A visit from the king

This past weekend was the dedication ceremony for the George and MaryLou Boone Center for Science and Environmental Leadership. This was a Big Deal. A ferry was chartered to bring all the celebrants over from the mainland. University President Sample was there (which meant the event was handled by a special team from Events Planning), Dean Gillman was there. Out-going Wrigley Director Tony Michaels was there (as was incoming Director Donal Manahan). The Wrigley Board of Trustees were there. George and MaryLou were, of course, there. And Bob and Betty Plumleigh brought along their friend King Nebuchadnezzar.

Since this was a Big Deal, and since the Plumleighs and the Boones are old friends, and since Bob's business is importing very nice European wines and liquers, he had specially commissioned a Nebuchadnezzar of Drappier champagne. The Boone Center is itself a very impressive sight, looking very much like an Italian villa dropped in the middle of the Wrigley campus, but I've never seen anything like a Nebuchadnezzar of champagne. They served glasses of champagne to the ~250 guests and there was still about 1 1/2 gallons left in the bottle. After the ferry returned the VIPs to the mainland, the staff had a jolly time finishing off the champagne (pictures withheld by request of their families).

In all seriousness, though, the day could not have gone better. (Well, Duke could've beaten Carolina that evening, but that's totally unrelated.) The weather was beautiful, the channel was calm, the island was beautiful, the grounds were immaculate, everything happened on schedule, maybe not enough sunscreen was used, but really it was a wonderful event. We hope to fill the Boone Center for years to come with Science and Environmental Leaders.

I'll add some photos to this post soon.