Stanbacks receive state's highest civilian honor

DURHAM (AP) — Fred and Alice Stanback were among 10 people who received the North Carolina Award, the state's highest civilian honor.

Others included former Gov. Jim Martin, ex-University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith and "Cold Mountain" author Charles Frazier

Gov. Mike Easley and first lady Mary Easley, who presented the annual awards during a dinner at a Durham hotel Monday, honored individuals for their contributions to the arts, public service and science. There have been more than 230 recipients since the first presentation in 1964. Honorees receive a medallion.

The awards "are given to those North Carolinians whose contributions to the state are enduring and truly significant," the governor said in a news release. "We are fortunate to live in a state with so many outstanding individuals who, through their leadership, their talents and their time, have helped make North Carolina a better place to live."

The Stanbacks are husband-and-wife land conservationists from Salisbury. They have helped protect North Carolina's leading natural and recreational areas, served on various environmental boards and helped establish Catawba College's Center for the Environment.

Others honored were: education advocate and philanthropist Ann Goodnight; Maurice Brookhart, a chemistry professor at UNC-Chapel Hill; Gerald Freedman, dean of the drama school at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem; Alexander Rivera Jr., a longtime photographer in the black press who covered the civil rights movement and died Oct. 23 at the age of 95; and Margaret Maron, a crime and mystery novelist from Johnston County.