[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 12, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO CHANCELLOR PAUL HARDIN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 12, 2017

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the life 
and legacy of Paul Hardin III, former Chancellor of the University of 
North Carolina-Chapel Hill, who died on July 1 after a courageous 
battle with ALS.
  My wife Lisa and I treasure the friendship of Paul and his wife 
Barbara and were privileged to join his family in a moving memorial 
service at University United Methodist Church last Saturday.
  Paul was a man of great intelligence and insight, moral seriousness 
and integrity, and irrepressible enthusiasm and dedication--qualities 
abundantly evident throughout his career in higher education.
  As was said more than once in the memorial service, Paul pledged 
allegiance to ``two shades of blue.'' The deeper hue belonged to Duke 
University, where he earned his undergraduate and law degrees and 
edited the Duke Law Journal.
  Paul then served in the Army's Counter Intelligence Corps and 
practiced law in Birmingham before returning to Durham to spend ten 
years on the faculty of Duke Law School. He was appointed to his first 
college presidency, at Wofford College, at age 37, and went on to serve 
as president of Southern Methodist and Drew Universities. In 1988 he 
became the seventh chancellor of UNC-CH, where he served until his 
retirement in 1995.
  As a young man, Paul made a credible run for Mayor of Durham, and 
throughout his life he was attentive and involved in national, state, 
and local politics. In recent years, Paul, along with Barbara, brought 
his trademark high energy to the leadership of Democrats in their 
retirement community, Carolina Meadows.
  They also shared, as children of ministers, deep roots in the 
Methodist Church. Paul, his son Russell reported at the memorial 
service, seriously considered entering the ministry as a young man. But 
his father, who was a Methodist bishop, assured him that he could 
render faithful service and powerful witness in his chosen fields of 
education and the law.
  Paul's father was right, as the thousands whose lives Paul touched 
can attest. I am honored to join this chorus of tribute, and include in 
the Record a piece by Paul's friend and mine, Village Communications 
President Jim Heavner, from the Raleigh News and Observer of July 5.

              Paul Hardin--A Good Man Who Made UNC Better

       When Paul Hardin slipped away last week, North Carolina 
     lost a brilliant and fine man, a UNC chancellor whose 
     leadership was endearing, its lessons enduring.
       ``This may be audacious, but here's an idea,'' I heard him 
     say so often as a way to prepare us to hear how he might see 
     the future differently. The good fortune of my work and home 
     town gave me much time with Paul and a friendship that grew. 
     He and I were pulled together in work when my company owned 
     the school's sports network.
       It was the good fortune of us all to learn from him. Among 
     the leaders I have known, none was more dogged in defense of 
     the values he sought to protect. He was clear-eyed and 
     courageous in facing down those who threatened those values.
       It was likely the example of his Methodist minister father 
     (also a bishop) that inculcated his habit to find noble 
     qualities among many where the rest of us could not. An 
     extroverted and joyful soul, he loved much about politics and 
     once ran for the town council in Durham.
       It is little-known that he served in the CIA, or that his 
     excellent golf game honed on the Duke team (his alma mater) 
     qualified him for the British Open at a time when he was in 
     Scotland. A great storyteller, Paul loved to recall those 
     days and so many more.
       He was a brilliant student who finished first in his class 
     at Duke, where he also obtained his law degree. He would have 
     to call on all of that as a university leader. It's a job 
     with high prestige buffeted daily by high winds of disparate 
     owners and bosses and the thunder of their loudest voices. 
     Paul would frequently recall the story attributed to Lincoln 
     about the politician who was tarred and feathered and run out 
     of town on a rail: ``Except for the honor of the public 
     experience, I would have preferred to walk.''
       Most every university is beset with the challenge of 
     balancing the conflicting goals of big-time sports and the 
     university's academic mission. As president of Southern 
     Methodist University, Paul Hardin heard of a minor 
     malfeasance by the football coach that led him to learn of 
     cash payments to players.
       Paul was not a Pollyanna. He had a good political radar but 
     never let it overpower his gyroscope. Knowing that he was in 
     Dallas, where many see football as the reason to have a 
     university, he nonetheless reported it to the NCAA and told 
     his trustees that he was going to clean it up, knowing that 
     he would face criticism.
       His board members fired him. The school ultimately was 
     given the NCAA's only four-year ``death penalty.''
       Paul later said that it ``perked up'' his career. It was 
     that experience, his exhibition of putting his values first, 
     he said, that got him the job heading UNC in Chapel Hill 13 
     years later.
       Unflinching in his support of the Knight Commission on 
     College Athletics' position that a school was more important 
     than any coach, he never swerved in his commitment to 
     administrative control of athletics and transparency in its 
     dealings. He was a great fan of basketball and UNC's iconic 
     Dean Smith. Yet, when the head coach's Nike contract came up 
     for renewal on Paul's watch, the chancellor insisted that it 
     be made public.
       (Ironically, while he was demanding the coach's contractual 
     transparency, he also was being criticized in cartoons in The 
     News & Observer for allowing Dean to make so much money while 
     he was away playing golf. In some things, you just can't 
     win.)
       He also faced issues of protest and social unrest. He was 
     caught in the jaws of irreconciably-conflicting forces when 
     supporters of the Black Cultural Center wanted it expanded 
     into its own, freestanding building, something others 
     opposed. The chancellor was initially opposed, as an advocate 
     for more integration. He saw it as a contributor to 
     separatism.
       The faceoff between conservatives and growing campus 
     protests became overwhelming. Hardin agreed to build the 
     center, which was done in the subsequent administration. Yet, 
     he had paid a price for it in criticism from all sides.
       Paul was a pioneer in fundraising, creating the 
     university's first major fund campaign that was first 
     announced as one for $200 million to celebrate the UNC 
     Bicentennial. That was then raised to $300 million and 
     ultimately reported $412 million in gifts.
       Paul showed them the way. The school now channels that 
     Hardin audacity, embarking now on its second multi-billion-
     dollar campaign.
       He loved being the ``Bicentennial Chancellor,'' with its 
     many commemorations, including an anniversary speech in Kenan 
     Stadium by President Bill Clinton.
       Paul Hardin loved life, one well-lived until the ravages of 
     ALS took him away. He was still able to find good in all 
     things and laughter with good friends until the end. Paul 
     could lament the awful examples and roiling consequences of 
     today's political leadership, even as he might find something 
     good in each of those who are, at least, he might say, 
     willing to lead. The more we ponder that world view, that 
     life, the closer we come to our own better angels.
       Our community and our state lost a good man. A good, good 
     man.

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