A gift to the NC State community built entirely by private philanthropy, the Dorothy and Roy Park Alumni Center on NC State’s Centennial Campus celebrates its 20th birthday in September.

For two decades, the 60,000-square-foot venue decorated with Italian marble, Czechian crystal and alumnus-sculpted bronze statues on the banks of Lake Raleigh has provided an elegant home not only for special events, celebrations and receptions but also for NC State Alumni leaders and staff.

“Over these past two decades, the Dorothy and Roy Park Alumni Center has brought the Wolfpack community together to celebrate, connect, lead, give back and create new traditions,” says Reshunda Mahone, associate vice chancellor for Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving. “But the true legacy of this building isn’t measured by the number of events or gatherings held here. 

“Twenty years later, the Park Alumni Center is more than a gathering place; it is a catalyst that allows us to create an engaged and invested Wolfpack community for life, and an important part of how we will deepen that connection for generations to come.”

While this home is celebrating 20 years, an organization and facilities dedicated to those who graduated from NC State are more than 130 years old.

The original office for Alumni Affairs was founded in 1895, just three years after the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts held its first commencement. For years, it was located on various parts of campus under names like Alumni Affairs, Alumni Relations and the Alumni Association. It eventually settled into offices in the school’s original Cadet Infirmary, which was renamed in 1928 for former college matron Susan C. Carroll.

From 1956 to 1959, that building was renovated to update its infrastructure and add a new entryway featuring four marble columns, thanks primarily to a $100,000 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation in Winston-Salem. On May 2, 1959, in front of organization president Mose Kiser, Chancellor Carey Bostian and student body president James B. Hunt, the building was rededicated as the Memorial Alumni Building in honor of nearly 300 former students who lost their lives in World War II and the Korean War.

By the 1980s, however, the Alumni Association needed a new space for alumni to gather and for the university to host events and celebrations. When benefactor Olaf Wakefield ’34, ’37 gave a $3 million gift to his alma mater in 1989, $1 million was set aside for the association’s future building and was eventually used to conduct a feasibility study, an architectural design and a site plan to make the new home a reality.

The university scouted several locations for a new home: the University Club on Hillsborough Street, the former television studio on the corner of Gorman Street and Western Boulevard, and on the grounds near the existing Carter-Finley Stadium and the proposed Lenovo Center, which opened in 1999.

However, as Centennial Campus continued to grow, a site in the woods near 93-acre Lake Raleigh was chosen for the alumni center, mainly because of its scenic location, its room for expansion and ample room for parking. It was also part of a planned community that included an Arnold Palmer-designed golf course, a hotel and conference center, and a new residence for the NC State chancellor.

The alumni center was deemed the most important of the building projects, and the Lonnie Poole Golf Course, the Point chancellor’s residence and the StateView Hotel were added on Centennial afterward.

Before construction could begin, the alumni association needed a lead gift for the proposed $24 million facility, which was to be built without state or university general fund appropriations and with a forward-thinking focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility.

Raleigh native and Meredith College alumna Dorothy Park — co-founder of the Park Foundation and widow of NC State alumnus Roy Park (’31) — chose to honor her late husband with a substantial gift for the center, building upon the Park Scholars program, which has awarded more than 1,300 scholarships based on scholarship, leadership, service and character since 1996.

Dorothy Park handwrote two personal checks, delivered via the U.S. mail one month apart, for $2.5 million each.

When it was dedicated on Dec. 8, 2006 — under the direction of Wendell H. Murphy ’61, chair of the NC State Board of Trustees; James L. Oblinger, chancellor; C. Lennie Barton ’77, ’81, ’87, executive director of the Alumni Association; and Billy D. Maddalon ’90, president of the Alumni Association — the association named its new home in honor of the Parks’ generosity.

Additionally, nine other dedicated donors gave gifts of $1 million or more to the project. Their contributions are celebrated with custom portraits by artist Ned Bittinger throughout the building.

Many of the premier spaces in the alumni center bear the names of these donors: Curtis and Jacqueline Dail, Pat ’67 and Anne Ferebee Gavaghan, Edward Exum Hood Sr. ’26, Roy ’31 and Dorothy Park, Ethel R. Stanko ’32, Olaf Wakefield ’34, ’37 and A. Tab Williams Jr. ’50.