Storyline · 1919–1961
Orange County's welfare department began under the school superintendent and worked for years with little staff. After a 1919 law required every county to have a welfare board, the commissioners and school board made school superintendent R. H. Claytor the first welfare superintendent. George H. Lawrence became the first full-time superintendent in 1928 and for years worked with only a part-time clerk. In 1954 Annie Strowd resigned weeks after the commissioners refused her department's requests for pay raises and a casework supervisor. Her successor, Jane Parker, left in 1956 for a Durham agency and returned in 1957 after the commissioners raised the salary. She retired in 1961, and Mrs. Creighton Bunn was superintendent by March.
After a 1919 law required every county to have a welfare board, the Orange County commissioners and school board jointly elected school superintendent R. H. Claytor on July 7, 1919 as the county's first welfare superintendent. On September 3, 1928 the two boards elected George H. Lawrence the first full-time superintendent, and for years he worked with only a part-time clerk from an old university-owned house in Chapel Hill. William T. Mattox, superintendent since 1937, died in May 1947. Annie Strowd, a caseworker since 1937 and superintendent since 1951, resigned in July 1954, weeks after the commissioners refused her department's requests for pay raises and a casework supervisor, and stayed on as a caseworker. The welfare board chose Mrs. Jane Parker of Chapel Hill, a child welfare worker in the county since 1950, to succeed her on September 15, 1954. Parker left in the fall of 1956 for a Durham family service agency, and when the board found no replacement in six months the commissioners raised the salary and she returned on April 22, 1957. She made her last appearance before the commissioners on January 3, 1961, before retiring; Chairman Donald Stanford praised the good relations she had built between the department and the board, and Mrs. Creighton Bunn was superintendent by March.
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People with a page of their own whom the dated events above name, those named most often first.
No indexed work is about this storyline itself yet. These are the most widely held histories of the theme it is filed under, so they may not discuss it. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.
History of the Department of Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, compiled by William W. McLendon and published by the department in 2012. After a section of historical perspective, the book covers the deans, founding faculty and department chairs, then the subspecialty divisions, offshoot departments, teaching and research, with appendices. Much of it is biographical, profiling the physicians who built clinical medicine in Chapel Hill. 478 pages with illustrations.
Alice Noble's history of the School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1961. It runs 237 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Mary Jane Kagarise's history of the Department of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill across its first four decades, 1952 to 1993, with biographies of the surgeons on its faculty. Published by the department in 1997 in a first edition of 461 pages with illustrations, some in color. Topics include surgery and medical colleges in Chapel Hill and biography of the department's faculty.
Reviewed in The American Journal of Surgery (1998).
Robert Korstad's history of the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina over its first fifty years, 1939 to 1989, published by the university in 1990. It runs 192 pages with illustrations.
NC Digital Collections record courtesy of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Two volumes collecting the Norma Berryhill Lectures, an annual address at the UNC School of Medicine named for the wife of its long-serving dean, W. Reece Berryhill. Volume one gathers the lectures from 1985 to 1999, edited by Floyd W. Denny, Jr., William B. Blythe and William W. McLendon; volume two, edited by McLendon and Elizabeth B. Dreesen, continues through 2008. Published by the Medical Foundation of North Carolina, with illustrations and portraits.
Departmental history of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill covering its first fifty years, published by the department in 2000. The history covers medical schools, medical education and the teaching of obstetrics in North Carolina. First edition, xvii and 366 pages with illustrations and portraits.
Annie Sutton Cameron compiled this account of Orange County's part in the First World War in 1919 as historian for the county's Council of Defense, at the request of its chairman J.S. Webb. It covers the Council and the Home Guard, drives for war bonds and overseas relief, Red Cross work, patriotic observances, the influenza epidemic and women's war work, with registers of the county's soldiers. Published online in 2002 by the UNC library in Documenting the American South's North Carolinians and the Great War.
Summary of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's twelve-volume institutional self-study, edited by C. Hugh Holman and dated January 15, 1974, issued in 1975. Topics include the university's accreditation, history and statistics, including the School of Public Health. ix and 546 pages with charts, some folded.
William Fred Mayes traces the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and its response to a changing society, with emphasis on the 1960s. The title page describes the account as selective and interpretive rather than complete. Published by the school in 1975, 68 pages with illustrations. Topics include schools of public health in Chapel Hill and their history.
Selections from the essays and addresses of William de Berniere MacNider, pharmacologist and physician at the University of North Carolina, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1953, two years after his death. Includes a portrait and a list of his publications.
An illustrated online timeline of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, issued by the school in 2025. One page with portraits.
Lynn Roundtree covers the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill between 1957 and 1972 through its three chancellors, William Brantley Aycock, Paul F. Sharp and J. Carlyle Sitterson, set against the student movements of those years. Part of the Coates university leadership series, published by the author in 2024 and running to 926 pages. It is twentieth century campus history.
Each dated event above names its source, the place to start. For finding more on an event across newspapers, records and histories, see the research guide Follow an event across several accounts. Ask at the North Carolina Room of the Orange County Public Library for help with local sources.
Friends of the Orange County Public Library. “Orange County's welfare superintendents, 1919–1961.” Orange County Indexed, https://focplnc.org/orange-county-books/storylines/welfare-superintendents-storyline-1919/. Accessed October 22, 2026.
