Editor’s Note: This story has been edited for factual errors regarding the qualifications for the medal and Susan Ward’s achievements.
The Watauga Medal is given to people who have made significant contributions to the advancement of the University. T. Carlton Blalock, Derick Close and Susan Ward are this year’s winners. Applicants have to have made “significant and distinguished” contributions that served the University in a positive way.
The Board of Trustees established the Watauga Medal in 1975 to promote the educational, agricultural and industrial development of North Carolina. Recipients of the Watauga Medal have recommendations sent to the chancellor and then to the Board of Trustees. The Medal has been awarded to 93 men and women since it was created.
“This award is obviously very important and the people who receive it are hard workers who care a lot about our University,” Kyle Doss, a sophomore in nuclear engineering, said.
T. Carlton Blalock is a former state Extension Service director. Blalock received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from N.C. State and also earned a doctorate in extension administration at the University of Wisconsin. Blalock joined the University as a dairy specialist in 1951.
Leading the integration of 4-H and the extension service at the University, Blalock had a thirty-year career. He has been a volunteer, fundraiser and supporter of the University for thirty-three years since his retirement. In 2006 he became the third person from North Carolina to be inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame.
One of Blalock’s main volunteer achievements was a 4-H club golf tournament that he sponsored. The tournament helped raise money for scholarships to the University. He also headed up efforts to create extension endowment funds and is an active supporter of the Wolfpack Club.
“He’s obviously a well-rounded person who believes in equal opportunity for the students at our University. His help with the school makes it clear that he wants to reinforce his roots and that is something everyone should strive for,” Doss said.
Derick Close graduated from the University in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in textile management. He’s been helping efforts to help the University ever since. Close is the director and past president of the North Carolina Textile Foundation. Close also initiated a scholarship program to attract future textile students to the University.
Close is currently the president and CEO of Springs Creative Products Group. He was honored as an outstanding alumnus of the College of Textiles in 2009. Close served on the University of North Carolina system’s Board of Governors from 1994 to 1997 and the N.C. State Board of Trustees from 2001 until 2010. Close has also done work to help renovate Carter Finley Stadium.
“It’s great that he cares about scholarships and the students. It seems as though he is coming back as an alumnus with a good idea of the student’s needs; it is great to have people like that reach out,” Doss said.
Susan Ward serves as the president for the N.C. State Veterinary Medical Foundation. She is a retired freelance artist who received her bachelor’s degree at Western Carolina. Her husband, Randall Ward, serves the University as an alumnus. Ward has been very active in supporting the Gregg Museum.
Ward has supported academic, athletic and arts scholarship programs at the University. She and her husband helped fund a mobile veterinary service that provides medical service for rural areas and during natural disasters. Veterinary students at the University gain hands on experience working with this unit.
“The mobile unit benefits students and the community. That is something that anyone would be proud of,” Doss said.
