And I am pleased to say I thought I had a very good relationship with Chancellor Caldwell.
It's not very often that a student can have that close a relationship
but because of the student government connection and obviously his
involvement with student leaders we would do a lot of social things.
By that time I was married my senior year
and so often my wife was with me,
and then she was carrying my oldest daughter
and so Mrs. Caldwell was kind of looking out for the pregnant student,
making sure and giving motherly advice.
Dr. Caldwell, I'll never forget, when we were going somewhere and he opens up his shirt
-I mean his coat-and I'm seeing J.C. Penney,
and I'm thinking, the chancellor of NC State University is wearing J.C. Penney suits? [Laughs]
They look great, but [Laughs] it gave me a whole new perspective about [Laughs]
what may be under the label.
But yeah, he was a true statesman
and in so many ways provided a role model for me in terms of just how you carry yourself.
Even when I was ready to go to grad school
I said well it's not every day I can get the chancellor of the university to make a reference call,
and he said, you know, he literally had an open door policy.
I got up and I knew the receptionist and the secretary and I said, "I'd like to get in and see Dr. Caldwell for a minute,"
and so in just a minute they checked and said they had Eric Moore and he said, "Bring him in."
So I came in and said, "Dr. Caldwell, I'm thinking about going to graduate school,"
and he said, "Do you know where you're going?" and I said, "Well, probably Ohio University,"
which Carl Eich had recommended to me because he was an OU grad.
They had a very respected communication program-Matt Lauer is one of the alumni of the Ohio University program,
so I had to throw that one out-so I said
it's a pretty good program. So I applied and of course you needed recommendations and he said, "Well I'm not going to write you a letter. I'll make a phone call. Who do I call?"
"And I'm only making one phone call."
I said, okay. Dr. Roderick Rightmyer, who was the graduate coordinator at Ohio University,
I said here's his phone number and he says, "All right, get out of my office."
[I said,] "Yes, sir. I'm leaving." So he calls,
and then I went up for a visit and they told me: "It's not every day we hear from the president of the university, [Laughs]
"calling on behalf of a student."
That kind of helped my chances. I didn't have the greatest grades in the world
but at least I had promise.
So that was again something else that he would do
for people that he cared for,
and I've always appreciated that,
because there were strategic folk on campus
who would look beyond race and just basically dealt with you as a person,
and I've always enjoyed that about my relationship with State.
It's been good.