was a defining moment for Joe. He accepted Eddie's offer and went straight into the job after his graduation from the University of Michigan. Joe stayed for three years. "This was the first time I was full-time in a Native American Community so, you know, there was no longer any of this outsider/insider business. I was a part of that Indian community." 

Though he didn't know it at the time, this progression of events—Taos to Ann Arbor to The Red School House—was part of something larger. It would lead Joe to discover something about his family from generations before that would, in this emerging order of events, make perfect sense to him. 

At a spiritual ceremony in Manitoba that Joe's group was attending, another medicine person approached Joe. "I learned something about you in that ceremony," he said. 

Joe asked, "What was that?" The medicine man replied, "There was something that happened in your family involving Native Americans that was tragic. Some type of accident, but I could find nothing more than that." Joe had no idea what he was talking about. 

Funny you should mention that 

Nearly 300 years ago, Ephraim Liles, an ancestor of Joe's, shot what he thought was a deer while hunting in a stand of trees along the border between North Carolina and Virginia. 

But Ephraim had not seen a deer moving through the woods. Ephraim had seen a Native American man camouflaged by the hide and head of a deer draped across his body. The man Ephraim shot was hunting too, stalking other deer in an effort to feed his family just like Ephraim. 

Ephraim gathered him up into his arms and carried him as quickly as he could to the nearest Native American village some distance away. The man soon died. As best he could, Ephraim explained what had happened and owned up to the terrible mistake he had made.

He left as quickly as he could, realizing that he had done more harm than any good he would be able to do. To stay in the village any longer than absolutely necessary would be to invite possible revenge upon him for the hunter's death. 

As soon as he arrived home, he explained the situation to his family. Fearing retribution, Ephraim gathered up his family and left, heading south for miles until they crossed the Pee Dee River near the South Carolina border. On what is now the Anson County side of the river, the county Joe was born and raised in hundreds of years later, they unloaded their belongings and began to build a new home for the Liles family. 

Joe's father told him all of this as Joe was home visiting family. 

"I told my father about what this medicine man had said to me," Joe says, and my father said, 'It's funny that you should say that because he had recently found an old letter written by one of our ancestors that told the story of Ephraim Liles." 

"Now, as soon as I heard all this, the first thing that came to my mind was that maybe my involvement with Indian people was somehow setting things right in the spirit world," was Joe's response. 

God, the Creator and two cedar trees 

Most Sunday mornings growing up, Joe was with his family in the pews of the First Baptist Church in Wadesboro, singing from the Baptist hymnals, listening to sermons built around passages from the Holy Bible, celebrating traditional Christian holidays. He drew a measure of strength from the church and its message. 

Like devout Christians, traditional Native American people are a deeply spiritual people,. Their daily lives are governed by their connection to the Creator, and to the connection between every living person and every object in nature. "Many non-Indian people," Joe says, "have always thought that Indians pray to rocks, you know. And some people might think that Indians pray to the drum. And none of that is true. What is true is that Indian people believe that everything is alive, that the rocks are alive, that the drum is alive, and that all of these natural living things are conduits to the Creator. So, you're not praying to rocks, and you're not praying to the drum, you're praying to God just like people in churches and temples and mosques and synagogues everywhere do." 

The more involved with Native American culture Joe became, the more concerned he became with the potential conflict between his Christian upbringing and his exploration of Native American spirituality. "I remember being concerned with the essence of that contradiction," Joe recalls. It was during this time, when he was "in the midst" of attending a number of spiritual ceremonies throughout Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario while in graduate school, that his grandmother in North Carolina passed away. 

For quite some time Joe had "had this prayer in mind, asking about this contradiction. Was it there? Did it matter? And I was asking, you know, for a sign to tell me what the answer was." 

He got his answer, on the steps of his home church, as he emerged from his grandmother's funeral services. 

"Right across from the church were these two cedar trees, and as I came out of the church those two cedar trees just started moving," Joe says, "almost like the wind was blowing them. But there wasn't any wind. I realized right then that that was the sign I was looking for. The Creator, through these trees, was telling me that there was no contradiction at all...that all religion was about understanding your relationship with the Creator, and there was no contradiction with the Christian way of going about that and the Indian way of going about that." 

It's a philosophy he's been adhering to ever since. 

An ongoing spirit 

The 2004-2005 school year marks the beginning of Joe's 25th year at Science and Math. An incredible number of students have come through his class. He has seen students, both Native American and non-Native American, discover talents and passions they didn't know existed. For people like Linwood Watson, Joe's curiosity, acceptance, and easy manner served as an inspiration and safety net. 

'I like to say Science and Math is Short term pain for long term gain," Linwood says, recalling his experience at the school. "Science and Math lets you practice for the real world when the mistakes you might otherwise make in the real world don't count. And Mr. Liles lessened that pain. Through his art, as a teacher, through the Native American group, Joe made it more bearable." 

Not only has Joe continued his work with the Native American community since coming to Durham, he has expanded the depth and range of his exploration of the culture. In addition to the Powwow and the drum group, Joe has also been heavily involved in a program called Dreammakers, designed to bring more Native American students to the School. He, along with a number of his students, has done extensive research on Fish Dam Road, an old Native American trail running through the Triangle region. He has contributed numerous drawings to a multitude of Native American groups all over the country to help promote the programs they run. He's currently in the process of writing "A Drumstick's Story", a fictionalized account of a drumstick that, through its circuitous route through the country as part of various ceremonies and Powwows, illustrates the unique stories of America's Native people. 

Most recently, Joe has discovered what could be "a lifetime of work" among the tribes in California. 

Perhaps most indicative of Joe's commitment to Native Americans is something that occurred not long ago. A fellow singer in Southern Sun told Joe of a dream he had recently had, a dream in which a man was singing a song he had never heard before, a song as beautiful and true as any he had ever heard. And as he came closer to the man singing the song, he saw that it was not another Indian. It was Joe. 

As he told Joe about the dream, the singer began to beat his drum as the first notes of this song he had heard in the dream, which he now dedicated to Joe and called Legends Never Die, flowed up and out and away as it joined on this day a history rich in tradition and spirit.

The Abiders

by Lauren E. Everhart

"The Abiders" - first published in NCSSM Magazine in 2006

[NCSSM Magazine - 2006; Other Campus and Student Publications; NCSSM Digital Collection]

NCSSM – Chemistry with Dr. Owens

 NCSSM – Chemistry with Dr. Owens 

By James Lisk, June 30, 2025

There were so many wonderful teachers and administrators at NCSSM that selecting one seems unfair to the others. But, with apologies to the other admirable and influential NCSSM staff, I’ll write briefly about my memories of my love of chemistry and my favorite chemistry teacher, Dr. Rufus Owens.

Long before NCSSM, when it was clear that I would not be an athlete; I decided that my favorite school subject was science, and that my favorite field of science was chemistry. Rather than try again to hit a baseball (especially difficult before realizing I needed glasses), I was trying to grow crystals from saturated solutions of salt, sugar and Epsom salt, or was nose-in-book looking up the chemical elements of my current favorite mineral. 

The 1970’s popular black-light posters and fluorescent paints fascinated me, and I wanted to understand the science... the chemistry... behind the glow. Perusal of my dad’s 1960’s era college chemistry text book had little relevant information about fluorescence; but rocks-and-minerals books included a bit. For instance, did you know that a trace amount of chromium in an otherwise clear aluminum oxide crystal makes the crystal red, glow under UV-light, and otherwise be a ruby? Or that several different transition metal elements can cause an aluminum oxide crystal to be a blue sapphire?

A refreshing difference between NCSSM and my home-town high-school was that at NCSSM, none of the science teachers were introduced as “Coach.” So I was thinking "No worries about hitting a baseball here!"

When I first went to chemistry class in 1980, Doctor Rufus Owens, relatively short, dressed in shirt, jacket and tie, at the head of the class, talked impressively about chemistry, education and the plans for the class and labs. But then he commented, at a previous school, “I was the wrestling coach.  If anybody is interested, come see me," and my heart sank a notch .

Later, that first or second week, I was looking for Dr. Owens. He wasn’t in the lab, so I checked his office. The office door was open, so I stepped in. He was not there, but the book shelf in front of his desk was loaded with chemistry text books. I stepped over and started reading titles like “Organic Chemistry”, “Qualitative Analytical Chemistry” and “Physical Chemistry.” I was ready to pull one out, sit on the floor and start reading.

Then a voice behind me said, “See anything interesting? I was the wrestling coach before here, so I could pin you down to the floor before you could get anywhere with anything.” It was Dr. Owens, apparently thinking I was in his office trying to steal something. Or maybe he was just bragging about his wrestling ability. Or both.

“I was just looking at all your chemistry books,” was my meager reply, then added that I was looking for him. That seemed to calm him. We talked a bit about the classes he had to take to get a PhD which he happily answered. And I asked about getting some chemistry lab experience via the work-study program.

Later, Dr. Owens provided my first hands-on experience in a chemistry lab. As part of the work-study program, he taught me about general lab work... protective gear and safety, for instance, in safely diluting acids. One day, I managed to over-flow a graduated cylinder, just a bit, while diluting sulfuric acid for one of the class labs. Dr. Owens seemed reasonably satisfied that I used sodium bicarbonate (aka baking soda) for an immediate cleanup. So that rather than me asking for his help, he was asking “What is going on here?”  I quickly explained. Another student, Joe Hall, was with him and pointed out that sodium carbonate would have been a better choice, requiring only half the amount to neutralize the acid. I shrugged and admitted, “well that would have worked too.”

He and Carolyn Morris helped me with my "tribolumiescence" senior project, maybe more on that in a later blog.

Early in my senior year, I went to Dr. Owens for advice regarding college applications and a college major selection. I asked about the difference between chemistry and chemical engineering, which were at the top of my college major list, along with electrical engineering. Chemistry was offered at many colleges, but few colleges had chemical engineering programs. Duke University, for instance, had both chemistry and several engineering majors, but not chemical engineering.

Dr. Owens’ advice was very practical. “If you start in chemistry, and later decide you want to be in chemical engineering, you’ll be a year or two behind in the engineering classes. So you’ll be stuck in chemistry if you want to graduate in a reasonable time,” he said. “But if you start in chemical engineering and decide switch to chemistry after a year or two, you will still be largely on-track.” And so, I scratched Duke, Emory, UNC and Davidson, off the list and applied only to schools with chemical engineering programs. And I later graduated in chemical engineering.

Blocks of Time (Prompt # 7 - Academia)

By Steve Gallup

At NCSSM in 1980, we had a very heavy class schedule; and the schedule changed from day to day. We had only 5 minutes to get from one class to another; and on a sprawling campus in the middle of  renovations, we sometimes had to run to make it to the next class room in time.  Sometimes it was a challenge to remember what class was next on any given day; and sometimes it was a challenge just to remember what day of the week it was!  

The courses were all taught in a modified college-style schedule.  By that, I mean that most classes met on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (MWF); about half met on Tuesdays; and the other half on Thursdays.  On MWF, classes went for 7 or 8 hours, with a generous break for a lunch (thank goodness!).  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, classes ran for about 4 hours in the morning, and stopped at lunch time.  That meant that Tuesday and Thursday afternoons were ostensibly free.  But not really.  (More on that later.) 

Example of the Weekly Class Schedule from my Senior year.

The Sciences

Students were expected to take at least one course each in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics within their junior and senior years.  But because we were all science wonks, most of us took four to six science courses in those two years.  I took AP Biology and Biochemistry, Chemistry I and Chemistry II, and Physics and Astrophysics.

I took my biology courses with Dr. Ross Baker.  She had sandy brown hair and big round eyeglasses.  She was as methodical and organized as a taxonomy chart; but she was also patient and kind.    

She was always well prepared, except for one occasion, when she was leading an ill-fated lab experiment.  The experiment compared the affect of cooked versus uncooked pineapple on the consistency of gelatin.  The uncooked pineapple contains an enzyme that breaks down the proteins in gelatin, preventing it from solidifying.  In contrast the enzymes in the cooked pineapple should be deactivated, allowing the gelatin to harden. 

But we never got to that point!  As the glass dishes of gelatin and pineapple heated up; one by one, they started to break... dramatically!  Glass shattering like it had been shot.  Hot gelatin spilling all over the top of the black enameled lab tables.  Students scrambling for cover .  It turns out that the dishes were not safe to use on an oven.  They weren't made of Pyrex.  Although the experiment was aborted, I'll never forget about pineapples, enzymes, and gelatin... or the difference between glass and Pyrex.

I took my chemistry courses with Dr. Rufus Owens.  He frequently wore pastel colored button down shirts; often with a three piece suit.  He was as neat and clean as an Erlenmeyer flask.  He wore small metallic spectacles like my grandfather wore; and he loved chemistry.  His class notes were also neat and tidy.  (I think he must have had an early computer word-processing program; a new development, at the time.)  His lectures also went according to plan.  I think he gave us the syllabus for the entire semester on day one; and he stuck too it perfectly.  

Once, he said, in the middle of a lecture, that he wasn't being "facetious" (I don't recall about what), and we had to stop him so he could explain what the word "facetious" meant.  (It means "flippant" or "tongue-in-cheek".)  From then on, it became a favorite description of the kind of witty, intellectual humor that we were trying to master.  We would tell each other to "Stop being facetious!" if we were joking around during study time.   But Dr. Owens was never facetious; not when it came to chemistry.

I took Physics with Dr. Chuck Britton, and Astrophysics with Dr. John Kolena.  They were both brilliant teachers; but as different as night and day.  Dr. Britton was a tall teacher with a heavy beard.  He liked to do just about anything to demonstrate the properties of kinetic energy.  I'll never forget an experiment that he devised, that had the whole class running up two or three flights of stairs, to demonstrate a simple calculation of power.  We figured out the amount of work required to ascend the steps (which also depended on the student's weight); and we measured the time of each student's ascension; and then we calculated everyone's power.   Amazingly, one of the heaviest students in the class demonstrated the greatest horsepower.  He got to the top using both his arms (on the handrails) and his legs!

In contrast, Dr. Kolena was quiet and reserved. He was clean-shaven and young, but he had a bit of a comb-over.  He was usually at the chalkboard explaining the properties of light and space.   But what a great teacher!  I took Astrophysics on a friend's recommendation; but I really thought it was going to be over my head.  Dr. Kolena made it completely understandable, reproducible, and interesting.

Math and Computers

Students were assigned to a math course each year (ranging from Algebra II to Differential Equations) according to their ability.  And we took a math related computer lab.  I took Precalculus & Calculus with Dr. Steven Davis; and I took Calculus BC with Dr. Dot Doyle.

Dr. Davis was an excellent teacher; but it always seemed like he was happiest in the computer lab; and it seemed like he was in the computer lab all the time.  (Early on, there were power surges each day that would shut the computers down; and they would have to be rebooted!  You would never, ever write a program, or create a document, without saving the work every minute or two.) 

There were many students who were passionate about programming; and I think that, for them, Dr. Davis was an incredible mentor.  I enjoyed the cool things that computers could do (at the dawn of personal computing); but for me it was more of a curiosity and a pastime.  I had no ambition of becoming a programmer or a software engineer. 

 

Dr. Doyle was the math teacher for me.  She stuck to the math and kept us progressing through the curriculum.  From time to time, if the weather was nice, she would take the class outside, for a lesson in the fresh air.  Once or twice she held a lecture on the grassy embankment outside of Beall pavilion, as the leaves were falling from the giant oak trees.

By the time I left NCSSM, my math teachers had me well prepared for college level calculus.   But unfortunately, in college, I ultimately changed my major from engineering to medicine; and the years of preparation in math went by the wayside.  Still, the caliber of the mathematics education at NCSSM, and the access to a state of the art computer lab (in the early '80s) was unbelievable!

Early computer lab PC with floppy disc drives. (From 1982 Odyssey yearbook)

American Studies

American history and American literature were required during the junior year; and taught by a team of history and English professors.  Aside from your choice of foreign language, there were no electives in the humanities.  Every single student had to take "American Studies".

Dr. Neill Clark was my English instructor for the course.    He had silvery gray hair and he liked to stand up and walk around the front of the class in rolled up jeans or khakis.  He always wore a pair of white tennis shoes.  He was such a laid back teacher; he sort embodied the "beat" generation.  As a class, we meandered our way through the Anthology of American Literature at a steady pace; and I still vaguely remember the progression of American authors, and a few of the readings.

Dr. Jackie Meadows was not quite so laissez-faire as Dr. Clark.  She was my history instructor, and she had high expectations.  In spite of her efforts, I remember little from that class; except for a phrase that she used from week to week.  She would say, "In your spare blocks of time, read ...."  It was hard to suppress a bitter laugh.  For us a "spare block of time" would have been a luxury.  We barely had spare "snatches" of time.  But she always seemed to say it without the slightest sense of  irony. 

As a matter of fact, the American studies classes required an unbelievable amount of out-of-class reading.  And, in my opinion, that reading homework pretty much torpedoed any chance for me to use free time in more productive ways (like finding career mentors or identifying suitable research subjects).  

As humanities teachers, they were tasked with creating well-rounded and thoughtful individuals; but I think we were pretty attentive and caring to begin with.  Whether or not "American Studies" helped to make us better citizens is subject to debate.

Part of the required reading for American Studies

Other Humanities

In our junior year, as I said, there really were no electives available to us; unless you include the choice of a language (Latin, Spanish, French, or German) and the choice of either Music or Art.  But in the Senior year, a smattering of new elective classes became available.  My humanities electives were Spanish, English Literature, and World Religions.

Dr. Don Houpe was my Spanish instructor for Spanish I and II.  He was a lanky gentleman who was encouraging and kind.  He usually had a gentle smile on his face as he listened to our embarrassing attempts to sort out the grammer and speak with the right pronunciation and accent.  (Thankfully, the class size was small, and the extent of my embarrassment was confined to less than a dozen classmates.) 

In retrospect, I wish that I had taken more advanced foreign language classes; but I dropped foreign language without a second thought when I went off to college.  I hated conjugating verbs, worrying about the gender of nouns, inverting word order, and basically... struggling to speak.  Still... I regret that I squandered the good start that I was given. 

In English Literature, I learned to think about context and meaning from Dr. Jon Miller; a man with a natural look of amusement (or bemusement) on his face at all times. He always wore khaki pants, a light blue button-up shirt, and a tie (ever loosening as the day went on); and he spoke in a sonorous baritone voice, with which he wielded both wit and sarcasm, in equal measure.  It was hard to tell, sometimes, if he was serious.  In class, he often told us to take out "a half sheet of paper"; and then we would have to write an impromptu paragraph or two, regarding some question related to a recent reading assignment.  He was a great believer in brevity and clarity, as I learned from his feedback.

I also took World Religions; a wonderful course taught by Dr. Ginger Wilson and Dr. James Litle.  I remember taking a couple of field trips to witness other houses (and forms) of worship (i.e. not Methodist).  I was surprised to discover that there were Protestant denominations that I had never even heard of, like the African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) church.  It was an example of just how segregated my life was, as a white boy in the South, even 20 years after school desegregation in my home town.  This course, on world religions (and the students in my class) did a lot to expand my appreciation of other people,  religions, and cultures.

Spanish class with Dr. Houpe (1981 NCSSM Odyssey yearbook)

Art Class

Of all the classes that I took at NCSSM; I loved this one the most.  I had never taken an art class before; even though my father was a draftsman (technical drawer for a company that made electrical switches), and he was skilled in calligraphy, as a hobby.  My mother loved taking pictures and doing crafts of all kinds; so there had always been some art in my childhood.  But I had never really learned about art or photography in a stepwise manner.

So when I entered Joe Liles' art studio to learn the principles and techniques of art, it was like a revelation.

Joe Liles was an earnest young man with a pony tail that was sometimes covered by a bandana or a hat.  He liked to hike and he liked to tell stories.  He usually had a camera strapped over his shoulder, or somewhere nearby, ready to go.  He was skilled in architectural drawing, printing, photography, and other art media. 

He was also one of the most instrumental members of the original faculty, in my opinion.  He took photos of the school, including candid pictures of the students, staff, and faculty for a number of early publications.  He created an art studio and an arts program from the ruins of the historic Watts Hospital (probably on a shoestring budget).  He began the tradition of a year end slide show, set to contemporary music; which became a moment to reflect and bond after a year of tribulations.  (I'm pretty sure our slideshow began with the swirling synthesizer intro, evocative lyrics, and haunting melody of  "Dreamweaver" by Gary Wright.  (Dreamweaver video on YouTube))

Joe also established a yearly Native American Powwow at the school.  I think the first one was somewhere near the Ninth street entrance to the school (the Bryan Living and Learning Center); somewhere on the grounds outside.  We, the students, were sitting in a very big circle; and members of a local North Carolina tribe (Haliwa-Saponi or Cherokee or Lumbee), gave a dramatic demonstration of the visceral music and dance of their tribe, in full voice and costume.

As for art, Joe was a wonderful teacher; and we had unparalleled access to the studio, including darkrooms and screen-printing presses.  For a brief moment in time, it seemed like half of us had SLR cameras and a small allotment of black and white film, provided by the school.  If you weren't careful, you would surely end up in someone's photograph.  (I think I spent as much time with a camera in my hand, as I did with a soccer ball at my feet... which is really saying something.)

In art class, I learned the principles of photographic composition.  I learned about shutter speed, and aperture; and the effect of  both on depth of field.  And then I, and the rest of the class, learned to unload the film canisters and wind them onto developing spools in a pitch black dark room!  I don't think I'll ever forget the sequence of moves or the dexterity required to... open the film canister... insert the tab into the center axle of the winding spool... gently bend the film while winding it on the reel... and then cut the end off the film... and pop it into the developing canister.  After developing the film; we would cut it into strips of four or five frames, and hang them on a string to dry.

That was only half of the process; because then you had to choose which negative picture frames were worth developing (if the film hadn't been ruined by exposure).  After choosing which negatives to enlarge, there was a long process of loading the enlarger; exposing the photographic paper; dodging areas to be highlighted; dropping the paper into developing chemicals for the right amount of contrast; then transferring the print to the "fixer" tray to stop development; then rinsing and drying.  All without a pharmacy.  (That's where we sent film to be developed, in those days, before the advent of digital cameras.)

I think it is probably nearly impossible to imagine how much photography has changed if you grew up in the digital age.  I'm incredibly proud to say that I was able to take a picture from concept to fruition, using a film camera and a darkroom.  It was incredibly hard, with so many steps between the click of the camera and the final product (with none of the instantaneous feedback that is available today).  Here are a couple of examples:

Picture of Simon Verghese posing for a picture during our Special Projects week in 1982

Picture of Richard Saccocia pitching during the 1982 baseball season.

Physical Education

The school also included a recreation and sports requirement in the Junior year, worth 1/2 a credit.  Perhaps it was a concession to student and parent concerns for more sports activities, identified during the application process.  Branson Brown was the instructor.

Branson played minor league baseball in Florida before he became a physical education (PE) instructor.  I think he always brought a team mentality to his work.  During the first year at NCSSM, he was also working as a resident advisor in Wyche House; and he had a real challenge, trying to mold a bunch of boys into a "winning team".  He also believed in the virtues of "less talk and more action", and in "leading by example".

I only remember snippets of the PE course... a little bit of golf to demonstrate the importance of life-long sporting activities... a fitness test in which we found ourselves running circles in the southeast parking lot... a relaxation demonstration in which many of the participants fell fast asleep.  He also arranging a fund-raiser called "Jump rope for the heart".  And... oh yeah... he (and Joanie) had a baby boy during the Winter Break. 

Fitness test for the Sports and Recreation class

Outside of fatherhood, and the PE class, Branson was busy running intramurals in everything from ping pong to basketball; arranging competition with other schools in flag football (against the School of the Arts), soccer (against the School for the Deaf), and other sports, including the first to compete against other schools - cross country.  In the 80-81 school year, NCSSM was not yet member of any high school league.  But only a year later. Branson had made arrangements for a full interscholastic sports program (excepting football).   

Joanie, Branson, and son Brennan (Dialogues Newsletter 1981)

Work & Community Service

But wait, I'm not done.  In addition to class requirements, every student was required to perform a certain amount of weekly work service, doing things like washing dishes in the kitchen, or distributing fresh linens; and a certain amount of weekly community service, doing things like tutoring young children or assisting with Durham parks and recreation programs.

Remember those "free" Tuesday and Thursday afternoons?  If we weren't busy studying, we were often trying to complete our weekly requirement of work and/or community service.  I, personally, became well acquainted with the conveyor-style dishwasher of our basement cafeteria; and I saw the impressive capacity of the cafeteria's walk-in freezer and cooler.  In the winter, it was much nicer, and less repulsive, to work for the laundry, distributing the freshly dried blankets, sheets, and towels in the big blue plastic utility carts.

Robert Lee washing trays in the cafeteria (1981 NCSSM Odyssey yearbook)

Research

For students with an interest in research, there was also time set aside on every other Saturday morning for independent research.  For the rest of us, I think it became a time for independent study; another disappointing loss of free time.   

Mentorship opportunities were available at Duke University, only a mile or two away; and many students found a chance to conduct research during "Special Projects" week, in April 1981.  However, those of us without a mentor or a plan for research, found ourselves attending mini-lecture series on topics like Solar Energy, Non-Euclidean Geometry, and Jungian Psychology.  Meh.

Ami Shah - Drug Synthesis  ("A Portfolio of Special Projects Week" - Richard Troutman and Ravi Rao; NCSSM Photograph Collection; NCSSM Digital Collection)

Academia at NCSSM

A remarkable amount of learning occurred in each of the four semesters of our Junior and Senior years; learning in Science and Math; Arts and Humanities; Work and Community Service; Physical Education and Independent Research.

Although the didactic class time was usually packed to the gills with information (and sometimes pop quizzes), there was usually time, outside of class, to meet with the teachers for questions and conversation; during lab and studio sessions, or during the teacher's office hours.  It was quite common to see a teacher and a couple of students engaged in lively discussion, in an office, as dinner time approached.  Eventually the teacher would have to bring the discussion to an end, and head for home. The students, in contrast, headed to their dorm rooms or to supper in the cafeteria.  We were already at "home". 

Dedicated staff and faculty made all those academic opportunities possible; all vying for the students' interest and commitment; all divvying up our "free blocks of time" into time for homework, lab work, art studio, music ensemble, independent study, or research.  

Although the details of the lessons have (largely) been lost to time; some experiences were unforgettable; and on the whole, the content of our characters was stretched, molded, and fired into a useful form by the teachers that constituted the founding faculty of  the School of Science and Math.

Stippled ink drawing of a photo projection from NCSSM art class - 1980

Writing Prompt #7: Academia

Prompt #7: Describe a personally significant member of the faculty; or describe a class (or your class schedule) in your Junior year at NCSSM.

Deadline: June 30th

Details: Describe a member of the original NCSSM faculty who had a meaningful effect on your life.  Alternatively: Describe a memorable class that you took in your junior year; or describe the list of class options, the weekly class schedule, or the academic requirements for graduation, and how they affected you personally.

Blog site landing page: https://half-sheet-of-paper-workshop.blogspot.com/

Blog site posts page: https://www.blogger.com/blog/posts

Background: 

Original faculty

 Adjunct faculty members - William McCloud, Joseph Mitchell, and H. Braughn Taylor

Ross Baker - Instructor of Biology.  AB - UNC CH. MS - NCSU.

Kevin C. Bartkovich - Instructor of Mathematics (part time).  MAS/MSE - Johns Hopkins

Charles "Chuck" Britton - Instructor of Physics.  BS - Duke.  PhD - Univ. of Florida.

Neill Clark - Instructor of English.  BA, MA, PhD

C. Stephen Davis - Instructor of Math & Computer Science; Head of the Division of Math and Computer Science.  AB, MA, PhD Univ. of Wisconsin.

Dorothy "Dot" Doyle - Instructor of Mathematics. BS - ECU. MA - ECU

Randolph Foy - Instructor of Music.  BM - Oberlin Coll.  MA - Univ. of Iowa

James Henry - Head of Media Services.  BS - Methodist Coll.  M Ed - UNC CH

Donald Houpe - Instructor of Languages.  BA - Hampden-Sydney Coll.  PhD - UNC CH

Joseph "Joe" Liles - Instructor of Art.  BA - NCSU.  MS - Univ. of Michigan

Rena Lindstrom - Guidance Counselor.  BA, M Ed.

Jacqueline "Jackie" Meadows - Instructor of Social Studies.  BA - Bennett Coll.  MS - NC A&T Univ.

Jon Miller - Instructor of English.  AB - Davidson.  PhD - UNC CH.

Rosemary Oates - Instructor of Latin.  BA, MA.

Rufus Owens - Instructor of Chemistry.  AB, Ph D.

Ama Shabazz - Instructor of French & English.  BA - Lawrence Univ.  MA - San Jose State Univ.

Elizabeth "Liz" Turner - Librarian

Virginia Wilson - Instructor of Social Sciences.  AB, PhD - Duke Univ.

[The North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Dedication Week Program [October 6-11, 1980]; NCSSM Ephemera; NCSSM Digital Collection]

*Not listed with faculty - Branson Brown - Sports Coordinator

Instructional Program:

There is no record in the NCSSM Digital Archives of a Course Catalog for the 80-81 school year.  There is only a document called "Instructional Program for Eleventh Grade Students [July 1980]" - A general outline of NCSSM's academic program during its first year written by the Dean for Academic Affairs, Cecily Cannan Selby.  The following is a summary of the requirements:

All students will take at least one course in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics during 2 years.  All will have Lab Periods.  Mini-courses may be developed aligning with interest and proficiency:

All of the following (within 2 years):

Advanced Biology

Chemistry

Physics or Calculus based Physics

 

All students will take a Mathematics course, in 11th grade, matched to their ability level.  Each course will have a Computer Science Lab.  Topics may be developed for independent study:

One of the following:

Algebra II with Trigonometry

Algebra II with Precalculus

Precalculus

Precalculus/Calculus Intro

Calculus BC

Calculus with Several Variables

Differential Equations 

Every 11th grader will take an American Studies program, taught by a team of one English and one Social Sciences instructor, "presenting American culture through American history, literature, government, economics and the arts."  Course will be concluded with a major research paper. Once weekly seminars are expected.

Both of the following:

American Studies - English

American Studies - Social Studies

 

Every 11th grader will take a foreign language.  (At least two consecutive years in the same language required during high school.)

One of the following:

Spanish

French

Latin

German

 

Every 11th grader is expected to take a course in the arts, which will include lesson time and also time for music ensembles (wind ensemble, chorus) or art studio work (paint, drawing, photography, screen printing).

One of the following:

Music

Art

In summary, for most 11th grade students these requirements meant:

at least 6 classes - possibly 7 
1 or 2 science labs 
a computer lab 
a major research paper 
participation in a music ensemble or art studio

an independent special project

community service

work service 

Link to a copy of the document:  Instructional Program for 11th Grade.

[Instructional Program for Eleventh Grade Students [July 1980], Cecily C Selby, NCSSM Digital Collection.]

Summary of the Instructional Program for Eleventh Grade Students: 1980-1981 School Year

"The skilled and experienced teachers forming the founding faculty of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics will find ways to demonstrate through the School’s special focus on science and mathematics, the interrelationships of all learning and the transferability and unique value of such skills as analysis, synthesis, listening, observing, recording and simulating.  The view of the universe found through each academic discipline will be studied, respected and integrated with special reference to the universe as perceived and revealed through the sciences.

Through the non-verbal approach of the arts and of human relations, as explored through the residential program, the School seeks to help students develop an enriched sensitivity to their personal feelings, their natural environment and the human community."

[Cecily Cannan Selby, Ph. D.; Dean for Academic Affairs; July 1980; Instructional Program for Eleventh Grade Students;  NCSSM Historical Collection; NCSSM Digital Collection] 

 

Faculty Photos from 1981 Odyssey Yearbook:

Don Houpe and Chuck Britton

Steven Davis - center

Jackie Meadows

Rufus Owens

Rena Lendstrom and Ginger Wilson

Neill Clark

Joe Liles

Ama Shabazz

Jon Miller

Dot Doyle - center

John Henry

Liz Turner

Branson Brown - right

Staff Hiring

"Under the direction of Dr. Cecily Selby, Special Assistant for Academic Planning, the huge job of screening candidates for faculty positions is well underway.  Dr. Selby, assisted by others of the staff, has read hundreds of applications, has conducted some preliminary interviews, and has set up a schedule of formal interviews with a selection committee to be conducted between now and March 31, 1980."

[Directors Letter to the Board of Trustees, March 1980; NCSSM Historical collection; NCSSM Digital Collection]