Taking Their Turns
Posted on Nov. 14, 1995In its 202-year history, The University of North Carolina has been led by chief executive officers carrying differing titles, from our first “presiding professor,” the Rev. David Kerr, who served from 1794 to 1796; to our first “president,” the Rev. Joseph Caldwell, who served first from 1804 to 1812 (and later from 1816 to 1835); to our first “chairman of the faculty,” Charles Phillips, who served from 1875 to 1876; to our first and only presiding “vice president” (1932-34) and later dean of administration Robert Burton House ’16 (1934-45).
House also was our University’s first chancellor. In the past 50 years, six others have completed terms as chancellor or, as Chancellor Emeritus William Brantley Aycock ’37 (1957-64) once shared with me, “taken their turn.” In addition to House and Aycock, who followed him, we have been led by Chancellors Paul Sharp (1964-66), Joseph Carlyle Sitterson ’31 (1966-72), Nelson Ferebee Taylor ,42 (1972-80), Christopher Columbus Fordham III ’47 (1980-88) and Paul Hardin (1988-95). In October, Michael Hooker ’69 was installed as Carolina’s eighth chancellor.
Each chancellor understood and was inspired by the long, proud tradition of public service to North Carolina that has guided Carolina throughout our history. All but two of our chancellors were Carolina alumni, and all but one concluded their professional careers in Chapel Hill.
With this issue of the Review, we begin a series of articles that will share with readers the contributions of Carolina’s chancellors and recall the challenges our University has faced over the past 50 years. It is interesting to remember that during this period the University System has grown from three campuses to its present 16 and has been led by six presidents — Frank Porter Graham ’09 (1932-49), William Donald Carmichael (acting president 1949-50), Gordon Gray ’30 (1950-55), J. Harris Purks (acting president 1955-56), William Clyde Friday ’48 (1956-86) and Clemmie Dixon Spangler Jr. ’54 (1986-present).
Serving as chief executive officer of the oldest public university in the United States while respecting the growing roll of the University System and its chief executive officers has required diplomacy and patience. Fortunately, Carolina’s chancellors have drawn strength from the legacies of their predecessors. Each chancellor has been comforted by the unconditional support generations of North Carolinians have given to their state University.
Carolina’s chancellors have led our University to greatness and to national and international respect and affection. Serving the people of North Carolina is the special mission that has guided Carolina for several generations and remains unparalleled.
Carolina’s chancellors have respected process and the importance of developing consensus, particularly in addressing difficult issues. Carolina’s chancellors have appreciated the complexity of issues and have evidenced the wisdom born out of patient listening. Each has avoided precipitous action and all have celebrated Carolina’s traditions, traditions nurtured by generations of North Carolinians, among them University faculty, staff, students and alumni — but especially by citizens across the state many of whom did not go to college but who took pride in knowing that an economically poor state had a world-class University to which all bright youngsters could aspire to attend.
Each of Carolina’s chancellors has recognized the opportunity for our University to serve and to lead. Improving the quality of life for all North Carolinians and developing leadership in the professions — such as law, medicine, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, social work, education, journalism, library science and business, to name but a few — have been priorities for each chancellor. Carolina’s chancellors have each been individuals of superior intelligence with impressive records of academic achievement. But it was their human qualities that drew people to them, allowed our chancellors to foster teamwork and permitted those who worked “with” them, not “for” them, to accomplish so much.
Long before there were surveys, Carolina earned international regard for quality, for excellence and for service. By concentrating on our unique mission we could know that consistent, superior performance would take care of any external and too often arbitrary rankings. Most important, our chancellors knew that the character of our University and the culture of Chapel Hill has always valued civility, honesty, excellence, openness and service. These qualities have served Carolina and Carolina’s chancellors well for 50 years.
We hope you enjoy recalling Carolina’s chancellors and the periods in which they served. We also hope that you will share your reactions with us by writing a letter to the editor. Most important, we hope you will provide Carolina’s newest chancellor, Michael Hooker ’69, with the same strong support you have given to each of his seven predecessors.
Yours at Carolina,
Douglas S. Dibbert ’70
