When Sen. Paul Wellstone; his wife, Sheila; and his daughter, Marcia, died in a plane crash two years ago, Joel Schwartz was asked if he could think of a death of any other public figure in contemporary American politics that had evoked such public bereavement.
He couldn't.
Schwartz, a professor at UNC, had befriended Wellstone when the future Minnesota congressman was a graduate student in his class, and the two had stayed in touch through the years.
To build a memorial to the Wellstones, Schwartz, along with Gene Nichol, dean of UNC's School of Law, raised $20,000.
"It was the easiest fund-raising campaign either of us had ever been involved with," Schwartz said.
The garden they built in memory of the University alumnus was dedicated Tuesday afternoon.
The memorial wraps around Murphey Hall. Ivy and hot pink knockout roses line a brick path that leads up to three benches framed by young trees and bushes.
Jill Coleman, UNC's first in-house landscape architect, was responsible for designing the memorial along with Tom Sudderth, the University's landscape supervisor.
She said the benches in the garden should foster discussion.