Alumni Story

My mom was such a beautiful person and I saw how she helped people. I knew I wanted to help people.”

Shirley Graeber was a local girl, born in Salisbury. She graduated from Dunbar High School in East Spencer. As she considered college, she had two options; Catawba was the easy choice since it had the major that she was interested in pursuing. She knew she wanted to be a social worker; she had long felt a call to help others. Being a helper was modeled for her by her mother, “My mom was such a beautiful person and I saw how she helped people. I knew I wanted to help people.”

At the time she was a student, there was an exchange program that existed which allowed Catawba students to take classes at Livingstone College and Livingstone College students to take classes at Catawba. The program let student participants benefit in learning from great professors at both schools, she recalls specifically Dr. Pollard at Livingstone and Dr. Whitener at Catawba.

After graduation, she went to work as a social worker for Jackson Training School beginning in 1972 and retired from that job in 2008. “God has a path for us. I have five brothers. I used to wish that I had five sisters instead,” she says, explaining that growing up with five brothers uniquely equipped her. It prepared her for understanding and working with the many boys she helped in her career. She knew of resources to help the boys and their parents. She went on to earn her master’s degree in human development and learning from UNC-Charlotte, adding that in that time the only way to get an MSW – a master’s degree in social work - was by quitting your job and going to Carolina, as the campus at UNC-Chapel Hill is often called.  By obtaining her master’s degree in a related area from UNC-Charlotte, she was able to continue to work and drive back and forth to Charlotte for in-person classes in an era before online degrees were available.

As a student at Catawba, she fondly recalls playing field hockey for Coach Nan Whitley and how she really enjoyed it. She felt accepted and part of the team. She also appreciates the relationships she formed and developed with other students while at Catawba and that are still part of her life today. She recently came to campus to celebrate with one of those students, Dr. Dolan Hubbard ’71, as he was honored by the College with the Adrian L. Shuford, Jr. Award.

We at Catawba are proud to share that Shirley Graeber is a trailblazer here at her alma mater. She is the first African American female to attend Catawba College, and we are pleased to name her as first to attend – the first of a great multitude of African American women who have since attended and graduated from Catawba!