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Partial Transcript: You came in under Pierson as the chancellor. Do you remember anything about Pierson?
Segment Synopsis: Dr. Cox discusses the chancellors of UNCG and his interactions with them.
Keywords: Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr.; Gordon Blackwell; James S. Ferguson; Otis Singletary; Patricia Sullivan; W.W.Pierson, Jr.; William Moran
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Lacey Wilson:We're recording. Today is, gosh, October the 30th, 2017. I'm
interviewing Dr. Richard Cox: from UNCG, and we're going to just breeze right through the introductions so we can get to you arriving at UNCG, if that's all right?Richard Cox:Yeah.
Lacey Wilson:Okay. So, where were you born?
Richard Cox:Yeah, [inaudible 00:00:28].
Lacey Wilson:Yep. Can we just skim through it and me saying it? Yeah.
Lacey Wilson:Alright, so what do you think was your first impression of UNCG?
Richard Cox:I don't remember. It was a long time ago.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah.
Richard Cox:1960?
Lacey Wilson:Yeah.
Richard Cox:I knew a good bit about it before I came. I was pretty well aware of
it when I was a student at UNC, and then I was at High Point College for five years, back when it was High Point College, and spent a lot of time over here, so I was well aware of it when I came.Lacey Wilson:It was a women's college when you came at the time, yeah.
Richard Cox:Yeah, The Woman's College at the University of North Carolina was
its official title.Lacey Wilson:Right.
Lacey Wilson:Where was your... So, you were hired to be the choir director?
Choir professor?Richard Cox:Well, I was hired to be voice teacher and choral director.
Lacey Wilson:Okay.
Richard Cox:Yeah, both of those things.
Lacey Wilson:Okay. And you arrived in 1960. Who was the chancellor at that time,
do you remember?Richard Cox:I think it was Dr. Pierson, wasn't it, around that time?
Lacey Wilson:I think so, yeah.
Richard Cox:He was an interim chancellor.
Lacey Wilson:Right.
Richard Cox:Then Otis Singletary replaced him as the regular chancellor.
Lacey Wilson:Mm-hmm (affirmative). So you arrived at Woman's College intending
to teach voice and set up... Was there a choir at the time-Richard Cox:Yes, oh yes.
Lacey Wilson:Okay. So you just came in to fill that space and-
Richard Cox:Yep.
Lacey Wilson:So, what changes did you make upon coming in?
Richard Cox:I didn't make any right away, but obviously, once it became
co-educational there was a change in the nature of the choral program.Lacey Wilson:Sure.
Richard Cox:I mean, that is a big difference, so. In fact, one of your questions
was what attracted me here.Lacey Wilson:Sure.
Richard Cox:My original thought when I knew there was an opening over here was
that I would be interested because I didn't want to spend my life directing women's choirs, but I learned right away from my colleague who recruited me, really, that co-educational was definitely on the way and it would be here within three or four years.Lacey Wilson:Okay. So you knew that going in?
Richard Cox:Yes. So we didn't have a lot of men the first year or two.
Lacey Wilson:Sure.
Richard Cox:I remember the man who was appointed to be Dean of Men. I had a
chance to speak to him, and after we got our first male applicant, he said, "I guess that makes me Dean of Man."Lacey Wilson:So, was it hard to recruit men in the beginning?
Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:So, there was the first... There was that one guy in the beginning,
but then-Richard Cox:Yeah-
Lacey Wilson:So, how would you recruit them in that sense?
Richard Cox:Well, by making it as clear as possible that men were here and were welcome.
Lacey Wilson:So, when the one guy who was there... How clear was that through
performances? Because he would be the only guy singing?Richard Cox:Oh no. By the time we actually had... Well, to begin with, we had
male graduate students the year before we had male undergraduates.Lacey Wilson:Oh, okay. So that's-
Richard Cox:We had a few. A couple of quite good singers, in fact, turned up the
first year. And then when we started having undergraduates, there were still more. And we got undergraduates at an advanced level, and then we got undergraduate men who transferred in as sophomores and juniors, as well as freshmen.Lacey Wilson:Oh, okay. So they were attracted to the program?
Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:Because good work was being done?
Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:So, were you guys in the Brown Building at that time?
Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah. What do you remember about that, being in the Brown Building?
Because there's a music school building now.Richard Cox:Yeah. Well, of course, I spent most of my time in the Brown Building
and in the auditorium formerly known as Aycock. What do I remember about the Brown Building? Well, a whole lot. To begin with, it was nowhere remotely resembling sound-proof, so that you heard everything that was going on in the music school.Lacey Wilson:Sure.
Richard Cox:Including in practice rooms. People all over the neighborhood could
hear students practicing on the third floor, and you could hear [inaudible 00:06:02] because we had windows that you could open. I had a wonderful studio in the last 15 or so years I was there. Second floor, one of the big windows that could be opened, two of them on one side and two on the other, so four in the room, and that was quite wonderful. So that's one of the things I remember about it.Richard Cox:Then, of course, if you've looked at it, I guess that the names of
the composers are still around up there.Lacey Wilson:Yeah, there's a couple, yeah.
Richard Cox:Yeah, so I remember that about it. And we had a very tiny recital
hall with very uncomfortable chairs.Lacey Wilson:Uncomfortable for the performers or for the audience?
Richard Cox:For the audience, yeah. Well, the whole thing, I think, was designed
for delicate young ladies, and by the time we got the big guys in there, or even substantial-sized women... The levels, it was leveled, the levels were too small, too narrow anyhow. The chairs were small and uncomfortable.Lacey Wilson:Everybody was kind of cramped in there?
Richard Cox:Yes, exactly. The acoustics were good in the hall.
Lacey Wilson:Well, that's good. Do you remember what the first performance you
directed at UNCG was?Richard Cox:Well, I remember doing... The Christmas concert was big in those
days, and it was presented twice; it was presented [inaudible 00:07:51] and Saturday night for students, who had a dance and then came to the concert afterward. It was that way, so it was at 10:00 at night or something.Lacey Wilson:Okay.
Richard Cox:So it was Saturday night, and then we repeated it on Sunday
afternoon. So I remember that quite vividly.Lacey Wilson:And it went well?
Richard Cox:Yeah.
Lacey Wilson:A lot of people showed up?
Richard Cox:Oh, yeah.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah, yeah?
Richard Cox:Yeah. The Christmas concert was a big deal.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah. That's so different because they don't have that right now.
Richard Cox:Well, partly, it hasn't been as big a deal since, in 1972, we
changed the calendar. I don't know if you were even aware of that.Lacey Wilson:I'm not-
Richard Cox:But until that time, we had the first semester, it ended in
mid-to-late January, right around the 20th of January, and we had first semester exams in the last couple weeks of January. The second semester usually started around the beginning of February, and so Christmas vacation didn't start until maybe the 21st or 22nd or something of December. So we did the Christmas concert the weekend before the Christmas break, and it was closer to Christmas. And now the first semester ends like the 5th of December or something.Lacey Wilson:Yeah, yeah, it's very close. It's like that first week, for sure,
and then everyone's headed home.Richard Cox:Yeah.
Lacey Wilson:That's so different. I didn't know about the calendar change. Was
there any uproar at that, or was it easier to get used that different schedule?Richard Cox:Well, I don't remember there ever being any uproar about it. But of
course the first semester, which had started after Labor Day, was starting late August, and the second semester, which had been ending at early June, was ending in mid-May, so it was very different.Lacey Wilson:Sure. Sure, sure.
Richard Cox:And that was about the time, too, when we abandoned Saturday classes.
Lacey Wilson:Was there a sigh of relief at that?
Richard Cox:Oh, yeah.
Lacey Wilson:I bet there was.
Richard Cox:Yeah. Not from me; for some reason, I never had any.
Lacey Wilson:You weren't picked to do those?
Richard Cox:Mmm-mm (negative).
Lacey Wilson:Was that your own choice, or you just-
Richard Cox:No. Somehow, I didn't have Saturday classes.
Lacey Wilson:Well, so you taught voice classes. What were some of the first
class titles that you remember? Was it just like Voice 101?Richard Cox:Well, private voice lessons mostly. I only had one voice class. It
was for undergraduate music education majors or something like that. And I taught a conducting class fairly early on; I don't know if I did that in the first year or not. I don't remember.Richard Cox:Then I started teaching diction classes, diction for singers, and
that became really my specialty.Lacey Wilson:Okay. And how is diction for singers different, just for the
recording and those who don't know?Richard Cox:Well, singers... For one thing, they have to learn to sing
intelligently in English, so we start with that. But they also have to learn to sing at least in Italian, French, and German. [inaudible 00:11:43] standard repertoires for singers. They have to learn those things, so. When I started I was teaching [inaudible 00:11:54] and in Latin, too. Of course, my choruses, all of them sang in Latin. So I was teaching one semester of English, Latin, and Italian, and a second semester of French and German. They've separated all those things out now. I guess a number of years ago.Lacey Wilson:But before, it would be two languages a semester?
Richard Cox:Yeah.
Lacey Wilson:And they'd have to take both of them to understand the full
repertoire anyway?Richard Cox:Yeah, yeah.
Lacey Wilson:That makes sense, yeah. And then, did you teach opera on campus?
Richard Cox:I taught classes on the history of opera for a while. I created the
class on the history of opera, yeah.Lacey Wilson:What was it like creating that class? Because it wasn't there before.
Richard Cox:I created a lot of classes, and of course, what you have to do is
start from scratch and decide what you need to teach and what order you need to teach it in, and what sources you're going to use, and all of that.Lacey Wilson:Mm-hmm (affirmative). What I'm asking is the process of creating
the class, because... You saw a need for these classes, is what it was, is what I'm getting at.Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:So, how did you perceive the need in this sense? Were students
asking you for these classes, or did you-Richard Cox:Well, I don't know. I don't think so, especially. But [inaudible
00:13:26] I created a lot of classes. I created the classes in diction because that was a clear need, and so I did that because that was one of my interests. And I created a class in the history of opera and classes later in the history of choral music in various periods. Not so much because the students asked for them, but because we thought that was something they should be taught.Lacey Wilson:Okay, yeah.
Richard Cox:So I did.
Lacey Wilson:And as the choir director, you would travel with the students, right?
Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:Did you go overseas with them?
Richard Cox:I did that only once. I took the University Chorale to Romania in
the spring of 1974. But once we hit [inaudible 00:14:33], I saw I had spent almost the entire year raising money, and that isn't really what I want to do. Most university choral groups do a lot of that, and I probably should have done more than I did, but it was so expensive that I felt like I had to spend all my time raising money, and that's not the way I wanted to spend my time.Lacey Wilson:That makes sense.
Richard Cox:Going around begging for money and do this and that. I didn't want
to do that. But we did a lot of traveling within the country. When we just had the women's choir, I would sometimes take them around to sing with various men's groups. We fell into the habit for a number of years of going up to Virginia to a college called Hampden-Sydney, which was a men's college at that time [inaudible 00:15:33] Huntsville. I don't know, maybe not. Because they wanted to do oratorios with mixed choruses, and I wanted to do that too, so we did that. We did a couple [of] concerts with the men's glee club at NC State, and at least one performance with the men's glee club at Duke, and several with the men's glee club at UNC. So we would do that kind of traveling with the women's group. But I also took the women's group to a national convention once, to sing at the National Convention in Kansas City.Lacey Wilson:Wow. That's a bit far from here.
Richard Cox:Yeah. I did a lot of traveling with them and with the mixed chorus,
which we called Chorale. We did a lot of traveling with them. We went to Washington a number of times. We sang in the Washington Cathedral three or four times. We did a tour in the New York area once, and we did some convention singing too, one of the Southern division conventions in Atlanta, one in Tallahassee, and one at Williamsburg.Lacey Wilson:And you didn't have to raise nearly as much money for any of these?
Richard Cox:Oh, no. No.
Lacey Wilson:Because it was not out of the country, mainly.
Richard Cox:No. We just had to hire a bus; we didn't have to hire an airplane.
Lacey Wilson:Right. Buses are much cheaper than airplanes.
Richard Cox:Yes. And in a number of places where we went, we would stay with
host families, so we didn't even have to hire hotels.Lacey Wilson:That's convenient, yeah. Because then they can stay in a house with
a room and stuff, instead of having to pay.Richard Cox:Absolutely. When we came back from Romania, we referred to the
peasant families, because once when we were in Romania we stayed with peasant families. Most of the time we stayed in hotels there, but once we stayed with peasant families, so we always referred to those families that we stayed with later as peasant families.Lacey Wilson:That's pretty memorable. It's not something you can really forget.
Richard Cox:No.
Lacey Wilson:Was it just a little rural shack kind of a thing, the peasant families?
Richard Cox:Well, in Romania, yeah.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah. But if they're host families, probably a suburban house kind
of a thing instead?Richard Cox:Where?
Lacey Wilson:In a suburb or a house with the host families, if they were staying-
Richard Cox:Oh, when they traveled in this country?
Lacey Wilson:Yeah, yeah.
Richard Cox:Yeah, we'd stay at people's homes. Homes like this one, right? I've
hosted a couple of visiting choruses at one time or another.Lacey Wilson:Mm-hmm (affirmative). So were these host families graduates or
friends of the university?Richard Cox:Sometimes. Or some of them, if we were singing in a church, for
example, they might be some of the people in the church.Lacey Wilson:Sure. What are some memorable performances you've traveled to with
the groups?Richard Cox:Well, maybe the most memorable was that we did a performance at the
Kennedy Center, produced a whole series of state concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington. [inaudible 00:19:08] familiar with the Kennedy Center. We were invited to do the North Carolina one, the University Chorale along with the orchestra for the School of the Arts, and we did a concert there, and that was a very memorable one. They were supposed to feature composers from the state, so that's what we did.Lacey Wilson:So they sang songs from North Carolina composers?
Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:That's very nice and very impressive to be at the Kennedy Center.
There's always a really good turnout for that.Richard Cox:Oh, yeah. [crosstalk 00:19:46]. alumni show. We have a lot of alumni
in that area.Richard Cox:So the Chorale has sung several times at the Washington Cathedral,
as well, and we had a lot of alumni turn out for that.Lacey Wilson:It's a gorgeous cathedral.
Richard Cox:Yes, it is. But we sang once from that balcony, and that sure was a
long way away.Lacey Wilson:Yeah?
Richard Cox:That's a great distance.
Lacey Wilson:Any memorable colleagues of yours?
Richard Cox:Well, I noticed you were asking that. One of my most memorable ones
was in your department. His name was Lenoir Wright. Do you know that name?Lacey Wilson:I do not.
Richard Cox:Well, he died in 2003, so he must've retired 15 years before that or
something because he was 92 when he died. So we must have retired in 1980 or earlier. But he was a history professor, and especially after he retired, he got very much interested in the arts, and he contributed a lot of stuff to Weatherspoon, a lot of Far Eastern things that he found and contributed. He was an incredibly interesting fellow. And he got very much interested in music, as well. And I don't know, he somehow was independently wealthy because he made a lot of donations, both to the School of Music and to the Weatherspoon Gallery. And did a lot of traveling. He went to operas all over the world, and he got very much interested in opera. I don't know. I guess he was a very distinguished history professor, as well. And he was a close friend.Lacey Wilson:Did you meet him when he was a professor at UNCG-
Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:-or after? Okay. Not after he'd retired.
Richard Cox:No. We had known him while he was still teaching.
Lacey Wilson:So would he come to performances as a professor at that point?
Richard Cox:Yes. Yeah. But he did a lot more than that. He sat in on classes, in
the art department, and in the music school.Lacey Wilson:Yeah. Anyone in the music school?
Richard Cox:Well, yeah. I had a lot of them at the College of Music and the chorus.
Lacey Wilson:You can just run through it, then.
Richard Cox:Well, the woman who recruited me was in the same doctorate program
that I was in at Northwestern. She was also working on a doctorate degree in the history of literature at Northwestern. And she was the cello teacher here, but she was also the music history teacher. And later, as the school developed, she taught only music history, and other people taught cello. But she also became a close friend. And I had gotten to know her the summer before, the summer between my two years at Northwestern. We had had a class together, and I had gotten to know her then, and she had heard me sing. So when I saw her the following summer, she said to me, "There's this opening, and I've suggested you as a possibility. Are you interested?" And I said, "Well, I don't really just want to spend my life directing women's choruses." And that's when she told me that it was about to become co-education, so I said, "Well, sure." So I came down and interviewed, and a couple [o]f weeks later, I signed on.Lacey Wilson:Do you remember who you interviewed with?
Richard Cox:Well, I interviewed with the dean, who was Lee Rigsby at that time,
and his assistant, Harold [Lewis 00:24:03]. And I guess there were only two voice teachers here at that time, and I'm sure they were in on my interview, or at least on my audition.Lacey Wilson:Sure. And what was the name of the woman who recruited you?
Richard Cox:Elizabeth Cowling. She became a very close friend after we moved here.
Lacey Wilson:That's lovely.
Richard Cox:But the first year that we were here, she was in residence at Northwestern.
Lacey Wilson:Oh, okay. Still finishing. Any other music school alum?
Richard Cox:Well, one of my closest friends was Bill McIver, which is spelled
like "mikeever." In fact, I think his grandfather had changed the pronunciation because everyone called him McIver. It was a Scottish family, and it was pronounced "mikeever," as it is here. And they lived across the street in a brick house, second one across the street, and he taught voice here from 1970 to 1999. He and his family were very close friends [inaudible 00:25:35], close colleague.Richard Cox:And one of the things, of course, about teaching at a university
like this is you learn a lot of stuff from your colleagues. I learned things from him, and I learned things from other colleagues.Richard Cox:Oh, I should mention also Jack Jarrett, who was teaching theory and
composition here from 1968 to 1975, I think, and he did a lot of conducting. And he moved back and lives here, and lives in our neighborhood, in fact. But I learned a lot from him, just from talking to him and watching what he did and stuff. So yeah, you learn a lot of things from colleagues when you have good ones.Lacey Wilson:Yeah. It's the ideal scenario.
Richard Cox:It was very different from teaching at Hawthorn College. There were
three people in the music department, and I think there are about 20 now. Now, of course, it's a university. [crosstalk 00:26:39]. There were three of us then.Lacey Wilson:Just a smaller atmosphere.
Richard Cox:Yeah. And when I came here, there were only two other voice
teachers, and it was very clear that I [inaudible 00:26:53]. I was a pretty good voice teacher, but I wasn't a great voice teacher. But I was much the best of the three. The man was lazy, and the woman was dumb. So I didn't have much to learn from them.Lacey Wilson:Yeah. But your other colleagues, a lot of opportunities there.
Richard Cox:Yeah, once they were gone, and we got some really good people. I
learned a lot of things from my colleagues here.Lacey Wilson:Yeah. What do you think you learned from them, specifically? Was it
in terms of just the subject matter they were teaching, or-Richard Cox:Yeah. And their approach to teaching, and their relationships with
students, and all those things.Lacey Wilson:Yeah. So you were at UNCG [for] a really long time.
Richard Cox:42 years.
Lacey Wilson:Do you have good memories of the students that you taught there?
Richard Cox:Oh, yes.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah?
Richard Cox:Yeah. And one of your questions was what did I consider my greatest
achievements, and with any teacher, your best feelings about what you've done as a teacher is when you see your students succeed, and I've had a number of students who've succeeded very well, and that's very gratifying, I would say.Lacey Wilson:Yeah. It's got to be a wonderful feeling to watch them start off in
one place-Richard Cox:Yeah, it is.
Lacey Wilson:[crosstalk 00:28:21] so far.
Richard Cox:One of them's in your area. Her name is Barbara Baker, and I've
forgotten where she lives. I think she lives in Silver Spring, but I'm not sure. But she's been a highly successful public school music teacher and got a doctorate. I think she got her doctorate at the University of Maryland because she lives in that area.Lacey Wilson:That would make sense.
Richard Cox:She's been highly successful there.
Lacey Wilson:What school does she teach in? You may not remember; it's okay.
Richard Cox:I don't remember. In one of those Maryland suburbs.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah, yeah. I thought I might know it.
Richard Cox:You probably would, if I could remember.
Lacey Wilson:It's okay. We have a lot of good music programs up there, so I'm
sure it's one of the better ones.Richard Cox:Yeah, it is.
Lacey Wilson:So you teach a lot of... Students go to a lot of different places
in that sense, so some of them will become performers, and some of them will become music teachers?Richard Cox:Yes, exactly.
Lacey Wilson:And they end up so far around the country, I imagine, as well, right?
Richard Cox:Yes. One of our most successful graduates is at Ithaca College in
Ithaca, New York. She's been highly successful. She's well-known throughout the country. Well, Barbara Baker is, too. She has a national reputation. And one of them's right here, Donald Hartmann, who's teaching voice here and came back here after a very successful performing career; he does a lot of performing now and taught for many years in Eastern Michigan. [inaudible 00:30:21] and then came here probably 10, 12 years ago, I guess. Shortly after I retired. And he's been very successful, as a singer and as a college professor. And a lot of our former students are very successful public school music teachers.Lacey Wilson:Those always seem very gratifying positions to be in, public school
music teachers.Richard Cox:Yeah, yeah. It is.
Lacey Wilson:What do you remember about Lee Rigsby, then? If we switch to deans
of the music school?Richard Cox:He was a very outgoing personality and a very strong personality, of
a strong character, and he did good things here. He really got it off the ground as a co-educational school of music. And then he went from here, shortly after co-education; he left in 1965 and went to Ohio State University.Lacey Wilson:Who succeeded him?
Richard Cox:Lawrence Hart. And he is the dean that I remember the most fondly. I
thought he was really quite wonderful. In fact, Dean Rigsby offered me a job at Ohio State. But for one thing, I interviewed at the end of October, and he offered me the job in the middle of January, and I thought, "What is it that I like about that place?" But I also, by that time, I'd decided that I'd rather work for Larry Hart than for Lee Rigsby. And at the end, I mean, I really liked Larry Hart a lot.Lacey Wilson:What made him a good dean?
Richard Cox:Yeah, he was wonderful, and he really built this place up, built the
music school up almost from ground level. I don't know, and was a wonderful fellow, too. I thought I could trust him more than I felt I could trust Lee Rigsby, frankly.Lacey Wilson:That's an important characteristic.
Richard Cox:It is.
Lacey Wilson:In a supervisor or a dean, yeah. And then how long was Larry Hart-
Richard Cox:He retired in 1981.
Lacey Wilson:'81?
Richard Cox:Yeah.
Lacey Wilson:But he was the one you remember the most fondly?
Richard Cox:Yes, he is.
Lacey Wilson:You remember who succeeded him?
Richard Cox:Sure. He was succeeded by a dean named Robert Blocker. I was the
chairman of the search committee for the dean, and so I remember very well. And after two years, or at the end of the second year, he took another job, so he was gone.Lacey Wilson:He wasn't there very long.
Richard Cox:No, he wasn't. But I liked him quite a lot. And then I was chairman
again, and I asked the provost, we called him vice-chancellor then, but he's now what we call the provost, if he wanted that to be an ad hoc committee or a standing committee.Lacey Wilson:It's an important question.
Richard Cox:He was not amused.
Lacey Wilson:[crosstalk 00:34:12].
Richard Cox:But it was another ad hoc committee. But I was chairman of that
committee too, and we ended up with Art Tollefson, and he was here a long time. He was here until 2000, I guess. I think he was here a year after I retired. So here was here a long time. And the best thing I thought he did was to hire really good people.Lacey Wilson:Yeah?
Richard Cox:Yeah.
Lacey Wilson:Who did he hire?
Richard Cox:Oh, lots of good people. Did he hire John Locke? I don't remember.
Lacey Wilson:He might have.
Richard Cox:John Locke might have been here longer than that; I've forgotten.
But he hired a number of good people in the vocal department and in piano. I guess he hired John Salmon and Andrew Willis. Dennis AsKew is now the director of the School of Music, I think is what he's called; he hired him.Lacey Wilson:Okay. I can't think of his name at this moment, but, yeah. You came
in under Pierson as the chancellor. Do you remember anything about Pierson? He was only-Richard Cox:No, I really don't.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah.
Richard Cox:He was, I think-
Lacey Wilson:Like a year?
Richard Cox:I think I interviewed with Blackwell when I came in the summer, but
he was on the way out, and Pierson was the interim chancellor until Otis Singletary.Lacey Wilson:Singletary. You remember anything about Singletary?
Richard Cox:I don't remember a whole lot about him. I knew him pretty well. But
the one that I've known the best was Jim Ferguson. He was a wonderful fellow.Lacey Wilson:Yeah. You knew him really well?
Richard Cox:I remember him very well, yeah. He was a great guy. I liked him a
lot, and I knew him quite well.Lacey Wilson:Any stories?
Richard Cox:Oh, I don't know. I don't think so.
Lacey Wilson:Okay. Just a very good chancellor and a very good-
Richard Cox:I thought he was, yeah. And you know, in those days, chancellors and
deans and people like that, provosts and vice-chancellors and all those people, taught classes. And then all of a sudden, they didn't anymore.Lacey Wilson:Ah, I wonder-
Richard Cox:Chancellor Ferguson taught a class.
Lacey Wilson:Okay. What did he teach?
Richard Cox:History. He was a history teacher.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah.
Richard Cox:Or was it political science? I think it was history. [inaudible
00:37:02] history and political science were one department then.Lacey Wilson:I don't know which one it was. And then, after Ferguson was Moran.
Richard Cox:Yes. Saw him the other morning at a concert.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah?
Richard Cox:Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Lacey Wilson:And then Sullivan?
Richard Cox:Yes.
Lacey Wilson:Any opinions, thoughts about Sullivan?
Richard Cox:I knew Bill Moran quite well. [crosstalk 00:37:33]. Well, what's now
called president of the faculty senate, but at that time it was called the vice-chairman of the faculty council, or something. I did that for two years, so I worked closely with him at that time, with Chancellor Moran. And I liked him a lot; I thought he was very good.Richard Cox:And I thought Chancellor Sullivan was quite wonderful. It's too bad
that she didn't stick around. I haven't known any of the ones after that.Lacey Wilson:Okay.
Richard Cox:I met Chancellor Gilliam just once. I really like everything I know
about him, I really do. Yeah. I just met him once, so I don't really know him, but I like everything I've read about him and seen about him.Lacey Wilson:Sure.
Richard Cox:I think he's probably a big improvement over... whatever that
woman's name was... Brady. Yeah, the governor came to some meeting once in which he was, this is McCrory, came to some meeting in which he was praising all these wonderful people in Greensboro, including UNCG Chancellor Linda Bradley, and he said that about three times, so I think he really felt it was Bradley.Lacey Wilson:That's unfortunate.
Richard Cox:Her name was Brady.
Lacey Wilson:Yes, it is. And then, I wanted to shift gears a bit, because you
were also influential in terms of the Greensboro, as well, because you started the-Richard Cox:Well, I've done a lot of things involving Greensboro activities,
musical activities. I've prepared choruses for both the Eastern Music Festival and the Greensboro Symphony. And I was chorus director of the Greensboro Opera for many years.Lacey Wilson:Yeah.
Richard Cox:I don't know, so I was involved in a lot of that. Opera was one of
my big loves; of course, [it] still is.Lacey Wilson:That's the one I had. You had started... No, this is Bel Canto, that's-
Richard Cox:Yeah, Bel Canto Company actually started out of the Greensboro Opera corps.
Lacey Wilson:Right.
Richard Cox:After one of the operas, a number of the singers got together and
said, "We enjoyed singing together" and they enjoyed singing under my direction "and we want to keep doing it." So we started the Bel Canto Company. And at that time, I think there were just 16 in the group, and we did a lot of things that were all solo voices as much as choral music. So that was fun. But we were sponsored at that time by the City Arts, and they wanted us to do more and more stuff, and I didn't really have time to do more and more stuff, so I turned it over to one of my former colleagues who had just come back to town.Lacey Wilson:Right, and had more time.
Richard Cox:And then he had more time and he needed something to do. And he was
really good. He was one of those students that I was so proud of.Lacey Wilson:What was his name?
Richard Cox:Dave Pegg.
Lacey Wilson:Dave Pegg.
Richard Cox:Yeah. He was really good, and he did very good things with the Bel
Canto Company. He did more with them than I really had time to do and spend time doing.Lacey Wilson:And you also directed a choir at a church here for a number of years?
Richard Cox:Oh yeah, I was choir director at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church for
50 years.Lacey Wilson:Yeah, that's a long time.
Richard Cox:Yeah, I just retired from that four years ago.
Lacey Wilson:How did that feel?
Richard Cox:Retiring from that?
Lacey Wilson:Yeah.
Richard Cox:Well, not really good, but I thought it was really time, and it was.
It was time. But I really miss the people and performing every Sunday and all that. But then there were some things I didn't miss. But I needed to do that.Lacey Wilson:Sure. And then, is there anything else in Greensboro that we
haven't talked about yet that you did, unrelated to UNCG nearly as much?Richard Cox:No, I don't think so.
Lacey Wilson:Okay. Then we'll shift back to UNCG. What do you remember about the
shift from the Woman's College to [The] University of North Carolina at Greensboro?Richard Cox:Well, of course, the difference it made to me was that we had male singers.
Lacey Wilson:Right.
Richard Cox:That was the principal difference it made to me.
Lacey Wilson:That was why you had come.
Richard Cox:Yeah, exactly. You know, when we first started doing opera here, we
did have a few men, but I was singing in the opera because I had to.Lacey Wilson:Yeah, because someone had to fill-
Richard Cox:Nobody else could do it. And my colleague Charles Lyman, who was a
wonderful singer and a great voice teacher, did a lot of singing in the operas, and he was really good. He was a lot better singer than I was. And another voice teacher, I don't know who it was. And the man that started our opera [inaudible 00:43:14] sang in them, too. He directed them and sang in them. Didn't conduct them, of course, but he sang in them and staged them.Lacey Wilson:What was his name?
Richard Cox:Paul Hickfang. H-I-C-K-F-A-N-G.
Lacey Wilson:Okay. And he would sing in and direct them, but not conductively,
you said?Richard Cox:No.
Lacey Wilson:Any other notable performances at UNCG, or with UNCG?
Richard Cox:Well, I mentioned the one at Kennedy Center.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah, and the Christmas ones at formerly Aycock.
Richard Cox:Well, and we had a number of performances at conventions that are
memorable. Well, you know, in a sense they were all memorable. We had good groups and lots of good people in them. They sang well.Lacey Wilson:That sounds like the honest answer. Alright, is there anything else
you wish I had talked about that we haven't talked about yet? Because I'm coming to the end of the questions.Richard Cox:I don't think so. I noticed that was on your list, and I didn't
really think of anything that we hadn't talked about.Lacey Wilson:Okay. Okay, I just wanted to make sure because I didn't-
Richard Cox:[crosstalk 00:44:56]H
Lacey Wilson:-anything we skipped over by accident.
Richard Cox:Well, I haven't said much about my involvement with the campus as a whole.
Lacey Wilson:Oh, yeah.
Richard Cox:Because there really wasn't a whole lot, except that I was on a lot
of committees.Lacey Wilson:Okay. What committees were you on?
Richard Cox:I was on the University Promotions and Tenure Committee I think a
total of six years, and I chaired it for two years; I chaired that committee.Lacey Wilson:What do you remember from that?
Richard Cox:Well, there were a lot of changes that went on over the years in
that, and they... What can I say? We had a lot of work to do for a while because we were reading all the stuff that came from each of the candidates for promotion and tenure, and we had to read these incredible files. I think eventually they got to the point where they just accepted the recommendations from the school committees and from the deans and passed those on. But at that time we were scrutinizing all of them, probably excessively because we were looking at things we didn't really know enough about.Lacey Wilson:Out of your subject areas?
Richard Cox:Yeah, yeah. And I felt that especially when they were talking about
some of the things that were coming from the School of Music, and I would see some things that I thought probably hadn't been adequately explained by the dean. But I was not allowed to explain them.Lacey Wilson:That's frustrating.
Richard Cox:Because I was a member of the committee, I was sort of recused from
at least leading any discussion about my own colleagues. So I remember there was even one occasion when I wanted to say something about something Chancellor Moran had said about one of the music school candidate, and he didn't allow me to say it. So I wrote him a letter about it. I don't know if he read it or not.Lacey Wilson:I don't think I did. It wasn't... I couldn't....
Richard Cox:No, you didn't, but I don't know if he did.
Lacey Wilson:Oh, gotcha.
Richard Cox:Because I wasn't supposed to do that, but I wrote it anyway.
Lacey Wilson:Sure.
Richard Cox:So I was on the University Curriculum Committee for while. But then,
I must say, I was on several committees that I thought, "We've spent an awful lot of time on talking about this and that, and this and the other, and finally came up with a recommendation, and nothing every came of it." There was a certain amount of that.Lacey Wilson:Sure.
Richard Cox:And when I retired, I went on phased retirement. I don't know if you
know what that is, but for up to three years we have officially retired, but we're rehired half-time, so we get retirement pay and half of our regular salaries and work half-time. And when I went to talk to the dean about what I was going to do those three years, I said, "I want to spend these three years with students, and I don't want to be on any damn committee." So he said, "Okay."Lacey Wilson:Nice to make your priorities abundantly clear.
Richard Cox:Yes, yes. Because that was always one of the frustrating things
about campus life, was going to committee meetings nothing came of. At least with the Promotions and Tenure Committee, something came of it. And with the Curriculum Committee, we made drastic changes in the curriculum two or three times while I was here, and I was on the Curriculum Committee one of the years when we did that. And something came of that, and you felt like all your work had been valued and it was worth doing.Lacey Wilson:Okay. So now I'm going to hit the last couple questions. These are
just kind of wrap-up ones, and then we'll be done.Richard Cox:Okay.
Lacey Wilson:So, what do you think makes our music school stand out?
Richard Cox:Oh, well, we have just a very distinguished faculty at the School of
Music now. Excellent performers, excellent teachers. The orchestra is just unbelievable. I mean, as I remember the orchestra when I came here... And over the years it's developed, and now that orchestra is just wonderful. And I feel very good about what's happened to the choral program. I felt very good about the man who replaced me, and I felt that having me replaced by somebody of that caliber meant that what I did was valued, and that's gratifying. But yeah, I'd say it's become one of the major music schools in the area. It really is. It should be.Richard Cox:And of course, that building is wonderful.
Lacey Wilson:It is.
Richard Cox:I don't know if you've even been in the old one.
Lacey Wilson:I had to interview Locke last year, John Locke.
Richard Cox:Did you?
Lacey Wilson:Yeah. So I interviewed him in his office, and it was the first time
I had been in there.Richard Cox:Oh, but this is the new building.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah.
Richard Cox:Have you been in the old building?
Lacey Wilson:I think I have. I honestly have gotten lost in there, though.
Richard Cox:Well, the new building's wonderful. It's totally sound-proof, which
sometimes feels a little frustrating because you don't even know you're in a music school. You walk down the halls, you don't hear anything.Lacey Wilson:Mm-hmm (affirmative). But you'll see someone walk by with an instrument.
Richard Cox:Yeah.
Lacey Wilson:And that's a bit unusual as compared to any other building.
Richard Cox:Yeah, well, we would expect that.
Lacey Wilson:Right.
Richard Cox:That's true. Well yeah, and of course, John Locke's band, that's
been wonderful for years. That's terrific. Well, it's called a wind ensemble. But we don't have a marching band.Lacey Wilson:I wish we did.
Richard Cox:You do?
Lacey Wilson:Yeah. I was in marching band in high school.
Richard Cox:Oh, were you really?
Lacey Wilson:Yes. So I kind of-
Richard Cox:What'd you play?
Lacey Wilson:I played trumpet.
Richard Cox:Did you?
Lacey Wilson:Yeah, I did. I played trumpet for several years. And so our last
two is, tell me how UNCG has affected your life and what it means to you?Richard Cox:Well, what can I say? I would be an entirely different person if I
had been in some different kind of school all these years. The fact that I was here at the music school, especially when it was growing the way it did... And I've been glad many, many times that I didn't accept that position at Ohio State. It was pretty much [inaudible 00:52:32]; this one was growing. It was just beginning to grow when it became co-educational. But beyond there, we had maybe 12 or 15 faculty members in the School of Music when I came, and we had three voice teachers, and now we have seven or eight of them, I've lost count. But first, that means a lot to me, we had that kind of a climb.Richard Cox:And having it close, and I can still go to things, so.
Lacey Wilson:Yeah. Have you gone to anything recently?
Richard Cox:The only thing I've been to there recently, I guess I haven't been
to anything since then, there's this wonderful concert that they do every fall called a collage concert, which they do usually the second weekend in September, in which groups and soloists and individuals from all areas in the School of Music get together in the auditorium formerly known as Aycock and do their thing. And the lights move from one thing to another; as soon as one thing is finished, another thing begins somewhere else in the auditorium. And if you haven't been to that concert, you need to do that if you're still here in the fall. You need to go to that, because that's great fun, it really is. My son and his wife-to-be later this week come up from Charlotte to come to that. She brought all three of her kids once, and they all loved it.Lacey Wilson:Yeah, I need to make a point to go to that one.
Richard Cox:Yeah, [inaudible 00:54:20] go to that.
Lacey Wilson:And then our last one is, so these interviews are for the 125th
anniversary of the campus, which is a good time to look back and see where we've come from, and also a good time to look forward to where we're going. So what do you think is in the future for UNCG? What do you see UNCG-Richard Cox:You know, I don't have any idea.
Lacey Wilson:That's fair.
Richard Cox:I don't know.
Lacey Wilson:That's fair. Okay. Well, I'm going to end it there if that's alright?
Richard Cox:Okay.
Lacey Wilson:Awesome. Thank you.
