Triangle Land Conservancy: Member Spotlight December 2009


	Triangle Land Conservancy 1101 Haynes Street Suite 205 Raleigh, NC 27604 919.833.3662

Member Spotlight - December 2009

Dr. Carol Ruess

Dr. Carol Ruess

“They’re not making any more land, so if we don’t conserve it now, it’s going to be gone.” Carol Reuss (pronounced “Reece”) has a gift for getting to the point with clarity and eloquence. Carol first joined Triangle Land Conservancy in 2000, and she follows TLC’s conservation successes and challenges closely. She’s been known to write a thank-you note to a landowner who donated property to TLC, and she might send an encouraging message to TLC’s Doug Nicholas and Jennifer Peterson after a particularly good edition of the TLC newsletter. That message is especially meaningful coming from Carol—known to Doug and many other UNC alums as Dr. Reuss.

Dr. Reuss’s impressive 20-year tenure at UNC-Chapel Hill—as respected Professor at the School of Journalism and eventual Associate Provost—began in 1976. At UNC, she was a founding force behind the Public Relations specialization, and she remains an inspirational mentor for women in Journalism. Over the years, Dr. Reuss became a valued member of this community, and it seems the feeling is mutual. In 1996, she chose to stay here in the Triangle to enjoy the perks of retirement: getting to “do whatever I want, and say no when I want to.”

If it’s nice out today, Dr. Reuss is probably working in her garden—stopping to laugh when a bluejay gets territorial or maybe noticing a hummingbird that’s hanging around really late this year. As Associate Provost, she worked closely with the fine folks at UNC’s Botanical Garden—and she remembers the good plant tips she learned from them. Sitting in the fall sunlight, Dr. Reuss shares a hint about letting volunteer plants grow in your gravel so you can transfer the ones you want later.

After a moment, she says, “The people who haven’t been here for very long don’t realize what we’ve lost.” She talks about her view from the airplane window flying in to RDU in the 1970s compared to the view when she lands at RDU today—and the extraordinary amount of green space that’s been lost since then. “As for the land that’s left, if you don’t get it now, you won’t be getting it at all.”

Member Spotlight Archives

June 2010 - Greg Smith and Cyndi Grover

May 2010 - Todd and Kathleen Shapley-Quinn

April 2010 - Joyce & Fred Sparling

March 2010 - Diane Allen

February 2010 - Jane Kendall and Ran Coble

January 2010 - Kris and David Jackson

December 2009 - Carol Ruess

November 2009 - Kent Fiala

October 2009 - Linda and Rufus Edmisten

September 2009 - Barbara and Jonathan Sheline

August 2009 - Shannon Bueker