Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Local figure

Mildred Ringwalt

Mildred Ringwalt, a Chapel Hill Quaker, stood at the Wednesday vigil against the Vietnam War in front of the post office for more than six years, helped organize the Inter-Church (now Inter-Faith) Council, and was a founder of Carolina Friends School and first clerk of its board. She died at her Chapel Hill home in 1994.

Source: Carolina Friends School: Mildred Ringwalt, A Legacy to Carolina Friends School

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Mildred Ringwalt. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Mildred Ringwalt’s life and work. Suggest a source.

Research sources

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The Chapel Hill Friends Meeting opens its meetinghouse Mildred Ringwalt, who joined the Chapel Hill Friends in 1959, was influential in building the Quaker meetinghouse that opened in 1960 and later raised money to enlarge it. A Carolina Friends School tribute says she sold most of her Oriental art to finance the building and anonymously gave the money to finish it. People: Dudley Dewitt Carroll Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Chapel Hill Friends Meeting: The Early Days of the Chapel Hill Friends Meeting, as told by Lois Ann Hobbs (April 14, 2019)
  2. Chapel Hill church women ask the county for a welfare office in Chapel Hill A group from the Chapel Hill Council of United Church Women, including Mildred Ringwalt, asked the Orange County commissioners for a branch welfare office in the Chapel Hill area with a caseworker at least two days a week, and offered volunteers. The acting welfare superintendent replied that lay volunteers could not do casework. Place: Orange CountySearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 8, 1961, p. 4
  3. Quakers from the Chapel Hill and Durham meetings found Carolina Friends School Members of the Chapel Hill and Durham Friends meetings founded Carolina Friends School as a purposely integrated school, beginning with early education programs in the two meeting houses. Mildred Ringwalt was one of the seven founders and the first clerk of its board of trustees. People: Peter H. Klopfer Place: Chapel Hill Friends Meeting House, Chapel HillSearch the index · Carolina Friends School: Our History
  4. Chapel Hill dedicates the Peace and Justice Plaza marker The town unveiled a granite marker at Peace and Justice Plaza, in front of the old post office on Franklin Street, naming nine local activists: Charlotte Adams, Hank Anderson, James Brittian, Joe Herzenberg, Mildred Ringwalt, Hubert Robinson, Joe Straley, Lucy Straley and Gloria Williams. The Town Council had named the plaza in 2006 and set criteria for later honorees. People: Hank Anderson, James Brittian, Mildred Ringwalt, Hubert Robinson, Joe Straley, Lucy Straley, Gloria Williams, Charlotte Adams, Joseph A. Herzenberg, Sally Greene Place: Peace and Justice Plaza, Chapel Hill · Also named: Joe Herzenberg · Also mentions: Franklin StreetSearch the index · OrangePolitics: Sally Greene, Peace and protest, justice and injustice: marking Chapel Hill's sacred space (September 19, 2009) · Also: Town of Chapel Hill

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

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.

All places and the county map →

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Mildred Ringwalt, 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.

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this person. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further. Research guide: Trace a family through historical records.

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Mildred Ringwalt Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • 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

Local help

Search further

Search other catalogs and collections for this name. Results may include other people with the same name and have not been reviewed by the Friends.

Books about Mildred Ringwalt

Find copies at other libraries

Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

These searches use Mildred Ringwalt’s name without birth or death dates, so results may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026