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O. Max Gardner

O. Max Gardner studied law and played football at the university in Chapel Hill. As governor of North Carolina he urged the General Assembly to consolidate the university with State College and Woman's College, which it did in 1931, and the university later named Gardner Hall, a classroom and office building, for him.

Source: The Carolina Story: O. Max Gardner (1882-1947) and Gardner Hall

Also found in catalogs as Oliver Max Gardner.

1882–1947 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

5 works about O. Max Gardner are indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

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

StorylineThe Newspaper Institute at Chapel Hill, 1916–19311916–1931 · 3 events · The university and the North Carolina Press Association brought the state's editors to Chapel Hill for Newspaper Institutes, beginning in December 1916 with what the printed report called the first such institute in the state and the South. That session heard former President William Howard Taft, and the editors put out a daily, the Press Institute News, on a borrowed linotype. In January 1926 more than a hundred editors met at the Carolina Inn for a three-day institute run with the University's extension division. The seventh annual institute, in January 1931, heard Governor Gardner speak on the state's affairs in Gerrard Hall, with Mark Sullivan among the speakers. StorylineThe University’s hard year and the choice of Frank Graham, 19301930 · 6 events · In 1930 the University lost its president and two faculty members and had its budget cut 20 percent before the trustees chose Frank Porter Graham to lead it. Harry Woodburn Chase left for the University of Illinois, and Dean Addison Hibbard left for Northwestern, a loss the Weekly put down to larger salaries and pensions elsewhere, and Howard Mumford Jones left for Michigan. The trustees named a committee to gather facts and lay names before the board, not to nominate one man. On June 9 they voted without nominations. R. D. W. Connor led the first ballot, but Graham took a majority on the fourth. Brought in from a walk, Graham asked that Connor be chosen instead, then accepted. StorylineConsolidating the University, 1931–19361931–1936 · 17 events · In 1931 the legislature merged the University, State College and the North Carolina College for Women into one University of North Carolina, and by 1936 the trustees had divided the work among the three campuses. They put the schools under one president, electing Frank P. Graham in November 1932, and in 1934 provided a dean of administration at each unit. In June 1935 they voted 58 to 11 for Graham's plan to combine the engineering schools at State College, move its science and business work to Chapel Hill and center graduate work there. In 1936 the University faculty voted 80 to 19 to send the trustees resolutions against moving the engineering school, but the trustees refused to reconsider.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 26 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

  1. O. Max Gardner opens the governor's-race speeches to University students Lieutenant Governor O. Max Gardner, a Democratic candidate for governor, spoke to a crowded house at the University on Wednesday night, February 25, the first of a series of talks by the candidates arranged by the students' Campus Cabinet. Within a week 427 students had signed a statement of support, which the News reported as a Gardner Club. Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), February 26, 1920, p. 5
  2. A workmen's compensation law that Frank Graham and Harry Wolf helped write passes Sixteen earlier bills had failed, but with Governor O. Max Gardner's backing the 1929 General Assembly passed a no-fault workmen's compensation act. Frank Graham lobbied for it, and he and economics professor Harry Wolf helped draft it; the governor's support kept textile interests from objecting to Graham's role. People: Frank Porter Graham, O. Max Gardner Place: General Assembly, Raleigh · Also named: Harry Wolf, Frank GrahamSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 395
  3. Chase refuses a mill official's demand that Frank Graham be fired After the Southern Textile Bulletin wrongly placed Graham at a Communist Labor Day rally, an official of the company that owned Gastonia's Loray Mill asked Governor Gardner to have him dismissed. In the reply Gardner passed along, Chase said Graham had been in New York and that faculty had the same right as other citizens to form and voice opinions, and he would resist any censorship of those seeking change by lawful means. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Frank Porter Graham, O. Max Gardner Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 406-407
  4. Chase seeks money for a school of public affairs to train state and local officials Chase asked Governor Gardner to help find about $30,000 a year in private money for a school to train city and county officials, public health and public safety officers and others, saying none existed in the South. Albert Coates's Institute of Government soon took up the same mission. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, O. Max Gardner, Albert Coates Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 400
  5. Chase resigns to become president of the University of Illinois The evening before, a full-dress reception at the Carolina Inn marked ten years since Chase's inauguration, with Governor Gardner already holding his resignation. When the Illinois trustees elected Chase the next day, Gardner announced it from Raleigh. The Illinois post reportedly paid $20,000, twice his salary. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, R. B. House, O. Max Gardner Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Carolina InnSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 402-404 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, February 21, 1930, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 28, 1930, p. 1
  6. The university loses 20 percent of its next year's state budget A month after Chase warned Governor Gardner that the university was at a crisis, $175,000 was cut from its budget for the coming year, a 20 percent reduction deeper than any Chase had seen as president. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, O. Max Gardner Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 411 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 9, 1930, p. 1
  7. Trustees elect Frank Porter Graham president of the university Meeting in Howell Hall during commencement, the trustees voted without nominations. R. D. W. Connor led the first ballot 26 to 20, but Graham took a majority of 47 on the fourth, and the vote was made unanimous. Found walking by Battle Park and brought in, Graham asked that Connor be chosen instead, then accepted. People: Frank Porter Graham, R. D. W. Connor, O. Max Gardner Place: Howell Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Battle ParkSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 412-414 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 13, 1930, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, October 14, 1986, p. 1
  8. Commencement is held outdoors at the Davie Poplar, and Chase receives an honorary degree With Memorial Hall torn down, the 339 graduates received diplomas at a stage by the Davie Poplar, seated on the old hall's benches as loudspeakers in the trees carried John H. Finley's address. Honorary degrees went to Ellen Glasgow, Martha Berry, Francis P. Venable and Governor Gardner, and Gardner conferred one on Chase that the trustees had voted without consulting the faculty. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Ellen Glasgow, Francis Preston Venable, O. Max Gardner Place: Davie Poplar, McCorkle Place, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: John Huston Finley, Martha McChesney Berry, Martha Berry · Also mentions: Memorial HallSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 412-415 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 13, 1930, p. 1
  9. Faculty present Francis P. Venable a loving cup for fifty years of service At the University's commencement, held outdoors near the Davie Poplar, the faculty presented a loving cup to Francis P. Venable, the chemist and former president, for fifty years with the University. Honorary degrees went to Governor O. Max Gardner, President Harry W. Chase, Venable, the novelist Ellen Glasgow and the educator Martha Berry. People: Francis Preston Venable, O. Max Gardner, Harry Woodburn Chase, Ellen Glasgow Place: Central lawn near the Davie Poplar, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Martha BerrySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 13, 1930, p. 1
  10. The legislature creates a commission on improving the state's laws, with Coates as secretary 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: Albert Coates, O. Max Gardner Place: RaleighSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 106 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 12, 1931, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, June 19, 1931, p. 3
  11. Seventh Newspaper Institute meets at Chapel Hill Editors from across the state met at the Carolina Inn for the seventh annual Newspaper Institute of the University and the North Carolina Press Association. Governor Gardner spoke on the state's affairs in Gerrard Hall, and Mark Sullivan, Fred Fuller Shedd and W. W. Ball were among the speakers. People: O. Max Gardner Place: Carolina Inn and Gerrard Hall, Chapel Hill · Also named: Mark Sullivan · Also mentions: Gerrard HallSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 16, 1931, p. 1
  12. The legislature passes the act consolidating the University, State College and the College for Women Both houses approved, with amendments, Governor Gardner's plan to merge the University, State College in Raleigh and the North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro into one University of North Carolina under a board of 100, at least ten of them women, taking control July 1, 1932. A commission of faculty members named by the three presidents and six members named by the governor was to hire outside experts in higher education, an amendment President Graham had won in committee, and report a plan by that date. People: O. Max Gardner, Frank Porter Graham Place: General Assembly, Raleigh; University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, April 3, 1931, p. 1
Show all 24 dated events
  1. The state takes over Orange County's roads and most of its prisoners The Connor road bill, passed on March 20, 1931, moved every public road outside town streets to state upkeep from July 1, 1931 and made the state responsible for longer-term prisoners, ending one of the county's oldest duties. County accountant G. W. Ray said the change wiped out the county's 25-cent road maintenance tax. The Gardner survey had found Orange spent $48,076 on its 412 miles of roads in 1929. People: O. Max Gardner, Gilbert W. Ray Place: Orange CountySearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 208 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 22, 1931, p. 5; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 29, 1931, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 26, 1932, p. 3
  2. Coates opens his first statewide school for law officers in Manning Hall About fifty police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, clerks and judges, growing to seventy-five or more, met for three days under the police chiefs' association, described as the first meeting of city, county, state and federal officers under one roof. The university's extension division and the same association had already run a ten-day police school in Chapel Hill in August 1929. Governor Gardner called it the most promising movement the university had begun. People: Albert Coates, Henry Horace Williams, O. Max Gardner, J. C. B. Ehringhaus Place: Manning Hall, 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. 107 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, August 16, 1929, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, September 11, 1931, p. 8
  3. The new Memorial Hall is dedicated On October 12, 1931, the University's 138th birthday, Governor O. Max Gardner presented the new hall on behalf of the state and John Sprunt Hill accepted it for the trustees' building committee. Chase had found the money for the replacement auditorium within university accounts, helped by $5,000 from John Sprunt Hill, but none was left to furnish it. Guests at the dedication sat on the scarred heart-pine benches saved from the old hall, along with its marble tablets to the Civil War dead. People: John Sprunt Hill, O. Max Gardner Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 410 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, October 9, 1931, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, October 16, 1931, p. 2
  4. The Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower is dedicated at UNC The bell tower given by John Motley Morehead III and Rufus Lenoir Patterson II was dedicated to the university on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1931, with Governor O. Max Gardner giving the dedication address. Morehead had proposed a tower to President Harry Woodburn Chase in the 1920s and been turned down on three sites. People: John Motley Morehead III, Harry Woodburn Chase, O. Max Gardner Place: Chapel Hill, Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower · Also named: Rufus Lenoir Patterson IISearch the index · Documenting the American South, Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina: Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower, UNC (Chapel Hill) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, November 27, 1931, p. 1; The Daily Tar Heel, November 19, 1985, p. 1
  5. The consolidation commission adopts its plan for one university under a single head After hearing the survey committee's report, the Commission on University Consolidation voted unanimously to recommend one executive for the Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Greensboro units, in office by July 1, 1933 if possible, with the three presidents acting as a directorate until then. It also called for an eight-member executive committee, one comptroller, single directors of summer school, extension and graduate study, uniform fees, and free tuition on merit only. People: O. Max Gardner, Frank Porter Graham Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · Commission on University Consolidation, Report of Commission on University Consolidation (1932), scan p. 14 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 15, 1932, p. 1
  6. The new consolidated board of trustees votes down a chancellor for the University At their first meeting, in Raleigh on July 11, 1932, the trustees of the consolidated University voted down the proposed office of chancellor and the name 'University System'. The three schools were to form the University of North Carolina under one president, with a vice-president at each unit and the three presidents serving meanwhile as a directorate. People: Frank Porter Graham, O. Max Gardner Place: Raleigh (meeting); University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 15, 1932, p. 1
  7. Orange County's welfare superintendent asks the governor for a share of federal relief money By August 12, 1932 George H. Lawrence, county superintendent of public welfare, had sent Governor Gardner an estimate that Orange County needed about $3,080 a month for relief, against county funds of only $3,000 a year. He counted 205 families dependent on public food relief, most of them in Cheeks and Hillsborough townships, and estimated that about 800 families in the county were without regular work. People: George H. Lawrence, O. Max Gardner Place: Orange CountySearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 12, 1932, p. 1
  8. Albert Coates convenes the Institute of Government's first statewide school for public officials 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: Albert Coates, Frank Porter Graham, O. Max Gardner Place: Gerrard Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Roscoe Pound, Frank GrahamSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 121 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, September 9, 1932, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, September 16, 1932, p. 2
  9. University Day exercises honor Presidents Winston and Alderman and dedicate memorial tablets At the 139th anniversary exercises in Memorial Hall on October 12, Walter Murphy eulogized former President George T. Winston, who had died that fall, and M. C. S. Noble spoke for his friend Edwin A. Alderman. Tablets placed in the hall in the previous two years were dedicated, bearing the names of Charles Manly, Kemp P. Battle, Henry R. Bryan, John W. Graham, Kerr Craige, George M. Rose, Richard H. Lewis, Winston, Alderman, Edward K. Graham and Marvin H. Stacy. People: M. C. S. Noble, O. Max Gardner Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Walter Murphy, Edwin A. Alderman, Kemp P. Battle, Edward K. Graham, John W. Graham, Richard H. Lewis, Marvin H. Stacy, George T. WinstonSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 14, 1932, p. 2
  10. University trustees retire Brooks and Foust and replace vice-presidents with deans of administration Acting to make consolidation effective, the trustees accepted the resignations of E. C. Brooks of State College and J. I. Foust of the Woman's College, made them presidents emeritus, abolished the office of vice-president and provided a dean of administration at each of the three units. The same meeting adopted the University's first retirement rules: teachers may retire at 65 and must at 70, administrators at 63 and 68. People: Frank Porter Graham, O. Max Gardner, Josephus Daniels Place: Trustees' meeting, Raleigh · Also named: E. C. Brooks, J. I. FoustSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 8, 1934, p. 1
  11. 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
  12. Fred W. Morrison and O. Max Gardner represent the university in the Ackland will case The university pressed its claim to William Hayes Ackland's bequest under a Tennessee rule that a testator's clear intention in an earlier will can be carried out, and was represented by Attorney General McMullan and by O. Max Gardner and Fred W. Morrison of Washington. Morrison later helped the university receive the bequest that built the Ackland Art Center. People: Fred W. Morrison, O. Max Gardner, William Hayes Ackland Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Ackland Art CenterSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, January 30, 1942, p. 2

After their death in 1947

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

  1. University trustees give Albert Coates the O. Max Gardner Award By unanimous vote the trustees named Coates the faculty member of the Consolidated University who had done most that year for the welfare of humanity, under the award created by the late governor's will. Coates accepted it for the Institute, and it carried $10,000. People: Albert Coates, O. Max Gardner, W. Kerr Scott, J. Spencer Love Place: Consolidated University of North Carolina, 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. 219
  2. Gardner Hall, named for O. Max Gardner, opens with the new business school buildings Gardner Hall, named for former governor O. Max Gardner, was one of three new School of Business Administration buildings set between the Library and South Building, with Carroll and Hanes halls. The University Placement Service moved into it, and the formal dedication of the three buildings was set for May 25, 1953. Place: Gardner Hall, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: School of Business AdministrationSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 5, 1953, p. 1

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as O. Max Gardner, 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 O. Max Gardner. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

A victory for the people of North Carolina

U.N.C. Gardner Club · 1928 · U.N.C. Gardner Club

Leaflet issued at Chapel Hill in 1928 by the U.N.C. Gardner Club in support of Oliver Max Gardner, candidate for governor of North Carolina. It concerns Democratic campaign literature of 1928 for the town and Gardner's own name. Campaign ephemera of this kind seldom survives, which is much of the interest of the single sheet.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Gardner, Oliver Max, 1882-1947.

UNC

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Joint Senate of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies

North Carolina ECHO (Project) · 2002

Portrait of Oliver Max Gardner, a 1906 UNC graduate, from the North Carolina ECHO series on the Joint Senate of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies. Gardner, a lawyer and businessman, served as state senator, lieutenant governor and governor of North Carolina. Photographed 31 May 2002.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Digital Collections DPLA

NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

In heaven's name, governor, save our state from further predatory acts by these so-called modern educators against "things of the spirit"

1932

A protest addressed to Governor O. Max Gardner in 1932 against the speakers invited to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and to the North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro, among them Bertrand Russell and Langston Hughes. Printed in North Carolina, it concerns lecturers in both towns and liberalism in the state.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Gardner, Oliver Max, 1882-1947.

UNC

R. B. House papers, 1916-1973.

House, R. B. (Robert Burton), 1892-1987 · 1916

R. B. House (1892-1987) was chancellor at Chapel Hill, and his papers, 1916 to 1973, come to 7,500 items in six linear feet in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 3581. University administration is the main subject, with material on Frank Porter Graham, Harry Woodburn Chase, Josephus and Jonathan Daniels, Gordon Gray, Terry Sanford, O. Max Gardner, the Watauga Club and communism in North Carolina.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Gardner, Oliver Max, 1882-1947.

UNC

Report of Commission on University Consolidation : submitted to Governor O. Max Gardner and the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina.

North Carolina · 1932

The 1932 report of the Commission on University Consolidation, submitted to Governor O. Max Gardner and the Board of Trustees on bringing the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State College and the North Carolina College for Women under one board. One hundred pages, including the histories of the three institutions.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

NC Cardinal Library of Congress

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