On Tuesday, June 5^th, the Office of Gift Planning hosted the 15^th annual Duke Heritage Society luncheon at the Washington Duke Inn Hotel & Golf Club. Our team looks forward to this event each year, and it was wonderful to spend a beautiful afternoon with local Duke alumni and friends.

We host this lunch as a way to thank members of the Duke Heritage Society who reside within Raleigh, Durham, or Chapel Hill, NC. The Duke Heritage Society honors alumni and friends who have included Duke in their estate plans or have made some other type of planned gift to the university.

We were delighted to have Duke University archivist Valerie Gillispie join us for a guided visual tour of the archives as she discussed her work in uncovering Duke’s history. It was fascinating to learn how current students are exploring previously overlooked areas of the university’s past through summer projects like “Stone by Stone: Who Built the Duke Chapel?” We also enjoyed hearing the stories behind a few of the university’s archived treasures.

Duke University archivist Valerie Gillispie discussing an archived photograph circa 1928 of Duke Football player Okle “Monk” Jones working on construction on campus.

On behalf of all of us at Duke, we would like to express our deepest gratitude for your commitment to this special place. Your support will ensure that the university will be able educate outstanding students, conduct research to rediscover Duke’s past, and enrich the lives of generations to come. As always, please feel free to contact us if we can be of service in any way.

Helpful resources and links:

Duke University Archives

Stone By Stone: Who Built the Duke Chapel?

Duke History

Duke Libraries Digitized Collections and Publications

About the author

Brandy Chieco

brandolyn.chieco@duke.edu

Brandy oversees marketing and communications, events and special initiatives for the Office of Gift Planning. She works closely with donors who are featured in Duke Magazine, the Blueprints blog and other publications. She also works closely with development teams, schools and alumni volunteers as part of our comprehensive reunion efforts. Prior to joining the team, Brandy worked in marketing, human resources and banking. She received her B.A. degree in English from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. When she is not in the office, Brandy enjoys local theatre, exploring the diverse Durham food scene and spending quality time with her husband and son.