By Steve Gilliam, University Relations
Shirley and Henry Frye.
A Greensboro couple who have devoted their careers to the law and to education and the president emerita of the UNC system will receive honorary degrees at UNCG’s 114th commencement on Friday, May 12.
The recipients and the degrees they will receive are Henry E. Frye, former chief justice of the N.C. State Supreme Court, Doctor of Laws; Shirley Frye, his wife, who devoted over 40 years to the Greensboro Public Schools and to higher education, Doctor of Humane Letters; and Molly Corbett Broad, who led the UNC system as president from June 1997 to Dec. 31, 2005, Doctor of Humane Letters.
Broad will also be the featured speaker and her address will be titled, "So This is the Globe You Are Inheriting." Graduation exercises, which begin at 10 a.m. in the Greensboro Coliseum. This semester, UNCG will recognize over 2,000 students who are completing degrees at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels.
More details are available by visiting the Commencement Central website
Justice Henry Frye is a native of Ellerbe, who graduated summa cum laude from North Carolina A&T State University. After college, he served four years in the United State Air Force, rising to the rank of captain. Returning to his hometown, Frye experienced a life-changing event. He went to register to vote and was forced to take a literacy test under the Jim Crow laws of that era. He was turned away when he couldn't name the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Frye decided to become a lawyer and graduated in 1959 with honors from UNC Chapel Hill School of Law. In 1963, Frye became the first African-American assistant U.S. District Attorney. In 1968, Frye became the first African-American to be elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in the 20th century. He served in the State House for 12 years where he took the lead in striking the literacy laws from the state constitution and was then elected to a two-year term in the N.C. Senate. In 1983, Frye became the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court of North Carolina. In 1999 he was appointed by Governor Jim Hunt to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, another first. He retired from the court in January 2001 and joined the Greensboro office of the law firm of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard. He has leadership roles in many non-profit, academic, professional and civic organizations and is also a distinguished visiting professor of political science and justice at N.C. A&T.
Molly Corbett Broad.
Shirley Frye is a retired educator who has devoted over 40 years to Greensboro Public Schools and higher education. She began her career teaching 2nd grade and exceptional students before becoming a professor of special education and program coordinator at Bennett College. After a short stint with the Department of Public Instruction, Frye returned to her alma mater North Carolina A&T State University, where she was the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Development and University Relations. Frye also worked as the Special Assistant to the President and Director of Planned Giving for Bennett College. She most recently served as the Vice President of Community Relations for WFMY News 2 in Greensboro. Much of Frye’s time is dedicated to service on many boards, including the Joseph McKinley Bryan Foundation; the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation; Z Smith Reynolds Foundation and the Boards of Visitors for Guilford and Greensboro Colleges and Wake Forest University. She is also a member of the Greater Greensboro United Way, for which she chaired the Board of Directors in 2003. Frye and her husband live in Greensboro and attend Providence Baptist Church. They have two adult children. She is a graduate of N.C. A&T University, and received her master’s degree from Syracuse University in psychology and special education.
Broad, as UNC president, led the nation’s oldest public university system, which enrolls nearly 190,000 students and encompasses all of the state's public institutions that grant undergraduate degrees, along with affiliated enterprises that include the UNC Center for Public Television, the UNC Health Care System and the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics. During her tenure, system enrollment grew by almost 37,000 students. Minority student enrollment increased twice as fast as the overall student body. Many new academic degree programs were started across the system, including six new doctoral programs at UNCG. She also was instrumental in persuading voters to approve a $3.1 billion higher education bond issue that provided $2.5 billion in capital funding for the university system and $600 million for the state's community colleges. State appropriations through the N.C. General Assembly also increased during her term. Broad launched efforts to provide need-based aid and expanded student access to a college education. The state's college-going rate, once well below the national average, now exceeds it. She also worked to develop ties between higher universities and business institutions, promote biotechnology and other high-tech industries and create jobs in those fields. She was instrumental in the recruiting of a new North Carolina Research Campus to Kannapolis, which may become the largest single economic-development project in state history. Later this year, she will join the faculty of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government as a professor of the practiMore details are available by visiting the Commencement Central website.
In addition to Chancellor Patricia A. Sullivan and the honorary degree recipients, other participants will include Provost Edward Uprichard; Dr. Gary Rosenkrantz, chair of the Faculty Senate; Thomas Ross, chair of the UNCG Board of Trustees, along with trustees Dr. Kate Barrett, Jean Davis and Dr. Karen McNeil-Miller; Robyn R. Render, vice president of information resources, representing UNC General Administration; Ann Fitzmaurice-Russ, president of the UNCG Alumni Association; Dr. James Petersen, dean of the Graduate School; and Melissa Westmoreland, who is the speaker for the Class of 2006.
Also taking part in the ceremonies will be UNCG’s academic deans; mace bearer Dr. Bert Goldman and chief marshal Jenifer Root. At the conclusion, the University Bell will be rung by JoAnn McAllister, an alumna of the Class of 1956, and her granddaughter, Mollie McAllister, Class of 2006 alumni representative, and the tassel-turner will be Elizabeth Williams. The Commencement Band and Chorus will provide music.
