The Chapel Hill weekly., 1958-12-08
BY Pete Ivey

BY Pete Ivey
Tom Wolfe came home Friday
might In the memories Of number
lof classmates and Chapel Hill
friends assembled at dinner ir
the Pine Room Of the Carolina Inn
! Paul Green presiding. explained
mo formal program is planned
here We will just call on some oi
the people who knew Tom anc
ask each one Of them to say some.
thing he remembers about Tom. y
Men with q tape recorder to take
down the comments adjusted their
appar atus and the guests dineo
and few Of them INDUCED in what
Green called the miserable" ex.
perience Of having to think up a
few appropriate words for a short
after dinner speech.
Green announced that the three
Bills were present-Bin Friday
Bill Aycock, Billy Carmichael
President Friday spoke briefly on
the genius OF Thomas Wolfe. Chan
celor Aycock said, Wolfe and his
family are growing and endur
ing family 1t is not Thomas
Wolfe who has grown. 1t is we
who have grown to appreciate
him more abundantly."
Paul Green presented U.N.C.
Vice President W. D. Carmichael
Jr as an apostle Of beautifica-
tion--one who has done more than
anyone else to beautiy Chapel Hill
and many other parts Of North
Carolina -
What happens in a remembrance
session when two people recall the
same thing?
Both Billy Carmichael and Le-
Gette Blythe recollected the same
incident. and others in the room
c0rrG5or ated it.
II happened in the class in Eng
lish composition by DR.. Edwin
Greenlaw.
Tom Wolfe arrived late to class,
said Carmichael. and his hair was
touseled. as usual, and walked
in at awkard gait. and fished into
a bulky coat pocket and carefully
extracted a long roll Of toilet
paper on which there was typing
Sir. ! owe you word Of ex-
PLANTATION, said Wolfe to DR..
Greenlaw. and to the class. Last
night | was working late in getting
out the Tar Heel. and couldn I
get to write my theme until after
midnight. The stores we're closed
land / couldn't buy any paper to
write on. So, what | have done is
write my theme on the only paper
that was handy, and here it is. .
DR. Greenlaw, unruffled, badt
him read the manuscript. Hall
way through it, the professor called
for halt Mr.. Wolfe, he sale
"I will observe that from the
quality of what you have writer
it is certainly typed on the righI
kind Of paper
Blythe who spoke a few minute:
later said he had been cogitatini
on the same happening. But, al
you can guess. Tom hadn't real,
given out OF paper. He wrote il
that way just as an act 10 get q
laugh"
| Wolfe pictured himself in his
novels as lonely, depressed. de
spised," said Blythe. But that
was not the way he really was
He was the most popular man on
the campus, into everything"
II you saw knot of people on
the campus, laughing uproariously
and you walked TO the group and
inspected it. you would find in
most cases that Tom Wolfe was in
the center of il, telling one Of his
big lies"
Albert Coates, law professor
VINO was q classmate Of Wolfe
at Chapel Hill and a roommate al
Harvard Law School, remembered
Tom Wolfe as editor OF the Tai
Heel. I'VE had a bad season in
football" said Coates. Some peo-
pie seemed to think that the trouble
arose from the Tar Heel not gen.
Grating enough spirit for the team
So the Tar Heel was blamed, made
the scapegoat. Tom came to my
room one night before the VMI
game. He said he was going "a
cover the VMI game himself. When
the Tar Heel reported the game
which was won by V1dI 40 TO O.
tvpical Wolfe senkeuca descrfbinr