A Century of Duke Stories Remembered Together
Duke retirees and alumni gather at Croasdaile Village to recount their experiences
“All of us, during our time at Duke, experienced a lot of transition and changes,” King, 85, told the group. “I figured this could give us an opportunity to get together and share some of those experiences and insights.”
King, who served as Duke’s archivist from 1972-2002, shared stories about how, in its early years, Duke was far from the nationally known institution it is today. He told a tale he’d heard about a professor at a different university getting a job offer from Duke during the university’s infancy.
“Accept offer. Where’s Duke?” the professor wrote in response.
As King passed the microphone around the group, the stories told ranged from interesting work-related moments to life-changing personal encounters.
John Druesedow, the director of the Duke Music Library from 1987-2005, remembered when he got a call from a former University of North Carolina student living in the Midwest who had borrowed one of Duke’s printed copies of the vocal score of the beloved opera “Porgy and Bess” from the Woman’s College Library in the 1940s. The caller explained that, due to contracting polio shortly after, wasn’t able to return it.
The caller, who had been rebuffed when trying to return the document to Duke years earlier because of concern about spreading polio, mentioned that the score, printed in 1935, was labeled as a “limited first edition,” and had the signatures of composer George Gershwin, lyricist Ira Gershwin, author DuBose Heyward and stage director Rouben Mamoulian on it.
“He said ‘Do you want it?’” Druesedow said. “I said ‘Yes, we want it!’”
The score can now be found in the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Seated next to her husband Dr. Cesar Guajardo, Cathy Guajardo, who spent three years as a medical secretary in the Duke Department of Psychiatry, told the story of how she and her husband met while a Duke.
“He’s from Monterrey, Mexico, and I’m from Durham,” Cathy Guajardo said. “He came here to get his training in psychiatry. I just happened to catch his eye, and vice versa. So instead of going back with all of his knowledge and opening a clinic in Mexico, he decided he liked North Carolina better.”
From the stories of attendees who went to Duke as students, to those who spent their careers working there, the common thread was that, for however long they were part of it, the Duke community was where they belonged.
Toward the end of the event, Dr. Jeffrey Dawson, Professor Emeritus of Immunology, mentioned a few of the fellow faculty members who inspired him, including the late I.B. Holley, a longtime Professor of History at Duke who often shared stories of his time as decorated member of the Air Force Reserve.
“It’s the people that stand out to me,” Dawson said. “So many great personalities have been involved with Duke.”
Got a story you’d like to share about Duke’s Centennial? Share it through our story idea form or write working@duke.edu.
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