w 2022 CATAMOUNT EXTRA POINTS – GAME DAY PROGRAM w
WESTERN CAROLINA UNIVERSITY – 2022 HOMECOMING AWARD RECIPIENTS
distinguished service award
MARTY RAMSEY Marty Ramsey ’85 literally grew up on the Western Carolina University campus and, with the exception of a stint working with a transportation and logistics company, has remained in Cullowhee for the rest of his life, serving the university in leadership positions with the Department of Athletics and the Division of Advancement. Marty retired as director of alumni engagement effective Oct. 1 after a career spanning more than 28 years at WCU. Marty and his family moved to Cullowhee in 1964 when his father, Harry Ramsey ’59, who later served as assistant to the chancellor for WCU programs in Asheville, accepted a faculty position. His mother, Sue Ramsey, worked as a “dorm mother” in Robertson Hall, where he and his sister, Gina, lived in the family’s ground floor apartment during much of his childhood. After graduating from WCU in 1985 with a bachelor's degree in business administration, Marty worked in corporate sales and management for nine years with Roadway Services. He answered the call of his alma mater to return to campus in 1994 to become director of the Catamount Club, the university’s athletics fundraising unit. He remained in that role until 2004, when he was appointed director of alumni affairs, now called alumni engagement. WCU’s longest serving alumni director, he held the dual role of director of alumni affairs and the Catamount Club in 2003 and 2004. Marty has served as a member of Catamount Athletic Hall of Fame Committee for 28 years and the Chancellor’s Leadership Council for 10 years, and has co-chaired the University Homecoming Committee for 20 years. In his role as alumni director, he has helped introduce three WCU chancellors (John W. Bardo, David O. Belcher, and Kelli R. Brown) to alumni across the Southeast and overseen the Alumni Association Board of Directors. He also established alumni engagement traditions including the annual Purple and Gold Reunion, Legacy Pinning Ceremony and Alumni/Student Job Shadowing Program and, in 2020, launched the Western Wednesdays series to help keep alumni connected online throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. During his tenure, the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund has grown from $40,428 to $366,613. In honor of his service as executive director of the Catamount Club, its Board of Directors established the Marty Ramsey Summer School Endowed Scholarship for Student-Athletes. Having spent more than 50 years of his life intimately associated with WCU, Marty possesses a vast pool of institutional knowledge that will be difficult to replace, said Jamie T. Raynor, vice chancellor for advancement. “From a youngster who made the WCU campus his childhood playground to the man who has been the ‘go-to guy’ for thousands of members of the Catamount family, Marty has helped dramatically increase the involvement of alumni in the life of their alma mater over the past few decades. We are grateful for his leadership and celebrate his accomplishments,” she said. After growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s on the upper part of campus, Marty said he recalls his childhood as “a magical time.” “I have fond memories of sitting on the grassy bank at old Memorial Stadium watching Catamount football with my childhood friends, visiting my dad’s office in the Bird Administration Building, and sneaking in the Townhouse for a heated honeybun and Coke,” he said. “I knew at a very early age that Western is where I wanted to go to school, Western is where I wanted to work, and Cullowhee is where I wanted to live. I’ve been so very blessed and fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for my beloved alma mater.”
62 |
Homecoming 2022 – vs. Wofford
distinguished service award
PHIL & CONNIE HAIRE Among a select few couples selected to receive Western Carolina University’s Distinguished Service Award, R. Phillip Haire and Constance “Connie” Haire MAEd ’84 have dedicated their lives to public service – individually and as husband-and-wife. Phil is a former member of the N.C. House of Representatives, representing District 119 (Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties) from 1999 to 2013 and serving as House Democratic whip. Connie retired after 25 years of service to Southwestern Community College, stepping down in 2011 as vice president of its campus in Macon County. An attorney, Phil was a member of WCU’s Board of Trustees from 1992 until 1998 and served for 12 years on the University of North Carolina System Board of Governors. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history in 1958 and his law degree in 1961, both at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He was a captain in the U.S. Air Force from 1962 to 1965. In 2018, he received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest honor bestowed by the governor upon those who have made significant contributions to the state and their communities through exemplary service and exceptional accomplishments. Connie received her bachelor’s degree from Erskine College in 1965 and her master’s degree in education from WCU in 1984 before earning her doctorate in adult education from N.C. State University in 1997. She joined the administration at SCC as director of resource development in 1986, continuing in that capacity until becoming dean of institutional development in 1997. She also served as SCC’s vice president for student and institutional development before taking her final position as vice president of the Macon campus. She was executive director of the SCC Foundation for the entirety of her career at the college. Phil was Sylva’s town attorney for 27 years, and donated the property that houses the Awake Children’s Advocacy Center for abused children in Jackson County. He was among the attorneys on the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, better known as the Watergate Committee, in 1973-74. He has served as vice chair of the N.C. Bar Association Board of Governors, chair of the Senior Lawyers Division, and chair of the N.C. State Bar District. A member of the planning committee for the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Phil is among the founding members of the Catamount Club, serving as its president from 1970 until 1972. He also served on the board of Haywood Arts Regional Theater. Connie has an extensive record of service on numerous regional boards, including chairing the Mainspring Conservation Trust, Blue Ridge Public Radio Board of Directors, Blue Ridge National Heritage Area, Cashiers Historical Society, and Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and membership on the Jackson County Historic Preservation Commission, Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, and Angel Medical Center Board of Directors. She is a member of the WCU Foundation Board of Directors, and previously sat on the WCU Alumni Association’s Board of Directors and was chair of WCU’s Friends of the Arts board. They have made more than $250,000 in contributions and pledges to WCU, including a gift of $100,000 in 2017 establishing the Phil and Connie Haire College of Arts and Sciences Endowed Scholarship, Phil and Connie Haire College of Fine and Performing Arts Endowed Scholarship, and Phil and Connie Haire School of Music Endowed Scholarship. They are members of First United Methodist Church in Sylva, both having served on the church administrative board, with Phil active in previous fundraising efforts for the church building fund. They have a blended family with four children: Tate, Scott and Phillip Haire, and Anne Collins.