Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 14 dated events in the chronology →

1. May 21, 1944 Quakers organize the Chapel Hill Monthly Meeting of Friends The Chapel Hill Monthly Meeting was organized, the first Friends meeting in Orange County since the old Eno Meeting was laid down about a century earlier. It had no building and had bought a lot on Highway 54. People: Dudley Dewitt Carroll, Richard Junius Mendenhall HobbsSearch the index · Lefler and Wager, Orange County, 1752-1952 (1953), p. 292
2. December 1952 Collier Cobb Jr. leaves the Orange County Board of Commissioners after fourteen years Elected in 1938 and chairman since December 1942, Cobb left the county board after seven terms, having missed only three meetings. The new board passed a resolution thanking him, and he pointed to the school improvement program and the start of the new courthouse. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall HobbsSearch the index · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, December 4, 1952, page 1
3. January 11, 1955 Commissioners chairman R. J. M. Hobbs urges moderation on school desegregation Speaking to the Hillsborough Lions Club, R. J. M. Hobbs, chairman of the county commissioners and a UNC business professor, traced the legal background of the Supreme Court's May 1954 decision. He called the ruling the highest law of the land but said the time was not right for full desegregation in the South, and he favored proceeding slowly without agitation. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall HobbsThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), January 13, 1955, p. 1
4. April 26, 1955 County commissioners vote more money for Aid to Dependent Children after weeks of dispute Meeting in Chapel Hill, the county commissioners amended the 1954-55 budget to add $2,106.10 to the welfare department's Aid to Dependent Children program, which drew $14,291.90 more in state and federal money for the rest of the fiscal year. The vote was 3 to 1, with Sim Efland holding to the original budget. Earlier in April the board had clashed with acting welfare superintendent Jane Parker over Venetian blinds and secrecy, and had been told the April checks used up the ADC fund. People: Sim Efland, Edwin Sidney Lanier, Richard Junius Mendenhall HobbsSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 28, 1955, p. 1
5. May 18, 1955 County commissioners inspect the Chapel Hill schools, including the site for a Lincoln High addition The county commissioners toured the schools of the Chapel Hill district to see their condition before acting on the Chapel Hill school board's budget requests. At Lincoln High School they looked over the site of a proposed addition with principal C. A. McDougle. The board had made a similar tour of the county schools some weeks earlier. People: Charles A. McDougle, Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Edwin Sidney Lanier, Sim Efland, Dwight RayThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 19, 1955, p. 3
6. June 7, 1955 Chapel Hill's Citizens' Committee for Better Schools asks for a 20-cent school supplement tax Carrying a petition with more than 1,100 legible names, against 1,588 registered voters in the district, the Chapel Hill Citizens' Committee for Better Schools asked the county commissioners to levy a school supplement tax of 20 cents per $100 in the Chapel Hill school district so its schools could run above the state standard. No one spoke against it, and chairman R. J. M. Hobbs said the board would take it under consideration; in July the board set the supplement at 15 cents. People: Carl Smith (Chapel Hill businessman and county commissioner), Collier Cobb Jr., Richard Junius Mendenhall HobbsSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 9, 1955, p. 1
7. June 27, 1955 County commissioners clash with the Chapel Hill school board over a Lincoln School gymtorium At a budget hearing commissioner Edwin S. Lanier, a former Chapel Hill mayor, opposed the Chapel Hill board's request for $100,000 to build a gymtorium at Lincoln, the town's Black high school, and to raise the district school supplement from 12 to 20 cents, urging a year's delay until the integration question was clearer, while board chairman Carl Smith and Superintendent C. W. Davis insisted the gymtorium came first. In a statement the next day Lanier said he did not favor the Supreme Court's order to combine Black and white schools and would not vote to raise taxes for new school buildings while the system's future was uncertain. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, Carl Smith (Chapel Hill businessman and county commissioner), Richard Junius Mendenhall HobbsThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 30, 1955, p. 1
8. July 5, 1955 County commissioners hold the 62-cent tax rate and find money for the Lincoln gymtorium The commissioners tentatively approved a 1955-56 budget of $869,720.50 at an unchanged 62-cent rate, denied all salary raises until a job classification system was adopted, set the Chapel Hill district supplement at 15 cents, and voted $34,000 in bonds, issued without a public vote and split evenly between the county and Chapel Hill school units. The Chapel Hill share brought the long-delayed gymtorium addition at Lincoln within reach of a call for bids, with commissioner Edwin S. Lanier, who days earlier had fought it, leading the fight for Chapel Hill's request. People: Edwin Sidney Lanier, Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Dwight Ray, Sim Efland, Carl Smith (Chapel Hill businessman and county commissioner)The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 7, 1955, p. 1
9. late July 1955 The county has the Institute of Government classify its jobs and holds raises until it is done At a joint session the commissioners refused the welfare board's plea for $1,083.60 in raises and car allowances, even after two caseworkers and a secretary resigned for better-paid Durham County jobs, because they had frozen salaries until a job survey was done. Chairman R. J. M. Hobbs said the Institute of Government would start classifying every county job the next day and finish by September 1, and the board later agreed to make any changes retroactive to August 1. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Alexander Heard, Edwin Sidney Lanier, Sim EflandSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 28, 1955, p. 1
10. September 6, 1955 The county board clears the way for bids on a gymtorium at Lincoln School The county board of education agreed to transfer $10,000 of its share of new school bond money so the Chapel Hill board could let contracts for the long-discussed gymtorium at Lincoln School, on condition that Chapel Hill pay it back. Both boards asked the commissioners to issue $34,000 in school bonds. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall HobbsThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 8, 1955, p. 1
11. September 19, 1955 Commissioners pass a $34,000 school bond order with no one objecting No one appeared at the public hearing on $34,000 in school building bonds, and the commissioners went ahead with the order, which needed no popular vote. The money was to go with other funds toward a new facility for the Chapel Hill unit and additions to county school buildings. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall HobbsSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), September 22, 1955, p. 1
12. October 3, 1955 County commissioners ask both school boards to plan for a school bond election Chairman R. J. M. Hobbs called the county and Chapel Hill school boards before the commissioners and asked them to study the county's school needs with a view to calling an election on a large bond issue. Chapel Hill chairman Carl Smith agreed at once and put his district's need at about a million dollars over five years; the county board, reluctant, agreed only to meet the Chapel Hill board on November 7. People: Richard Junius Mendenhall Hobbs, Carl Smith (Chapel Hill businessman and county commissioner)Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 6, 1955, p. 1