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F.P. “Bodie” Bodenheimer’s activities at Appalachian include:

President, Appalachian Alumni Association (1965)

President, Yosef Advisory Board

Member, search committee that recommended Dr. Herbert Wey as president

Member, Appalachian Board of Trustees

Member, UNC Board of Governors

Member, ASU Foundation Board of Directors

Member, Athletics Facilities Enhancement Committee

Recipient, Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award, 1972

Recipient, Alumni Association’s Outstanding Service Award, 2002

F.P. “Bodie” Bodenheimer Jr. ’51 never forgot the friends he made at Appalachian State Teachers College, nor the important teachers who influenced his life over the years.  To express his appreciation, he created or supported more than a dozen scholarships in their names and has given financially to other areas of the university. To recognize his generosity, Appalachian’s Former Athletes Association recently awarded him its Special Service Award.

“Appalachian did a lot for me,” said Bodenheimer, CEO of Zickgraff Enterprises in Franklin and a member of the so-called “Duggins Boys,” a tight-knit group of students from humble backgrounds who played football together in the 1950s.

“I had a football scholarship to Western Carolina, but I chose to walk on for Coach E.C. Duggins. That group of football players at Appalachian became very dear to me.  We’ve been a support group for each other – when we married, when babies were born, when we were sick. Over the last 60 years, that crowd has been a great motivator for me.”

Many of his scholarships bear the names of those classmates, like the Lester and Kate Hardin Endowment for Student-Athletes, Jack and Juanita Park Endowment for Athletics, and the Marceline and Jack Neal Jr. Endowment for Student-Athletes.  Another honors his high school English and biology teacher and her husband, who both graduated from Appalachian: the Lindsey E. and Edith Thomas Cagle Endowed Scholarship for Education.

Bodenheimer remembers his first donation to Appalachian, a $100 gift when his monthly teacher’s salary was just $180. “At first, I wanted to give back to Appalachian what it gave me in terms of money for meals and book, room and board. As the economics of my life improved, I began to give more,” he said.

After a short stint as a teacher and coach, Bodenheimer entered banking and worked 30 years for First Citizens Bank. He worked his way up to bank president before retiring. Not ready to slow down, he bought a number of lumber and sawmill companies in the mid-1990s to form Zickgraff Enterprises.

“What I learned from my mother and father, my teachers and from Coach Duggins and the Duggins Boys is so simple but powerful: You can do anything in your life if you believe.  You must believe in yourself, and in God, and other people.”

Athletics help foster that self-empowerment and develop leadership skills necessary for so many facets of life, he said.

Bodenheimer encourages all alumni to support Appalachian, on any level they can. “Some scholarship recipients feel they don’t owe Appalachian anything. As they get older, they’ll find that what they get at Appalachian is something money doesn’t buy,” he said.

Two of his children attended Appalachian and a third went to N.C. State. As a member of the UNC Board of Governors, Bodenheimer had the opportunity to see all 16 UNC institutions, and as a result he said he feels Appalachian offers a sense of caring from faculty and staff that other universities just can’t match.

“Appalachian has shown me over the last 60 years that their interest in students is real and genuine,” he said. “They take these kids and help them be all they can ever dream to be.”

For giving information contact:
Johnny Burleson
Associate Vice Chancellor for Development
burlesonjd@appstate.edu
828-262-4973