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Searched the full chronology of 7,811 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–20.Back to highlights
- Early twentieth century · 1900–1944
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Robert B. House becomes the university's first executive secretary
The trustees created the post of executive secretary to carry part of the president's load, and House, class of 1916, came from the North Carolina Historical Commission to fill it. His first major task was a plan for better teacher training; he ran the office while Chase was abroad in 1927.
Subject: South Building
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The legislature allows $625,000 for a new university library
Plans had called for a library costing as much as $862,000. After Chase's pleading, the 1927 General Assembly provided $625,000, just over half of all the capital money for the campus. Robert B. House kept the project on schedule with the Advisory Budget Commission while Chase was abroad.
People: Harry Woodburn Chase · R. B. House
Subject: UNC Libraries
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Chase resigns to become president of the University of Illinois
The evening before, a full-dress reception at the Carolina Inn marked ten years since Chase's inauguration, with Governor Gardner already holding his resignation. When the Illinois trustees elected Chase the next day, Gardner announced it from Raleigh. The Illinois post reportedly paid $20,000, twice his salary.
People: R. B. House · O. Max Gardner
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Janitors' Association president Elliot Washington asks for help joining a union
In 1934 Dean Robert House wrote to President Frank Porter Graham about a request from association president Elliot Washington for help with union membership, since the janitors could not afford local union dues.
People: Frank Porter Graham · R. B. House
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Robert B. House becomes Dean of Administration at Chapel Hill
As part of consolidation, President Frank Graham chose Robert Burton House, confirmed by the trustees in 1934, as Dean of Administration for the Chapel Hill campus. His title became chancellor in 1945.
People: Frank Porter Graham · R. B. House
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Graham refuses to move Albert Coates out of the law school
In May 1935 Dean Van Hecke reported that Coates's teaching had failed again and, with the whole law faculty behind him, asked that Coates be freed from law school duties to run the Institute. Coates threatened to demand an academic trial; Graham declined the transfer and again refused Van Hecke's offer to resign, and Coates rejoined the law faculty in February 1936 and taught there for thirty years.
People: Frank Porter Graham · R. B. House
Subject: UNC School of Law
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The Chapel Hill Methodist church is dedicated once its debt is paid
Nine years after the building opened, Bishop Paul B. Kern preached the dedication sermon during W. A. Jenkins's pastorate, and Dean Robert B. House presented the building for the official board. Former pastors Walter Patten and C. Excell Rozzelle took part.
People: R. B. House · Walter Patten
Subject: University United Methodist Church
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Charles E. Rush takes charge of the university library
Charles E. Rush, head of the Cleveland Public Library and a former vice president of the American Library Association, took over as university librarian, succeeding Carl M. White, who had left for the University of Illinois. Assistant librarian Olan V. Cook had run the library in the meantime.
People: Olan V. (Olan Victor) Cook · R. B. House
Subject: UNC Libraries
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A regimental review in Kenan Stadium honors Commander Kessing as he leaves for the Pacific
With Admiral Halsey asking for him in the southwest Pacific, Commander O. O. Kessing was ordered to sea duty, and the Pre-Flight School held a regimental review in his honor in Kenan Stadium. Lieutenant Commander John P. Graff succeeded him in command.
People: R. B. House
Subject: Kenan Stadium · Navy Pre-Flight School
- Civil rights era · 1945–1975
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R. B. House becomes the first chancellor at Chapel Hill
North Carolina created chancellorships for its three campuses in 1945, and President Frank Porter Graham turned to House, who had been executive secretary from 1926 and dean of administration from 1934. House held the post until 1957, the longest chancellorship at Chapel Hill.
People: Frank Porter Graham
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Dean McGavran reports the school spread across the old Water Works building and four temporary buildings
Asking Chancellor Robert B. House to put a new public health building first among the university's needs, McGavran wrote that one department sat in the old Water Works building halfway across campus and that four temporary buildings beside MacNider Hall were overfull. The Department of Health Education still kept its office in the Water Works building in the 1950s, and the school waited until 1961 to break ground for its own building.
People: R. B. House
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UNC admits Edward O. Diggs, its first Black medical student
UNC mailed Edward O. Diggs of Winston-Salem, a pre-medical student at A&T College in Greensboro, his letter of admission to the School of Medicine under the trustees' April 4, 1951 policy. He enrolled in the fall of 1951.
People: W. Reece Berryhill · Gordon Gray · R. B. House
Subject: UNC School of Medicine
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Dean Brandis handles the applications of Pauli Murray and three other Black students to the law school
After the trustees left admissions to each professional school's dean, Brandis wrote Chancellor R. B. House about four Black applicants, Pauli Murray, J. Kenneth Lee, Harvey E. Beech and William C. Chance Jr., and on June 6 told Murray the school offered no graduate law courses. The UNC Libraries exhibit reads these letters as showing the law school resisting integration.
People: Pauli Murray · R. B. House · J. Kenneth Lee · Harvey E. Beech
Subject: UNC School of Law
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Bethel Baptist Church marks its hundredth anniversary
Bethel Baptist Church celebrated its centennial with an all-day program and picnic on the grounds. UNC Chancellor Robert B. House gave the morning address and Annie Strowd read notes on the church's history.
People: R. B. House · Annie Strowd
Subject: Bethel Baptist Church
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Orange Methodist Church dedicates three memorial stained glass windows
UNC chancellor Robert B. House preached at the dedication. The windows remember the deceased members of the Women's Society of Christian Service, Samuel J. Brockwell, and the brothers Malcolm C. and John H. Blackwood.
People: R. B. House
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Charles E. Rush retires as the university's director of libraries
Rush retired as librarian on July 1, 1954, after thirteen years. Andrew H. Horn, associate librarian at the University of California at Los Angeles, was chosen to succeed him as director of libraries.
People: Andrew H. (Andrew Harlis) Horn · Gordon Gray · R. B. House
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Jerrold Orne is appointed University Librarian
Chancellor Robert B. House announced Orne's appointment as university librarian, effective August 1, with the approval of President William C. Friday and the trustees. Orne came from the Air University library at Maxwell Air Force Base and succeeded Andrew H. Horn.
People: William C. Friday · Andrew H. (Andrew Harlis) Horn · R. B. House
Subject: UNC Libraries
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The undergraduate library named for R. B. House opens
The building put up in 1964 was occupied by the university in 1968 as the Robert B. House Undergraduate Library, named for the former chancellor.
Subject: UNC Libraries
- Recent decades · 1976–2026
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R. B. House dies in Chapel Hill
House died at his home in Chapel Hill and was buried in the local cemetery. He had retired as chancellor in 1957 and taught in the university's English department until 1962.
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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 3, 2026.
