Alexander Boyd Andrews, Jr., served on the ECTC Board of Trustees twice for a total of twenty-two years: first, from 1922, the year of his initial appointment, until 1928, and then following reappointment in 1930, until his passing in 1946 at his home in Raleigh, 309 Blount Street.
A graduate of the University of North Carolina and longstanding member of the UNC board of trustees, Andrews was also a close friend of ECTC. In 1924, he established the Helen Sharples Andrews Scholarship in memory of his late wife (maiden name, Helen May Sharple, 1877-1922). The scholarship was awarded annually to outstanding students at ECTC. Andrews also established and endowed a loan fund at the college to provide financial options for qualified students. Moreover, he donated a collection of books to the ECTC Library including several items on Horace Mann (1796-1859), the nineteenth-century advocate of publicly funded schools, professionally trained teachers, and, in effect, universal education.
In 1946, in recognition of Andrews’ longstanding service and generosity, acting president Dr. Howard J. McGinnis (1882-1971) presented him with “an attractively bound collection of letters” by various graduates who had benefited from the Helen Andrews Scholarship. The first to receive the scholarship was Hortense Mozingo of Ayden (later, Mrs. John Leon Jenkins). As of 1946, the year of Andrews’ passing, twenty-three ECTC students had received the scholarship. The letters recalled the recipients’ campus experiences and some of their later achievements as teachers. In every case, they conveyed heartfelt gratitude for Andrews’ lifechanging generosity.
Andrews was the second son of Colonel A. B. Andrews (1841-1915). His father, a Confederate veteran, rose to prominence following the Civil War first as a railroad man, then as a magnate in the Western North Carolina Railroad, and eventually as president of the Southern Railway System. Andrews, Jr., attended Fray and Morson Academy in Raleigh, then graduated from UNC in 1893, and from its law school in 1894. He began practicing law the same year and continued until his passing in 1946. In addition to serving as president of the Wake County and North Carolina Bar Associations, Andrews was a thirty-third degree Mason and Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. An avid collector of historical data on North Carolina, Andrews bequeathed his collection and his family’s papers to UNC. He also contributed, along with his brothers, to the establishment, in 1925, of a loan fund at UNC in honor of their father.
At ECTC, Andrews’ gifts helped advance a tradition of generous support providing for the educational opportunities of those needing assistance. His long service on the ECTC board and his membership on its Executive Committee provided well-positioned professional leadership for the college during its second and third decades as burgeoning institution of higher education. Andrews also enabled the young school, not even forty at his passing, to network with influential professionals in the Raleigh area, building bridges of trust and support that would serve East Carolina well going forward.
Sources
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“Addition Is Made To Andrews Fund: Loan Trust in Memory of Pioneer Railroad Builder Now Totals $3750.” Daily Tar Heel. January 8, 1927. P. 4.
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Alexander Boyd Andrews Papers, #3245, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/03245/
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Alexander Boyd Andrews, Jr. (1873-1946) Collection, 1861-1945. Raleigh: North Carolina Digital Collections. https://digital.ncdcr.gov/digital/collection/p16062coll15/id/27/
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Andrews, Alexander Boyd. A Digest of the Masonic Law of North Carolina, 1841 to 1906: As Contained in the Resolutions, Edicts and Decisions of the Grand Lodge and its Several Grand Masters during that Period. Oxford, NC: Oxford Orphan Asylum. 1907.
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Andrews, Alexander Boyd. Per Capita Cost of Courts. Raleigh: Mitchell Printing Co., 1939.
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Andrews, Alexander Boyd. Richard Dobbs Spaight: Governor of North Carolina, 1792-1795. Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1924.
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“Andrews Has Major Role In Development of ECTC: Raleigh Man, on Board 21 Years, Has Aided Scholarship, Loan Funds.” News and Observer. January 20, 1946. P. 2.
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“Heck-Andrews House.” https://heck-andrews.com/
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“Pearl Arnold Receives Helen Andrews Scholarship.” Teco Echo. January 25, 1946. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38112
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“Raleigh Attorney Passes At Home: Funeral Services This Afternoon at 3 O’Clock for Alexander B. Andrews.” News and Observer. October 22, 1946. P. 12.
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Steelman, Bennett L. “Andrews, Alexander Boyd.” NCPedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press). https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/andrews-alexander-boyd
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Steelman, Bennett L. “Andrews, Alexander Boyd, Jr.” NCPedia (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press). https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/andrews-alexander-boyd-jr
Related Materials
Alexander Boyd Andrews, Jr. Image Source: News & Observer, October 22, 1946, pg. 12.
Alexander Boyd Andrews, Jr. Image Source: The State of North Carolina Archives, News and Observer Collection, NO 46-12-163.
Citation Information
Title: Alexander Boyd Andrews, Jr
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 4/14/2022