Joseph Curtis Sloane ’31 *49

Joe Sloane, our class's winsome pedagogical champion, died Apr. 9, 1998, in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 89, long retired, but still bearing the titles of Alumni Distinguished Professor of Art and Director Emeritus of the Ackland Art Center (of which he was the founding director) at the U. of North Carolina.

Joe earned his AB, MFA, and PhD degrees at Princeton. An instructor at Princeton and briefly at Rutgers, he was chairman of the art department at Bryn Mawr for 20 years. During WWII, Joe served in the Pacific in escort duty and was discharged from the Navy with the rank of lieutenant commander.

In 1959 Joe was recruited by the U. of North Carolina to remodel and promote its art department, as chairman. He was eminently successful. The university's Hanes Art Center named its library the Joseph Curtis Sloane Library. UNC accorded him its Jefferson Award, and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1994, and the state its North Carolina Award in 1977. He was made chairman of the board of the North Carolina Museum of Art and president of the College Art Assn. He retired from professorial duties in 1978.

In 1934 he married Marjorie Merrill, now deceased, and they had two daughters, Janet Jones and Margaret M. "Peggy." The class rejoices in his life and regrets his passing.

The Class of 1931