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Local figure

Gladys Hall Coates

Gladys Hall Coates moved to Chapel Hill after marrying Albert Coates in 1928 and took up the town's civic and cultural life. In 1931 the couple founded the Institute of Government, at first paying for it themselves, and she wrote widely on North Carolina and university history, alone and with him. She died in 2002.

Source: Orange County Courthouse Mural: Albert and Gladys Coates

3 works about Gladys Hall Coates are indexed here.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 16 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Albert and Gladys Coates mail the first issue of Popular Government The seventy-page first issue, built on Coates's paper The Convict's Question, called for a scientific overhaul of the state's criminal justice system. The Coateses paid about $1,500 to print it and addressed some two thousand copies by hand at the Chapel Hill post office before year's end. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill post officeSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 102
  2. Albert Coates establishes the Institute of Government UNC law professor Albert Coates began building the Institute of Government in 1931, with police schools that September and a Carolina Inn planning meeting in December, and the Institute was formally organized and named in May 1932. Working with his wife, Gladys Hall Coates, he ran it as a private enterprise until it became part of the University in 1942; it is now the UNC School of Government. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Carolina Inn, Institute of GovernmentIn the index: Institute of Government (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · UNC School of Government: How and when did the Institute of Government get started? · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, May 8, 1932, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, October 12, 1993, p. 8
  3. About two hundred officials organize and name the Institute of Government Mayors, legislators, judges and county commissioners met at the new Graham Memorial, endorsed Coates's plan for an association of government officials and formally adopted the name Institute of Government. Junius G. Adams chaired, with Coates as secretary, and a larger meeting was set for September. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates Place: Graham Memorial, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Junius G. Adams · Also mentions: Institute of GovernmentSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 119
  4. Former summer school and education dean N. W. Walker dies Walker had headed the university's summer school and its school of education until he retired with a heart ailment in the summer of 1934. He died at his home after a long illness on February 13, 1936, at 61. After his death his house at 517 East Rosemary Street was sold to education professor Guy B. Phillips, and Albert and Gladys Coates stayed on in the cottage behind it. People: N. W. Walker, Gladys Hall Coates Place: 517 East Rosemary Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Guy B. Phillips · Also mentions: East Rosemary StreetSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 165 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, February 21, 1936, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 3, 1936, p. 2
  5. House Speaker William Bankhead dedicates the Institute of Government building On the eve of Thanksgiving a standing-room crowd in Hill Music Hall heard Bankhead, Governor Clyde Hoey and President Frank Graham praise Coates, with eight of the state's eleven congressmen and former governor O. Max Gardner on hand. A reception followed in Graham Memorial, and guests stayed for the Virginia football game the next day. People: Clyde Roark Hoey, Frank Porter Graham, Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates, O. Max Gardner Place: Hill Music Hall and Institute of Government building, Chapel Hill · Also named: William B. Bankhead, Frank Graham · Also mentions: Graham Memorial, Hill Music HallSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 182 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, December 1, 1939, p. 1
  6. The Saturday Evening Post profiles Coates as 'The Ugly Duckling at Chapel Hill' Warner Olivier's article cast Coates as the law school's misfit who had overcome objections to build an Institute admired around the country. It opened with a photograph of Albert and Gladys Coates in front of the Institute building. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates Place: Institute of Government, Chapel Hill · Also named: Warner OlivierSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 204
  7. Albert and Gladys Coates move into their own house on Hooper Lane In 1947 the couple bought a lot on Hooper Lane in what had been the back garden of Edward Kidder Graham's house. Coates rejected a contemporary design by architects Jim and John Webb, the house went up as a two-story Georgian, and they moved in about the time the Gardner Award money arrived. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates, John B. Webb, James M. Webb Place: Hooper Lane, Chapel Hill · Also named: John WebbSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 220
  8. A bronze bust of Albert Coates is unveiled for the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies The Di-Phi societies received a bronze bust of Albert Coates, founder of the Institute of Government and professor emeritus of law, at a special assembly attended by Chancellor Ferebee Taylor and Duke president Terry Sanford. Gladys Coates unveiled the bust, sculpted by William E. Hipp III, for the societies' chambers. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates, N. Ferebee Taylor, Terry Sanford Place: Di-Phi chambers, New West, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: William E. Hipp III, Ferebee Taylor · Also mentions: Institute of GovernmentSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 20, 1976, p. 1
  9. The Institute's former Franklin Street building is dedicated in the names of Albert and Gladys Coates The building the Coateses had given years and money to put up for the Institute, used after 1956 as the Consolidated University's headquarters and later by other programs, was dedicated in their name. Coates had earlier asked the School of Social Work not to name one of its new buildings for him. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates Place: former Institute of Government building, East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: School of Social WorkSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 285
  10. Albert and Gladys Coates publish The Story of Student Government in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The book rested on research Gladys Coates had begun in the 1930s in the University archives, literary society records and student publications, with chapters by Albert on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and chapters by student leaders on recent decades. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates Place: UNC, 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. 277, 224 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, March 9, 1989, p. 1
  11. Albert Coates, founder of the Institute of Government, dies Albert Coates, who founded the Institute of Government in 1931 and directed it until 1962, died at 92. A native of Johnston County and UNC graduate of 1918, he taught law at UNC from 1923; the institute, begun privately, became part of the University in 1942, and with his wife Gladys he wrote a history of UNC student government. People: Albert Coates, Gladys Hall Coates Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Institute of GovernmentSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, January 30, 1989, p. 1
  12. UNC holds a memorial celebration for Albert Coates About 150 people met in the Student Union Auditorium to honor Albert Coates, the law professor who founded the Institute of Government and chronicled student government, who had died in January. Speakers included Rep. Bertha Holt, former chancellor William Aycock, institute director John Sanders and North Carolina Collection curator H.G. Jones, who gave the eulogy; Gladys Coates spoke on student government's roots in the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies. People: Gladys Hall Coates Place: Student Union Auditorium, University, Chapel Hill · Also named: Bertha Holt, William Aycock, John Sanders, H.G. Jones, Albert Coates · Also mentions: Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, Institute of Government, North Carolina CollectionSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 30, 1989, p. 1
Show all 16 dated events
  1. Gladys Hall Coates receives the Bell Award on Cornelia Phillips Spencer Day Gladys Hall Coates, 91, a founder with her husband Albert of the Institute of Government, received the Bell Award, honoring the woman who had contributed most to the University, at a Bicentennial luncheon for Cornelia Phillips Spencer Day on March 21; the Daily Tar Heel called it the first Bell Award. At noon Dede Corvinus of the drama department, playing Spencer, walked from Spencer's old home at 513 East Franklin Street and rang the South Building bell, recalling Spencer's ringing of it for the University's reopening in 1875. People: Gladys Hall Coates Place: George Watts Hill Alumni Center and South Building, Chapel Hill · Also named: Dede Corvinus · Also mentions: Institute of Government, 513 East Franklin StreetSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, March 22, 1994, p. 3
  2. UNC awards Gladys Coates an honorary doctor of laws At ninety-nine, Gladys Coates, who had worked beside her husband in building the Institute and spent decades researching the University's past, received an honorary LL.D. from the University. Place: UNC, 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. 285
  3. Institute of Government names a Knapp Building courtyard for Gladys Coates After Gladys Hall Coates died at 100 at her Chapel Hill home on September 25, 2002, the Institute of Government named a garden courtyard and veranda beside the former auditorium in the Knapp Building's east wing in her memory. Place: Knapp Building, UNC, Chapel HillIn the index: Institute of Government (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · UNC School of Government: Friends of the Institute Newsletter, vol. 1 no. 4 (Fall 2002)
  4. Gladys Coates dies at one hundred Gladys Coates, partner in the founding of the Institute of Government and a student of the University's history, died at a hundred. After a service at the Chapel of the Cross she was buried beside Albert Coates in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, across the road from the School of Government. People: Albert Coates Place: Chapel of the Cross and Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel of the Cross, Institute of GovernmentSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 286

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Gladys Hall 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.

Indexed works

Works about or by Gladys Hall Coates. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Albert Coates and Gladys Hall Coates papers, 1841-2001

1841

Joint papers of Albert Coates (1896-1989) and Gladys Hall Coates, 1841 to 2001, about 51,600 items in 73.5 linear feet, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3818. The papers cover the law school and the Institute of Government at Chapel Hill, student government, local government and community organization in North Carolina, the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women, scouting, and the photographer Bayard Morgan Wootten.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

Ceremony naming the Albert & Gladys Coates Building at UNC, 5 November 1997.

1997 · H.G. Jones

A sound recording of the ceremony on 5 November 1997 at which a building at the University of North Carolina was named for Albert and Gladys Hall Coates. One analog audiocassette running about an hour, taped in Chapel Hill and issued by H. G. Jones.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

Annual alumni luncheon, Distinguished Service Medal, and Distinguished Young Alumnus Award presentations

1992 · The Association

Program for the annual alumni luncheon at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1992, when the Distinguished Service Medal and the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award were presented. The text is chiefly brief biographies of the honorees, among them Gladys Hall Coates, Thomas Willis Lambeth, John Lassiter Sanders, Patricia Ann Timmons-Goodson and John B. Turner. One unpaged volume.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

Places in this person’s story

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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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