UNCP’s American Indian Heritage Center will be named in honor of Curt and Catherine Locklear – two well-respected businesspeople committed to supporting the Pembroke community.
The couple’s ties with UNCP dates back to the 1930s. Catherine would deliver fresh milk by bike to faculty and staff members as a child. Curt was on the school’s first football team as a quarterback in the 1940s.
In college, Curt planted the historic oak trees on the campus along Old Main Drive alongside Walter Pinchbeck, the grounds superintendent.
In the Pembroke community, Curt and Catherine were known as the owners of Pembroke True Value Hardware, one of the oldest operations in Robeson County.
As their business grew, Curt and Catherine had nine children who went on to build “successful careers in their own right as educators and in business,” a school press release said, “including the hardware store, Sheff’s Seafood, Southeastern Veterinary and Metcon Construction Company.”
Curt Jr. and his wife, Janice, gave a $50,000 gift to the school in honor of Catherine and Curt Sr. to name the Curt and Catherine Locklear American Indian Heritage Center. Pembroke Hardware matched the gift, making the total $100,000.
"We wanted to do something special in hopes that our parents' legacy would continue through the work of the American Indian Heritage Center,” Curt Jr. said.
The center, which was established two years ago, is intended to “support efforts to increase the recruitment, retention and graduation rates of American Indian students through cultural, social and academic programs,” a cause near and dear to the family as UNCP was known as the Pembroke State College for Indians when Catherine and Curt sought their educations there.
"You didn't have a chance back then if you didn't have an education," said Catherine "Miss Cat" Locklear, the university's oldest living alumna at 94.
“We’re proud of the work of our American Indian Heritage Center and honored that it will now display the name of a family who has shown continued support for UNCP,” said Chancellor Robin Gary Cummings.
“Their generosity has impacted the lives of so many in this community, and this naming will be a very visible way to recognize the decades of work Curt and Catherine have inspired in this community.”
"This gift (to the university) is an extension of how Daddy treated people at his business," said his daughter Janice Sheffield. "He helped so many local businesses get started by letting them have credit, contributing to their small business or simply giving them advice on how to be successful."
Curt Sr. and his wife established an endowed scholarship and gave to UNCP’s athletic programs, Givens Performing Arts Center and Mary Livermore Library.
"Daddy would be pleased with this," Curt Jr. said. "I want the next generation who visit the (American Indian Heritage) center to know our parents were good people ... giving people who were always thinking of others."
Catherine Locklear agreed, saying the renaming, "makes it feel like I was put here for a purpose."
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