North Carolina Awards
The North Carolina Award is the highest civilian honor bestowed by the state. Created by the General Assembly in 1961, the award recognizes significant contributions of individuals in the fields of fine arts, literature, public service, and science.
N.C Awards Official Site
Six to Receive North Carolina Award Oct. 29
Literature: Gerald Barrax
Respect for the craft of poetry is a hallmark of the work of Gerald Barrax. In fact, Barrax has been called a “poet’s poet.” His poems “resonate with intelligence, integrity and, yes, music” writes North Carolina Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer. He himself says that “I am curious about everything. Everything that I read goes into my work... . What I write is a natural outgrowth of what I read and what I learn through my reading.” For a life committed to truth-telling and for contributions to the literary community in North Carolina, Gerald Barrax receives the 2009 North Carolina Award for Literature.
Born in 1933 in Attalla, Alabama, Barrax moved with his family to Pittsburgh when he was ten.Employed as a mail carrier, he studied at Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh. It was while working in a steel mill that Barrax met an ex-convict who talked up the poetry of Walter Benton. Barrax caught the bug and, while serving in the Air Force, purchased a copy of The Poets’ Handbook. His course was set and the largely self-taught poet soon became a teacher.
Barrax took a position at North Carolina State University in 1970, remaining there until his retirement in 1997. Former editor of Obsidian II and poetry editor of Callaloo, Barrax to date has published six volumes of poems and has seen his work widely anthologized. One of the titles, Leaning Against the Sun, was nominated for both a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. His subjects range from religion to human relations, sexual intimacy, and death. Music is indeed his muse and he is a fan of all varieties except polka and waltzes. His honors include a Ford Foundation Fellowship, the Sam Ragan Award, the Raleigh Medal of Arts, and induction in 2006 into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.
In the words of one of his favorite poets, Emily Dickinson, the writings of Gerald Barrax “dazzle gradually.” A reserved man, Barrax is not fond of loud polemics; for him passion alone is not enough. Michael McFee of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill commends his “gentle intensity, the measured rage and joy.” While personally deeply committed to racial justice, Barrax deplored the inclination by black writers in the 1960s to replace poetry with slogans. Respect for the forms and conventions of poetic composition must come first. As he told his students, in the words of Ezra Pound, “Technique is the test of a man’s sincerity.”
Barrax and his wife Joan lived in Pennsylvania for a time after his retirement, and now make their home in Raleigh. They have two daughters and he has three sons by a previous marriage. The couple has eight grandchildren.
Science: Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone
Nanotechnology and polymer chemistry are realms of science to which we increasingly look for life-changing and world-saving inventions. So esoteric are these fields that the average person does not even understand the basic principles. Yet Joseph DeSimone regularly plumbs the complex sciences for applications that address universal concerns such as cancer and the environment. Holding one hundred and twenty domestic and international patents, with a like amount of pending applications, his innovations include a technique to mass produce nanoparticles used to deliver drugs to cancerous tumors. For his breakthroughs in the fields of chemistry, pharmacology, and biomolecular engineering, Joseph M. DeSimone receives the 2009 North Carolina Award for Science.
Joseph DeSimone was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1964. His father, a tailor who emigrated from Italy, and his mother, an accountant, were “inquisitive and meticulous,” character traits they instilled in their children. His interests in chemistry and teaching were sparked in high school during a lesson on pH, acids, and bases. Not comprehending the concept, DeSimone went home and studied on his own, returning the next day to tell his class about his research. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Ursinus College and a doctorate in chemistry from Virginia Polytechnic and State University.
Recruited to the nascent polymer chemistry program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1990, DeSimone now holds distinguished seats at UNC and North Carolina State University. He has remained in North Carolina for its quality of life, and because he sees the state as a hotbed for industrial advancements, where area researchers and developers are forward-looking. He believes, “What’s great about being a scientist today is that the world has a lot of problems. It’s a target rich environment to work and play in.” For his own work, he first asks, “Can we make it?” and, once that is determined, he wants to know how the product can be applied. He plans strategically across a variety of disciplines, feeling that diversity is the key to solving the world’s most challenging problems.
The youngest member appointed to the National Academy of Engineering, in 2008 he won the “Oscar for Inventors” Lemelson-MIT Prize and in 2009 received the National Institute of Health Director’s NIH Pioneer Award. His success lies in his ability to apply his inventions and innovations to a variety of fields, including manufacturing and medicine, and to get the developments out of the laboratory. Indeed, preferring small businesses to large corporations, DeSimone has launched two companies based on his inventions – a green dry cleaning company and Liquidia Technologies, manufacturer of nanocarriers for medical therapy and diagnostics, or theranostics.
Joseph DeSimone lives in Chapel Hill with his wife, Suzanne. They are the parents of two children.
Public Service: Betty Ray McCain
Betty Ray McCain has not met every person in North Carolina... yet. She has for decades served the people of her home state in a wide range of positions, the majority of which have been unpaid. Her industry is marked by her inexorable enthusiasm and determination. McCain’s friend, former governor James B. Hunt Jr., once described her as a visionary leader, saying “she never loses sight of what makes our state great – the people of North Carolina.” For her enduring commitment to the Tar Heel state and its citizens, Betty Ray McCain receives the 2009 North Carolina Award for Public Service.
McCain was born in Faison to Horace and Mary Perrett Ray. She attended St. Mary’s College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, going from there to earn a master’s in music at Columbia University. She married John L. McCain, a physician, in 1955 and the couple moved to Wilson the next year. Active in civic organizations, the Democratic Party, and First Presbyterian Church of Wilson, McCain became friends with Jim Hunt, in time joining his campaign for lieutenant governor. Hunt relied on her to co-chair his gubernatorial campaigns of 1976 and 1980 and his U. S. Senate campaign in 1984. As chair of the state Democratic Party in 1976, she was the first woman to hold the position, and since 1971 has been a member of the party’s Executive Committee.
McCain has provided sound, dynamic leadership for a myriad of organizations, including the North Carolina Medical Society, North Carolina Mental Health Association, UNC-TV Board of Trustees, Tryon Palace Commission, and the General Alumni Association of UNC. She was the first female member of the North Carolina Budget Advisory Commission and served four terms on the UNC Board of Governors. From 1993 until 2001, McCain was the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, uncompromising in her advocacy for the state’s arts and historical institutions, libraries, and the state symphony. She has been described as “the perfect example of the best that is achieved when good nature, great humor, high energy, splendid education, and the kindliest compassion are combined.” Always a humorous storyteller, McCain attributes her success to “strong peasant stock.”
Betty McCain has been awarded five honorary doctorates and has been recognized for her contributions to a variety of educational institutions and charitable and civic organizations. Today an art gallery and an amphitheater bear her name.
McCain, widowed in 2005, lives in Wilson, and has two grown children and five grandchildren.
Public Service: Hugh L. McColl, Jr.
“I don’t think my public image is even close to what I’m really like.” So says Hugh McColl, banker, dealmaker, and friend of the arts. “I’d like people to see that I’m not just a one-sided, flat character.” Over the course of forty-two years in the employ of what became Bank of America, McColl was without peer as a corporate citizen. For the part he played in making North Carolina a banking center, for his central place in the development of urban Charlotte, and for the example set through his support of the arts, Hugh L. McColl, Jr., receives the 2009 North Carolina Award for Public Service.
Born in Bennettsville, South Carolina, in 1935, McColl has Tar Heel roots. His great-grandfather, wounded at Bentonville, returned to a town trampled by Sherman’s army and founded the Bank of Marlboro in 1886. His father closed the bank during the Depression and opened a cotton gin. Hugh McColl graduated with a business degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1957 and served two years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Writer W. J. Cash in 1941 blamed the South’s failures on an “absence of leadership.” McColl, the likes of whom have not been seen since James “Buck” Duke, reversed that tide. He began working in Charlotte in 1959 for what soon became North Carolina National Bank. In 1983 he became chief executive officer of what would become in 1991 NationsBank. Discussions with San Francisco-based Bank of America in 1995 created a merger, with headquarters based in the Queen City. McColl made the financial giant the first bank in the nation with operations coast to coast. In 1983, NCNB had assets of $12 billion. When he retired in 2001, Bank of America’s assets were $642 billion. Rivals across the table repeatedly underestimated the drawling Carolinian. McColl took it in stride and, when asked about stress, he said, “I don’t have it, I give it.”
McColl, a student of history, saw to it that Charlotte’s sixty-story bank tower include Founders Hall, with a magnificent Ben Long fresco, and a performing arts center. Through corporate and personal investments, he led the revitalization of Charlotte, boosted Habitat for Humanity projects, championed public education, and played a key role in bringing professional sports to the city. A building named in his honor houses the business school at his alma mater. “The bottom line is, we should make a difference because we can make a difference,” he says. In recent years he has founded McColl Partners, an investment banking firm, and McColl Fine Art, a gallery that specializes in fine American and European paintings.
Hugh McColl and the former Jane Spratt, married since 1959, have three grown children and eight grandchildren.
Fine Arts: Mark Peiser
Mark Peiser, today a renowned glass artist, brought engineering and design skills into the glass studio at the Penland School of Crafts in 1967. Since that time his technical and aesthetic innovations have made a tremendous impact on the art world. Peiser, by one account, has produced “an extensive and diverse body of highly original work that is not only beautiful but speaks volumes of the better creative spirit of humankind.” He has played a fundamental role in taking his adopted state to the forefront of the studio glass movement. For his ground-breaking career as a glass artist with an international reputation for inventive and captivating work, Mark Peiser receives the 2009 North Carolina Award for Fine Arts.
Born in Chicago in 1938, Peiser attended progressive suburban schools. Upon the advice of his parents and high school teachers, he enrolled at Purdue University to study engineering but later transferred to the design program at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Peiser worked for a while as an industrial designer but quit to pursue his dream of attending music school at DePaul University. To support himself and his wife, he ran a design shop in his garage. A series of coincidences and fascination with a secondhand leaded glass lamp led Peiser to consider working with glass. In 1967 he enrolled at Penland, in Mitchell County, to learn the basic principles of the craft. He learned quickly, and soon made arrangements to remain at Penland that winter as the school’s first glass artist-in-residence.
Distinct creative periods punctuate Peiser’s forty-plus year career of technical experimentation and new methods of managing glass as a medium. According to him, “the only way to discover the possibilities is to do something and see what you get. . . . You build a vocabulary of possibilities and if there are enough of them, and the process will allow you to combine them, compose and grow, perhaps beauty can evolve and take a new form.” Peiser’s innovations include a process called cold stream casting, an unprecedented method that involves pouring glass from the second floor of his studio into a rotating mold on the first.
Peiser’s works are featured in collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corning Museum of Glass, the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Institution, the Lucerne Museum of Art, and the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art. A founding member of the Glass Art Society since 1971, he is a recipient of the group’s Honorary Lifetime Membership Award.
Mark Peiser, who has a grown daughter, lives in Penland.
Fine Arts: Bo Thorp
Bo Thorp, who has served for forty-two years as the artistic director of Cape Fear Regional Theatre, is a force of nature. Owing to her creative spirit and enthusiasm, Fayetteville and the region have first-class productions, soldiers and children have a mentor, and townspeople have a public-minded citizen second to none. For the roles she has played in extending the audience for theater and fostering the work of Tar Heel writers and performers, Bo Thorp receives the 2009 North Carolina Award for Fine Arts.
Olga Bernardin “Bo” Thorp, reared in Columbia, South Carolina, received a piano as a tenth birthday gift and acquired her nickname at the Ashley School for Girls in Charleston. Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Class of 1956) provided other gifts, among them marriage to law student Herbert Thorp in her senior year. They moved to New York and then to Morocco, where she directed her first play on a military base. They set down roots in Fayetteville, and in 1962 helped create the Fayetteville Little Theatre in the fading Haymount movie house. Today the company, renamed in 1986, boasts a 327-seat jewel box of a main stage and 3,500 season subscribers.
Co-workers are awed by Thorp’s gift for bringing out the best in her actors and crew members. One points to her “unmatched ability to excite, to challenge, to exhort.” At the outset of a new production, she will tell an actor, “Here is the height I need you to reach” and rarely is either disappointed. Thorp regularly takes the stage in Fayetteville, recently reprising her role as the lead in Driving Miss Daisy.
Thorp and her company have the advantage of operating near Fort Bragg, where an open casting call can bring in an unknown musical talent or leading man. Hundreds of local children have attended workshops or taken part in plays. Theater exchanges with Hastings, England and Dumfries, Scotland have taken Death of a Salesman and Our Town to the British Isles. Thorp has interpreted the work of North Carolina writers, among them fellow North Carolina Award recipients Paul Green, Clyde Edgerton, Bland Simpson, Lee Smith, and Jill McCorkle. She created River Show, taking productions to the banks of the Cape Fear River, and produced works for the North Carolina Women Writers’ Conference, the bicentennials of UNC, and the constitutional convention in Fayetteville.
Bo Thorp and her late husband are the parents of two grown children and five grandchildren.
