Harriet Shain ’53 and Jerome Evenson met as youngsters in Wilmington, N.C. Both were the children of successful merchant fathers whose downtown businesses were across the street from each other.
Both families attended the same synagogue, B’nai Israel Congregation, and the same high school, New Hanover on Market St. Jerome, whom Harriet called Jerry and colleagues called Jack, graduated in 1947. She finished in 1949. Both were high-achieving, honor-roll students active in scholastic and religious societies.
College honed their talents as scholars and led them to become teachers. Jerome, then 17, chose Duke University, graduating at 19 with a pre-med degree. He entered graduate school at East Carolina College in Greenville, N.C. His 1951 class of 16 men and two women each earned a master’s in education and were offered teaching jobs in North Carolina. Jerome returned home to teach biology.
Harriet chose Woman’s College, developing a deep love for her school. The connection was so strong she kept her 1952-53 ID card and student event admission ticket in her wallet for the next 73 years. In May 1953, she graduated with a degree in history and was recruited by Virginia’s Arlington Public School System to teach history and English that fall. She joined Stratford Junior High School’s faculty in Arlington. In 1954, Jerome became a science teacher at the same school.
She would tell me very clearly over and over that what she and Mr. Evenson wanted to do was to make more teachers.
— Betsey Wildhack, Estate Attorney
Imagine a college campus without T-shirts. They are a standard part of every Spartan student’s wardrobe these days.
But take a glance through the Pine Needles yearbooks from the mid-1960s and earlier – that is, the Woman’s College era – and you’ll see none. Zero. What showed off your college affiliation? Your school spirit? Why, class jackets of course, each Woman’s College class year having its own color! Go WC! Go Class of 1961! Or 1958! Or whatever the class may be!
If you’re an alum of the past several decades, you know T-shirts tell a story. They present a patchwork of Spartan service events, of all-campus parties, of sports teams – fencing anyone? How about soccer or basketball championships?
UNCG Special Collections and University Archives is putting them on display, digitally, with the approximate year and a bit about the shirt’s history.
Let’s thread our way through some UNCG memories, one comfy T-shirt at a time…
Do you love movies? Did you and a sibling or friend ever make a movie in the backyard?
Alamance County natives Dean Jones ’84 and Starr Jones ’87 have made careers of it. Today, around four decades after completing their respective studies at UNCG, the Jones brothers have enjoyed long careers in which they’ve worked with both independent and big-budget filmmakers, earned Emmy nominations, and, closer to home, created a central Carolina tradition: The Original Hollywood Horror Show, open in Snow Camp, N.C., every September through October.
They just call it “the haunt.” It features attractions like “Leatherface’s Lair,” “Bone Yard Cemetery,” and “Dead Man’s Cove.”
They put on their first haunted house in 1989. “It was going to be a one-time event, but it went really well, so we did it again and again,” says Starr. “Now we’re here 37 years later.”
Today, the haunt is more like a film set: Hollywood, N.C.
“We try to do something as realistic as we would do on the set of a movie,” Dean says. “We create a totally immersive environment.”
Starr adds, “Nothing we do here is left to chance. Everything from colors to the textures of things. We’re big fans of Universal monsters and Hammer Productions movies from England, so a lot of our sets harken back to that.”
Dean and Starr Jones, brothers and UNCG alumni, who own and operate The Original Hollywood Horror Show in Snow Camp, NC.
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Dean’s perspective: Evenson gifts’ impact
UNCG School of Education Dean Morgan Chitiyo says the Evensons’ passion for education is encouraging and believes their gifts will transform the school, its students, and the University, beginning with the stablishment of a forward-looking professorship. Q What does the Jerome Evenson Professorship in Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Education mean for your school? The professorship…
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Advancing knowledge of Jewish history and culture
The inaugural recipients of the Jerome Evenson Research Award and the Harriet Evenson Visiting Scholars Award have been announced. These awards, overseen by the College of Arts and Sciences Office of Research, are funded by the Evenson estate. The will foster new research and bring innovative scholarly perspectives to campus through faculty-led projects and visiting…
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Did you miss UNCG Homecoming 2026?
You can bring the Homecoming spirit to your doorstep with our first-ever Homecoming In A Box! Each box includes a Homecoming T-shirt, a UNCG alumni pennant, stickers, a magnet, and a mini poster with a special message from the Alumni Engagement Team. And youwill see a few additional surprises to help you celebrate the various…
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This fall, we welcomed our largest first-year class since before the COVID-19 pandemic, achieved the highest first-year retention rate in our history, and enrolled our largest graduate class ever. Philanthropic support continues to grow as well.
That growth is worth celebrating. But true success extends beyond statistics and numbers. It’s found in what happens when people learn here, invest here, and put their Spartan experiences to work.
You’ll see what that looks like throughout this issue of UNCG Magazine. A transformational investment in our School of Education is creating new possibilities for preparing educators across North Carolina. Images of T-shirts collected by our University Archives offer a colorful look at Spartan life across the decades. And two alumni brothers who built successful careers in Hollywood are also sharing their talents at home, where their work contributes to the economy and community of central North Carolina.
What I appreciate about these stories is that none of them ends at UNCG. They connect us to the traditions and experiences that have shaped generations of Spartans, show how our alumni are using their skills to build communities, and demonstrate how investments made today can open doors for those who come next.
What happens at UNCG matters far beyond our campus.
I recently met with a group of alumni who asked: “What should our legacy be?” My answer was simple: Helping the next generation of Spartans thrive. And there are simple, countless ways to do this. Recommend UNCG to a prospective student. Hire a Spartan intern. Share your expertise. Volunteer. Mentor. Attend a student research expo or cheer from the stands. And philanthropic support can give students opportunities they might not otherwise have.
There are countless ways to be part of UNCG’s story, and each one helps ensure the impact of what happens here doesn’t end here.
FRANKLIN D. GILLIAM, JR.
CHANCELLOR
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Music con corazón: UNCG’s Dalia Razo
For Dalia Razo ’20 MM, ’24 PhD, “folk music is as human as it gets.” With her band d.a.l.i.a., she performs music that draws on many influences: Western classical, Mexican folk, and even ’90s bands like Radiohead. Offstage, Razo is assistant professor of music education at UNCG. Likewise, her band members are UNCG affiliated: Zach…
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’Round the world with Lainey Wilson
Spartan Aslan Freeman ’11 worked his way through small stages across the North Carolina music scene before he landed in major arenas as rising star Lainey Wilson’s bandleader and lead guitarist. He credits his rise to “stubbornness meeting luck” and the broad music skills he built as an honors student in UNCG’s School of Music.…
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“Body and soul”: Life-changing art at the Weatherspoon
On view at the Weatherspoon Art Museum through Feb. 13, “Body and Soul, Humanist Visual Languages” invites visitors to approach art through two modes of interpretation: “body” – a work’s physical qualities – and “soul” – the ideas, emotions, and experiences it may evoke. “Together, these approaches demonstrate how close looking at works of art…