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Hundreds of people gathered in the Pit for the
ceremony March 5 in remembrance of Eve Carson, which marked the first
anniversary of her death.
EVE CARSON:
Remembering her legacy of enthusiasm, love and service
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Eve Carson always sat behind Holden Thorp at basketball games
in the Smith Center.
She did this for the last time on March 4, 2008 – on
senior night – as they watched their beloved Tar Heels beat the daylights
out of Florida State.
They had a custom after a victory like that to slap a high
five on the way out, Thorp said. But that night when he gave her a high five,
she grabbed his hand and shook it.
Because it was senior night, and they had just whipped the
Seminoles, and because for Eve, at that exultant moment, a simple high five
just wasn’t good enough, Thorp explained.
“It needed more love,” he said. “There was always more love
in Eve. Especially love for Carolina.”
But that night would also turn out to be the last night of
her life, Thorp told a throng of more than 400 who came to the Pit to mark the
first anniversary of her death.
From the first time he met Eve as a candidate for the
prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholarship some five years before her death, Thorp
said he had always been one of her biggest fans.
They met long before she had been elected student body
president, when she was still in high school in Athens, Ga., and he was one of
four people on the interview committee.
The good scores were low, and the best score was supposed to
be a 1.0. But Thorp said he couldn’t help himself: “I gave her a 0.7.”
It was obvious, even then, that she was special. Eve
reinforced that in her response to Thorp’s congratulatory e-mail to all the
Morehead-Cain winners urging them to come to Carolina.
Most students responded with a perfunctory note. But for
Eve, that just wasn’t good enough.
“Eve sent me 500 words,” Thorp said. “Her letter was
emotional, erudite and the punctuation was unlike anything I had ever seen. She
used colons, semi-colons and hyphens like a college professor – and she
used exclamation marks like a 10-year-old kid.”
He soon learned, as did all her friends and admirers, that
those exclamation points were a barometer for her enthusiasm, her excitement,
her eagerness about whatever topic she happened to be discussing.
“That 500-word e-mail she sent me in 2004 was a commercial
for our University,” Thorp said. “She hadn’t even been to our school here yet,
but our traditions of public service and access had never met a better friend.”
Eve went on to become student body president at the same
time Thorp was named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He became
Carolina’s 10th chancellor last summer.
He recalled the first time he sat with Eve in his office on
the second floor of South Building. She wanted to talk about everything that
was important to her, which was just about everything. They went past their
allotted time that day, as they did with almost every meeting that followed,
but Thorp said he always considered it time well spent.
“She never quit pushing us to do more for our world and for
each other,” he said.
He described her enthusiasm, her originality and her
persistence as the qualities that made her so unforgettable.
“The best way to remember Eve is to accept her challenge of
service,” Thorp told the crowd.
In conjunction with the remembrance, the student organizers
of Service North Carolina asked the Carolina community to think about
incorporating service to others as part of their daily activities throughout
the month.
March 5 was a day for remembering Eve.
But after Thorp spoke, after classmates reminisced, after
the Clef Hangers sang “Carolina in My Mind” and the Bell Tower tolled the final
note of “Hark the Sound,” it seemed to have turned into something more.
The day, in a way an enthusiastic 10-year-old might better
understand, had turned into the University’s exclamation point back to Eve.
Above, Chancellor Holden Thorp joins the Clef Hangers as
they sing “Carolina in My Mind” during the March 5
remembrance for former student
body president Eve Carson. Hundreds of people gathered in the Pit for the
ceremony, which marked the first
anniversary of her death. Below, students comfort one another at the conclusion
of the remembrance.
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