The awards presentation is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 9, 2007 during the UNCW Alumni Association Awards Banquet and Scholarship Endowment Gala.
Frank Capra Jr. Named 2007 UNCW Alumni Association Citizen of the Year
The award recognizes Capra's exceptional service to the university and the Wilmington community. Capra, a distinguished visiting professor, founded the university’s film studies program. He teaches courses at UNCW, including the business of film and a studio seminar class. He received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1999.
Capra is the president of EUE/Screen Gems Studios North Carolina, the largest motion picture studio east of Hollywood. He fell in love with Wilmington in 1983 while on a location as producer of the film Firestarter.
“This award means a great deal to me,” Capra said. “The university is a wonderful and great resource in this city, and I believe our studio is, too. There is a natural connection between the two.”
A successful champion for the state’s film industry, Capra serves on numerous boards, including the Executive Branch Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the National Board of the Directors Guild of America and the N.C. Governor’s Film Council.
His work spans television and movies, and a short list of his film credits includes Death Before Dishonor, Escape from Planet of the Apes, Battle for the Planet of the Apes and Whale, an ultra-wide screen documentary.
Maj. Gen. Thomas A. “Tommy” Dyches, Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Reserve Matters, is the 2007 UNCW Alumni Association Alumnus of the Year
The award recognizes his outstanding professional success and personal commitment to serving the United States.
In his role at the Pentagon, Dyches serves as the principal adviser to the Chairman on all matters affecting the Reserve Component of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and, where appropriate, the Coast Guard. Dyches is a career fighter pilot, having flown the F-100 "Super Sabre," the F-4 "Phantom" and the F-16 "Viper." He has more than 4,200 military flying hours, including combat in Southeast Asia, Bosnia and Iraq. He graduated from UNCW in 1969 with a bachelor of arts degree in business.
“I grew up in Wilmington, in Sunset Park, very close to Greenfield Lake, where my best friend Glenn Hodges ’68 and I spent many blissful hours trying to figure out how to outwit the wily largemouth bass,” Dyches said.
He decided to attend UNCW for many reasons.
“The university was young, vibrant and growing rapidly, owing specifically to the vision of a number of community leaders and more broadly to the commitment that the State of North Carolina had made to educational improvement during that period,” Dyches said. “I figured I could get a good education there. Moreover, I had a good paying job locally and, quite frankly, I needed the money. But the real reason was my Grandmother Vera told me to, and she was never wrong about anything.”
After graduation, Dyches joined the Air Force because “it seemed exciting and different. However, I was not one of those kids who always knew he wanted to grow up and become a pilot. In fact, I had never flown an airplane before I entered the Air Force.”
He soon realized, though, that he had found his true calling and was commissioned through the Air Force Officer Training School in December 1969. He earned his pilot wings at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., in 1970, graduated from the U.S. Air Force Fighter Weapons School in 1975 and later served there as an instructor pilot. He is also a graduate of the Air Force's Air Command and Staff and Air War Colleges and has attended senior executive education programs conducted by the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University; the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and the National Defense University.
In 1979, he became a commercial airline pilot and joined the Air Force Reserve as a traditional reservist. Ten years later, he became an air reserve technician. Dyches has commanded a fighter squadron, fighter operations group, fighter wing, a seven-nation coalition air expeditionary wing, and the Standing Joint Force Headquarters, U.S. Southern Command, in Miami. Dyches has received numerous awards and decorations, including a Defense Superior Service Medal, a Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, and a Bronze Star Medal.
The general cited numerous “unforgettable” moments during his lengthy career with the Air Force, including:
- his combat missions
- his service as an instructor pilot at the Fighter Weapons School near Las Vegas
- the opportunity to command five organizations at the squadron level or higher
- the challenge of having his base “blown into the Everglades by Hurricane Andrew”
- launching armed fighters on Sept. 11, 2001, with the knowledge that they might be forced to shoot down an airplane loaded with innocent people and controlled by terrorists
- and working directly for two Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff while the U.S. is at war.
Dyches plans to retire in the summer and relocate to Key Largo, where he and his wife Pam own a house. As he reflected on his career, Dyches credited UNCW with fostering a skill that was essential to his success. He said, “Critical thinking turned out to be perhaps the most valuable skill I started to develop during college.”
Mandy Hill Cook ’99, ’02M is the 2007 Young Alumna of the Year
The award recognizes her outstanding work as a researcher in marine mammal acoustics. Cook earned a doctorate in marine science from the University of South Florida in December 2006.
Cook grew up in Morgantown, W.Va., hundreds of miles from the sea, but when she arrived at UNCW as an undergraduate student, she quickly discovered a passion for the coast.
She fondly recalls “the times I spent in the field conducting research for class projects, such as dolphin photo-identification surveys and field trips to the beach to study intertidal communities.” She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in marine biology from UNCW in 1999 and 2002, respectively.
“Dr. Donald Kapraun (professor of biology) was one of my favorite professors because he brought so much excitement and passion into the classroom,” she said. “He found a way to make everything interesting, and taught in a way that made it easy to learn. His enthusiasm was contagious.”
At Florida, Cook studied behavioral and auditory measurements in toothed whales. She recently moved to Hillsboro, Ore., to join her husband, Ted ’98, who is a research and development engineer with Intel Corp. She hopes to continue studying marine mammals and to teach at the collegiate level. Film industry leader honored for service to community.
Stories by Andrea Weaver, Office of Marketing and Communications
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