Charles Haymore Larkins

Image Source: Buccaneer, 1958, p. 47.

Charles H. Larkins, a Kinston clothier, served on the board for two terms. First appointed by Gov. Luther H. Hodges (1898–1974), Larkins served as a trustee from 1955 through 1961, coinciding with East Carolina’s final years under President John D. Messick (1897–1993) and the opening years of Dr. Leo W. Jenkins’ (1913–1989) administration. During Larkins’ first term, East Carolina continued to grow impressively even as its efforts to desegregate, per the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision, advanced with cautious and at times reluctant compliance. Larkins’ first term included highlights such as the fiftieth anniversary celebration of East Carolina’s founding, and then, in the fall of 1960, the campus campaign stop of Senator John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), at College Stadium, attended by a host of Democratic Party leaders and over 5,000 students and local people. Earlier that same year, Dr. Jenkins’ inauguration as the school’s new president had also been held in College Stadium.

Just over a decade after Larkins’ first appointment, Gov. Dan K. Moore (1906–1986) appointed Larkins to a second term in 1967. While his second term was set to expire June 30, 1975, Larkins stepped down in 1972 to accept a seat on the newly created Board of Governors overseeing North Carolina’s reorganized State University System (SUS). Following the founding protocol for the Board of Governors, the ECU board of trustees had elected three members of the Board of Governors, one of whom was Larkins. Also elected from the ECU board were Reginald F. McCoy (1916–2010) and W. W. Taylor, Jr., (1912–2008). Like Larkins, McCoy and Taylor stepped down from the ECU board to serve on the Board of Governors.

Larkins’ second term as a trustee, though brief, was eventful: it began shortly after East Carolina achieved university status. At Larkins’ first meeting as a second-term trustee, the board adopted a resolution “expressing commendation and appreciation of the efforts of Dr. Leo W. Jenkins and the board chairman [State Senator Robert B. Morgan (1925–2016)] in attaining university status for the school.” The years that followed included the ongoing efforts of Dr. Jenkins and board members to secure increased legislative support for North Carolina’s second publicly funded program in medical education, based, albeit precariously early on, at ECU.

Larkins’ second term also witnessed marked student activism, much of it occasioned by opposition to the Vietnam War, support for the Civil Rights Movement, and participation in the Sexual Revolution brought on in part by widespread use of the birth control pill. At ECU, the years 1969–1972 often seemed like a time of continuing upheaval as student demonstrations for one cause or another shook the campus. In response, the ECU board of trustees approved, March 1971, a “University Policy and Procedure Concerning Disruptive Conduct” authorizing suspension or expulsion of students. Larkins, in particular, was a strong backer of this policy.

Nothing rocked the campus as did opposition to the university’s dormitory visitation rules. In the spring of 1971, thousands of students protested the university’s efforts to keep the sexes segregated, in their respective dorms, with very limited in-dorm interaction. Following one massive demonstration on the mall, 33 protesters were arrested, including 28 students. Rejecting the notion that the university should act in loco parentis, many students demanded nothing less than unlimited visiting hours. In response, the trustees suspended all interdormitory visitation privileges. However, by late 1971, the board had approved an “Open House” policy allowing for expanded visitation privileges in men’s dorms. The measure carried except for two negative votes, those of Charles H. Larkins and W. W. Taylor, Jr. That board meeting, incidentally, was the last for Larkins and Taylor, as well as Reginald F. McCoy – the three trustees elected by the ECU board of trustees to serve as members of the Board of Governors. On behalf of the university, Dr. Jenkins expressed his appreciation to the three for their service.

Though a prominent Kinston businessman who had established a chain of men’s clothing stores, Larkins had been born in Morristown, Tennessee, one of five children. His parents died early on, leaving the siblings to be raised by two different relatives: his brother, John D. Larkins, Jr. (1909-1990), by an uncle, and the other four by an aunt. Charles Larkins eventually attended Baltimore City College for two years before moving to Kinston where he achieved prominence with a men’s retail store that soon grew with branches in four states.

The most consequential initiative Larkins and the board supported was that of the ECU medical school. ECU asked the 1971 General Assembly for support in funding a $10.75 million building for the school. The med school initiative already had a $2.6 million funding request submitted to the Advisory Budget Commission for operation of a two-year school for 1971-1973. With the additional funds, ECU hoped to expand its enrollment from 16 students to 40. In the end, however, the board accepted funding for its one-year program rather than risk being shut out in a year of fiscal strain for the state.

During Larkins’ second term, the board also voted to issue $600,000 in revenue bonds for expanding Ficklen Stadium with a new, northside student bleacher section, the mirror of the original southside stadium bleacher built in the early 1960s. The stadium expansion doubled seating capacity to 20,000.

With the strong backing of the board, ECU also launched a drive toward international education by establishing its first overseas campus, at the Haus Steinbeck, a chateau overlooking the Rhine River in a suburb of the West German capital, Bonn.

Charles Larkins was often known simply as the “brother of State Senator John D. Larkins, Jr.,” later appointed, by President John F. Kennedy, a federal judge for the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. In 1971, Chief Judge Larkins signed a temporary order restraining ECU from continuing its suspension of Robert Thonen for supposedly having violated the campus code of conduct in publishing in the Fountainhead William Schell’s offensive letter, the infamous “Fuck you, Leo” letter, addressed to Dr. Jenkins. Led by N. C. attorney general and chair of the ECU board of trustees, Robert Morgan, the trustees had earlier voiced their determination “to use every legal means to prohibit such vulgar language from being published in the college newspaper.” And, in 1974, Judge Larkins ordered the state to pay the two former ECU students, Schell and Thonen, $3,629.60, in damages for their dismissal from ECU in 1971. Clearly, Judge Larkins and his brother Charles viewed student protests and the rights of the university from profoundly different perspectives.

Larkins’ son, Charles Haymore Larkins Jr. (1930-1995), first graduated from Wake Forest with a degree in business and then later did graduate work at ECU, completing a masters in clinical psychology. Active in the Democratic Party, he served two terms as a state senator representing Lenoir County and gained prominence for his advocacy of mandatory licensing for day care centers and a variety of issues related to mental health care for the underserved.

Sources

• “Assembly to be Asked for ECU Medical School Funds.” Burlington Times-News. September 15, 1970. P. 9B.
• “Ex-Trustees of ECU Get New Board Terms.” News and Observer. August 19, 1967. P. 24.
• “Board of Governors Cranks Up: Friday Good Bet for Top Higher Education Post.” Chapel Hill News. January 9, 1972. P. 13.
• “Croshaw blasts Jenkins’ tactics claims student disunity is goal.” Fountainhead. April 20, 1971. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39554
• “Dr. Indorf's students.” University Archives # UA55.01.4436. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23408
• “East Carolina University Will Open Campus in Bonn, Germany.” Chapel Hill News. October 4, 1970. P. 14.
• “ECU Plans ‘Overseas’ Campus in Germany for Fall of 1971.” Rocky Mount Telegram. October 1, 1970. P. 7B.
• “ECU Trustees grant open house.” Fountainhead. October 28, 1971. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39586
• “ECU trustees want medical school study.” Daily Tar Heel. March 10, 1971. P. 4.
• “ECU Unrest Not Brought Up at State Student Legislature.” News and Observer. April 2, 1971. P. 3.
• Hardee, Roy. “ECU Unit Reinstates 2 Students.” News and Observer. April 2, 1971. P. 3.
• Hardee, Roy. “Jenkins Reinstates 28 ECU Students.” News and Observer. April 4, 1971. P. 4.
• Hardee, Roy. “Reinstate Student, ECU Told.” News and Observer. May 26, 1971. Pp. 1, 2.
• “Haus Steineck German study center.” University Archives # UA55.01.471. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/22929
• Helms, Jesse. “Viewpoint: ‘Students riot at ECU.'” Fountainhead. Special Issue: Freshman Orientation Issue. 1971. P. 4. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39549
• Hensley, Jay. “New UNC Board Makeup to be Complete Today.” Asheville Citizen-Times. December 17, 1971. P. 11.
• Jablow, Paul. “Jenkins Calls Male-Coed Visiting Hours No. 1 Issue.” Charlotte Observer. March 10, 1971. P. 14.
• Jackson, George. “Students Readmitted.” Fountainhead. June 23, 1971. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39565
• “Jenkins, Morgan Praised by ECU Trustees for Advancing School.” Durham Morning Herald. October 28, 1967. P. 3.
• “Kinston Fans Seeking New Baseball Layout.” News and Observer. September 28, 1945. P. 11.
• “Kinston Takes Steps to Incorporate Club.” News and Observer. November 26, 1945. P. 9.
• “Larkins Papers Added to Collection. Rocky Mount Telegram. May 16, 1969. P. 7.
• Mariner, Robert. “One-year medical school okay’d.” Fountainhead. Special Issue: Freshman Orientation Issue. 1971. P. 10. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39549
• Marlowe, Gene. “ECU Board Reluctant to Accept One-Year Medical Unit Proposal.” News and Observer. March 10, 1971. P. 6.
• Marlowe, Gene. “ECU Trustees Name 3 to New Statewide Unit.” News and Observer. November 18, 1971. P. 8.
• “Minutes of Meeting of Board of Trustees, March 9, 1971.” Pp. 103-111. Box 6: Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Book Number 6, 1968-1977. Records of the Board of Trustees, 1908-2021. University Archives # UA01. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C.
• “Minutes of Meeting of Board of Trustees, May 5, 1971.” Pp. 114-119. Box 6: Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Book Number 6, 1968-1977. Records of the Board of Trustees, 1908-2021. University Archives # UA01. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C.
• “Minutes of Meeting of Board of Trustees, May 8, 1972.” Pp. 1-172. Box 6: Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Book Number 6, 1968-1977. Records of the Board of Trustees, 1908-2021. University Archives # UA01. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C.
• “Minutes of Meeting of Board of Trustees, November 17, 1971.” Pp. 146-147. Box 6: Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Book Number 6, 1968-1977. Records of the Board of Trustees, 1908-2021. University Archives # UA01. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C.
• “Morgan Backing Sound Policy.” News and Observer. April 4, 1972. P. 4.
• O’Keef, Herbert. “Tar Heel of the Week: John D. Larkins.” News and Observer. December 12, 1954. Sect. IV, p. 3.
• “Sketch of Haus Steineck German Study Center.” University Archives # UA55.01.933. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23016
• “Spring 1971- disruption strikes campus.” Fountainhead. September 21, 1971. P. 2. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39575
• “State Briefs: State Ordered to Pay Damages.” Rocky Mount Telegram. April 17, 1974. P. 1.
• “Threat of censorship hangs over newspaper.” Fountainhead: Special Issue, Freshman Orientation. 1971. P. 5. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39549
• “Trustees approve riot policy.” Fountainhead. September 21, 1971. P. 2. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39575
• “Under the Dome: Trustees.” News and Observer. August 6, 1955. P. 2.
• Vandercook, Brian. “New riot policy adopted.” Fountainhead. April 20, 1971. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39554
• Williams, Philip. “Visitation issue served to unite all students.” Fountainhead. September 21, 1971. P. 2. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/39575
• Witt, Evans. “ECU student editor suspended.” Daily Tar Heel. May 12, 1971. P. 1.

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