Arthur Benjamin Corey

Arthur Benjamin Corey. Image Source: From the News and Observer, February 12, 1935, p. 2.

Arthur Benjamin Corey served as an ECTC trustee from 1943–1950, a brief but eventful period that witnessed the resignation, trial, and conviction of President Leon R. Meadows (1884–1953), the appointment of an acting president, Howard J. McGinnis (1882–1971), an external search for a new president, concluded with the selection of Dr. Dennis Hargrove Cooke (1904–1982), then, following Cooke’s resignation after serving only one year, 1946–1947, another national search for a new president. The latter, concluded in 1947, brought Dr. John D. Messick (1897–1993) to the office. Throughout it all, Corey remained one of the most respected board members, resulting in his reappointment in 1947 to another term even as most other veteran trustees who had served with him were replaced rather than reappointed. Tragically, Corey succumbed to a heart attack in early 1950, several years before his second term was to expire and just fourteen months before the General Assembly approved state bill 579, introduced by Senator Paul E. Jones of Pitt County, changing the school’s name to East Carolina College in recognition of its more expansive role as a liberal arts college.

A prominent Greenville attorney, Corey distinguished himself as a trustee in 1944 when he joined the minority in refusing to support a resolution exonerating President Meadows of “any suggestion of wrongdoing or misapplication of college funds.” In opposing the resolution, Corey was joined by Raleigh attorney, A. B. Andrews (1877–1946), O. P. Makepeace of Sanford (1883-1965), and John Herbert Waldrop (1895–1966) of Greenville. However, eight board members, the so-called “pro-Meadows” clique, prevailed. Governor Robert G. Cherry (1891–1957), in office from 1945–1949, soon made it clear that he would not reappoint members of the Meadows clique when their terms expired. Cherry’s purge of the pro-Meadows faction resulted in “one of the swiftest turnovers in membership on any state-supported college’s board of trustees,” with a shift from a board comprised of, in 1944, seven men and five women, to one with, three years later, eleven men and only one woman. During Cherry’s massive restocking of the ECTC board, he appointed an unprecedented 11 new trustees to the 12-trustee board. And of the eight board members whose terms expired during his administration, only one, Corey, was reappointed.

Not only did Corey oppose exoneration, in the fall of 1945 after Cherry’s purge of pro-Meadows board members was well underway with five new trustees appointed — Radford M. “Ralph” Garrett (1886–1955) of Greenville, Henry Clay Belk (1898–1972) of Goldsboro, Claude Phillip Morris (1888–1959) of Hertford, Hugh G. Horton (1896–1959) of Williamston, and Thomas J. Hackney (1889–1971) of Wilson — Corey made a motion to reinstate three faculty members who had earlier been dismissed by Meadows with the board’s support in 1944, including Martin L. Wright (1882–1945), Dr. Herbert Rebarker (1894–1979), and Dr. Elisha Lane Henderson (1884–1990), but Corey’s motion received no support. Next, Corey moved that a committee be appointed to investigate the dismissals, but again, his motion fell flat.

A native of Pitt County, Corey graduated from N.C. State College (now, NCSU) and the University of North Carolina School of Law, Class of 1917. Shortly after law school, he served in WWI in the European theatre as part of the North Carolina 113th Field Artillery Regiment, 30th Infantry Division, aka, the “Old Hickory” Division, in France. After the war, in May 1919, Corey returned to North Carolina and served as a second lieutenant with the North Carolina National Guard, Raleigh Service Company. Throughout his professional life, he remained active in the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars serving in leadership roles at the local and state levels. While a state senator, he pushed for a General Assembly resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to provide “bonus payments” for WWI veterans.

Corey initially worked as a clerk for Raleigh attorney Albert Lyman Cox (1883–1965). He knew Cox from WWI when Cox served as first commander of the 113th Field Artillery Regiment. In 1922, Corey moved to Greenville to establish a practice with another UNC law school graduate from Pitt County, Samuel Otis Worthington (1898–1982). In 1925, Corey joined with other local attorneys in a leadership capacity in organizing the Pitt County Bar Association. In addition to working as an attorney and managing his family’s farming interests, Corey served as a state senator from 1933–1937 and 1939–1941, representing Pitt County. He gained state-wide attention for introducing legislation (1) requiring automobile drivers to obtain a test-based state driver’s license, (2) establishing penalties for littering state highways, (3) increasing the number of highway patrolmen patrolling state roads for traffic violations, (4) allowing counties to decide — following the end of Prohibition — whether to allow for local liquor stores, and (5) repealing absentee voting statewide.

Following Corey’s death, age 58, on February 24, 1950, Governor William Kerr Scott (1896–1958) appointed Uran Cox (1902–1984) of Greenville to serve the remainder of Corey’s term as a trustee, set to expire in 1953. Just a week before his passing due to a heart attack, Corey had attended the February 18, 1950 board meeting reviewing aspects of the ECTC building program and approving candidates for graduation at the end of the winter quarter. Though brief, Corey’s tenure was one of devotion, service, and integrity even in the most trying of times.

Sources

• “All Automobile Drivers Must Get State Licenses.” News and Observer. February 27, 1935. Pp. 1, 12.
• “Arthur B. Corey Dies In Pitt.” News and Observer. February 24, 1950. P. 5.
• “Arthur B. Corey Will Practice In Greenville.” News and Observer. February 3, 1922. P. 10.
• “Corey Will See Absentee Repeal.” News and Observer. August 7, 1938. P. 4.
• “ECTC Has Its Name Changed.” News and Observer. April 7, 1951. P. 2.
• “ECTC Teachers Unable to Win Reinstatement: Two Motions Favorable To Them Fail To Gain Support.” Asheville Citizen-Times. September 5, 1945. P. 3.
• “ECTC Trustees Hold Greenville Session.” News and Observer. February 18, 1950. P. 7.
• “Effort To Reinstate E.C.T.C. Teachers Fails At Greenville.” Herald-Sun (Durham). September 5, 1945. P. 3.
• “Five New Members Named to ECTC Trustees’ Board.” News and Observer. August 18, 1945. P. 2.
• “Its ‘ECC’ Now.” Rocky Mount Telegram. April 8, 1951. P. 4.
• “Legion Elects New Officers for 1921: Arthur B. Corey Will Be Commander and John Boushall, Vice-Commander.” News and Observer. December 4, 1920. P. 6.
• “Legislative Record.” Asheville Citizen-Times. April 7, 1951. P. 8.
• “Name of College Is Being Changed.” Statesville Record and Landmark. April 9, 1951. P. 8.
• Paul, C. A. “License Law For Drivers Is Introduced: Senator Arthur Corey Fires Opening Gun in Fight For State Drivers License Law.” Charlotte News. January 11, 1935. P. 12.
• “Pitt County Man Appointed to Board of Trustees at ECTC.” Rocky Mount Telegram. March 1, 1950. P. 10.
• “Raleigh Service Co. Formally Accepted.” News and Observer. April 3, 1921. P. 27.
• “Seek To Regulate Garbage Dumpings.” Henderson Daily Dispatch. February 22, 1935. P. 6.
• “Under the Dome.” News and Observer. March 25, 1945. Pp. 1, 3.
• “Under the Dome.” News and Observer. July 8, 1947. P. 2.
• “Under the Dome.” News and Observer. February 12, 1935. P. 2.
• “Views and Observations.” News and Observer. February 20, 1935. P. 16.

Related Materials

Arthur Benjamin Corey. Image Source: News and Observer, February 24, 1950, p. 5.

Arthur Benjamin Corey. Image Source: Michael Belis, contributor, Find A Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111659332/arthur-benjamin-corey#source

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