Some of Dorothea Stewart Gilbert’s earliest memories were of her grandfather driving a buggy down present-day Main Street back when Campbell University was still Buies Creek Academy. A Buies Creek native, she was born about a mile from main campus and was one of just a handful of people who had met all five Campbell presidents.
Gilbert died on Dec. 23 at UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh. The Buies Creek native and lifelong North Carolina resident was 96 years old.
Born on April 10, 1927, in the house built by her grandfather 20 years earlier, Gilbert was the daughter of Latta and Florrie Stewart. She attended elementary school (grades second through seventh) in the 1930s in the Kivett Building at Campbell, and then high school in the D. Rich Building, which stands just a few feet away. She graduated from Campbell Junior College in 1946 before earning a bachelor’s degree in English at the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina Greensboro).
Her teaching career began two months later at Buies Creek High School, where she made $150 a month teaching English, French, world history and first aid; coaching basketball and softball; directing two theatrical plays a year and planning all graduating activities.
She became an instructor at Campbell Junior College in 1960 and went on to teach for 32 years before serving as curator of the Lundy-Fetterman Museum & Exhibit Hall. On one memorable occasion, she agreed to allow a group of local students up-close contact with the animals — strictly forbidden for guests — if they agreed to bring gloves. Under her direction, the museum dropped its ropes and allowed students from the School for the Blind in Raleigh to touch and “see” the pronghorn antelope, goitered gazelle, Persian ibex and blue marlin on display.
As a Campbell student before World War II, Gilbert observed regulations unheard of on campus today, although as a student who lived at home she was exempt from many of them. Church attendance was required, and boarding students had to sign out before they could leave the dorm, making sure that they were properly attired in hats, gloves and high heels. Her memories of Cornelia Campbell and other figureheads of early University history were vital to historical projects at Campbell, and her recollections of life at Campbell were invaluable in recording Campbell’s story and preserving its traditions.
When she was in her late 60s, Gilbert wrote “The Run of the Branch,” a weekly column for the Harnett Leader, a short-lived county newspaper published in Lillington.
Throughout her adult life, she was active in her church, having served as pianist, Sunday school teacher, Sunday school director, BYPU leader and deacon. A dedicated Christian, she participated in many church-related activities — visiting the sick, cooking her famous banana pudding for church gatherings, being on the phone tree and supporting various pastors and leaders.
She felt strongly that she needed to serve not only in her career and her church life, but also in civic needs. She enjoyed travel and from 1957 until a few years before her death she traveled throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, 13 countries in Europe, the Caribbean, England and Scotland.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the Buies Creek First Baptist Church building fund or to one or more of the three scholarships Gilbert established at Campbell University — English Department, School of Divinity or Lundy-Fetterman School of Business.