NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 25 number 2 - Winter 2005

Friends of the Library News

By Mary Kate Keith, Friends of the Library

Elaine Orr Recalls Growing Up in Nigeria

Elaine Orr, NC State professor of English, presented "Kindred, Stranger: A Nigerian/American Autobiography" to guests at the Friends of the Library's annual Fall Luncheon on November 10, 2004. Her talk was based on her book Gods of Noonday, A White Girl's African Life, which described her childhood in Nigeria in the 1950s and 1960s when her parents worked there as missionaries

Reading descriptive passages from her book, Orr recalled in vivid detail her childhood near the Niger River, a place she considered home. Through Orr's lyrical voice and stunning desscriptions, the audience experienced the sights, smells, and sounds of the Nigeria of her youth. Orr left Nigeria at age sixteen to complete her education in the United States--a place where she felt like a stranger. As an adult, she returned to Nigeria and once again experienced a sense of homecoming.

Orr majored in art at Campbellsville University in Kentucky and earned an M.A. in English from the University of Louisville. In 1985 she received a Ph.D in literature and theology from Emory University. At NC State, Orr teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in American, world, and contemporary literature, as well as womenÕs studies and creative nonfiction.

Susan K. Nutter, vice provost and director of Libraries, presented the sixteenth NCSU Libraries Faculty Award to Richard H. Bernhard (NCSU College of Engineering) during the Fall Luncheon. For more on the Faculty Award winner, see "Richard H. Bernhard Selected as 2004 NCSU Libraries Faculty Award Winner."

New Board Member

Anna Ball Hodge

Anna Ball Hodge will serve a five-year term on the Friends' Board of Directors. Hodge, a resident of Raleigh, received a B.A. in education from UNC-Chapel Hill and holds a C.T.C. professional designation in the travel industry. She is the president-elect of the PTSA at Broughton High School in Raleigh and has been a leader in numerous community organizations including Moms in Touch International, Christ Episcopal Church, and the Tammy Lynn Center. She is married to Joe Hodge of Hodge & Kittrell Realtors, and they have three daughters. Her grandfather, Charles D. "Zack" Arthur, was an NC State alumnus and Raleigh businessman. The Charles D. "Zack" Arthur Memorial Endowment was established at the NCSU Libraries in 1992 by friends and family to honor the two things he loved so much, NC State and books.