The Charles Kuralt Learning Center, located on the second floor of
the UNC-CH School of Journalism and  Mass Communication in Carroll Hall, is a memorial to one of America's own.

      Charles Kuralt (1934-97) was a journalism legend, reporting on the America that not many of us saw. The Charles Kuralt Learning Center, as much as possible a replica of his penthouse office in Manhattan, offers a glimpse into the life of this broadcasting legend.

      In the last several years before his death, Kuralt created most of his documentaries and other works in his penthouse suite on West 57th Street in New York City. It was a beautiful setting, with his 13 Emmys and three Peabody awards and a terrace filled with flowers in the spring.

      On Feb. 23, 1998, Petie Kuralt gave the contents of Charles Kuralt's office to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. From this was born the Charles Kuralt Learning Center. With the help of many friends of Kuralt and the University, the School raised approximately $150,000 to move the office's contents to Chapel Hill and create and equip the Learning Center in Carroll Hall. Although the building had no room the exact shape of Kuralt's office, it has been recreated as much as possible, even to the books on the shelves. The center is primarily used for seminars and in-depth discussions.

      "We're exceedingly grateful to Petie Kuralt for making this possible, " Dean Richard Cole said. "Charles would be pleased to know that students could sit in his office surrounded by his mementos and ponder important issues in journalism."

      In many ways, the suite symbolizes Kuralt. It is solid, sturdy and elegant, with Oriental rugs, paneled walls and a fireplace. Books and awards fill floor-to-ceiling mahogany bookshelves.

      Karen Beckers, Kuralt's assistant and longtime friend, was his office manager and helped him design and create the office in June 1994 after both left CBS. 

      "He referred to it as a gentleman's writing room," Ms. Beckers said. 

      "He wanted it to have some charm and elegance. He didn't want a sterile working environment. What I'm so pleased by is that the office is going to be something alive. It will serve a purpose rather than just honoring Charles. He would have liked that." Ms. Beckers worked with Dean Cole on the gift of the office to the School.

       In addition to her donation of Kuralt's office, Petie Kuralt also donated more than 250,000 documents, photos and audio and videotapes to the UNC-CH Louis Round Wilson Library to establish the Charles Kuralt Collection. An inventory of the papers is posted on the Southern Historical Collection's web site: www.lib.unc.edu/mss. 

      The Learning Center features a touch-screen kiosk with samples of Kuralt's photos, clippings, and broadcasts from the Kuralt Collection. Cole said the Learning Center enables students and visitors to view Kuralt's TV program's including "On the Road" and "CBS Sunday Morning." The Center will have a computer link to the UNC-CH Library's Southern Historical Collection.

      "Visitors to the Kuralt Learning Center will be inspired not only by Charles' stories but also his ideals," Cole said. "In our School, we try to teach the ideals that Charles stood for. That's what he would cherish most: teaching students to research, write and present a full, fair and accurate report. And to report -- without airs, without folderol -- not just about statesmen and the elite but about down-home folks. To care not only about our profession and about good writing, but to care. In trying to do that we honor Charles the most."

For more information about the Learning Center please contact

  Dean Jean Folkerts, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

(919) 962-1204
jean_folkerts@unc.edu