News & Observer - Editorial: A life to live by, April 20, 1998

Terry Sanford set forth a standard for leadership as a governor, university president and United States senator that few could equal. He leaves a progressive legacy to North Carolina -- one of courage and hope.

The warrior was fighting to the end. As he lay dying, Terry Sanford was talking of a book he wanted to write, and of an arts center he wanted to build in the Triangle. As usual, as always, he was upbeat and hopeful and doing all within his power to push his fellow North Carolinians to do good things for themselves and others.

Sanford died Saturday at 80 with those final goals unmet -- but don't bet against the power of his legacy, a power still stirring within the many leaders around this state for whom he was a noble role model. For when the full history of North Carolina in the 20th century finds its way to paper and ink, Terry Sanford's will be a name most frequently listed in the index.

In the 1960s, he was a youthful dynamo, a progressive governor in the South who did not shy from proud association with another dynamo who occupied the White House, John F. Kennedy. One political grapevine had it, in fact, that Sanford might have been Ken-nedy's vice presidential choice had Kennedy lived to seek a second term.

Sanford tended to business in his state with a frenetic pace: He helped to create the community college system, the School of the Arts, the Governor's School for gifted students. He boosted public education, fought poverty, and was a courageous voice for racial harmony at a time when other Southern states were torn asunder in sometimes violent confrontation. The breadth and depth of his accomplishments in that short four years are astounding and a tribute to his political acumen, personal charm and, yes, good heart.

Pushing for progress

But he was just getting started. The next 30-plus years would see him strengthen Duke University's foundation as president, serve a term in the U.S. Senate, and become an activist for the same types of progressive causes he had advocated in political office. Progressive -- that's the best word, perhaps, for Sanford's politics. When others demurred on race, he dared. When others were beacons of hate, he was a beacon of hope. Everything he did, it seems, was with an eye toward how he could make things better. He was a positive force to his marrow, whether campaigning for office or campaigning for Duke or campaigning for his arts center. But he had little use for rhetoric: The important thing was to get something done, a lesson he had learned from the late former Gov. Kerr Scott, a political mentor who brought roads and electricity to the rural areas of the state, and from Frank Porter Graham, the beloved president of the University of North Carolina.

Among those who knew him well, Sanford also was regarded as remarkable for his intellect and keen wit, gifts from his strong parents in the Sandhills community of Laurinburg.

And he was known as one who was comfortable and engaging in any company. He could quote the classic poets, but also fancied the work of the Scotland County laureate John Charles McNeill. He was at ease in the corporate board rooms of New York City -- Sanford started two of this state's most prominent law firms -- and also liked to put on his jeans and cowboy boots to host "varmint dinners" at the Duke president's mansion, feasts of 'possum and raccoon.

Memories of a leader

A paratrooper in World War II, Sanford hosted a reunion of his old mates at Fort Bragg during his term as governor. He intended to make another jump from a plane for old time's sake, but his effervescent wife, Margaret Rose, exercised something Sanford didn't possess as governor -- a veto. He jumped from a practice tower instead.

These are among the stories Sanford's friends and acquaintances are recalling now and will remember with one another in the coming days. Their friend had a powerful mind and an unforgettable personality. He could fascinate a small gathering with political war stories, and real war stories. He was colorful, but dignified. He was shrewd and clever and persuasive. He was a person of clarity who spoke his mind, but at the same time a person of complexity who was not always easy to figure.

Sanford was a leader in a generation of leaders who were steadfast in the belief that the people of North Carolina had good instincts and good sense and generous hearts. He appealed always to these qualities, and there is a lesson for all those who seek office today and will seek office in the tomorrows. How proud Terry Sanford would be if his lasting gift to the political world he so enjoyed was the legacy of positive ideas, and leadership based on hope.

That was his way. It was the right way, and the everlasting way. It is why, generations from now, Terry Sanford will still stand as one of North Carolina's best governors, and one of her best sons.

© 1998 The News & Observer Publishing Co. / Raliegh, NC  Used by permission.

Sanford Building
Sanford Building