William C. Friday

William Clyde "Bill" Friday was born on July 13, 1920 in Raphine, Virginia and raised in Dallas, North Carolina. He served as the head of the University of North Carolina system from 1956 to 1986.

Friday graduated from Dallas High School in Dallas, North Carolina, where he played baseball and basketball. He holds a bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Friday served in the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. He is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.

His entire professional life was spent in higher education. Friday was assistant dean of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1948 to 1951, assistant to the President of the Consolidated University of North Carolina Gordon Gray from 1951 to 1955, then Secretary of the University of North Carolina system, and acting president from 1956 to 1957, when he was chosen to take the position permanently.

Friday was the founding co-chairman of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. [http://www.knightcommission.org/about/kciamember/william_c_friday/]

Now retired, Friday remains an influential voice in North Carolina and hosts a public television talk show, "North Carolina People", which he began while still president of the University system. [http://www.unctv.org/ncpeople/index.html] When Friday endorsed Erskine Bowles as the new president of the University in 2006, it was seen as helping "seal the deal" for Bowles to get the post.

Several educational institutions, or units of larger institutions, are named in Friday's honor. William C. Friday Middle School is located in Dallas, NC, in Gaston County, Friday's home county. The William and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation is located on the campus of North Carolina State University in Raleigh. The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education is located on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

External links

* [http://www.unctv.org/biocon/wfriday/ UNC-TV Biographical Conversation]
* [http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/L-0145/menu.html Oral History Interview with William C. Friday] from [http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp Oral Histories of the American South]
* [http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/f/Friday,William_C.html Inventory of the William C. Friday Papers, 1942-1999] , at the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
* [http://www.fridaycenter.unc.edu/aboutfc.htm William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education]