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Local figure

Walter Spearman

Walter Spearman, editor of the Daily Tar Heel as a UNC student, taught journalism at the university in Chapel Hill from 1935 until he retired. He wrote The Carolina Playmakers: The First Fifty Years (1970), kept up his book column "The Literary Lantern" from 1947, and died in Chapel Hill in 1987.

Source: UNC Libraries: Walter Spearman Papers, 1900-1986

6 works about Walter Spearman are indexed here.

Walter Spearman, Yackety Yack, 1929
Walter Spearman, Yackety Yack, 1929

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 8 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Walter Spearman joins the UNC journalism faculty Spearman, a 1929 UNC graduate and former Daily Tar Heel editor, returned to Chapel Hill after five years at the Charlotte News to teach journalism at the university, as an assistant to O. J. Coffin, head of the journalism department. The Chapel Hill Weekly reported his arrival on October 4, 1935. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Carolina Story: Walter Spearman (1908-1987) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, October 4, 1935, p. 1
  2. Walter Spearman wins an anti-lynching play prize for a Playmakers drama Walter Spearman, instructor in journalism at the University, won the $100 first prize in an anti-lynching play contest held by the Southern Interracial Commission for 'Country Sunday,' which the Carolina Playmakers had staged that spring. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Carolina PlaymakersSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, July 31, 1936, p. 2
  3. An advisory rent control board for the Chapel Hill area is sworn in Rent Control Director Forrest Pollard swore in the Advisory Rent Control Board for the Chapel Hill Defense Area, chaired by H. R. Totten, at its first meeting in the rent control office in the Henninger Building. Under the Housing and Rent Act of 1947 the board could recommend ending controls, judge rent levels and hear hardship cases. People: Henry Roland Totten, Walter Spearman, Robert O. Forrest Place: Henninger Building, Chapel Hill · Also named: J. S. Henninger, Forrest PollardSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 28, 1947, p. 1
  4. Jim and John Webb design the Spearman house, the first of their Whitehead Circle houses The Webb firm designed a house at 418 Whitehead Circle for Walter Spearman of the UNC School of Journalism and his wife Mary, placed around a large rock that juts from the site. It was the first of five houses the brothers designed on the street. People: John B. Webb, Walter Spearman, James M. Webb Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · NCSU Libraries, North Carolina Architects and Builders: Webb, James M. (1908-2000)
  5. Four professors win Tanner Awards for teaching Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson announced $1,000 Tanner Awards for excellent teaching of freshmen and sophomores to history professor Paul Pinckney, journalism professor Walter Spearman, religion professor Bernard Boyd and mathematics professor Robert Mann. The awards, endowed in 1955 by the Tanner family of Rutherfordton, honor Lola Spencer and Simpson Bobo Tanner. People: Walter Spearman, J. Carlyle Sitterson Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Paul Pinckney, Bernard Boyd, Robert MannSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, May 7, 1967, p. 1
  6. Elderhostel begins week-long classes for older adults at UNC Elderhostel, the program of week-long college courses for people over 60, came to UNC in 1976, one year after it began in New Hampshire, and was run in North Carolina through the University's Division of Continuing Education. In June 1983 the University hosted 26 hostelers from across the country who lived in Spencer dormitory and took courses from faculty such as journalism professor Walter Spearman, who had taught in the program since 1978. People: Walter Spearman Place: Division of Continuing Education, University, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, June 9, 1983, p. 1
  7. Walter Spearman receives the Thomas Jefferson Award Spearman received the Thomas Jefferson Award in 1978, near the end of a teaching career in which students admired his defense of freedom of speech and of the press. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Carolina Story: Walter Spearman (1908-1987)
  8. Journalism professor Walter Spearman dies Walter Spearman, professor emeritus of journalism, died at N.C. Memorial Hospital of complications from cancer at 79. A 1929 UNC graduate and former editor of the Daily Tar Heel, he joined the faculty in 1935, taught editorial writing and criticism to more than 5,000 students until he retired from full-time teaching in 1978, and acted in 85 Playmakers productions. About 200 people attended a memorial for him in Hill Hall on March 19. People: Walter Spearman Place: N.C. Memorial Hospital, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Hill HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 25, 1987, p. 1

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Walter Spearman, 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.

Indexed works

Works about or by Walter Spearman. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

The distinguished service award : Walter Spearman honored for 25 years as advisor.

1971

An award notice from 1971 honoring Walter Spearman for twenty five years as faculty advisor to Alpha Sigma, the Chi Psi chapter at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A citation on page three credits his service as advisor and his devotion to the ideals of the fraternity.

Included because: Its title names this person.

UNC

John B. Dunne papers, 1958-1965; 1983-1984.

Dunne, John B. · 1958

Civil rights work fills the John B. Dunne papers, dated 1958 to 1965 and 1983 to 1984, five hundred items in half a linear foot, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4391. Topics include civil disobedience and the civil rights movement in Chapel Hill and in Alabama, the political activity of college students at the university, and the Choate School, with John Ehle and Walter Spearman named.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

UNC

Walter Spearman papers, 1900-1986.

Spearman, Walter · 1900

Papers of Walter Spearman, a teacher of journalism at Chapel Hill, spanning 1900 to 1986 in 2,400 items and 3.5 linear feet, in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4484. Topics include journalism education in North Carolina, American authors of the state, and named writers Spearman knew or taught, among them Charles Kuralt, Paul Green, Jonathan Daniels and Gail Godwin.

Included because: Its title names this person.

UNC

Spearman, Walter (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

Walter Spearman, the University of North Carolina journalism professor, is the subject of a report in this folder. Chapel Hill Historical Society Vertical File Collection, Individuals and Families series, box 8. Undated.

Included because: Their name appears in the record.

Memories of Walter Spearman: A Tribute to His Mind and Heart

School of Journalism, UNC · 1987 · UNC School of Journalism

Tribute volume published by the UNC School of Journalism in 1987, gathering remembrances of Walter Spearman, the longtime journalism professor at Chapel Hill.

Included because: Its title names this person.

Spearman, Walter: photographs (Chapel Hill Historical Society)

Walter Spearman in three undated photographs: a portrait, a view of him at his desk with students, and a conversation with the writer Frances Gray Patton and Howard Richardson. From the UNC Faculty and Administration binder of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Prints and Photographs Collection.

Included because: Its title names this person.

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.

Background

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Walter Spearman 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

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Books about Walter Spearman

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

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Picture: Walter Spearman, Yackety Yack, 1929. Public domain. Yackety Yack, 1929 (University of North Carolina yearbook); via the Internet Archive

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