The legacy of the Class of 2010 is one step closer to reality.

A purchase order for a bell for the first phase of installation recently cleared, and Meeks Watson, the company in charge of casting the bells, will have it ready to be publicly shown on campus by this fall.  

Jay Dawkins, 2010 graduate and Senior Class Chair for the project, said most students aren’t aware the bell tower doesn’t have actual bells in it.  

“In 2008, Matt Robbins, a graduate student in architecture, did some research on campus for his thesis, and noticed a bell on top of Withers Hall. Later he found out that bell was meant to go in the Memorial Bell Tower. Currently we have an electronic chime system in place of real bells,” Dawkins said.  

The tower has had a fragmented completion. In 1924 it sat with only the entryway and a few layers of granite until the U.S. Government, with a stimulus package from President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, completed the exterior in 1937. A bell system and an interior staircase were still lacking.  

According to Matt Robbins, the two bells the University has possessed were not the ideal bells.  

Originally the first bell came from the fire department in downtown Raleigh and was procured by Chancellor Harrelson. The Great Depression halted that project, and the bell was put under Riddick Stadium bleachers because it didn’t have the right sound. Robbins said the second bell came from one of the USS North Carolinas, and that is the one he found on top of Withers.  

“Once the Great Depression killed the original project, which consisted of following the original plans to put stairs all the way to the top and put a 54 bell system in, a ceiling was put in at the bottom and the University got a bell from the USS N.C. and left it on the floor,” Robbins said. “But due to some rambunctious students who broke in and rang it while it was sitting on the floor the University decided to move it on top of Withers until the staircase and other plans could be finished.”  

That never happened, and when Riddick Stadium was demolished and the first bell was discovered, it was decided the bell would return to its original owners since it did not have the correct pitch.  

The second bell was given to a naval museum, and visitors to the old USS North Carolina can see the bell that was on campus as well as its replacement, according to Robbins.  

“The bell from the USS N.C. sounded horrible. We decided to give it to a museum unknowing that it was the one from way back before, and before we knew it we had given all of our bells away. There were three or four USS North Carolinas but we have the one from the ship before it was renamed the [USS] Charlotte. People can see it on board that ship today,” Robbins said.  

Through the combined efforts of Jay Dawkins, Matt Robbins and other senior class representatives, the class decided to pull together and finish the tower, ninety years later.  

According to Dawkins, a little over $50,000 was raised last year and any senior who donated $210 towards the project would have their name engraved on the bell.  

“Although we have to buy a whole set of bells, the system calls for 54, enough was raised for a big bell, that will have students’ names engraved on it, and that is the one that has recently had its purchase order completed. The class council had criteria, it needed to have the “block S”, and have room for the names, so we sent out a request for proposals from bell companies saying, ‘here’s our vision, how much would you charge for the main bell and an amount for the rest of the bells’,” Dawkins said.  

Meeks Watson is casting the bell from Ohio, and won’t outsource any aspect of the project.    

Locating a company able to do all the work in the United States is a rare find, according to Robbins.  

“Deciding which company to go with was one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make, we had three capable firms, but one would have to ship the actual bell from Belgium and the other from I think the Netherlands, but this third firm could do it all in Ohio. So we called churches and universities who had partnered with them before, and all of them told us we had to have them. As a company they don’t play, they never had a problem with them, and for us to definitely get them,” Robbins said.  

Once the money was raised,  it had to be approved through the University, and the person who facilitated this process was Ed Levy, of Design and Construction Services .    

Dawkins and Robbins both praised Levy’s involvement on helping the project run smoothly. 

“Ed Levy is the man, he’s been great on the University side of things, he’s born and bred N.C. State and we couldn’t have asked for a better partner in this,” Robbins said. 

Transferring the money to allow the bells to be bought was more involved because it was considered a “gift” to the University but Dawkins said Levy was the right man for the job. 

” Levy was in charge of the full purchasing process, drafting contracts etc. and was great all around,” Dawkins said.  

Currently there is not a definite date the bell will be on campus for student viewing, but Dawkins and Robbins are hoping for sometime over the summer or fall.  

“The goal for the 2010 bell is summer, so there can be some public viewing and students can see their name [on the bell],” Dawkins said.  

The project is far from finished, however, and although the biggest bell will be the one bought by the senior class, the bells sounding the first five notes will need to be purchased before any of them can find a home in the tower.  

According to Robbins the senior class bell, when finally hung, will be rung on the hour and will sound at the lowest note.  

“We’ll have to buy bigger bells individually, and some others in sets, but we need the first 5 before we can put them in, because we want to make sure we put enough up there to do something, so then it can ring off the clock, and we’re currently looking for donors to put enough up front to buy a larger bell or purchase smaller sets,” Robbins said.  

The planning of the addition of the bells to the tower will take some time.  

According to Levy the determining factors for additional bells are available funds.  

“It is too soon for me to say the plan for future bells, as a large part of that will be determined by the rate at which the required funds are made available.  

There is a plan for the senior class bell once it is delivered to campus though.  

A portable, wheeled mount will arrive with the bell. This will help showcase the bell and further fundraising efforts.  

“We’re going to have Meeks Watson build a portable display mount, so that we can roll it onto the field at Homecoming and other events. But in between events we’d like its home base to be the library, but that’s not finalized yet,” Robbins said.  

To assist in the fundraising process for future bells, University Advancement will cover the next round but there is also hope of increased donor interest, according to Dawkins.  

“We’d love to see new people who want to give, and even with the economy in the shape it is now, if they could band together and purchase even one of the smaller bells, that’s one bell closer to finishing the tower. Hopefully reaching out to the alumni community will also help,” Dawkins said.  

Robbins said he hopes the tower will be finished before his thirtieth birthday.

“Once this is finished we’ll have civic pride that will reverberate across Raleigh. I want this to happen before I’m thirty,” he said

^