{"id":12282,"date":"2015-11-29T07:30:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T12:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=12282"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:08:53","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:08:53","slug":"celebrating-40-years-vintage-image-steve-israel-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=12282","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 40 years: Vintage Image–Steve Israel ’66"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Steve<\/a><\/p>\n

Happy Birthday, Steve! In honor of your 71st, Nina has made a generous contribution to the O.B. Hardison Jr. Scholarship Fund for the Humanities.<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

The following article by Claire Cusick was published in <\/em>Carolina Connections in summer 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stephen Israel \u201966 wants to honor the Renaissance English professor who changed his life<\/strong><\/p>\n

And he wants your help<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Stephen<\/a>
Stephen Israel \u201966<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steve Israel \u201966 admits he was not a distinguished student in his high school and early college years. In fact, he said he was \u201cuninspired\u201d and \u201cmuddled through\u201d high school and his first two years at Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started as a business major, because it was expected that I would join my father in his small company based in Greensboro. I took one course in accounting, and I realized that was not for me,\u201d he said. \u201cSo instead, I switched to English. I loved to read, and that\u2019s why I majored in English. My mother was an English teacher and she inspired me to read good books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, during his junior year, he wandered unsuspectingly into Professor O.B. Hardison\u2019s course on John Milton. \u201cIt changed my whole life,\u201d Israel said. \u201cSo much so that I attribute 80 percent of my success, financially and personally, to the two courses I took from O.B. Hardison. He wasn\u2019t merely a good professor. He inspired a love of learning. He made me want to learn. I went from cramming for exams the night before to basically living in the carrels at the library. I made nothing but As and Bs during my last two years. I did everything I could to become a scholar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardison (1928-1990) was a double Carolina graduate, a popular teacher and a wide-ranging scholar. A biophysicist by training, he wrote scholarly tomes about Christianity, about the Renaissance, and about identity and culture as well as two books of poetry. After leaving Carolina in 1969, he became director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., where he founded the Folger Poetry Series and the Folger Theatre.<\/p>\n

\"O.B.<\/a>
O.B. Hardison (photo courtesy of the Folger Shakespeare Library)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe made Paradise Lost come alive, which was no easy task,\u201d Israel continued. \u201cBecause of Hardison, I honed my communications skills so I could speak articulately and think more clearly. I\u2019ve had other great teachers, but it was Hardison who opened the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel provides a great answer to that age-old parental question: \u201cWhat are you going to do with an English degree?\u201d He is managing director of the biotechnology practice at Korn Ferry in New York City. His clients are primarily venture-backed, early-stage, high-science companies that are at the intersection of science, business and medicine. \u201cMy colleagues have M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, which I do not. However, it is my communications skills that have paved the way for my success, and I attribute much of that to O.B. Hardison.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMuch of my success is attributable to what I learned at UNC, and I want other people to have that opportunity, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Israel wants to honor this life-changing professor and open the door for others to a wide-ranging liberal arts education. He made a gift to create the O.B. Hardison, Jr. Scholarship Fund for the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences. It will provide a scholarship for an undergraduate student who intends to study the humanities, with a nonbinding preference for English majors. Israel hopes to raise $1 million to endow the scholarship.<\/p>\n

\u201cA well-rounded education is crucially important in today\u2019s world,\u201d Israel said. \u201cI see evidence of this every day in my work. Much of my success is attributable to what I learned at UNC, and I want other people to have that opportunity, too. I hope that other people join me in supporting this scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"40<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Happy Birthday, Steve! In honor of your 71st, Nina has made a generous contribution to the O.B. Hardison Jr. Scholarship Fund for the Humanities.   The following article by Claire Cusick was published in Carolina Connections in summer 2015. Stephen Israel \u201966 wants to honor the Renaissance English professor who changed his life And he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foundation","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47518,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12282\/revisions\/47518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}