Make That 20 Of 26 N.C. Governors Who Were Lawyers, Too
The February 2017 edition of North Carolina Lawyer magazine acknowledged the inauguration of Roy Cooper, a lawyer and member of the North Carolina Bar Association, as North Carolina’s 75th governor.
The article also denoted an impressive statistic regarding the frequency with which lawyers have held this state’s highest office since the establishment of the NCBA. Since 1899, it was reported, 19 lawyers and only seven non-lawyers have served as governor.
Robert Brodnax Glenn, photo courtesy of the State Archives of North Carolina
That is incorrect.
Actually, 20 lawyers and only six non-lawyers have held the state’s highest office during the 118-year history of the NCBA. Correcting the lawyer designations in the following list of N.C. governors, derived from the NCBA’s centennial history book, Robert Brodnax Glenn was also an attorney.
He was, in fact, a United States Attorney, appointed by President Grover Cleveland in 1893. Glenn served as governor from 1905-09 and practiced law in Winston-Salem with Glenn & Glenn. The firm traces its history to 1876 and will be more familiar to most folks under its current nameplate: Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice.
Governors of the State of North Carolina
(Lawyers in boldface)
Roy Asberry Cooper III, 2017-
Patrick McCrory, 2013-2017
Beverly Eaves Perdue, 2009-2013
Michael F. Easley, 2001-2009
James Baxter Hunt Jr., 1993-2001
James Grubbs Martin, 1985-1993
James Baxter Hunt Jr., 1977-1985
James E. Holshouser Jr., 1973-1977
Robert Walter Scott, 1969-1973
Dan Killian Moore, 1965-1969
Terry Sanford, 1961-1965
Luther Hartwell Hodges, 1954-1961
William B. Umstead, 1953-1954
William Kerr Scott, 1949-1953
Robert Gregg Cherry, 1945-1949
Melville Broughton, 1941-1945
Clyde Roark Hoey, 1937-1941
John C.B. Ehringhaus, 1933-1937
Oliver Max Gardner, 1929-1933
Angus Wilton McLean, 1925-1929
Cameron Morrison, 1921-1925
Thomas Walter Bickett, 1917-1921
Locke Craig, 1913-1917
William Walton Kitchin, 1909-1913
Robert Brodnax Glenn, 1905-1909
Charles Brantley Aycock, 1901-1905
Daniel Lindsay Russell Jr., 1897-1901
Elias Carr, 1893-1897
Thomas Michael Holt, 1891-1893
Daniel Gould Fowle, 1889-1891
Alfred Moore Scales, 1885-1889
Thomas Jordan Jarvis, 1879-1885
Zebulon Baird Vance, 1877-1879
Curtis Hooks Brogden, 1874-1877
Tod Robinson Caldwell, 1870-1874
William Woods Holden, 1868-1870
Jonathan Worth, 1865-1868
William Woods Holden, 1865
Zebulon Baird Vance, 1862-1865
Henry Toole Clark, 1861-1862
John Willis Ellis, 1859-1861
Thomas Bragg, 1855-1859
Warren Winslow, 1854-1855
David Settle Reid, 1851-1854
Charles Manly, 1849-1851
William Alexander Graham, 1845-1849
John Motley Morehead, 1841-1845
Edward Bishop Dudley, 1836-1841
Richard Dobbs Spaight Jr., 1835-1836
David Lowry Swain, 1832-1835
Montfort Stokes, 1830-1832
John Owen, 1828-1830
James Iredell Jr., 1827-1828
Hutchins Gordon Burton, 1824-1827
Gabriel Holmes, 1821-1824
Jesse Franklin, 1820-1821
John Branch, 1817-1820
William Miller, 1814-1817
William Hawkins, 1811-1814
Benjamin Smith, 1810-1811
David Stone, 1808-1810
Benjamin Williams, 1807-1808
Nathaniel Alexander, 1805-1807
James Turner, 1802-1805
Benjamin Williams, 1799-1802
William Richardson Davie, 1798-1799
Samuel Ashe, 1795-1798
Richard Dobbs Spaight Sr., 1792-1795
Alexander Martin, 1789-1792
Samuel Johnston,1787-1789
Richard Caswell, 1784-1787
Alexander Martin, 1782-1785
Thomas Burke, 1781-1782
Abner Nash, 1780-1781
Richard Caswell, 1776-1780
Sources: NCpedia website and “Seeking Liberty and Justice: A History of the North Carolina Bar Association – 1899-1999”