Terry Sanford

James Terry Sanford (August 20, 1917 – April 18, 1998) was an American lawyer and politician from North Carolina.

James Terry Sanford was born on August 20, 1917, in Laurinburg, North Carolina, United States.

He was the second of five children of Elizabeth Terry (Martin) and Cecil Leroy Sanford.

His father ran a hardware store while his mother worked as a teacher.

The Sanfords enjoyed a middle class standard of living.

During the Great Depression, Cecil's hardware store was forced to close and the family was unable to pay rent, but the company which owned their house allowed them to stay.

Cecil struggled to find steady work and performed temporary jobs while Elizabeth returned to full-time teaching.

Despite the family's economic troubles, the Sanfords never went hungry and Terry later reflected that he never thought of his family as poor.

He and his brother worked odd jobs to make money in their youth, including raising chickens and pigs, selling vegetables, picking cotton, planting tobacco, and delivering newspapers.

By November 1933 Sanford's father had found a new permanent job and purchased a house, and the following year Sanford graduated from high school.

In the fall of 1934 Sanford enrolled at Presbyterian Junior College in Maxton.

He worked part-time to pay for his tuition and lived at his parents' home while he studied there, but he found the instruction lacking and dropped out after one semester.

In the fall of 1935 he enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He worked various jobs to pay for his tuition and during his senior year he settled on majoring in political science.

Born in Laurinburg, North Carolina, Sanford became a Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1939.

During World War II he joined the United States Army and saw combat in the European Theater.

After graduating in 1939 Sanford decided to enroll in law school.

While studying at the University of North Carolina School of Law, Sanford befriended Professor Albert Coates.

He also took an increased interest in student politics, and won a seat in the newly created student legislative council.

In that position he chaired the body's ways and means committee until he was elected its speaker.

Following the war, Sanford attended and graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law and began a legal career in the late 1940s, soon becoming involved in politics.

In 1940, as World War II intensified and the likelihood of American involvement increased, the United States enacted a draft, and many students voluntarily joined the Armed Forces.

Sanford attempted to get a commission in the Army Air Corps.

Although he had earned his pilot's license, the corps determined he was nearsighted and thus unfit to fly.

He then unsuccessfully applied to join the Marine Corps and the Navy.

Early in 1941 he found work at UNC-Chapel Hill's Institute of Government, which was managed by Coates.

He served one term in the North Carolina Senate and managed W. Kerr Scott's U.S. Senate campaign in 1954 before running for governor in 1960.

Focusing on improving education and economic opportunity, he defeated segregationist I. Beverly Lake, Sr. in the Democratic primary and was subsequently elected governor in the general election.

A member of the Democratic Party, Sanford served as the 65th Governor of North Carolina from 1961 to 1965, was a two-time U.S. presidential candidate in the 1970s, and served as a U.S. senator from 1986 to 1993.

He was a strong proponent of public education and introduced several reforms and new programs in North Carolina's schools and institutions of higher education as the state's governor.

Taking office in 1961, he pushed a controversial tax increase through the state legislature to double public spending on schools and created a commission to study further education.

Growing increasingly anxious about opportunities for black students, he became the first Southern governor to call for an end to racially discriminatory employment practices in 1963 and used law enforcement to protect civil rights demonstrators.

He also created the North Carolina Fund to alleviate poverty and lobbied for a major environmental research facility to be located at the Research Triangle Park.

Leaving the governorship in 1965, Sanford remained active in Democratic Party politics and engaged in the practice of law before being hired as President of Duke University in 1970.

While there, he increased the school's fundraising, managed student protests, and created new institutions to study public policy issues.

From 1970 to 1985, Sanford served as the president of Duke University.

Retiring in 1985, he successfully ran for a U.S. Senate seat the following year.

In Congress he maintained a liberal voting record, cofounding the International Commission for Central American Recovery and Development, objecting to the passage of a Flag Desecration Amendment, and criticizing American involvement in the Gulf War.

Defeated in a bid for re-election in 1992, he spent his later years practicing law, writing, and teaching at Duke before he died of cancer in 1998.

He is remembered in North Carolina as the "education governor" and served as a role model for several other Southern governors.