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William C. Friday

William C. Friday, a longtime Chapel Hill resident, earned his law degree at UNC in 1948, was assistant dean of students there until 1951 and was president of the University of North Carolina from 1956 to 1986. He worked for five years to repeal the 1963 Speaker Ban Law and died at home on October 12, 2012.

Source: UNC System: William C. Friday, Beloved Higher Education Icon, Dead at 92

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60 works about William C. Friday are indexed here. 1 held at OCPL →

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 34 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: William B. Aycock, William C. FridaySearch 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. AycockSearch the index · UNC A to Z: Victory Village
  3. William Friday serves as assistant dean of students at UNC in Chapel Hill After receiving his law degree from UNC in 1948, William Friday was assistant dean of students and later acting dean of students on the Chapel Hill campus until 1951, when he became assistant to Consolidated University president Gordon Gray. People: Gordon GraySearch the index · UNC Libraries: Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): William C. Friday Records, 1957-1986
  4. The Webb brothers design a Whitehead Circle house for Bill and Ida Friday In the early 1950s James and John Webb designed a group of similar Bay area style houses on Whitehead Circle for young faculty families. The one built for William and Ida Friday at 412 Whitehead Circle is a long, plain rectangle whose translucent back wall looks out into the woods. People: William C. Friday, John B. Webb, James M. WebbSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 81
  5. Kay Kyser helps raise the money to put WUNC-TV on the air Kay Kyser toured the state with William C. Friday and Billy Carmichael Jr. to raise money for UNC's educational television station, which went on the air from Chapel Hill in January 1955. People: William C. Friday, William D. Carmichael Jr.Search the index · Our State: The 1950s: UNC On The Air
  6. William Friday becomes acting president of the Consolidated University Named acting president at 35 while the trustees searched for Gordon Gray's successor, Friday began his duties on March 1, 1956. The board approved him as president on October 26, 1956, and at his first news conference he named moving the administrative offices from South Building on the Chapel Hill campus to the old Institute of Government building on Franklin Street as a first goal. People: Gordon GraySearch the index · UNC Libraries: Office of President of the University of North Carolina (System): William C. Friday Records, 1957-1986
  7. The university stops selling University Pool tickets after Black residents apply Acting President William Friday, told by Attorney General William Rodman that the university could not refuse the Black applicants while selling to whites, halted ticket sales for the rest of the second summer session; officials said admitting them would have meant closing the pool and its children's classes. The paper recalled that Black teenagers had been turned away two summers before. People: William C. FridaySearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 2, 1956, p. 8
  8. 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. HouseIn the index: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · The Daily Tar Heel, June 7, 1957, p. 3 (Administration Announces Four New Appointments)
  9. The first parts of the University's Univac computer arrive at Phillips Hall Workmen unloaded the first shipment of the Consolidated University's Univac computer outside Phillips Hall, with ten more moving vans to bring the rest, while President William C. Friday and vice presidents W. M. Whyburn and William D. Carmichael Jr. looked it over. People: William C. Friday, William M. (William Marvin) Whyburn, William D. Carmichael Jr.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 25, 1959, p. 8
  10. Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church dedicates its new student center and educational wing The Rev. George Buttrick, preacher to Harvard University, preached and spoke at dedication services for the $375,000 building, which building council chairman Ralph T. Marshall presented to the congregation and the Rev. Vance Barron accepted; UNC President William C. Friday took part. The new building followed the fire that destroyed the church in 1958. People: William C. FridaySearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 22, 1959, p. 23
  11. About 400 UNC students march on President Friday's home A crowd of about 400 students marched on Consolidated University President William C. Friday's home late on a Monday night and drifted away soon after midnight when student leaders and university officials began asking for their identification cards. The News's brief item did not give the cause; the same issue's editorial page discussed the athletic restrictions the university had just adopted.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 25, 1961, p. 1
  12. President John F. Kennedy speaks at UNC President John F. Kennedy received an honorary degree at UNC's University Day ceremony, held on the University's 168th birthday, and spoke to an estimated 32,000 people in Kenan Stadium. He pledged that Americans would be neither Red nor dead, and announced a $1 million federal materials research contract for UNC. People: William C. Friday, John F. KennedySearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, October 13, 1961, p. 1
Show all 34 dated events
  1. 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.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 19, 1962, p. 1
  2. 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: William B. Aycock, William C. FridaySearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 18, 1964, p. 3
  3. Burlington Industries gives $650,000 toward Memorial Hospital's expansion President William C. Friday announced a $650,000 gift from Burlington Industries toward the multimillion-dollar expansion of North Carolina Memorial Hospital, in memory of the company's founder and University trustee J. Spencer Love. The outpatient clinic areas of the hospital's five-story addition were to be named the J. Spencer Love Clinics. People: William C. Friday, J. Spencer LoveSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 22, 1964, p. 26
  4. The UNC Board of Trustees adopts visiting-speaker procedures under the amended Speaker Ban Acting under G.S. 116-199 and 116-200, the full Board of Trustees adopted procedures requiring recognized student groups to clear invitations to covered speakers with the chancellor. The students complied with them when they renewed the Wilkinson and Aptheker invitations, and the court later found the procedures as vague as the statute. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle SittersonCaselaw Access Project: Dickson v. Sitterson, 280 F. Supp. 486 (M.D.N.C. 1968), finding of fact 27
  5. Students and the two speakers file Dickson v. Sitterson against the Speaker Ban Minutes after Sitterson refused the students' request, Paul Dickson and eleven other student leaders, joined by Wilkinson and Aptheker as plaintiffs, sued Sitterson, President William C. Friday and the trustees in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Attorney McNeill Smith took the case without fee. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, Paul Dickson III, Herbert Aptheker, William C. Friday, George E. Nicholson III, Robert S. Powell Jr., James A. Medford, Eunice H. Milton, John E. Greenbacker Jr., Eric Van Loon, Gary Waller, Stuart Matthews, Frank WilkinsonUNC Carolina Story: One Final Effort
  6. The UNC trustees adopt six temporary speaker rules in place of the voided regulations A week after the ruling the trustees approved, over Senator Tom White's plea to proceed calmly, six interim rules on the manner of a speaker's appearance (a senior faculty member presiding at the chancellor's request, public forums, balanced views, audience questions, sponsorship by recognized student groups), with the items the court had struck removed, pending further study by the executive committee on March 8. People: William C. Friday, J. Carlyle SittersonThe Daily Tar Heel, February 27, 1968, p. 1
  7. The trustees' executive committee asks Governor Moore to name a subcommittee on a permanent speaker policy Meeting in Charlotte, the Board of Trustees' Executive Committee voted to ask the governor to appoint a subcommittee to study speaker regulations and recommend a permanent policy to the full board in May. Senator Tom White, who agreed with the state's decision not to appeal, said the board had resolved nothing; President Friday hoped the matter would be settled by May. People: William C. Friday, Dan K. MooreThe Daily Tar Heel, March 9, 1968, p. 1
  8. Chapel Hill holds a memorial march and two services for Martin Luther King Jr. About 600 people, Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson and President William C. Friday among them, marched from Y Court to First Baptist Church on Roberson Street, where some 600 townspeople had gathered for a community service. The next day about 2,000 students and faculty attended a second service in Memorial Hall, with 11 o'clock classes called off. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday, C. Hugh HolmanSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, April 9, 1968, p. 1
  9. Junior and senior women win self-limiting hours with their parents' consent Chancellor Sitterson announced that junior and senior women could set their own hours with their parents' permission, a policy recommended by a joint committee and approved by President William Friday. Women's Residence Council chair Libby Idol said it went further than she expected because it took in juniors. A dispute over keeping the sign-out cards was settled by March 1969, when the choice was left to parents, and by 1972 almost no women were under closing hours. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. FridaySearch the index · Pamela Dean, Women on the Hill: A History of Women at the University of North Carolina (1987), scan p. 26 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, November 19, 1968, p. 1
  10. President Friday keeps the open-door rule for dormitory visits In May 1969 a committee simplified the visitation rules and asked that doors no longer have to stay open during visits. A student affairs board agreed, but William Friday, wary of public reaction, kept the open-door requirement.Search the index · Pamela Dean, Women on the Hill: A History of Women at the University of North Carolina (1987), scan p. 27
  11. Students sit in at South Building and hand Chancellor Sitterson a petition of 800 names confessing to the disruption policy Seventy-five to 100 students occupied the South Building lobby for over an hour to protest the trustees' disruption policy and its use against three students charged after the December cafeteria strike. Three were admitted to Chancellor Sitterson's office with a petition of 800 UNC students indicting themselves for violating the policy during the strike's first days; Sitterson said the matter lay with President Friday. Bello and the strike steering committee condemned the sit-in. People: J. Carlyle Sitterson, William C. Friday, Tom BelloThe Daily Tar Heel, May 12, 1970, p. 1 (OCR text)
  12. UNC opens an inquiry into the killing of James Cates after a group of young men press its leaders On the Sunday after the killing a group of young men went to President William Friday's home to raise concerns about Cates's death and the university's handling of it, and they met other administrators on November 23. The university then opened an investigation, and its six-page report was dated December 10, 1970. People: William C. FridaySearch the index · U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division: James Cates, Notice to Close File, p. 8
  13. Two law students sue to stop student-fee funding of the Black Student Movement Two UNC law students filed suit claiming that student-fee support for the Black Student Movement, which they called a separatist organization, violated the Fourteenth Amendment, naming President William Friday, Chancellor Ferebee Taylor and student government officers among the defendants. Black Ink called the suit groundless; while it was pending the BSM rewrote its constitution to open membership to anyone sharing its goals. People: William C. FridayBlack Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), December 1974, p. 2
  14. The UNC system settles the federal desegregation case with a consent decree The UNC Board of Governors approved and a federal judge signed a consent decree ending the 11-year dispute with the federal government. It set a goal of 10.6 percent Black enrollment at the traditionally white campuses and 15 percent white enrollment at the Black campuses by 1986-87 and promised 29 new programs at the five Black campuses. BSM chairperson Mark Canady said it gave no guarantee of desegregation. People: William C. FridaySearch the index · Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), August 18, 1981, p. 1
  15. About 300 people rally on campus against anti-gay hate mail sent to university faculty A rally and candlelight vigil on the UNC campus, held after a Holly Near concert, protested two pre-election mailings: one from a group calling itself Triangle Educators for Christ, and one signed Southern Christians for Helms that threatened to publish a list of supposedly gay faculty. UNC President William Friday had denounced the second letter at the Board of Governors' October 19 meeting and turned it over to the State Bureau of Investigation, and Faculty Council chair Doris Betts also denounced the letters. People: William C. Friday, Doris BettsSearch the index · Lambda (Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association, UNC), November 1984, p. 14
  16. C. D. Spangler Jr. serves as president of the UNC System Spangler, a Charlotte businessman and 1954 graduate of the university, succeeded William Friday in 1986 and led the sixteen-campus system for eleven years from its offices in Chapel Hill, fighting to keep tuition low and reforming intercollegiate athletics. People: William C. FridaySearch the index · UNC System: UNC System Announces the Passing of President Emeritus C.D. Spangler, Jr.
  17. UNC President William Friday sends the campuses guidelines for handling AIDS A memorandum from the UNC General Administration to Chancellor Christopher Fordham and the other chancellors asked each campus to name an advisory committee and a single spokesperson, run an ongoing education campaign, and not exclude people infected with the AIDS virus from enrollment or work unless a medical judgment in the individual case required it. It came with the university's statement on its response to the AIDS epidemic.Search the index · Lambda (Carolina Gay and Lesbian Association, UNC), March 1986, p. 1
  18. The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education is dedicated UNC dedicated its continuing education center, named for William and Ida Friday, on April 12, 1991. Friday described it as "the citizens' classroom."Search the index · Friday Center: About Us
  19. Charles Kuralt is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery Kuralt died on July 4, 1997 and was buried on the UNC campus in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. About 1,600 people attended a memorial service in Memorial Hall, where Hugh Morton and William C. Friday spoke. People: William C. FridaySearch the index · UNC Libraries, NC Miscellany: Kuralt's Road Ends in His Beloved Chapel Hill
  20. William C. Friday receives the National Humanities Medal President Clinton and Hillary Clinton presented Friday with one of the first National Humanities Medals. The NEH cited him as president emeritus of the University of North Carolina, which he led from 1956 to 1986, and executive director of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trusts. People: Bill ClintonSearch the index · NEH: 1997 National Humanities Medals Award Ceremony
  21. State and university leaders welcome UNC President Molly Broad at a dinner in Chapel Hill On the eve of her inauguration as the 15th president of the UNC system, hundreds of state and university leaders, including Gov. Jim Hunt and former presidents Bill Friday and C. D. Spangler, gathered at the George Watts Hill Alumni Center to welcome Molly Corbett Broad. People: William C. Friday, C. D. Spangler Jr.Search the index · The Daily Tar Heel: Hundreds officially greet Broad (April 29, 1998)
  22. William C. Friday dies at his Chapel Hill home Friday, president of the University of North Carolina from 1956 to 1986 and a longtime Chapel Hill resident, died in his sleep at home on October 12, 2012, at 92.Search the index · UNC System: William C. Friday, Beloved Higher Education Icon, Dead at 92

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as William C. Friday, 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 C. Friday. 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.

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, December 18, 1990: interview L-0049, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Friday, William C. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

William C. Friday, UNC system president from 1957 until 1986, was interviewed by Cindy Cheatham in December 1990 about Anne Queen (1911-2005). Queen came to the campus YWCA as associate director in 1956 and led the merged YMCA-YWCA from 1964 to 1975. Friday recalls working with her through the years of student political activity in Chapel Hill and reflects on the place of the Y in university life. About forty minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2007, through Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C. -- Interviews.

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, November 26, 1990: interview L-0145, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)

Friday, William C. · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

In this session with William Link, recorded in November 1990, William C. Friday concentrates on the Speaker Ban Law. The 1963 law barred Communists and certain others from speaking on state campuses, and Friday, as UNC system president, spent five years working to undo it. He discusses the law's origins, the fight over academic freedom and free speech at Chapel Hill, and relations between the university and the state. About eighty minutes; electronic edition from the UNC library, 2007, through Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C. -- Interviews.

William Friday

Link, William A. · 1995

Biography of William C. Friday, president of the University of North Carolina system, by historian William A. Link, published by UNC Press in 1995 with the subtitle power, purpose, and American higher education. It covers Friday's career and the history of the university at Chapel Hill and statewide. Part of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C.

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: Their name appears in the record.

A special welcome to students : University Baptist Church, August 2009

Friday, William C. (William Clyde) · 2009 · University Baptist Church

Audio recording of William C. Friday, the longtime president of the University of North Carolina, welcoming students at University Baptist Church in Chapel Hill in August 2009. The disc holds two segments, the second introduced by Mitch Simpson and recorded at the same church on October 16, 2011.

Included because: Listed as its creator.

UNC

Oral history interview with Bob Scott, April 4, 1990 interview L-0193, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Scott, Robert Walter · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Robert W. Scott (1929-2009), North Carolina's governor between 1969 and 1973 and son of Governor Kerr Scott, interviewed by William Link on April 4, 1990 for the Southern Oral History Program. Scott discusses his student years at North Carolina State College in the early 1950s and his dealings with university president William Friday, including the food workers' strike at Chapel Hill, college integration, and the consolidation of the state's universities into the UNC System during his term. One hour thirty-seven minutes. Electronic edition 2007.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C.

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Oral history interview with David DeVries, November 23, 1998 and December 2, 1998

DeVries, David L. · 2007

David L. DeVries, a social psychologist at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, interviewed across two sessions in November and December 1998. Published in 2007, the interview covers the center's history, administration and planning, executive training, the Smith Richardson Foundation and intellectual property. William Friday is also among the people discussed.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C.

Oral history interview with Joseph Califano, April 5, 1991

Califano, Joseph A. · 2007

An interview from April 5, 1991, published in 2007, with Joseph A. Califano, Jr., who led the federal Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The conversation covers college integration in North Carolina, federal and state controversies over it, and the dispute between the Office for Civil Rights and the university system that William Friday directed from Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C.

Oral history interview with Julius L. Chambers, June 18, 1990

Chambers, Julius L. · 2007

Julius L. Chambers, the attorney and later university administrator, interviewed on June 18, 1990 and published in 2007. Topics include college integration in North Carolina, affirmative action in education, the work of college trustees and litigation involving the University of North Carolina system, matters that ran through William Friday's Chapel Hill offices.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C.

Oral history interview with Peter Holmes, April 18, 1991

Holmes, Peter · 2007

Peter Holmes, an official of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Office for Civil Rights, interviewed on April 18, 1991 and issued in 2007. Topics include federal policy on college integration in North Carolina, affirmative action programs in the southern states, and the office's dealings with the university system William Friday ran from Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C.

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, December 3, 1990

Friday, William C. · 2007

An interview with William C. Friday recorded on December 3, 1990 and issued in 2007, one of a series of oral histories with the university president. The conversation covers higher education and state policy, the political activity of educators and federal advisory bodies, matters Friday dealt with as head of the university system based in Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C. -- Interviews.

Oral history interview with William C. Friday, November 19, 1990

Friday, William C. · 2007

Recorded on November 19, 1990 and published in 2007, this oral history has William C. Friday talking about the administration and presidency of the University of North Carolina system, the office he held from Chapel Hill. It covers higher education and state policy in North Carolina.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Friday, William C. -- Interviews.

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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 BIO FRIDAY LIN William Friday: Power, Purpose, and American Higher Education Link, William A. · 1995

    Biography of William C. Friday, president of the University of North Carolina system, by historian William A. Link, published by UNC Press in 1995 with the subtitle power, purpose, and American higher education. It covers Friday's career and the history of the university at Chapel Hill and statewide. Part of the Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection.

  • Rebecca Wall Collection · NC 378.756 TEP The Chronicles of the Bicentennial Observance of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tepper, Steven J. · 1998

    Steven J. Tepper's chronicle of how the University of North Carolina marked its bicentennial in 1993 and 1994. An appendix reprints the University Day speeches of October 12, 1993, given by Paul Hardin, James B. Hunt Jr., C.D. Spangler, William C. Friday, Charles Kuralt and President Bill Clinton, plus bicentennial addresses by Li Lu, Francis S. Collins and Richard J. Richardson. Published by the university in Chapel Hill, 1998; 284 pages.

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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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