Carolina First St u d e n t
S u p p o r t
Fellowship honors couple’s 25-year
commitment to psychology students B y
ABOVE: Barbara and Earl Baughman
Edevoted arl Baughman and his wife, Barbara, more than 25 years to nurturing
the minds — and stomachs — of Carolina graduate psychology students. From the classroom in Davie Hall to the kitchen in their Chapel Hill home, the Baughmans had a special place in their hearts for these future teachers and scholars. Of all the things he loved most about his life’s work, Earl, a clinical psychology professor at UNC from 1954 to 1981, counted time spent with graduate students at the top of his list, whether on campus or over dinner in his home. Barbara, who also helped Earl by proofreading his books and manuscripts, always made sure there was plenty of home-cooked food for the young scholars. In recognition of their parents’ contributions to Carolina, daughters Elizabeth Florio of Rye, N.Y., and Gretchen Baughman of Chapel Hill, N.C., have established the Earl and Barbara Baughman Graduate Fellowship 32 • Spring 2008 • Carolina Arts & Sciences
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in Psychology, enhancing a graduate student award fund they created in 1997 with a gift that will make it a fully endowed graduate fellowship. Investment growth, along with the new gift, will result in an initial endowment of more than $350,000. Annual income from the fund will produce at least $17,500 for the fellowship. It will be one of the department’s largest named fellowships and will help bring to Chapel Hill the brightest scholars — the same kind of students that Earl enjoyed teaching for so many years. “Graduate students were always welcome in our home,” recalled Florio.“My parents went beyond knowing them as students to knowing them on a more personal level.” Earl met Barbara when he graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in math and took a position teaching physics at Edwardsville (Ill.) High School while waiting for his military assignment in World War II. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Purdue University, and he continued his education in the Air Force as a meteorologist and then at the University of Chicago, earning a Ph.D. in psychology. The couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in 2007 and now live in Cary, N.C. Earl and the late Grant Dahlstrom, his co-author and faculty colleague who taught at Carolina for more than 40 years, won the prestigious Ansfield-Wolf Book Award in 1969 for their groundbreaking research on comparative studies of Southern rural children. Earl’s classroom
instruction also won an undergraduate teaching award.The Baughmans will now be recognized with yet another honor — a full graduate fellowship in their name that supports generations of future teachers and scholars.
In recognition of their parents’ contribution to Carolina, daughters Elizabeth Florio of Rye, N.Y., and Gretchen Baughman of Chapel Hill, N.C., have established the Earl and Barbara Baughman Graduate Fellowship in Psychology, enhancing a graduate student award fund they created in 1997 with a gift that will make it a fully endowed graduate fellowship. Bernadette Gray-Little, now provost and executive vice chancellor, was among faculty members influenced by Earl’s generosity. She first met the Baughmans in 1970 when she interviewed for a faculty position in the department. “Earl was very encouraging during that interview and after I accepted the position, he went out of his way to help me develop ideas and materials for a new course that I was assigned to teach,” she said.“I remember him for his graciousness and generosity to me and for the care he took in welcoming other new faculty to the department. He was a true department and University citizen.” •