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Two UNCG professors received the highest civilian honor bestowed by the N.C. governor: the Order of the Long Leaf Pine award.

Robert Calhoon and Bert Goldman both retired this year after more than four decades of teaching at the university - Calhoon as a historian and Goldman as an educational psychologist in the School of Education.

The honor, which is given to those who have served the state for 30 or more years, means the two now belong to a select group of Tar Heels who may, at any time, propose the state toast:

"Here's to the land of the long leaf pine,

"The summer land where the sun doth shine,

"Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,

"Here's to 'down home,' the Old North State!"

Calhoon came to UNCG in 1964 as a professor of early American history. After 44 years, he was invited to an awards ceremony where he was presented with the Long Leaf Pine award.

"It was very satisfying," he said. "North Carolina's been a very good place to do research, especially in American history."

One of Calhoon's special research interests has been the interior part of the state - the backcountry - as well as the early American religious history of the state.

"Early in my research in North Carolina, I began running into religious figures who were either loyalists or patriots, but were men and women with political ideals and who were relatively little studied," he said.

"Religious history of the early republic became sort of a second career."

As the nation's bicentennial approached in the '70s, Calhoon had the opportunity to put some of his research into a book, "The Loyalists in Revolutionary America."

Because the doctoral program in history is relatively new at UNCG, Calhoon will still oversee three doctoral students' dissertations, and he's publishing a new book in October, "Political Moderation in America's First Two Centuries."

Goldman also said the award came as a complete surprise, and only later did he discover what a select group he had joined.

Goldman made a name for himself at UNCG over 43 years by wearing many hats.

Though he started as a professor in the School of Education in 1965, by the '70s he was dean of academic advising, a professor and, of all things, a varsity tennis coach, who coached for free.

He is responsible for writing the grant that would found the school's master's program in educational research and evaluation. After 15 years as a dean, Goldman returned to teaching full time but was asked to teach in the school's higher education program.

To do so, he left for a semester and took courses in the field at UNC-Chapel Hill before coming back to teach himself.

He has taught in the higher education field for 28 years. During the past three years, Goldman has been in phased retirement. Goldman also has published nine volumes of "The Directory of Unpublished Experimental Mental Measures."

"I've just had 43 wonderful years here at UNCG and have seen it grow from 5,000 students to over 17,000," he said.

Contact Kavita Pillai at 373-7157 or kavita.pillai@news-record.com