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Local figure

William B. Aycock

Aycock taught in the law school at Chapel Hill and was chancellor from 1957 to 1964. In 1961 he suspended a basketball player who had taken money from a gambler, saying the integrity of the institution was involved, and made Dean Smith head coach. He called the 1963 speaker ban law an insult.

Source: UNC-Chapel Hill: Former Chancellor William B. Aycock dies at 99

Also found in catalogs as William B. (William Brantley) Aycock, William Brantley Aycock.

1915–2015 · Dates from the Library of Congress · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

29 works about William B. Aycock are indexed here, as is one work by Aycock.

Search these works Research sources View indexed works ↓
William B. Aycock, 1959
William B. Aycock, 1959

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

StorylineThe Thomas Jefferson Award at UNC, 1965–20041965–2004 · 9 events · UNC's Thomas Jefferson Award, a cash prize paid from the income of a gift, went to the faculty member whose life best reflected the spirit of Jefferson. Winners included historian Fletcher M. Green in 1965, former chancellor William B. Aycock in 1967, physicist Eugen Merzbacher in 1972, Walter Spearman in 1978, political scientist Richard Richardson in 1987 and orthopedic surgeon Frank Wilson in 1992. Law professor Charles E. Daye won it in 2004.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 23 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Terry Sanford revives Boys State, with William Friday among its counselors After finishing his law courses, Sanford organized the first postwar Boys State session, staffed mostly by law students as counselors. Among them were William Friday, later president of the Consolidated University, whose first university paycheck came from the job, and William Aycock, a future chancellor. People: Terry Sanford, William B. Aycock, William C. Friday Place: UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: William AycockSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 206
  2. Victory Village is built to house married veterans at UNC As returning veterans pushed enrollment to about 6,800, the federal government put up the prefabricated metal houses of Victory Village on 65 acres of UNC's south campus in 1946. About 350 student families lived there, and the last units were torn down in the early 1970s for the expansion of UNC Hospitals. People: Terry Sanford, William C. Friday, William B. Aycock Place: Chapel Hill (UNC south campus) · Also mentions: UNC Hospitals, Victory VillageSearch the index · UNC A to Z: Victory Village
  3. County commissioners name the rural members of Chapel Hill's enlarged planning and zoning boards Under a 1953 legislative act that extended Chapel Hill's planning and zoning to a limited area outside the town with equal rural representation, the commissioners appointed Wallace Womble, Sandy McClamroch, Glenn Snipes, Frank G. Umstead and Luke Connor to the Planning and Zoning Commission. They named J. H. Sparrow, William B. Aycock, Dr. W. R. Berryhill, Roland Womble and John S. Williams to the Board of Adjustment, joining members already chosen by the aldermen. People: Sandy McClamroch, William B. Aycock, W. Reece Berryhill Place: Chapel Hill and its surrounding area · Also named: Wallace Womble, Glenn Snipes, Frank G. Umstead, Luke Connor, J. H. Sparrow, Roland Womble, John S. WilliamsSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 8, 1953, p. 1
  4. County commissioners fill the Greater Chapel Hill zoning boards The commissioners named five residents from outside the town to each of the two ten-member boards of the Greater Chapel Hill Zoning District, putting the long-pending Planning Board and Board of Adjustment to work beside five members each named by the Chapel Hill aldermen, with terms dated from July 1. Frank Umstead, the planning board's acting chairman, headed the county list, and William B. Aycock was reappointed to the Board of Adjustment. People: Sandy McClamroch, William B. Aycock Place: Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough · Also named: Frank UmsteadSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 4, 1955, p. 1
  5. The trustees make the Institute's professional staff professors of public law and government Chancellor William B. Aycock won trustee approval for the Institute's assistant directors to hold the rank of professor of public law and government. The rank carried academic tenure, which strengthened the Institute's place in the University and made recruiting easier. People: William B. Aycock Place: Institute of Government, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 262
  6. William B. Aycock serves as chancellor of UNC at Chapel Hill Aycock, on the law faculty at Chapel Hill since 1948, was chief administrator of the university there from July 1, 1957 until August 1964. His records cover desegregation, the state's speaker ban law and the Dixie Classic betting scandal. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Office of Chancellor, William Brantley Aycock Records, 1957-1964 (finding aid)
  7. UNC enrolls a record 7,959 students Fall registration passed the 1948 postwar peak of 7,603, with 6,328 men and 1,631 women from 48 states, the District of Columbia and 36 foreign countries; North Carolinians made up 74 percent. Crowding put three to a room in some men's dormitories while the University built 208 apartments for married students behind Memorial Hospital. People: William B. Aycock Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Memorial HospitalSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 1, 1959, p. 24
  8. UNC ends public children's swimming in the Woollen Gym pools Chancellor William B. Aycock told Mayor O. K. Cornwell that from the next summer the two Woollen Gymnasium pools would be open only to University people and their families, to serve a growing student body and faculty. The public summer swimming program, begun in 1938 by Cornwell as head of physical education, had taught several thousand children to swim. People: William B. Aycock, Oliver K. Cornwell Place: Woollen Gymnasium, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 16, 1960, p. 6
  9. The University library receives its millionth volume on University Day At the University Day exercises Frank B. Hanes of Winston-Salem presented the University of North Carolina library with its one millionth volume, received by librarian Jerrold Orne and Chancellor William B. Aycock. A 13-year listing of 3,486 graduate dissertations and theses was published as part of the celebration. People: Jerrold Orne, William B. Aycock Place: Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill · Also named: Frank B. Hanes · Also mentions: University of North Carolina librarySearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 13, 1960, p. 1
  10. Aycock suspends a basketball player in the betting scandal and makes Dean Smith head coach After the player Doug Moe admitted that he had accepted $75 from a gambler, Chancellor Aycock suspended him on Thursday, May 4, 1961, and said the integrity of the institution was involved. Aycock then raised assistant coach Dean Smith to head coach. People: Dean Smith Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Doug MoeSearch the index · UNC-Chapel Hill: Former Chancellor William B. Aycock dies at 99 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 11, 1961, p. 13
  11. Ground is broken for the School of Public Health's own building State voters approved a bond issue on October 27, 1959 that included $1 million for the building, after the North Carolina Public Health Association urged its 1,200 members to back it, and the Public Health Service added $700,000 in matching funds. Ground was broken early in 1961: Korstad gives January 16 in his text and February 6 in a photo caption, and a Daily Tar Heel photo of February 19 shows Chancellor William B. Aycock turning the first shovel with Dean McGavran beside him. People: Edward G. McGavran, William B. Aycock Place: School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · Robert Rodgers Korstad, Dreaming of a Time: The School of Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1939-1989 (1990), scan p. 111 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 19, 1961, p. 3
  12. The Orange Industrial Development Corporation opens its stock drive with a rally at Carrboro School About 100 people heard state, Research Triangle and university speakers at the kickoff rally of the new corporation, formed to buy land and attract industry to the county, and more than half bought or pledged $10 shares toward a first-year goal of $100,000. The News called it the county's first concerted effort of the kind. People: William B. Aycock Place: Carrboro Elementary School, CarrboroSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 25, 1961, p. 4
Show all 23 dated events
  1. Workmen cut several tons of limbs from the Davie Poplar Working from the Chapel Hill fire department's aerial ladder truck, a tree crew cut several tons of branches from the decaying Davie Poplar, which had grown dangerously top-heavy, after Chancellor William B. Aycock decided the tree would be left standing. The wood went to Fitch Lumber Company in Carrboro to be sawn and dried, with plans to give it to the Alumni Association for souvenirs. People: William B. Aycock Place: Davie Poplar, UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Fitch Lumber CompanySearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 8, 1961, p. 1
  2. Albert Coates gives Chancellor Aycock a 158-page account of the Institute's past and needs Using staff tallies of thirty years of Institute publications, training and finances, Coates wrote Chancellor William B. Aycock a long report on how the Institute began and grew and what it would need. It also argued for waiving the retirement rule in his case, and it became the core of his later published history of the Institute. People: Albert Coates, William B. Aycock Place: Institute of Government, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), pp. 268-269
  3. Chapel Hill honors Representative John W. Umstead at a community dinner About 400 people at a public banquet in the University's Lenoir Hall honored John W. Umstead Jr., dean of the General Assembly, whom The News called the father of the state's mental hospital program, with Gov. Terry Sanford, his college roommate Frank Porter Graham, President William Friday and others speaking. Mrs. Umstead shared the honors, and the couple received a color television and a framed tribute. People: Terry Sanford, Frank Porter Graham, William C. Friday, William B. Aycock, John W. Umstead Jr. Place: Lenoir Hall, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 19, 1962, p. 1
  4. Chancellor Aycock chooses John Sanders to succeed Albert Coates as director of the Institute After Coates would not name a successor through months of talks, Chancellor William B. Aycock picked assistant director John Sanders, then thirty-five, who accepted in a short meeting with Aycock and Dean of Faculty James Godfrey. Sanders, on the staff since October 1956, took over when Coates left the post on August 31, 1962. People: Albert Coates, John L. Sanders, James L. Godfrey Place: Chancellor's office, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: John Sanders, James GodfreySearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), pp. 265-267
  5. The new Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce holds its first banquet and elects a board Charter members of the newly formed Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce met for a banquet on Monday night, November 18, in the new addition to The Ranch House and elected a 16-member board of directors. About 80 attended, and UNC Chancellor W. B. Aycock gave the main address. People: William B. Aycock Place: The Ranch House, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of CommerceSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), November 21, 1963, p. 1
  6. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce names Chancellor William B. Aycock Citizen of the Year At the new Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce's charter night banquet on Friday, February 28, former law dean Robert H. Wettach presented the chamber's Citizen of the Year award to UNC Chancellor William B. Aycock. People: Robert H. Wettach Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 5, 1964, p. 12
  7. Hiram College president Paul F. Sharp is named chancellor at Chapel Hill The University trustees chose Dr. Paul F. Sharp, president of Hiram College in Ohio, to succeed William B. Aycock as chancellor of the University at Chapel Hill. Sharp told the News he fully endorsed the statements of Aycock and President William Friday on academic and student freedom. People: Paul F. Sharp, William B. Aycock, William C. Friday Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 18, 1964, p. 3
  8. Former chancellor William B. Aycock receives the Thomas Jefferson Award Kenan Professor of Law William B. Aycock, chancellor from 1957 to 1964, received the Thomas Jefferson Award from Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson at a meeting of the University faculty. The award, endowed in 1962 by Earll McConnell, goes to the faculty member whose life and work best typify Jefferson's. People: William B. Aycock, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 6, 1967, p. 1
  9. The University Hearings Committee hears a Moratorium-day case under the new Disruptions Policy A UNC-Charlotte part-time sociology lecturer, whom the Daily Tar Heel called the first person tried under the policy, put his case before the seven-member committee at Morehead Planetarium, arguing he had given assignments for the class he skipped on October 15 and meant to make it up. About 250 rallied at the Book-Ex beforehand and about 125 marched to the Planetarium; oral arguments were set for December 18 before chairman William B. Aycock. People: William B. Aycock Place: Morehead Planetarium, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 13, 1969, p. 1
  10. The University brings the first disruption-policy charges against students Letters charging four students under the trustees' disruption policy went out, three to Black students on April 1 and a fourth on April 3, over the December 4 clash between food-strike pickets and Chapel Hill police behind Lenoir Hall. President William Friday had accepted a Board of Inquiry's findings against four of six people; these were the first charges brought against students under the policy, and the Black Student Movement condemned it as aimed at Black students. People: William C. Friday, William B. Aycock Place: South Building, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Lenoir HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 3, 1970, p. 1
  11. Peter Ueberroth speaks at a UNC commencement the chancellor called its largest Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth told more than 5,000 graduates in Kenan Stadium to fight illegal drugs; the paper said he was the first commencement speaker with no official ties to the University, and honorary degrees went to chancellor emeritus William B. Aycock, the Rev. W. W. Finlator and poet laureate Sam Ragan among others. People: William B. Aycock Place: Kenan Stadium, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Peter Ueberroth, W. W. FinlatorSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 21, 1987, p. 1

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as William B. Aycock, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

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Indexed works

Works about or by William B. Aycock. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Photographs & portraits 15Histories 6Biography 4Interviews 3Historical sources 1

Period

20th century 18World War II era 1

Place

Orange County 29Chapel Hill 10North Carolina (statewide) 8Research Triangle 4

By William B. Aycock

Speeches and statements of William Brantley Aycock (1957-1989) : Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1957-1964), Kenan Professor of Law.

Aycock, William B. · 1989 · Colonial Press

Collected speeches and statements, 1957 to 1989, of William Brantley Aycock, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1957 to 1964 and later Kenan Professor of Law. Published in 1989, 558 pages.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State CH Historical Society

About William B. Aycock

Oral history interview with Grace Aycock, March 28, 1990: interview L-0037, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Aycock, Grace · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Grace Aycock (1919-1996), wife of University of North Carolina chancellor William B. Aycock, recalls her life and the social side of running the chancellor's household in Chapel Hill, in a Southern Oral History Program interview recorded March 28, 1990, by Frances A. Weaver. Raised in Greene County in eastern North Carolina in the 1920s and 30s, she spent a year at Duke from 1936 before finishing her degree in 1939 at what is now UNC Greensboro. Published online in 2007 in Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Aycock, William B. -- 1915-2015.

NC Cardinal UNC

Progress and protests : UNC-Chapel Hill leaders during "the Long Sixties" (1957-1972) : covering chancellors William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp, and J. Carlyle Sitterson

Roundtree, Lynn · 2024 · Lynn Roundtree

Lynn Roundtree covers the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 1957 and 1972 through its three chancellors, William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp and J. Carlyle Sitterson, set against the student movements of those years. Part of the Coates university leadership series, published by the author in 2024 and running to 926 pages. It is twentieth century campus history.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Aycock, William B. (William Brantley), 1915-2015.

UNC

A Generation of Change: Bill Friday, Terry Sanford, and North Carolina From the 1920s-1972

2015

A documentary on DVD, issued in 2015, following North Carolina from the 1920s to 1972 through the careers of university president William C. Friday and Governor Terry Sanford. Interviews with college presidents and governors carry the film, which takes in state politics, economic development and social conditions across those decades. Other figures include William B. Aycock, born in 1915.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Aycock, William B. 1915-.

Durham

William B. Aycock : : In memoriam, a digital library

Kathrine R. Everett Law Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Memorial collection assembled by the Kathrine R. Everett Law Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for William B. Aycock, 1915 to 2015, who taught in the School of Law and served as chancellor. Issued as an online resource.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Aycock, William B. (William Brantley), 1915-2015.

UNC

William B. Aycock, our champion

Wegner, Judith Welch · 2007 · North Caroliniana Society

Judith Welch Wegner's tribute to William B. Aycock, 1915 to 2015, honored by the North Caroliniana Society. Aycock spent his career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was one of its leaders. Printed in Chapel Hill in 2007 in an edition limited to three hundred fifty copies, 28 pages with portraits.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Aycock, William B. 1915-.

NC Cardinal UNC Duke NC State Durham

Dean Smith and Bill Aycock

Morton, Hugh M. · 1990

Dean Smith, UNC's men's basketball coach, stands with former chancellor William B. 'Bill' Aycock outside the Dean Smith Activities Center in Chapel Hill in January 1990. Photographed by Hugh Morton on 35 mm black-and-white film.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

DPLA
Show 5 more about William B. Aycock

Orville Campbell and William B. Aycock

Morton, Hugh M. · 1988

Orville Campbell and former chancellor William B. Aycock stand beside the marker for Old East on the UNC campus, with the Old Well behind them. Hugh Morton took the picture on 21 February 1988.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

DPLA

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library Photographic Services photographs, 1976-2003.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Photographic Services · 1976

Photographs produced by the Photographic Services unit of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library between 1976 and 2003, about 2,500 items in the North Carolina Collection at UNC. Includes a run of copy negatives, 1977 to 2006. Subjects include William Aycock, Doris Betts, Reynolds Price, Dean Smith, William S. Powell and Hugh Morton.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Aycock, William B. (William Brantley), 1915-2015.

UNC

North Carolina's Tribute to President John F. Kennedy

Morton, Hugh M. · 1964 · North Carolina Film Board

Hugh Morton film for the North Carolina Film Board of the state's memorial program for President John F. Kennedy, held in Kenan Stadium at Chapel Hill on 17 May 1964. Governor Terry Sanford, Luther H. Hodges and Billy Graham are among the speakers; Edward M. Kennedy, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and William B. Aycock also appear. Part of the North Carolina Sights and Sounds collection.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

DigitalNC DPLA

Selected Speeches And Statements Of William Brantley Aycock (1915-1989) : Chancellor University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill (1957-1964{Rpara}.

Aycock, William Brantley · 1964 · University News Bureau

Speeches and statements by William Brantley Aycock, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1957 to 1964, gathered by the University News Bureau in Chapel Hill at the close of his term. 127 pages at 23 cm.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Aycock, William Brantley.

NC Cardinal UNC

William B. Aycock albums, 1963-1964; 1986.

Aycock, William B. (William Brantley), 1915-2015 · 1963

Two albums kept by William B. Aycock (1915-2015), chancellor and law teacher at Chapel Hill, dated 1963 to 1964 and 1986, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3287.14.15. The albums concern college administrators and law teachers in North Carolina in the twentieth century, with the School of Law faculty named.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Aycock, William B. (William Brantley), 1915-2015.

UNC

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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Picture: William B. Aycock, 1959. Public domain. library.digitalnc.org; via Wikimedia Commons

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