Doris Perry Stam grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, but spent countless hours in and around the mountains of Boone and Watauga County where relatives from both sides of her parents’ families were as plentiful as the beautiful rhododendron blossoms dotting the surrounding hillsides. Her great-great uncle, Blan Dougherty, and his brother, Dauph, and wife, Lillie, were almost legendary by the time Doris was old enough to understand who they were. But it wasn’t until years later, while leafing through a family photo album and reading a book by her grandfather (O. L. Brown), that she realized how significant a role her three ancestors had played in North Carolina’s educational landscape. She began editing her grandfather’s book, researched countless newspaper articles and books, and interviewed dozens of Dougherty relatives and friends to create this family journal, one which parallels the early history of Appalachian State University.

Doris Stam has a degree in music education (UNC-Chapel Hill) and a master’s degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary where her husband is a professor of worship and music in the School of Church Ministries. She taught music at Durham Academy and Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill. Teaching first grade at the Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky, has been her most recent professional delight. The Stams have three children, Michael, Martin, and Clara.