18 years ago, Thomas Stafford, then vice chancellor of student affairs happened to be at the receiving end of a request he had never heard before. “I guess they just wanted to see what it looked like on the inside of the Belltower,” Stafford said. Word started to spread about the tour, and Stafford had more and more requests to see the Belltower piling up. “Finally, the people down in the facilities office got tired of me coming down and asking for them to lend me the key,” Stafford said. “And so they said, ‘Here, take the key. You don’t need to bring it back, just take good care of it, and don’t let anybody else ever use that key.’” After finishing up his doctorate, Stafford got a call from a name familiar to him and many other NC State students. “That spring, Banks Talley, the man whose name is on the building we’re sitting in, called me on the phone and wanted to know if I would like a job that had opened up,” Stafford said. Stafford took the job and began working as the ...