Carl Tucker Honored to Received Pete Moffitt Courage Award
11/10/2022 8:00:00 AM | General
“I felt right at home from the beginning when I first stepped onto Wake Forest’s campus.” – Carl Tucker
As one of the first to graduate from Wake Forest with a bachelor's degree in economics, Carl Tucker's social life largely revolved around his fraternity and Demon Deacons Athletics.
His proud affiliation and relationship with Wake Forest Athletics has continued for more than 50 years as Tucker has maintained a Deacon Club membership, endowed the Carl and Linda Tucker Family Athletics Scholarship, served as President of the Deacon Club Board of Directors and helped fund numerous other facility improvements with his generosity.
Tucker is being recognized with the 2022 Pete Moffitt Courage Award, which was established in 2012 in recognition of Wake Forest alumnus, Pete Moffitt ('84), who displayed tremendous courage while battling ALS. The Moffitt Courage award is given each year to a Wake Forest student-athlete, coach or alumnus who has demonstrated great courage.
"Coach Dave Clawson has done a great job of getting the students to come back," Tucker said. "When I was there, that was your social life. It was built around the games."
Joking that he probably would have stayed on campus during the holidays when he was a student in the mid-60s, Tucker said he's always been a big sports fan.
"Brian Piccolo was the big story when I got to Wake Forest," Tucker said. "However, our program took off when Coach Bill Tate got there and in the first two games they beat Virginia and Virginia Tech to start the season 2-0.
"Coach Tate came in and the enthusiasm just for Wake Forest being competitive was amazing. I was a big sports fan and enjoyed those times, as did most of my classmates."
To this day, more than 54 years after his graduation, Tucker is unable to quantify exactly what drew him to Wake Forest.
"People ask me that, and I didn't know a single soul there," he said with a chuckle. "I had been accepted to Chapel Hill, and even coming from South Carolina, that's where most of my family members had gone. I don't really know the answer.
"There was a physician in this small town (Pageland, South Carolina) who had been to Wake Forest. He would mention the school to me occasionally. They didn't have the application numbers they have now, and I probably wouldn't have gotten in by today's standards."
Despite no clear impetus for his collegiate selection, Tucker settled in at Wake Forest quickly, and the relationships built on campus have been enduring.
"It didn't take long," he said. "Many of the students were from North and South Carolina and often from small towns. I have four different friends who we pledged to the same fraternity and we've stayed in contact. Pageland was the biggest town any of them were from. It fit at the time what I was used to coming from a high school graduating class of 52 people. I felt right at home from the beginning."
After his time at Wake Forest, he spent two years at Ohio State in graduate school and then he taught at Wingate University. Later, Tucker decided to join the family business, C.M. Tucker Lumber, which was started by his grandfather in Pageland back in 1920.
"After two years, I was disillusioned with school and economics," Tucker said. "I began to question if that was what I wanted to do.
"I decided I liked the family business. My wife (Linda, who he met during the summer of after his sophomore year at Wake Forest while both worked at Acadia National Park) was a home economics teacher here in Pageland. We were both happy with the situation and the company started to grow. We just decided to stay put and we're still here. You could say I backed into it. I've been very happy, having been raised in a small town and we've raised our kids here. I have absolutely no regrets or wish we'd done something different."
Three of their four sons, David, Mark and Andrew attended Wake Forest, while Paul went to Duke. All four now also work at C.M. Tucker Lumber, which is the second-largest employer in Pageland, with more than 400 employees.
"All four boys have decided, with no pressure, that's what they would do," Tucker said. "We're so fortunate to see the boys. Three of them commute from Charlotte everyday, but they're happy and it's been a great situation. Our customers are the big box companies like Lowe's. We thrive on chain retailers."
Wake Forest Athletics has been a way of life for the Tucker family.
"The boys could spell W-A-K-E F-O-R-E-S-T before they could spell their names," Tucker joked. "Having a common team among us to root for definitely continued to kindle all of our interest.
"Until I got sick, I never missed an ACC Basketball Tournament. That was something me and the boys always did together, even after it began to move around. We went and had good times. We've done those kinds of things together and it's been really rewarding."
Eight years ago, Tucker was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.
"It's very slow growing," Tucker said. "I've been a patient of the same oncologist in Charlotte all these years. The recommended treatment is to do nothing for a while and see how it does. It never gets active enough to get treatment, but after six years mine did. It got pretty aggressive."
When he was first diagnosed, his doctors told him new treatments were coming along all the time, and that by the time it would be needed there would likely be revolutionary ways to combat the disease. Turns out, they were correct.
"They tried an oral treatment on me, which wasn't even available when I was first diagnosed, and it worked," Tucker said. "We knocked the leukemia back. This type of leukemia isn't curable, but it's manageable. We managed it, but one of the side effects is that your immune system gets beaten down."
With his immune system knocked down to virtual inexistence, Tucker has since battled constant squamous cell carcinomas, a type of skin cancer that has to be removed.
"If you don't get them taken care of, they can metastasize," he said. "I've had 60 of them and they have to be removed. Unfortunately, I've had squamous carcinomas metastasize into my lymph nodes. We started treatment for that in the summer. This is an intravenous treatment, and it seems to be working. It's smaller than when first diagnosed."
Each of the 60 cases of squamous cell carcinomas had to be surgically removed, meaning Tucker has scars on his arms, legs and face.
I go to the dermatologist once a month," he said. "I've had as many as four at a time come back cancerous. I've had them everywhere."
"Having two types of cancer going at the same time means an imperfect treatment plan. The skin cancers metastasized into my lymph nodes, but I am hanging in there and functioning."
Of course, having an ineffective immune system during an ongoing global pandemic means Tucker and his wife Linda have had to add extra caution into their daily lives. He's been to just one Wake Forest football game this year — the double overtime thriller against Clemson.
"My wife and I have not been in a restaurant for two-and-a-half years," Tucker said. "I just can't take that risk. I've been told if I get that, I'm in trouble. My main objective is to be careful. I wear a mask all the time and I can do things outside. I've always been a religious person, but I haven't been in our church sanctuary in more than two years. I'm doing what the doctors have advised. Any indoor setting is dangerous."
Executive Associate Athletic Director worked with Tucker to provide a safe environment for him to attend the Clemson game, and he plans to be back in mid-November to see the Deacs take on UNC.
"I can't just go and sit in the crowd, even with a mask on," Tucker explained. "The impact of my diagnosis with the Covid stuff has been a big psychological issue for me."
Tucker has demurred over winning the Pete Moffitt Courage Award and being recognized for his resilience.
"I'm doing what the doctors tell me to do, and I have good ones," he said. "I have confidence in them.
"We all have friends who have gotten a much-worse diagnosis from cancer than I have."
He credits family and faith for helping him navigate these troubling times.
"It would have been impossible to maintain my demeanor without my wife's support," Tucker said. "When I say I haven't been places, she hasn't either. She didn't want to contract Covid and give it to me. I've had a tremendous amount of support from here.
"We've been married 54 years and fortunately we get along, because we've seen a lot of each other in the last two-and-a-half years. I have a strong faith that has certainly been comforting to me."
His proud affiliation and relationship with Wake Forest Athletics has continued for more than 50 years as Tucker has maintained a Deacon Club membership, endowed the Carl and Linda Tucker Family Athletics Scholarship, served as President of the Deacon Club Board of Directors and helped fund numerous other facility improvements with his generosity.
Tucker is being recognized with the 2022 Pete Moffitt Courage Award, which was established in 2012 in recognition of Wake Forest alumnus, Pete Moffitt ('84), who displayed tremendous courage while battling ALS. The Moffitt Courage award is given each year to a Wake Forest student-athlete, coach or alumnus who has demonstrated great courage.
"Coach Dave Clawson has done a great job of getting the students to come back," Tucker said. "When I was there, that was your social life. It was built around the games."
Joking that he probably would have stayed on campus during the holidays when he was a student in the mid-60s, Tucker said he's always been a big sports fan.
"Brian Piccolo was the big story when I got to Wake Forest," Tucker said. "However, our program took off when Coach Bill Tate got there and in the first two games they beat Virginia and Virginia Tech to start the season 2-0.
"Coach Tate came in and the enthusiasm just for Wake Forest being competitive was amazing. I was a big sports fan and enjoyed those times, as did most of my classmates."
To this day, more than 54 years after his graduation, Tucker is unable to quantify exactly what drew him to Wake Forest.
"People ask me that, and I didn't know a single soul there," he said with a chuckle. "I had been accepted to Chapel Hill, and even coming from South Carolina, that's where most of my family members had gone. I don't really know the answer.
"There was a physician in this small town (Pageland, South Carolina) who had been to Wake Forest. He would mention the school to me occasionally. They didn't have the application numbers they have now, and I probably wouldn't have gotten in by today's standards."
Despite no clear impetus for his collegiate selection, Tucker settled in at Wake Forest quickly, and the relationships built on campus have been enduring.
"It didn't take long," he said. "Many of the students were from North and South Carolina and often from small towns. I have four different friends who we pledged to the same fraternity and we've stayed in contact. Pageland was the biggest town any of them were from. It fit at the time what I was used to coming from a high school graduating class of 52 people. I felt right at home from the beginning."
After his time at Wake Forest, he spent two years at Ohio State in graduate school and then he taught at Wingate University. Later, Tucker decided to join the family business, C.M. Tucker Lumber, which was started by his grandfather in Pageland back in 1920.
"After two years, I was disillusioned with school and economics," Tucker said. "I began to question if that was what I wanted to do.
"I decided I liked the family business. My wife (Linda, who he met during the summer of after his sophomore year at Wake Forest while both worked at Acadia National Park) was a home economics teacher here in Pageland. We were both happy with the situation and the company started to grow. We just decided to stay put and we're still here. You could say I backed into it. I've been very happy, having been raised in a small town and we've raised our kids here. I have absolutely no regrets or wish we'd done something different."
Three of their four sons, David, Mark and Andrew attended Wake Forest, while Paul went to Duke. All four now also work at C.M. Tucker Lumber, which is the second-largest employer in Pageland, with more than 400 employees.
"All four boys have decided, with no pressure, that's what they would do," Tucker said. "We're so fortunate to see the boys. Three of them commute from Charlotte everyday, but they're happy and it's been a great situation. Our customers are the big box companies like Lowe's. We thrive on chain retailers."
Wake Forest Athletics has been a way of life for the Tucker family.
"The boys could spell W-A-K-E F-O-R-E-S-T before they could spell their names," Tucker joked. "Having a common team among us to root for definitely continued to kindle all of our interest.
"Until I got sick, I never missed an ACC Basketball Tournament. That was something me and the boys always did together, even after it began to move around. We went and had good times. We've done those kinds of things together and it's been really rewarding."
Eight years ago, Tucker was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia.
"It's very slow growing," Tucker said. "I've been a patient of the same oncologist in Charlotte all these years. The recommended treatment is to do nothing for a while and see how it does. It never gets active enough to get treatment, but after six years mine did. It got pretty aggressive."
When he was first diagnosed, his doctors told him new treatments were coming along all the time, and that by the time it would be needed there would likely be revolutionary ways to combat the disease. Turns out, they were correct.
"They tried an oral treatment on me, which wasn't even available when I was first diagnosed, and it worked," Tucker said. "We knocked the leukemia back. This type of leukemia isn't curable, but it's manageable. We managed it, but one of the side effects is that your immune system gets beaten down."
With his immune system knocked down to virtual inexistence, Tucker has since battled constant squamous cell carcinomas, a type of skin cancer that has to be removed.
"If you don't get them taken care of, they can metastasize," he said. "I've had 60 of them and they have to be removed. Unfortunately, I've had squamous carcinomas metastasize into my lymph nodes. We started treatment for that in the summer. This is an intravenous treatment, and it seems to be working. It's smaller than when first diagnosed."
Each of the 60 cases of squamous cell carcinomas had to be surgically removed, meaning Tucker has scars on his arms, legs and face.
I go to the dermatologist once a month," he said. "I've had as many as four at a time come back cancerous. I've had them everywhere."
"Having two types of cancer going at the same time means an imperfect treatment plan. The skin cancers metastasized into my lymph nodes, but I am hanging in there and functioning."
Of course, having an ineffective immune system during an ongoing global pandemic means Tucker and his wife Linda have had to add extra caution into their daily lives. He's been to just one Wake Forest football game this year — the double overtime thriller against Clemson.
"My wife and I have not been in a restaurant for two-and-a-half years," Tucker said. "I just can't take that risk. I've been told if I get that, I'm in trouble. My main objective is to be careful. I wear a mask all the time and I can do things outside. I've always been a religious person, but I haven't been in our church sanctuary in more than two years. I'm doing what the doctors have advised. Any indoor setting is dangerous."
Executive Associate Athletic Director worked with Tucker to provide a safe environment for him to attend the Clemson game, and he plans to be back in mid-November to see the Deacs take on UNC.
"I can't just go and sit in the crowd, even with a mask on," Tucker explained. "The impact of my diagnosis with the Covid stuff has been a big psychological issue for me."
Tucker has demurred over winning the Pete Moffitt Courage Award and being recognized for his resilience.
"I'm doing what the doctors tell me to do, and I have good ones," he said. "I have confidence in them.
"We all have friends who have gotten a much-worse diagnosis from cancer than I have."
He credits family and faith for helping him navigate these troubling times.
"It would have been impossible to maintain my demeanor without my wife's support," Tucker said. "When I say I haven't been places, she hasn't either. She didn't want to contract Covid and give it to me. I've had a tremendous amount of support from here.
"We've been married 54 years and fortunately we get along, because we've seen a lot of each other in the last two-and-a-half years. I have a strong faith that has certainly been comforting to me."
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