Most students at UNC begin their two years in the school’s General College. It is a college where students take survey courses across the curriculum while seeking an appropriate major. In the course of this study, many students are bound to take a class that is completely perpendicular to their own aptitudes, and the only salvation is a good teacher. One of those teachers for me was Jerry Nowell, a philosophy T.A. that actually make Immanuel Kant digestible for a few weeks there in 1990. I glazed over while studying the reading material, but it was only when I heard Nowell’s explanations that I was able to make sense of Kant as well as several political theorists.

Nowell went on to work in his family’s modern furniture business in Cary and has been a strong supporter of the area’s fascinating Modernist Architecture movement. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma earlier this year. His approach to this diagnosis is the subject of Today’s episode of “My Carolina Today” on NBC17 . The show airs at 11am .

Here is the press release:

October 30, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Jerry Nowell, a man who normally prefers to remain in the background running his award-winning store Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture in Cary, is going before the cameras next week to discuss his battle with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, and the fundraiser he’ll launch in November to benefit Multiple Myeloma Cancer Research at Duke Medicine.

Nowell will be a featured guest on NBC 17’s “My Carolina Today” show on Monday, November 1, at 11 a.m. Joining him will be Dr. Cristina Gasparetto, a specialist in laboratory and clinical research in the field of multiple myeloma at Duke Medicine.

Multiple myeloma is cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow.

Nowell, 49, was diagnosed in May after a routine check up. Since then, he’s been sharing his progress on Facebook and planning “Nowell’s Fund To Fight Multiple Myeloma” in association with the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The furniture store has been sponsoring holiday-season charitable fundraisers for several years. Nowell’s decision to make cancer research at Duke the recipient of this year’s fundraiser was obviously personal.

“While there is currently no cure for multiple myeloma, on-going research raises great hope that emerging therapies may turn it into a manageable disease and, ultimately, lead to a cure,” he said.

Dr. Gasparetto will discuss some of those advances when the show airs.