Editor’s note: Wake Forest is known for connections and how alumni are ever ready to help each other, even across generations.

I met Parker Beverly (’23, MFA ’25) of Pensacola, Florida, when she was an undergraduate working on a classroom assignment that turned into a documentary, “I’m a Woman, Phenomenally: A History of Wake Forest Women.” I hadn’t met Warren Anderson until he and Beverly came to my office to describe projects they were undertaking together — two alums who grew up in Florida decades apart but now helping and learning from each other in Winston-Salem.

Anderson is a 1974 graduate who played on the men’s golf team. He became a lawyer in Jacksonville, Florida, and moved a few years ago to Faculty Drive in Winston-Salem. There, he met his neighbor, Debbie Best (’70, MA ’72), Wake Forest’s first female dean of the College and a psychology professor who taught for 51 years until her retirement in 2023. Provost Emeritus Ed Wilson (’43, P ’91, ’93) lived in the neighborhood, too. Anderson had been his “admirer for over half a century.”

Wilson at some point became known as “Mr. Wake Forest,” a title he was too modest to embrace. But if he were deemed “Mr. Wake Forest,” then Wilson remarked that Best should be known as “Ms. Wake Forest” — that’s how Anderson remembered Wilson’s quick aside that got him thinking about the future. Best and Wilson were dear friends, and Anderson surmised the two had stories to tell that needed to be preserved, especially as Wilson approached 100.

That’s why the two alumni showed up in my office. In August 2022, they had filmed a session with Best and Wilson, interviewing them and encouraging the conversation to unfold between the two friends. They presented to me the project’s article, “Deac to Deac: A Conversation with Dr. Ed Wilson & Dr. Debbie Best.” It arrived in time. Wilson died on March 13, 2024, at 101, but the project created by the two alumni from Florida will last.

Here’s how Anderson, a person accustomed to taking depositions, and Beverly, a budding documentarian, say they became a team.

– Maria Henson (’82)

Warren Anderson: I remember going to (a sports) banquet and not knowing very many people at all. I got lucky because Parker got assigned to my table. … She’s a very easy person to talk to, and we just struck up a conversation, and I was struck by her interest in video and what she’d already done — documenting legacy, which is really important to me.

I went, “Wow. This is a name I need to remember — put on my Rolodex,” to use the term you and I would understand but Parker would laugh at.

I remembered that, and then I went back to Parker later when this Debbie
Best-Ed Wilson plan started getting some momentum.

Parker Beverly: When I got the message from Warren, I was completely on board. I’d always heard of Dr. Wilson, and working in the library, I always knew the Wilson Wing. I would pass the little bust of him and the painting of him all the time. And I had always loved hearing about people’s stories of Mr. Wake Forest. … (The project) kind of combined both my passions for stories but also my love of Wake Forest.

PB: There was a good bit of planning (with Anderson) between me going back home to Florida and then coming back for classes. … We met a lot in person, but also communicated via email, phone, especially about the questions, the things we were going to want to ask them both about and what we were looking to capture in a time capsule of Wake Forest. …

For the most part, we were swimming in tandem, I would say, especially when it came to what we wanted to get out of the project, which was mainly to get two people … for a while to talk about their experiences.

WA: So that was the strategy that Parker helped me with because I wanted to throw out the questions. I had an idea of what topics I wanted them to talk about. Parker and I were discussing, “How do you minimize the interviewer?” We figured out a way to do that, and we encouraged Debbie to not wait for a question if Ed said something: “Jump on it.” And that ultimately turned out to be really cool.

PB: Let them interview each other, basically. Because ultimately, Debbie and Dr. Wilson have a rich history together, so why not just get them in the same place, give them a couple of questions to get them going, and then just look.

WA: That was a great way. They’re so affectionate toward each other, Debbie and Ed, and that came across. … And it was good, and Parker advised me how
to do that.

(Anderson and Beverly showed up at Wilson’s house on Timberlake Lane. Wilson sat in his comfy chair, Best in a chair beside him. Beverly was behind the camera and near the end asked a few questions. Anderson served as the main interviewer when needed. The session lasted about two hours. Then, weeks went by as Beverly worked on the footage, gathered photos and handled transcription. Anderson condensed the material and wrote the article. Through it all, the process engendered respect for each person’s creative gifts.)

PB: I would say having this professional working relationship was something new for me, learning how to approach interviews in a different way. I’m used to being the one doing all the coordination, the interviewing, the camera work and everything. …

I think I learned a lot about life, too. This is where I’m going to get a little philosophical because I think when you have an age difference between two people, you bring different things to the table. He has a lot more experience under his belt than I do. So, you can learn a lot about working with people — not just working with Warren — but working with the subjects.

WA: I see greatness, and I want to touch it. … The project she’s worked on with me here, she’s had an opportunity. I mean, you get to dive in deep with it: “Ed Wilson, tell me about the Holy Grail.” So, she got to witness that and to talk about Debbie Best telling Tim Duncan what to do. I mean Tim Duncan’s the greatest basketball player in the history of Wake Forest!

(Anderson added in a separate email to me: “Parker is a star in her own right — smart, reflective, industrious, compassionate — and she loves Wake Forest University. Surely, she will pass on these qualities to others in her life. I’m grateful I’ve been able to share some of these special times with her.”)

Mentoring Matters

Following are edited highlights from Anderson and Beverly’s “Deac to Deac: A Conversation with Dr. Ed Wilson & Dr. Debbie Best.”

On professor-student connections

Ed Wilson: I was sitting one day in the hall outside my classroom when I was a Wake student. I was trying to decide how I was going to shape my life in college. Dr. Edgar Folk (1921, P ’47, ’50) came by; he didn’t know me. But he saw me sitting there, noticed I was by myself and didn’t seem to be taking part in the world around me. He came over and asked me what I did. I told him I was an English major. He taught English. He said,”Do you ever think about writing?” … And he said: “I want you to come to the Old Gold & Black office one day, and I’ll give you a story so you can take that story and make it into a story of news value.”

So, in that one moment, I became introduced to the newspaper world at Wake Forest. And I then wrote a column for our newspaper. As it turned out, that would not have happened if this one good man had not, for no particular reason, sought me out. … I think that is that kind of experience which ought to be at the heart of college life — an experience which embraces the world we live in, the world we would like to live in and the world we want to be a part of — and the world that somehow will encompass us and bring us together through love.

Debbie Best: Both Ed and I have had students to our homes, so they understand who we are, how we live, what’s important to us, and they feel comfortable. I have had a number of students that have graduated, and their children come to Wake Forest. I’ve taught generations now of students. They will show up at my door and say: “Professor Best, my son or daughter is now here at Wake — I want you to show them the magic that I found.”

On an unexpected, delightful advising role

DB: It all started with (then-coach) Dave Odom calling me and saying, “I have this basketball player. He wants to be a psych major, and he would like to have an adviser who understands what it’s all about. You are the department chair; will you please take him on?” I said, “Absolutely.”

I was sitting at my desk one day, and this shadow comes over my desk, and it’s Tim (Duncan ’97) walking in the door. He was almost 7 feet tall — so there’s a shadow on my desk, and I turn, and we chat. We talked for a long time.

A few weeks later, we needed to meet, but I had to be home because my son was sick. … So, he walked to my house from the campus and came upstairs to see Eric, my son, and told him, “I hope you’ll get to feeling better” and that sort of thing. Well, they connected. Eric was 9 at the time.

A few weeks later, Tim and I were talking about his studies, and he said, “Would it be OK if I just visited occasionally and saw your son?” And I said, “Of course. Come on.”

So, I would get home from work some days, and my son and Tim would be upstairs playing. He ended up staying for dinner fairly often. He would sit on the floor in my kitchen with his feet up on the cabinets while talking with us. I realized he was so tired of looking down at people, (that) it was probably nice for him to look up. …

He’s been a lovely friend. We got to visit him fairly often in San Antonio (where Duncan was a star NBA player for the Spurs). I’ve been to his house, played with his kids, met his family and have just really enjoyed him. Just like Ed said, he brought these wonderful values with him to Wake Forest, nurtured them at Wake Forest and has never changed as a quality person.

On clues to the Holy Grail

EW: Well first, put your head (into) what the Holy Grail is. You might decide that the Holy Grail is the cup out of which Jesus drank. But you might decide that it is the cup that is in your hand whatever your religious beliefs might be.

I think the Grail involves a kind of commitment that you have spent a life that has been valuable. …

Read the full interview here.