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The Daily Tar Heel

Supporters gather for Wellstone

Former senator, alum gets garden

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.

"As a legacy for Senator Wellstone, we felt that it was a very appropriate monument ... (which would) stimulate intellectual discourse," Coleman said.

While he was a student at UNC, the 5-foot-5-inch Wellstone won the 1964 ACC championship for the 126-pound weight class in wrestling and was inducted into the Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2000.

But he wasn't only known for athletics. As a graduate student, he participated in demonstrations on campus for the rights of cafeteria workers in Lenoir Dining Hall and protests against the bombing of Cambodia in the Vietnam War.

As a senator, Wellstone was known for being the champion of liberal, but not always Democratic, causes.

He was a supporter of women's rights, welfare, veterans, mental health care, the environment and labor.

When he died at the age of 58, more than 20,000 mourners packed themselves into a stadium at the University of Minnesota. About 1,000 more watched on screens outside the arena.

The obituaries that ran in papers across the nation after his death mentioned the respect he gained from colleagues for his honesty and passion.

It was this passion that often led him to be frustrated by moderate politics and won him the nickname "Senator Welfare."

Wellstone received his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from UNC in 1965 and 1969, respectively. Throughout Wellstone's career, he always viewed himself as a Tar Heel, Schwartz said.

A plaque on a bench in the memorial garden expresses Wellstone's well-known philosophy on public service: "Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about lessening human suffering, and it's about advancing the cause of peace and justice."

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.

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