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Local figure

Albert Coates

Coates joined the University of North Carolina law faculty at Chapel Hill in 1923 and founded the Institute of Government there in 1931 with Gladys Hall Coates. It ran privately until it became part of the university in 1942, and the campus building finished for it in 1939 later carried his name.

Source: Carolina Story: Albert Coates (1896-1989), Gladys Hall Coates (1902-2002) and Coates Building

1896–1989 as the Library of Congress records it · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

31 indexed works are connected with this person.

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

Narrow these works. Each link opens the search already limited to this person. Counts are indexed works, not copies on a shelf; a work can carry more than one period or place.

The Good Government Man

Covington, Jr., Howard E. · 2010

Howard E. Covington Jr.'s biography of Albert Coates (1896-1989), the law professor who founded the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina and led it through its early years. Topics include Coates as a law teacher and the institute's history as a center for the study of public administration in Chapel Hill. Published in 2010 by the University Library at Chapel Hill, 322 pages with 32 pages of plates.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

Greetings to first year law students at the beginning of the academic year 1983

Coates, Albert · 1983 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Albert Coates's address of welcome to the entering class at the University of North Carolina School of Law, printed in 1983 as a 16-page pamphlet; a 1976 version also exists. It includes a letter from Thomas Wolfe, the novelist and Coates's friend from their Chapel Hill student days.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

The Story of the Institute of Government, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Coates, Albert McKinley · 1981

Albert Coates's own account of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina, which he founded, subtitled 'out of a classroom in Chapel Hill' and published in 1981. The 303 pages trace the institute's history and its role in educating North Carolina's public officials.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

To whom it may concern: an experience in the North Carolina Memorial Hospital

Coates, Albert · 1968

Albert Coates's personal narrative of his stay in North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill after a stroke, published by the University of North Carolina in 1968. Topics include cerebrovascular disease patients and their rehabilitation, hospital care in Chapel Hill and Coates himself, the founder of the university's Institute of Government. 30 pages; also titled What the NC Memorial Hospital Meant to Me.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

Remarks by Albert Coates on the occasion of the Highway Safety Research Center's 15th anniversary

Coates, Albert · 1980 · University of North Carolina, Highway Safety Research Center

Albert Coates's remarks marking the fifteenth anniversary of the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, printed by the center in 1980. Coates, founder of the university's Institute of Government, spoke at the occasion.

Why this is here: Listed as its creator.

Oral history interview with George Esser, June-August 1990

Esser, George H. · 2008

Oral history interview with George H. Esser Jr. recorded over the summer of 1990 and issued in 2008. Esser worked with the North Carolina Fund and with Albert Coates's Institute of Government at Chapel Hill, and topics include community development, economic conditions, social reform and race relations in the state.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

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To whom it may concern

Coates, Albert · 1975

Albert Coates's 1975 personal account of his stroke and the care he received at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill. He describes what the hospital meant to him as a patient.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

What the University of North Carolina meant to me from 1914 to 1918

Coates, Albert, 1896-1989 · 1968 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Albert Coates looking back on his undergraduate years at the University of North Carolina from 1914 to 1918, printed in Chapel Hill by the university in 1968. Thirty three leaves. Coates went on to found the Institute of Government, and the piece is a personal recollection of student life and intellectual life in Chapel Hill in the years around the First World War.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

UNC

Presentation of the Herman G. Baity portrait to the University of North Carolina : April 24, 1966, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Coates, Albert · 1966 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Printed program from the presentation of a portrait of engineer Herman G. Baity (1895-1975) to the University of North Carolina on April 24, 1966. Contains Harold B. Gotaas's statement of presentation, Albert Coates's 'A portrait in words' sketching Baity's life and work, and Baity's own remarks titled 'A voice from the tomb'. Published in Chapel Hill by the university, 29 pages with illustrations.

Why this is here: Listed as its creator.

Institute of Government, Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Albert Coates, director.

Institute of Government (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · 1939 · Institute of Government

Folded illustrated leaflet from 1939 describing the Institute of Government at Chapel Hill under its director, Albert Coates. The Institute worked with North Carolina public officials on state and local government, through teaching political science in Chapel Hill. Three unnumbered pages on one folded sheet, the kind of item issued to introduce a young program.

Why this is here: Its title names this person.

UNC

The Albert Coates I know

Coates, Gladys Hall · 1979 · North Caroliniana Society

Gladys Hall Coates's 1979 account of her husband Albert Coates, a North Carolina law teacher whose Institute of Government work was based at Chapel Hill. Published by the North Caroliniana Society, thirty pages with a portrait.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

Fifty Years With Albert Coates

Coates, Gladys Hall · 1979 · North Caroliniana Society

Gladys Hall Coates's account of fifty years with her husband Albert Coates, the law teacher who founded the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Published by the North Caroliniana Society in 1979.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the Durham record: Coates, Albert, 1896-1989.

Search all 31 indexed works →

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this person. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 301.4756 COA By Her Own Bootstraps: A Saga of Women in North Carolina Coates, Albert · 1975

    Albert Coates, who founded the University of North Carolina's Institute of Government, traces how North Carolina women gained legal and civic standing, with attention to figures such as Chapel Hill's Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Sallie Southall Cotten, Ellen Winston and Susie Sharp. Privately printed at Chapel Hill in 1975; 231 illustrated pages.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person: sixteen of 84, the highlights and a sample of the rest spread across the years, in date order. See all 84 dated events in the chronology →

Earliest first. Scroll sideways, or use the arrows.

16 dated events
  1. Some 250 high school debaters come to Chapel Hill for state finals

    Competition or sporting achievement · UNC, Chapel Hill

    About 250 high school students came to the campus for the final rounds of the university's statewide debating union, one of Graham's means of tying the university to towns across the state. Topics included woman suffrage and public ownership of railroads.

    People: Edward Kidder Graham · Albert Coates

  2. Gerrard Hall memorial service for Marvin H. Stacy

    Gerrard Hall

    Students, faculty and friends met in Gerrard Hall to remember Stacy, who had died of influenza on January 21. Former president Francis P. Venable, a childhood friend, and Albert Coates for the students spoke.

    People: Francis Preston Venable · Albert Coates

    Subject: Gerrard Hall

  3. First-year law students protest Coates's failing grades

    Protest or organizing · UNC School of Law, Chapel Hill

    Coates failed fifteen of fifty-two students in personal property and gave seven more Es. Class leaders including Dan K. Moore pressed him to grade on a curve and talked of a boycott; he kept the grades but gave a new examination.

    People: Dan K. Moore

    Subject: UNC School of Law

  4. The legislature creates a commission on improving the state's laws, with Coates as secretary

    Law, policy or court · Raleigh

    The 1931 General Assembly set up a commission of justices, judges, lawyers and law school representatives to recommend changes to the laws, with Albert Coates as executive secretary and a report due in 1933.

    People: O. Max Gardner

  5. Albert Coates convenes the Institute of Government's first statewide school for public officials

    Founding or opening · Gerrard Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill

    About six hundred officials and citizens from nearly every county came to Chapel Hill for a two-day meeting Coates had promoted all summer. Frank Graham opened the Friday evening session in Gerrard Hall and Harvard law dean Roscoe Pound gave the closing address on Saturday, when the organizing committee approved hiring Coates as director with a staff.

    People: Frank Porter Graham · O. Max Gardner

    Subject: Institute of Government · Gerrard Hall

  6. More than a thousand people attend the Institute of Government's second statewide conference

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    Officials and citizens met in Chapel Hill to hear the state's congressional delegation, led by Senator Josiah Bailey, explain the first New Deal recovery laws, and President Roosevelt sent a letter urging other states to copy the Institute. The organizing committee then gave Coates new work, among it a report on proposed constitutional amendments and a guidebook for election officials.

    People: Albert Coates

    Subject: Institute of Government

  7. With its money gone, the Institute's first staff leave for state jobs

    Closing or ending · Institute of Government, Chapel Hill

    By 1938 the Cone gifts were spent and the staff had gone weeks without pay. Brandis became research director of the State Tax Commission, Dillard Gardner joined the state supreme court staff and Grice the state auditor's office, while two young assistants stayed on at reduced pay; the last regular monthly Popular Government went out in January 1938.

    People: Albert Coates · Henry P. Brandis Jr.

    Subject: Institute of Government

  8. Albert Coates completes the Institute of Government's Franklin Street building

    Construction or physical change · Chapel Hill

    Albert Coates built the Institute's Franklin Street headquarters with private gifts and a Jefferson Standard Life loan, and it opened in November 1939. The University took title only on June 30, 1945, after the legislature paid off the mortgage. The building later carried the Coates name.

    Subject: Institute of Government

  9. Coates publishes his first history of the Institute of Government, paid for by DeWitt Wallace

    Publication, speech or performance · Institute of Government, Chapel Hill

    In place of a speaking tour, Coates wrote a 76-page account of how the Institute grew out of his law classroom, issued under the Popular Government name in the National University Extension Association's studies series. Wallace paid for 30,000 copies for national distribution, and on the advice of Louis R. Wilson and W. T. Couch, Coates took out the profanity before it went to press.

    People: William T. Couch · Louis Round Wilson

    Subject: Institute of Government

  10. The Institute of Government's first State Highway Patrol school opens in Chapel Hill

    Founding or opening · Highway Patrol training camp, Raleigh Road, Chapel Hill

    With money from the legislature to bring the Patrol back to its prewar strength, Governor Gregg Cherry's administration turned to the Institute, which offered an eight-week course for about a hundred recruits chosen from 1,300 applicants. Classes began on October 13, with instructors from the FBI, the State Bureau of Investigation, Northwestern University and New York University.

    People: Albert Coates · Terry Sanford

    Subject: Institute of Government

  11. J. Spencer Love gives the Institute of Government $50,000 to spend as Coates sees fit

    Property or economic transaction · Institute of Government, Chapel Hill

    Textile executive J. Spencer Love, whose $15,000 in 1942 had carried the Institute until the state budget took over its costs, sent Albert Coates another $50,000 with no conditions on its use.

    People: J. Spencer Love

    Subject: Institute of Government

  12. Governor Luther Hodges accepts the Knapp Building for the state at its dedication

    Naming or commemoration · Knapp Building, Institute of Government, Chapel Hill

    A four-day dedication of the Institute of Government's headquarters, for which officials were invited by congressional district and the Kughler murals were unveiled, closed with Governor Hodges accepting the million-dollar building on behalf of the state. Senator Sam J. Ervin Jr. stayed for the whole program.

    People: Albert Coates · Luther H. Hodges

    Subject: Institute of Government

  13. Albert Coates starts the Institute of Civic Education in the University's Extension Division

    Founding or opening · Extension Division, UNC, Chapel Hill

    With no place offered by the Institute of Government or the law school, Coates set up an Institute of Civic Education under Extension Division director Charles Milner, paid for by the Richardson Foundation and a $50,000 yearly state appropriation approved by Governor Terry Sanford. In the summer of 1965 it brought high school civics and government teachers to Chapel Hill for short courses in state history and government.

    People: Terry Sanford

  14. Albert Coates publishes By Her Own Bootstraps, on women and the law in North Carolina

    Publication, speech or performance · Chapel Hill

    Growing out of his family law teaching, the book traced how North Carolina law on women's political rights and domestic freedoms had changed, and gave much space to the Equal Rights Amendment debate, which Coates supported.

  15. Albert Coates, founder of the Institute of Government, is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

    Life event · Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, South Road (NC 54) and Country Club Road, Chapel Hill

    Albert Coates (1896-1989), who founded the Institute of Government at the university, was buried in the cemetery.

    Subject: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 9 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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Named with them in the chronology

People named in the same dated entries as Albert Coates, 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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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Albert Coates Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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