UNC alumnus Takey Crist (B.A. philosophy ’59, M.D. ’65) has been a pioneering champion for women’s health and reproductive rights for decades.
But the Jacksonville, N.C. obstetrician and gynecologist and founder of the Crist Clinic for Women has also had another lifelong passion — a commitment to preserving his Cypriot heritage. His parents were immigrants from Cyprus, and Crist first visited the island when he was nine years old. Since then, he has been to Cyprus more than 30 times.
To help further Greek studies at UNC, Crist has donated a collection of about 150 rare books on Cypriot and eastern Mediterranean history and 40 artifacts to the classics department in the College of Arts and Sciences. The artifacts — mostly pottery and sculpture — represent nearly 2000 years of Cypriot history from the Early Bronze Age to the Classical period (the late 3rd millennium B.C. to ca. 500 B.C.)
The Crist Collection will be housed in the Archaeology Seminar Room in Murphey Hall, where the artifacts are already being used for teaching and hands-on training in undergraduate and graduate seminars in archaeology.
“The Crist Collection substantially augments our existing collection because of its preservation and age span,” said Donald Haggis, the Nicholas A. Cassas Term Professor of Greek Studies and director of undergraduate studies in the classics department. “Pottery in the ancient world was not just utilitarian, it was politically, socially and economically important. To be able to get a feel for how the pottery was used — as archaeologists, this experiential aspect is a vital part of the educational experience.”
Andrea Summers, a senior classical archaeology major from Cincinnati, was able to use the Crist Collection in a ceramics seminar taught by Haggis. She said because ceramics are such a core element of field archaeology, that a thorough understanding of production methods, chronologies and typologies is a basic necessity.
“The course was particularly beneficial because we were able to study the Cypriot collection rather than simply read descriptions and look at pictures,” Summers said. “This ability to physically handle and draw the pottery is imperative in understanding ceramics. And as the collection includes everything from Minoan pottery through Roman, I have now been exposed to many of the ceramic types I will encounter in future excavations.”
Crist has had an enduring love for the Carolina Tar Heels. He was awarded an academic scholarship to UNC, which he later gave up to accept a full athletic scholarship to play football. He decided to pursue an undergraduate major in philosophy because he thought it was important to have an understanding of the world around him. He later served as chief resident and as a faculty member at the UNC Schools of Medicine and Public Health.
“I had always wanted to go to med school, but I felt like to be well-rounded, you needed to do other things,” Crist said. “Philosophy motivated me to think and understand logic. And UNC looked after me and helped me to understand a lot about life.”
Crist first became interested in archaeology in classes with beloved professor James P. Harland, the first classical archaeologist hired at UNC in 1922.
After the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey in 1974, Crist became concerned about the preservation of antiquities and began collecting them; he later founded The Cyprus Museum in Jacksonville to house his growing collection.
Crist has won many honors, both for his professional work and his humanitarian achievements. He is a recipient of UNC’s Distinguished Service Award and the North Carolina Governor’s Award as well as the Ellis Island Freedom Award and the Cyprus Foundation of America’s Man of the Year Award. He is an Honorary Consulate for the Republic of Cyprus and has written several papers on the restoration of human rights on the island.
