
{"id":28195,"date":"2012-10-12T12:30:06","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T16:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=28195"},"modified":"2016-01-18T10:11:21","modified_gmt":"2016-01-18T15:11:21","slug":"wouldnt-trade-the-experience-for-anything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/10\/12\/wouldnt-trade-the-experience-for-anything\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trade the experience for anything\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6098\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6098\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2009\/06\/04\/%e2%80%98wouldn%e2%80%99t-trade-the-experience-for-anything%e2%80%99\/resizeddsc_0007\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6098\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/resizeddsc_0007.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"resizeddsc_0007\" width=\"500\" height=\"335\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6098\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/resizeddsc_0007.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/resizeddsc_0007-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Fridays in their home. Photo by Ava Barlow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: Longtime UNC System President William Friday passed away in his sleep early today (Friday). This story originally ran on June 4, 2009. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Susan Dickson<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Tucked away on a side street near campus, William Friday \u00e2\u20ac\u201d who is approaching 89 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d keeps watch on the happenings around the university from the home he shares with his wife, Ida. <\/p>\n<p>Having spent 30 years as president of the UNC system, he maintains a close relationship with Chapel Hill and the entire university system.<\/p>\n<p>He oversaw the integration of UNC in 1955, as well as the general admission of women in 1963. He led the system through its reorganization and consolidation in 1971, and quietly helped the student body fight the Speaker Ban Law in the early 1960s.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nBut these days, as he observes the school from his post near campus, Friday is able to spend a bit more time focusing on the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153enjoyment of things,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as he calls it.  <\/p>\n<p>On one of the first truly warm days of spring, he awaited my arrival outside his home, seersucker-clad, enjoying the late-morning sun. As I outstretched my hand in greeting, he pointed to a flowerbed.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Come over here for a minute,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, leading me to the side of the yard. Gesturing to a particular patch, he smiled and said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think these are about to bloom.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Last year, he told me, a late frost had prevented the blooms<br \/>\nfrom opening, so he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d kept a close watch on them this year.<\/p>\n<p>We entered his home \u00e2\u20ac\u201d a bright, well-kept, airy place \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and Friday explained that Ida was out walking. He spoke of her fondly, pointing out her pottery and various other pieces of art scattered around the house. The two have been married for 67 years, but he still has a sparkle in his eye when he speaks of her, or of the three daughters they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve together raised.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been very lucky. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been very blessed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When you get older, you know, your mind begins to wander and fade. But we keep moving.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  <\/p>\n<p>Just nine weeks before our meeting, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d undergone open-heart surgery to replace a valve that was closing due to calcification. At first, he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure out why he was suffering from such an ailment \u00e2\u20ac\u201d he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drink much, walks a fair amount and hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t messed with tobacco in 40 years.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You learn new words \u00e2\u20ac\u201d stress, organized exercise, state of mind. I found out that I was completely, utterly exhausted.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p><strong>The presidency<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A child of the Great Depression and a soldier in World War II, Friday is part of a generation that learned what stress was at an early age. <\/p>\n<p>Raised in Dallas, N.C. in Gaston County, Friday recalls feeling the strain of the Depression when he was 10 years old.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I knew enough to understand that something was happening, and I saw how hard it was on my parents. We lost the house, just like people are losing homes today. My dad was working for almost nothing, and we borrowed bread across the fence.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>After attending N.C. State University, Friday served in the U.S. Naval Reserve, stationed at Norfolk and then Charleston. Just a few days back from the service, he began law school at UNC. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That was about the worst mistake I ever made, trying to learn to study all over again after four years of war,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nFriday recalled. Still, like many of his classmates \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including the likes of former Gov. Terry Sanford and former UNC Chancellor William Aycock \u00e2\u20ac\u201d he graduated in two years. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not a single member of our class failed that bar exam,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he boasted, noting the plaque honoring the class of 1948 that hangs at the law school. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was a wonderful group of post-war people&#8230;. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve sort of stuck together over the years and kept up with each other. Now we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re disappearing pretty fast.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t trade the experience for anything.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>After graduating from law school, Friday became the assistant dean of students at UNC, and several years later, in 1956, the president of the UNC system. The university was a vastly different place when he arrived \u00e2\u20ac\u201d an enrollment of 6,575, with general admission open only to men \u00e2\u20ac\u201d than it was when he left. The sprawl of South Campus was a few years yet to come, and with it, a considerable expansion of the student body.  <\/p>\n<p>While president, Friday certainly worked through a fair amount of adversity, as the university opened its doors to students of all races and both genders and the system consolidated to include all state-funded higher education institutions. <\/p>\n<p>His work in the early \u00e2\u20ac\u212260s with student body President Paul Dickson and other students to abolish the Speaker Ban Law drew fire from politicians and the UNC Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n<p>(In the interest of full disclosure, I must reveal that I feel a particular connection to those events here on the hill, as, though he died at the age of 30, in 1971, before I was born, Paul Dickson was my uncle.) <\/p>\n<p>Friday and Dickson met secretly to discuss the students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 strategy to work toward abolishing the law \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which prevented known communists from speaking on campus \u00e2\u20ac\u201d after Friday made an unsuccessful plea to the board of trustees. The pair would meet at the rock wall that circles the president\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s house on Franklin Street and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153just sit out there and have a conversation.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I treasured my association with him because it was one of complete trust. We trusted each other and talked to each other, and I knew where we were going to come out, and he knew where we were going to come out, and we<br \/>\ngot the work done and we went home,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Friday recalled. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We had a wonderful friendship.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Threats against free speech periodically rear their ugly heads, most recently in the student protests against anti-immigration speaker Tom Tancredo, and the university is again reminded of the students\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 fight for the right to hear from whoever chose to speak. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the vitality of the university. The issue has to come up. What you learn each time is just how important preserving it really is,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Friday said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I err on the side of letting people speak, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we stood so hard for the abolition of that law&#8230;. If we stand for anything, we should stand for that, back to back, all of us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p><strong>The enjoyment of things<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been many years since Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s retirement from the presidency, and many more since the Speaker Ban controversy. And while his involvement with the university continues, these days Friday busies himself with a different set of activities, heading out to the Carrboro Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market every Saturday morning, participating in campus forums and filming his TV show, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153North Carolina People.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>This spring, Friday was a bit less active than usual as he recovered from heart surgery but still managed to get out on occasion, once to see the Alvin Ailey Dance Company perform at Memorial Hall. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of the dimension of my life that I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done enough of \u00e2\u20ac\u201d doing things for the enjoyment of them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The music, which I dearly love \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know a thing about it, but I have a great sense of appreciation for it \u00e2\u20ac\u201d theatre and things.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>When he returned to his TV show a few weeks ago, Friday took a break from his regular routine of interviewing others to tell his own story, recounting the events surrounding his heart surgery. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let me tell you, you never get too old to be nervous and frightened,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What you learn is what a magnificent instrument the human body is, even at my age.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Friday hopes to work with his doctors to educate people about the symptoms of heart diseases and to increase awareness about the various contributing factors.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Doctors are for the first time really realizing how much stress really does play in certain diseases,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no question in my mind what effect it has.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Friday traces his heart malfunctions all the way back to his youth, to the stress he felt in the Depression and then in World War II. By the time he became president of the UNC system, he already knew what the strain of hard work felt like. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The stress that I felt in the job in some dimensions was not equal to the other two,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There were times when we had as many as three if not four [controversies] going at the same time, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when you worked 14 hours a day. I think these prior experiences had conditioned me physically to do it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>But Friday emphasized that no one is at his best when working long hours under such stress.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve grown to believe when you work six and a half, seven hours, you need to get away. I think in our culture now, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lost something. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lost the sacredness of the weekend. Sunday, in my boyhood, was a very special day. It was quiet. You got to go swimming, something like that. You didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Our conversation passed at a leisurely pace; Friday didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem rushed in the least. Though he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d told me prior to our interview that he had to make a doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appointment shortly after our meeting, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have known he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d had any other engagement \u00e2\u20ac\u201d it was like passing the time with a treasured family member. Eventually, he walked me back out into the sunshine. <\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on a long career in the university system, and an even longer life, Friday offered these words:<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Learn the lesson of pacing yourself, and save room in your life for the goodness that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s around you that will sustain you. If you walk around this yard and look at all the flowers, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not thinking the same thing you did when you started walking over here. Well, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re there. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But then multiply that by music and friendship and conversation like this. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a richness to life that work destroys.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/resizedbill-fridayvertical.jpg\" alt=\"While heart surgery has slowed him a little, Friday still can be found each Saturday morning at the Carrboro Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market. Photo by Ava Barlow.\" width=\"101\" height=\"150\" align=\"left\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: Longtime UNC System President William Friday passed away in his sleep early today (Friday). This story originally ran on June 4, 2009. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28195"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28199,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28195\/revisions\/28199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}