Life After Friday?

Posted on Jan. 25, 1985

When UNC President William C. Friday ’48 (LLB) announced last September that he would retire by the summer of 1986 he disappointed many who had hoped he would serve beyond the customary retirement age of 65. In the nearly 30 years he has led the consolidated University with consummate skill and sensitivity to the needs of the state. President Friday has dominated higher education in North Carolina. Clark Kerr. former president of the University of California, who chaired a recent commission which reported on a study of university presidents, concluded that the question for the Board of Governors of UNC is “How do you find another Bill Friday?”

Certainly that is the question on the minds of the ten-member selection committee appointed in January by Phil Carson ’63 of Asheville, chairman of the UNC Board. It is a concern that Carolina alumni and friends and other North Carolinians will be discussing in the weeks and months ahead.

The Kerr report revealed that because the stresses on college presidents are so great their average term of office is now only seven years. In that respect, the Friday presidency is almost unique. Bill Friday has been in office longer than any other president now serving a public university and is second in seniority only to The Reverend Theodore Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame, a private university. Friday’s tenure has spanned the terms of office of six UNC-CH Chancellors, and the University system has grown in size and complexity — from three campuses with an enrollment of 25,000 students and a budget of approximately $15 million to sixteen campuses with 122,000 students and a budget of almost one billion dollars.

In partnership with able chancellors, devoted staff, gifted faculty, responsible students, loyal alumni, supportive legislators, and a faithful public, Friday has steered the University through three troubling decades. He has led us ably through the difficult days of campus unrest in the ’60s. the constraints of the economic recessions in the ’70s and ’80s, and the lengthy federal court battle over desegregation. Always he has been supported by his charming wife Ida ’47, herself a loyal and dedicated alumna whose own public contributions have been many.

On every campus, and indeed in every county, in a unique and personal way Bill Friday has touched the lives of the people of North Carolina and helped their hopes and dreams become realities. His unselfish devotion to his public responsibilities and his personal integrity have made him one of the most respected national leaders in higher education.

President Friday’s successor will head the system which includes a world-class flagship institution which we from Chapel Hill are proud to call our alma mater. We know that the Board of Governors will select carefully. Their decision could determine the leadership for public higher education for North Carolina for the rest of the 20th century.

Yours at Carolina,

 

 

 

Douglas S. Dibbert ’70