{"id":9767,"date":"2018-05-28T16:36:36","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T20:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=9767"},"modified":"2024-08-15T14:08:13","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T18:08:13","slug":"heeding-the-calls-reflections-on-a-sea-grant-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/heeding-the-calls-reflections-on-a-sea-grant-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Heeding the Calls: Reflections on a Sea Grant Career"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s been nearly two decades since Jack Thigpen lived on the Outer Banks, but he still remembers its familiar sounds \u2014 especially the harsh whistles of brown thrashers, along with the flute-like notes of wood thrushes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur property was next to Kitty Hawk Woods, a 400- acre reserve with lots of thick underbrush. We could hear them in there, singing and calling as they searched for bugs,\u201d he reflects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thigpen takes equal delight in listening to people \u2014 a skill that served him well in his 20 years with North Carolina Sea Grant, most spent as the program\u2019s extension director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJack always took time to listen to our concerns and to brainstorm about ways to move forward,\u201d says Scott Baker, a Sea Grant fisheries specialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thigpen\u2019s thoughtful, collaborative approaches, and leadership by example, were highlighted as colleagues celebrated his retirement in late March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPerhaps the best indications of Jack\u2019s superior service came when our state or national funding partners would request examples of outstanding university and community outreach efforts,\u201d notes Susan White, North Carolina Sea Grant\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPartners across the state and beyond simply would say, \u2018Call Jack.\u2019 They knew his North Carolina team has been successful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thigpen joined North Carolina Sea Grant in 1998 as an extension specialist with a focus on coastal recreation and tourism. He moved from Texas, where he had been a rural sociologist on the extension faculty at Texas A&M.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Thigpen enjoyed Texas, he yearned to be closer to family in North Carolina and Virginia. \u201cI was ready to go home,\u201d he recalls. So, he checked in with Bob Ditton, his mentor at Texas A&M, who \u201cgave me a Sea Grant extension manual and told me to call Jim Murray.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, Murray was North Carolina Sea Grant\u2019s extension director. He recalls identifying Thigpen as a natural fit for the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJack was a North Carolina native and had an excellent \u2018extension\u2019 personality,\u201d Murray says. \u201cHe was very good at interviewing me, to understand whether he wanted to work for North Carolina Sea Grant \u2014 and me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Murray offered Thigpen the job, but not long thereafter, Murray moved from North Carolina to join the National Sea Grant College Program outside Washington, D.C. There, Murray led the national program\u2019s extension efforts, and later retired as deputy director overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thigpen, on the other hand, stayed in North Carolina \u2014 but kept Murray as a mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even before joining Sea Grant, Thigpen was no stranger to the state\u2019s coastal rhythms. His father\u2019s family had strong connections in Williamston, in eastern North Carolina. Young Jack grew up in Virginia\u2019s piedmont, near Scottsville and the James River. There, the entire family joined the steeplechase community with his father, John Fleming Thigpen Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But fishing was an essential part of summer vacations and holidays spent at the N.C. coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n