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George H. Esser Jr.

George H. Esser Jr. was professor of public law and government at the Institute of Government of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill from 1948 to 1963. He then served as executive director of the North Carolina Fund from 1963 to 1969.

Source: UNC Libraries: George H. Esser Papers, 1949-2007 (finding aid)

Also found in catalogs as George H. Esser.

1921–2006 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

2 indexed works are connected with this person.

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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: Esser, George H., Jr., 1921-2006 -- Interviews.

George H. Esser papers, 1949-2007

Esser, George H., Jr., 1921-2006 · 1949

One hundred forty six and a half linear feet, some 91,000 items, of George H. Esser Jr. (1921-2006) papers covering 1949 to 2007, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4887. Topics include the Institute of Government at Chapel Hill, the North Carolina Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Southern Regional Council, MDC Inc. and Joint Orange-Chatham Community Action, with the Chapel of the Cross, Harvard Law School and the Virginia Military Institute also named.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Esser, George H., Jr., 1921-2006.

UNC

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

  1. George Esser and Alexander McMahon join the Institute of Government Recruited by Coates at Harvard Law School that spring, Esser and McMahon started the same day, joining new Carolina law graduates Donald McCoy and Dickson Phillips; Philip Green came a few months later. It was the largest group of assistant directors Coates had yet employed, and he put them to work on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg study. People: Albert Coates, James Dickson Phillips, Philip P. Green Jr.Search the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 215
  2. The Institute of Government delivers its Charlotte-Mecklenburg consolidation study Asked in 1946 by Charlotte and Mecklenburg County leaders after a Charlotte News series, the Institute spent nearly three years inventorying every city and county department. Coates gave the first public report on November 1, 1949, staff members presented eight more over four months, and the study took no side on merger; the city and county schools were combined about a decade later. People: Albert Coates, Henry W. Lewis, George H. Esser Jr., Philip P. Green Jr.Search the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 217
  3. Chapel Hill-Carrboro churches name a committee to help schools desegregate peacefully Two weeks after the Brown decision, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Ministerial Association set up a steering committee to study how the churches could help bring a peaceful transition to non-segregated schools. Its members were the Rev. Charles Jones, Mrs. Harold Walters, George Esser Jr., the Rev. T. P. Duhart and Mrs. J. Snipes. People: Charles M. JonesSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, June 3, 1954, page 4
  4. George Esser launches the Institute's course in municipal management Assistant director George Esser started a ten-week course in municipal management, taught over a series of three-day weekends, that came to be expected of anyone hoping to run a North Carolina city. It was part of a shift at the Institute from teaching the letter of the law toward public administration and policy.Search the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 259
  5. Institute of Government staff draft a new state law on municipal annexation Assistant directors Philip Green Jr., George Esser and Jake Wicker wrote a new North Carolina annexation law for a state study commission. The law, which stayed unchanged for more than forty years and became a model elsewhere, let the state's cities grow without being ringed by small incorporated suburbs. People: George H. Esser Jr.Search the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 259
  6. George Esser proposes an ordinance barring discrimination by new Chapel Hill businesses After the aldermen declined a public accommodations law in June, Esser suggested as a private citizen an ordinance that would bar racial discrimination by businesses opening in the future, applied like zoning rules. The Board of Aldermen began considering it in August while the Committee for Open Business kept up its marches.Search the index · DigitalNC: The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 11, 1963, page 1
  7. Institute of Government delivers its report on Chapel Hill's power to pass a public accommodations law A report prepared by George Esser at the aldermen's request, gathering cases from all fifty states on a town's power to pass a public accommodations law, was completed and handed to Town Manager Robert Peck for the aldermen days before their vote. Esser said it showed the probable attitude of North Carolina courts toward a town using its general welfare power for that purpose. People: John L. SandersIn the index: Institute of Government (Chapel Hill, N.C.) · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, January 12, 1964, page 1

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 and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for George H. Esser Jr. 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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