Want your ashes scattered at your alma mater? Here’s what NC laws (& schools) say about it
Purchasing an engraved paver or some other memorial object at your alma mater is one thing. Scattering ashes on campus is another.
But if you’re so inclined, it is legal — sometimes — to spread ashes at some Raleigh-area universities.
To avoid unnecessarily scaring the undergrads, use this guide to learn when, where and how to spread cremated remains at area colleges.
Where can ashes be spread in North Carolina?
North Carolina’s General Statutes dictate where cremated remains may be scattered:
- Over uninhabited public land
- Over a public waterway or sea, subject to health and environmental standards
- On private property of a consenting owner
Can you spread ashes at Duke University?
Duke is private property, and the university only allows remains to be placed in a certain areas: the Memorial Garden at Sarah P. Duke Gardens.
A $25,000 donation per individual must be given to the university before any remains may be added to the garden. Ashes may be placed in a biodegradable urn or placed directly into the ground. It’s also possible to preserve the ashes and have a marker placed in a chosen spot.
As of publication, 127 people are memorialized at the garden.
Who’s buried at Duke University?
But bodies are buried at Duke’s campus. In the Memorial Chapel, Washington Duke and his sons, Benjamin N. Duke and James B. Duke, are entombed. They were the benefactors for whom the university gets its name, according to the chapel’s website.
There’s also a crypt beneath the chapel, where a handful of people with ties to the university lie:
- William Preston Few: the university’s first president
- Nanaline Holt Duke: James B. Duke’s wife
- Julian Deryl Hart: Duke’s fourth president
- Mary Hart: Julian Deryl Hart’s wife
- Terry Sanford: the university’s sixth president, and former governor of North Carolina and U.S. Senator
- Margaret Rose Sanford: Terry Sanford’s wife
In addition to the buried bodies, the crypt contains cremated remains of three people:
- James A. Thomas: former chair of the Duke Memorial Association
- James T. Cleland: former dean of Duke Chapel
- Alice Mead Cleland: wife of James T. Cleland
Can you spread ashes at N.C. State University?
N.C. State University does not allow people to scatter cremated remains on campus. Sorry, Wolfpack.
But a graveyard on campus did make headlines several years ago.
Theophilus Hunter — a colonial planter and leader in the American Revolution — is buried alongside 17 other unmarked graves on its Spring Hill property. In 2018, the university placed an advertisement in The N&O with the label “Notice of Intention to Relocate Cemetery,” we previously reported.
N.C. State’s then vice chancellor for real estate and development, Jeff Bandini, told The N&O that the university just wanted to learn more about the graves, and placed the ad to get in touch with Hunter’s descendants and learn their wishes.
The graves were left in place.
Can you spread ashes at UNC-Chapel Hill?
Like Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus contains designated spaces for placing cremated remains.
The university’s Memorial Grove, located near Country Club Road and Raleigh Road, adjacent to the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, is open to people affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill and their immediate family members.
Families may choose where they scatter ashes, as long as it’s in one of the designated areas. If they want to bury the ashes, the university will select a spot.
The university encourages families to bury ashes directly, but if they choose to bury a container with ashes inside, the container must be biodegradable and meet size regulations.
A $750 fee covers an entry on the Wall of Remembrance, along with the scattering or burial of ashes.
Who’s buried at UNC-Chapel Hill?
The Old Chapel Hill Cemetery is on the university’s campus, but it’s owned and maintained by the Town of Chapel Hill. It was originally called the College Graveyard and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Founded as an interment place for students who died during their time at UNC, the cemetery has grown. As of 2017, it included graves of more than 1,700 people, the Durham Herald-Sun previously reported.
The cemetery was racially segregated, and enslaved people, university workers and freedmen who may have worked at the school are among those buried there, according to the Town of Chapel Hill. Many of their graves were marked with a field stone, rather than a headstone or inscription, and the stones were removed or relocated, leaving many unidentified graves.
But there are many marked graves and several notable people are buried there:
- Dean Smith: former men’s basketball coach, one of the first in the South to recruit an African-American athlete (Charlie Scott)
- Charles Kuralt: journalist known for his tenure at CBS
- Frank Porter Graham: former president of UNC
- Isaac Hall Manning: former university dean who founded North Carolina Hospital Savings Association, which later merged with another organization to become North Carolina Blue Cross and Blue Shield
- Georgia Carroll Kyser: actress, model and singer best known for her work with Kay Kyser’s big band
- Robert D.W. Connor: first archivist of the United States, nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Francis Hogan: first associate athletics director for women’s sports at UNC
- George Kirkland: first Black dentist in Chapel Hill
- Louis Round Wilson: professor, librarian and historian for whom the Wilson Library is named
This story was originally published August 27, 2024 at 5:30 AM with the headline "Want your ashes scattered at your alma mater? Here’s what NC laws (& schools) say about it."
