Friends of the UNCG Libraries

Luther Hodges, Jr. has donated a painting to the University Libraries which will be displayed in the Hodges Reading Room.  The painting is "Bassin Petrolier (Oil Fields)" by the French painter Arthur Van Hecke (1924-2003).  It replaces a painting by Maud Gatewood which has been returned to the Weatherspoon Art Museum, from which it was on long-term loan. Mr. Hodges, along with his sister Betsy Bernard, provided funding to name the Martha Blakeney Hodges Reading Room after their mother, the former First Lady of North Carolina and the first chairperson of the Friends of the UNCG Libraries.

Betsy Bernard and Daughter Martha Scherer The University Libraries recently had visit from Betsy Bernard and Luther Hodges, Jr., whose generosity made possible the renovation of the Special Collections Reading Room named for their mother, Martha Blakeney Hodges.  With them were Betsy's daughter Martha, and her husband Eugene, who live in Vienna, Austria and had not seen the Room previously. Martha Blakeney Hodges ('18) was the first chairperson of the Friends of the Library when the organization was founded in 1959 at what was then Woman's College.  She was also the First Lady of North Carolina at that time.  Her husband Luther Hodges, Sr. was then governor of the state.