John Porterfield Stedman

Image Source: News and Observer, Nov. 2, 1959, p. 3.

John Porterfield Stedman, a prominent financier and former state treasurer, served on East Carolina’s board of trustees from 1947–1953. Governor Robert Gregg Cherry (1891–1957) appointed Stedman along with two other new board members, Arthur L. Tyler (1896–1978) of Rocky Mount and Dr. Lewis H. Swindell (1891–1971) of Washington, as part of his ongoing purge of pro-Meadows board members: preliminary to the new appointments, Cherry declined to reappoint Mrs. Frank L. Greathouse (1893–1970) of Rocky Mount, J. Herbert Waldrop (1895–1966) of Greenville, and Fordyce C. Harding (1869–1956) of Greenville — members of the pro-Meadows faction. The latter three had voted in 1944 to exonerate then President Leon R. Meadows (1884–1953) of any wrongdoing even as he faced resignation and indictment for embezzlement and false pretense. In appointing Stedman, Governor Cherry elevated a financial mind of the first order able to ensure fiscal accountability at East Carolina.

During Stedman’s tenure, East Carolina as led by its new president, Dr. John D. Messick (1897–1993), advanced to a new level of academic service, that of a four-year liberal arts college with a growing male enrollment and an increasingly strong men’s athletic program. New growth in enrollment was accompanied by successive construction projects, including Memorial Gymnasium and the new Campus Stadium, as well as new dorms and new faculty hires. A major change facing East Carolina, that of campus desegregation, only became imminent the year after Stedman’s departure from the board with the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling declaring segregation unconstitutional. While East Carolina’s segregationist status quo was challenged during Stedman’s service as a trustee, the board stood by the Jim Crow charter stating that the school was meant for the education of young white men and women, and so declined to consider other applicants.

A native of Oxford, N. C., Stedman studied at the University of North Carolina before beginning his banking career first in Richmond, then later, in St. Petersburg, Florida with an investment company there. During WWI, Stedman served as a lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps. After the war, he returned to North Carolina to join the Bank of Washington, but then moved in 1926 to Raleigh as assistant cashier with Citizens National Bank. That bank merged, in 1929, with the North Carolina Bank and Trust Company and following the merger, Stedman was named vice president of the Raleigh branch.

In 1932, during the depths of the Great Depression, Governor O. Max Gardner (1882–1947) appointed Stedman, then 37, state treasurer following the death of former state treasurer, Nathan O’Berry (1856–1932). At that juncture, North Carolina faced financial ruin due to insufficient funds to make interest payments to holders of $7.5 million in state bonds. Although with some difficulty, Stedman secured loans through financial contacts on Wall Street, saving the state from financial collapse. When appointed, Stedman had an exceptional understanding of state finances: O’Berry had regularly deposited state revenues at the North Carolina Bank and Trust Company’s branch in Raleigh, which Stedman managed. Stedman was also in daily communication with O’Berry and even joined him on trips to New York to confer with bankers there. Stedman’s financial acumen which saved the state from imminent bankruptcy grew from his earlier work with O’Berry in managing, then as a private banker, state revenues.

The same year he was named state treasurer Stedman ran for the office and was elected, but then resigned before his inauguration, taking instead a position as executive vice president of the Federal Regional Agriculture Credit Corporation of Raleigh. The latter was “an emergency government agency which extended credit to farmers in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.” Stedman remained in that position until 1934 when he moved to Washington, D. C. to take a post as assistant credit commissioner with the Farm Credit Administration. In 1935, he moved once more, this time joining a large fertilizer company, F. S. Royster in Norfolk, as assistant treasurer. Shortly thereafter, he returned to North Carolina to join the Scottish Bank, based in Lumberton, as its president.

Stedman served as president of the Scottish Bank for more than two decades. It was during the early years of his service there that he was appointed to the East Carolina board, bringing to it an exceptional knowledge of best practices in finance and accounting. Under his guidance, the Scottish Bank later merged with First Union National Bank. By the time of its merger, the Scottish Bank had 20 branches and resources totaling nearly $50 million. In 1963, following the merger, Stedman was elected chairman of the board of directors of First Union.

Although his service to East Carolina’s board was brief, Stedman’s presence on it signaled a new degree of financial professionalism at the school, extremely important as it embarked upon year after year of major state funding to finance the expansion of campus facilities and faculty lines to meet the needs of an unprecedented growth in student numbers.

Sources

• “Banks Will Lend State $5,000,000: Eight North Carolina Banks and Four New York Banks To Take Care of State’s Needs at 6 Per Cent.” Elkin Tribune. May 19, 1932. P. 8.
• Dunnagan, M. R. “Good Yield from Ad Valorem Tax.” Beaufort News. July 21, 1932. P. 1.
• “Ex-Treasurer Stedman Dies.” News and Observer. November 18, 1973. P. 20.
• “J. P. Stedman is Elected First Union Chairman.” Charlotte Observer. September 26, 1963. P. 9.
• “John P. Stedman Bank President Has Interesting Career in State.” Robesonian. February 28, 1949. P. 1.
• “John P. Stedman Joins the Royster Organization.” Roxboro Courier. February 27, 1935. P. 3.
• “John P. Stedman Named State Treasurer at 37.” News and Observer. January 8, 1932. Pp. 1, 2.
• “Launch Annual Roll Call of Red Cross Here Today.” News and Observer. February 26, 1933. Society Section, p. 14.
• “Lumberton Man Speaks of Soil: John P. Stedman, President of Scottish Bank and Summer Resident of Long Beach, Praises Soil Conservation Practices.” State Port Pilot (Southport). April 6, 1949. P. 6.
• “North Carolina Can Pay Bills, Governor Says.” Marion Progress. June 2, 1932. P. 2.
• “Scottish Bank Reports Best of its 57 Years.” Robesonian. January 22, 1958. P. 3.
• “Stedman Named to ECTC Trustee Board.” Robesonian. July 7, 1947. Pp. 1, 2.
• “Tax Funds for State Decline, Stedman Says: Collections of Ad Valorem and Poll Tax Below Estimate, State Treasurer Reports.” Charlotte News. June 18, 1932. P. 3.
• “Those Who Go and Come.” Oxford Public Ledger. December 25, 1915. P. 8.
• “Wind Up Farm Loan with Near Perfection: Vice President Stedman Going to Washington; Bank Remnant to Macon.” News and Observer. February 21, 1934. P. 12.
• Williams, Robert E. “Stedman Gets Job with Credit Body.” News and Observer. February 21, 1934. P. 12.

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