D.G. Martin: Lessons from the class of '48

About 65 years ago in the winter of 1946, a group of World War II veterans enrolled in the class of 1948 at UNC Law School and formed a study group that, some of us believe, had a important and positive influence on North Carolina's history.

One of the members of that group, former state senator John Jordan, explained some of that history the other day at a luncheon hosted by the North Carolina Bar Association. The Bar Association invited its Board of Governors and other leaders to honor former UNC President William Friday.

These days most North Carolinians know President Friday not as the university president, but as host, since 1971, of UNC-TV's interview program, "North Carolina People." Every week Friday introduces us to prominent and interesting fellow citizens, most of whom we would otherwise never get to know. Even more important, Friday's interviews and the way he conducts them makes his guests into our neighbors. His program builds on and maintains a sense of community that is one of North Carolina's important strengths. It is a precious asset that is increasingly threatened by modern pressures that tend to drive us inward and away from connections to a statewide community.

If there were nothing else on Friday's list of contributions, this weekly gift would be enough.

But there is so much more — too much to try to summarize here, including 30 years as a university president and another post-retirement career as the leader of the Kenan Trust and William Rand Kenan Fund.

What does all this have to do with the law school Class of 1948 Study Group? And what does it have to do with the Bar Association's honor for Friday?

Something very few North Carolinians know is that William Friday was a lawyer and that he was a member of that Class of 1948 Study Group. John Jordan explained that, although Friday had passed by a career in law, he used the skills of advocate and mediator over and over again to meet the challenges that faced the university. There were many, including several that could have ruined the University like the Speaker Ban Law, a season of scandal in collegiate athletics and a battle with the federal government about the management of the desegregation of the University's multiple campuses.

Another thing that many North Carolinians do not know is that Friday could always call on members of the Study Group for help. Jordan and the late William Deese were long serving members of the University's Board of Governors, and each served as chair, standing by Friday in the toughest of times.

Another member of the Study Group, William Aycock, taught law and, at Friday's request, served as chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill during the tumultuous 1960s. Another member, Dickson Phillips, was dean of the UNC Law School before becoming a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Acknowledging the Bar Association's honor, Friday explained how the members of the Study Group were part of the World War II generation that Tom Brokaw described as "The Greatest Generation." "We grew up in the depression and after four years in the military, we knew we were the lucky ones that got to come home ... and we just decided to contribute."

Then, Friday looked out over the group of lawyers and said that North Carolina lawyers, like the ones in his Study Group, were part of a profession with a long tradition. "There is an added ingredient. We must do something extra to leave this place a little better."

If more of us followed Friday's admonition and the example of the Class of 1948 Study Group, North Carolina could look forward to another long season of progress.

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D.G. Martin is hosting his final season of UNC-TV's North Carolina Bookwatch, which airs Sundays at 5 p.m. For more information visit www.unctv.org/ncbookwatch/