 To be a bit trite, a picture is worth a thousand words. What follows now is a series of slides selected by members of the abider faculty that do not tell the whole story of that first year, but present some of its highlights and remind us of the way we were. In the spring of 1980, when we came to interview for our jobs, what we saw appeared to be more of a neglected hospital than a school, more of a future dream than a present reality, a promise of what could be. In order to fulfill the dream, it seemed that we were in a constant nightmare of banging hammers and buzzing saws, but somehow it all came together at least for one building so we could have our first all-school meeting in the assembly hall. Right from the start, donors were generous and one thoughtful person provided the necessary funding for an observatory so that the students who were going to reach for the stars could first search for the stars. After meeting the finalists on May 17th, 1980, our anticipation and anxiety heightened as we waited for the day when the former hospital turned into something of a school would be ready for the first entering class. In response to what was clearly a crunch situation, the newly hired faculty and staff pitched in, cleaning windows and blinds, mowing the lawn and even uncreating mattresses and making beds. Well, here they came, ready or not, but we were ready just barely. While we can't have a school without buildings, it is really the people who have made NCSSM a great place to be for over 25 years. Adults and students alike have all worked together to build our special program. In the early years, our staff consisted of a wonderful group of adults who included people who were particularly creative and others of us who were more implementers. We respected each other's strengths and appreciated the unique qualities that each person brought to the program. Borden Mace, dean for institutional advancement and later the first principal, was perhaps one of the most creative persons on campus. He often placed articles from newspapers and professional journals in our mailboxes or handed them to us with, here, read this. What a great service he provided since many of those articles contained wonderful ideas that have influenced our thinking to this day. While some people have moved on, other folks like John Williams, Gwen Pryor and Linwood Suit have continued to secure our school, making it a safer place for students to learn and grow. As you can see, in the early days, our faculty and staff was small enough so all of us, faculty, administrators and residential staff, could gather around a table and think about how we might bring this school into being. Classrooms were not always first-rate. Board space and just plain space was at a premium. But we could always find a place for students and teachers to interact. Going outside to have class continues to be a student favorite. And even in 1981 and 82, we had state-of-the-art technology. Look at that TRS-80 and Apple IIe computer. They were state-of-the-art. Perhaps the most important personal and community event of the first year was the birth of Brendan to Branson and Joni Brown, who lived in White House, now the Royal Center. Branson created our physical activities program and was a resident advisor, while Joni was a mother to all of the boys on campus. My first picture here shows Kevin Barcovich, one of our first math teachers, playing soccer with students on a camping trip out at the Eno River. Ginger Wilson and Jackie Meadows occupied ground floor office in Hill House. They were American Studies teacher, and Ginger was our head of humanities. Borden Mace, our first principal, told us to never use the word basement. It was just too base. We had to use ground floor. Don Halp teaching a Spanish class in Hill House. Don taught back in those days Russian, French, and Spanish and evolved into teaching Esperanto. A very young Chuck Britton, one of our first physics teachers. Rena Lindstrom, head of our counseling program, counseling a student. Neil Clark, one of our first English teachers and also the sponsor of all the dramatic productions on campus. But Rufus Owens, our first chemistry teacher. Steve Davis on the left is our first head of mathematics. John Kalina, a very slender John Kalina in the middle, from physics. And Ross Baker, our first biology teacher on the right. Jim Henry was our head of media services. And Randy Foy conducted our orchestra and was constantly hitting the road because we had no place on campus that was big enough to hold us. Here we are at Baldwin Auditorium on the east campus of Duke University. And Joseph Bryan here is addressing the crowd at the dedication of the North Carolina School of Science and Math on October 11, 1980. We always thought that he looked like the Monopoly man. But he and his wife, Kathleen, gave the school a million dollars to get started. He was followed by Chip Tillman, our SGA president, who was so eloquent that Governor Hunt, who was the keynote speaker of the occasion, said that he felt very much at a disadvantage in following Chip to the podium. There was, of course, no auditorium or PEC in the early years. So the library sometimes served as the location for an all school meeting during the first year when there were only about 150 students and 17 faculty members. Students like Elizabeth Granger here put in many hours studying. But there were times to relax and bond as a community. Chuck Elber arranged ice cream socials at school as well as at his home, which was in walking distance of NCSSM. Chuck and his wife Carol often received students and faculty in their home and made everyone feel welcome. Terry Gray, second from left here and who is still an important member of our food service staff, was part of the original cafeteria staff that had to prepare meals, even as renovations to the cafeteria were taking place. Cafeteria renovations caused such disruptions that students had to eat lunch on the first floor of Breezeway. The main fair consisted of coal sandwiches. For breakfast and dinner, students walked to E.K. Poe. Many housekeeping chores were done by students. Here we see Steve Jones, a lowly junior, telling Chip Tillman, president of the student body, that he missed a spot. The swimming pool was beside Hill House and everyone enjoyed taking a dip. Even some teachers here, John Miller, is being helped into the water by some of his students. Happy bathers who had no more classes for the day were a major distraction for their unfortunate peers taking afternoon language classes in Hill. The gospel choir, later to become colors, was an important extracurricular activity in the school from the beginning. Chuck Britton, physics teacher, was probably observing this rocket launch from a safe distance. Did you have to take a special math course to figure out how to extract your bicycle from the middle of this? Way back in the 20th century, we still had winter here in North Carolina. When Bob Bartolaban predicted the first heavy snowfall of that first year, Director Elbur made it quite clear that school policy would be to never cancel classes due to inclement weather. Our students are here, living on campus, eager to learn. Lesson plans would be distributed by our residential advisor staff. The snow came as deep as predicted and classes were canceled. The courtesy of a student, Lois Thornberg, who took it upon herself to phone in our official closing announcement to the local TV and radio stations. The school's traditions were off to a grand start. Our bright and creative students knew that not all policies are created equal. This is Branson Brown, the first wellness instructor, otherwise known as Fiz Ed, who had not only perfected his backward dunk shot, but came to Durham from the professional baseball minor leagues. The baseball field is named in his honor. These are the old fashioned stationary archery targets that students had to use before they discovered the joys of taking a shot at the construction workers who would be building the Rome dormitory on the parking lot in the background of this photo. These are a few slides from the basketball team in those early days. Our sports teams did not necessarily fare too well against such athletic powerhouses as Durham Academy. Our students would sometimes react to a particularly harsh defeat with a chant of, hey, hey, that's okay, you're going to work for us someday. The administration frowned on such antics, though, and the students eventually did become a bit more respectful. Certain activities and events that we experimentally planned or fell into in the early years have become rituals which continue to organize and give meaning to our lives here at NCSSM. Our first college day occurred in the 1981-82 school year when we had our first seniors, and we've been sending seniors off to college ever since. In the spring of 1981, our first prom was truly a junior prom, as we only had a junior class. Appropriately, its theme, morning has broken, expressed our sense of newness and our pioneer spirit. Our first two-class junior-senior prom took place the next year, just as appropriately its theme, you've got a friend, caught perhaps the most enduring and significant aspect of life here at school. 1982's senior dinner was simply the first which celebrated two years of hard work, accomplishment, and friendship. Not every undertaking is worth repeating. While senior skip day at Duke Gardens joyously welcomed spring, it seemed to contradict our sense of mission and excellence, and it soon expired. No symbols, more tangibly or significantly attested to our becoming a viable community and a real school in class rings and graduation. Wearing an NCSSM ring was an outward and visible sign that this place and its people had become your place and your people. You had become an NCSSM ring. Graduation, of course, was individually and institutionally a measure of achievement and success, personally perhaps a promise to yourself and institutionally a promise to generations of young people across North Carolina. We further marked our sense of accomplishment by burying a calculus textbook, a cafeteria meal, and the original handwritten student government association charter in a time capsule. Digging it up years later, we discovered that we had cracked the capsule in the burial process. Our history was all wet. Thankfully graduation does not prove to be the end of the NCSSM experience. Graduates regularly come back to stir up old memories, to visit the best of friends, and to stand where we all first realized what excellence was and how important it was to us. Where we first accepted the greater challenge and sensed who we wished to become. Peyton Eddens, who was in that first class, perhaps caught best our early feelings when she wrote the following for her senior yearbook. We think much of this is still true. When I first walked the abandoned corridors of the old hospital, lights glowed above each door as though specters still inhabited the empty rooms. I thought of the lives that began and ended in the lonely rooms. I wondered if the forgotten specters wanted a new friend. Then I realized I was the lonely specter looking for an unknown friend amongst the deserted chambers. I was the one ending an old life and beginning anew.