News Release

Local angles: Charlotte, Durham, Eden,
Kinston; Chula Vista, Calif.; Seattle

Six honored for contributions
to UNC at black alumni reunion

CHAPEL HILL -Four alumni, a former associate dean and a student were honored Friday (Nov. 10) at the Black Alumni Reunion of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, sponsored by the General Alumni Association.

Recipients of the 2006 Harvey E. Beech Outstanding Alumni Awards were Elbert Avery of Durham; Joretta Durant of Kinston; Randy Jones of Chula Vista, Calif.; and W.H. "Joe" Knight Jr. of Seattle.

Hayden Bently Renwick of Charlotte received the 2006 Harvey E. Beech Outstanding Faculty/Staff Award. Sociology major Reba Nunley of Eden received the 2006 Harvey E. Beech Outstanding Senior Award.

The late Beech of Kinston was the first black student to graduate from Carolina, from the law school in 1951. The awards named in his honor have been given annually since 1989 to recognize community leadership and support of Carolina and the black alumni reunion.

"This year's recipients of the Beech Awards share the special qualities that Harvey Beech espoused and exemplified throughout his life," said Douglas Dibbert, president of the General Alumni Association. "These individuals are applying their remarkable talents, skills and experiences to help inspire others."

Avery, global services manager at IBM, has been on the university's Board of Visitors, a Morehead Award regional selection committee and the advisory boards of the University Center for International Studies and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History. He has worked for the university's Carolina First fundraising campaign, and he and his wife, Dr. Katrina Avery, endowed a scholarship at the UNC School of Medicine.

Durant, a lawyer with Durant & Davis in Kinston, was a cousin to Beech. He encouraged her studies and inspired her to become the first member of her immediate family to attend college. She returned to her hometown to open a law firm. Durant has been on the UNC Board of Visitors. She and representatives of her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, contributed a dance studio to UNC's Stone Center.

Jones, assistant U.S. attorney for the southern district of California in San Diego, won the GAA's Distinguished Young Alumni Award in 1998. He was one of the youngest presidents of the National Bar Association, and he led the first delegation of lawyers and judges to East Africa for the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He is second vice chairman on the GAA Board of Directors and a former member of the UNC Board of Visitors.

Knight is dean and professor at the University of Washington School of Law. Under his leadership the school created a graduate program in intellectual property law and raised more than $60 million in donations. Previously, Knight was a faculty member and vice provost at the University of Iowa College of Law.

Renwick became the assistant director in UNC's Office of Undergraduate Admissions in 1969. By 1973, he had helped to increase black student enrollment from 100 students to about 900. He became the founding director and associate dean for the Office of Student Counseling in 1973. Although he left UNC in 1988, Renwick still communicates regularly with former Carolina students.

Nunley, a senior sociology major at Carolina, is a member of the National Scholars Honor Society and has received three awards for academic excellence at UNC. She received the Oscar Rand Scholarship, a UNC award based on both academic achievement and financial need. She is an assistant teacher at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, where she manages three classrooms of children up to age 5. She also has worked as a Spanish translator and teacher.

Previous award winners are listed at www.alumni.unc.edu/awards. GAA is a self-governed, nonprofit organization serving alumni and friends of UNC.

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Photo note: For a photo of the award winners, contact Carolyn Edy on or after Monday (Nov. 13) at (919) 962-3903.

GAA contact: Douglas Dibbert, (919) 962-7050