Dr. Jolley in 1985 Dr. Jolley with CCC Veteran Petro Kulynych in 2008
The first time that I met Harley Jolley was in 1985 at the 50th birthday party of the Blue Ridge Parkway, celebrated at the Parkway's birthplace --- Cumberland Knob near the North Carolina and Virginia line. I was there then just an average Parkway visitor who had driven up from Winston-Salem to see what was going on. What struck me most about Dr. Jolley was his navy blue blazer with its smartly sewn embroidered Blue Ridge Parkway logotype insignia. When I first saw him, my reaction then as it is now is that "this guy must be official". He was official because he was regarded for years on end as the Parkway's historian and author of the book called nothing else but simply the Blue Ridge Parkway.
My wife and I had the distinction in pre-Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation days to serve as volunteers in the Blue Ridge Parkway's Volunteer-in-Parks program. We must have done something right because our boss lady asked us if we would like to attend staff training at Crossnore -- the North Carolina Forest Service training facility just north of Linville Falls where all newbie and returning seasonal Parkway employees went to be indoctrinated.
The curriculum was basically four days with outside speakers - most motivational, some not. Dr. Jolley was the guest lecturer whose responsibility was to give the audience a sense of history about the Blue Ridge Parkway. Well, half-way through his presentation, he stands upon the desk to dramatize the famous to this day controversy about the location of the Parkway in North Carolina vs. Tennessee. In Patrick Henry fashion, Dr. Jolley exclaimed nearly at the top of his lungs and with animate arms waving "Taking the Parkway into Tennessee would be like taking a sinner to the gates of heaven, turning them around and then sending them into Purgatory" -- not exact, but close...
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