Three to Receive Prestigious Watauga Medal

A former trustee, a professor emeritus and a longtime state official will be honored with the prestigious Watauga Medal by North Carolina State University for their distinguished service to the university.

C. Richard Vaughn, Dr. J. Lawrence Apple and E. Norris Tolson will received the awards, the highest nonacademic honor bestowed by NC State, at the university’s Founders’ Day Dinner on Tuesday, March 10, on campus. Chancellor James Oblinger will present the medals.

C. Richard Vaughn, an NC State alumnus, served on the university’s Board of Trustees from 1985 to 1989 and again from 1999 to 2007, chairing the audit, finance and planning committee, and the NC State Investment Fund Members Board. He also served as a director of the NC State University Foundation and is a current member of the Park Scholars Selection Committee and a director of the NC State Student Aid Association.

Vaughn, of Mount Airy, N.C., is chairman and CEO of the John S. Clark Company, chairman of the North Carolina Granite Corporation and chairman of Riverside Building Supply, Inc. He built the John S. Clark Company into one of the largest building contractors in North Carolina over the past 25 years. The company has completed projects in 24 states and has experience in industrial, retail, commercial, multi-family, health sciences, and institutional construction.

As a 1961 graduate of the NC State College of Engineering, Vaughn has been a loyal and generous supporter of the university. He has been a member of the Alumni Association for 25 years and is a member of the W.J. Peele Lifetime Giving Society, which honors donors who have given $1 million or more to NC State. In 2004 he pledged $5 million to the Wolfpack Club to fund scholarships and renovations to the football stadium. The Wolfpack Towers were renamed the C. Richard Vaughn Towers in recognition of his generosity. Vaughn has also given more than $100,000 to NC State academic funds. He created the C. Richard Vaughn Scholarship Endowment to support an undergraduate scholarship in the College of Engineering.

Vaughn has served on the Mount Airy Board of Education, the Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce and the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History.

Dr. J. Lawrence Apple, a professor emeritus of plant pathology, earned three degrees at NC State, including a Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics in 1955. He served on the faculty from 1955 to 1991 and is widely known for his work in international agricultural development. He served as assistant director of research and academic affairs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, director of the Institute of Biological Sciences, and director of international pograms at the university.

Apple, of Burlington, N.C., is also known for his tireless advocacy for the NCSU Libraries. He helped to raise funds for the libraries in his roles as president of the Association of Retired Faculty (1994-1997), president of the Friends of the Library (2000-2002) and currently as a member of the Forever Club’s executive committee. In 1994 Apple and his wife Ella established the J. Lawrence and Ella H. Apple Library Endowment. They have also been generous supporters of the plant pathology department and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and are members of the W.C. Riddick Lifetime Giving Society.

E. Norris Tolson, president and CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Research Triangle Park, has served the citizens of North Carolina as a business and policy leader for more than four decades. Tolson graduated from NC State with a bachelor’s degree in crop science and agribusiness in 1962. After serving in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps from 1963 to 1965, he joined Dupont, where he held various research, marketing and sales assignments in the company’s agricultural products and electronics business for 28 years. He was assigned both domestic and international business responsibilities and lived in Europe for several years before retiring in 1993.

He then served in some of the top policy positions in the state. He was a two-term legislator (1994-1997), Secretary of Commerce (1997-1998), Secretary of Transportation (1998) and Secretary of Revenue (2001-2007).

Tolson, of Pinetops, N.C., serves on the NC State Board of Visitors and the Alumni Association board, as well as the College of Education Foundation. He also is a member of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Alumni Society.

For more information about the 2009 Watauga Medal winners, previous winners, and the program’s history, visit www.ncsu.edu/watauga.

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