A native of Manteo, Marc Basnight served as state senator representing the First District – including Beaufort, Camden, Currituck, Dare, Hyde, Pasquotank, Tyrell, and Washington counties – from 1984 until his retirement in 2011. Shortly after reelection to what would have been his 14th term, Basnight resigned due to health issues resulting from a degenerative nerve disease. Between 1993 and 2010, he was president pro tempore in the North Carolina Senate, and was widely recognized as one of the state’s most powerful politicians. In addition to curbing river pollution and banning plastic bags on the Outer Banks, Basnight directed his political clout toward building health care and higher education in North Carolina. In 2000, he and others backed the 3.1 billion higher education bond package subsequently approved in a statewide referendum.
In 1996, ECU awarded Basnight, who never attended college, an honorary doctor of letters degree. The same year, Basnight delivered the ECU commencement address urging graduates to use their degrees to serve their communities. Basnight remarked, “You are our stars; you are our future. Give all the energy you have to make life rich for other people…. You have to give to others; do not be takers.” During commencement, Basnight referred to ECU chancellor Steve Ballard as “my chancellor,” and to ECU as “my university,” indicating his closeness to the school and its ethic of service. Basnight reportedly had his honorary degree publicly displayed in his Lone Cedar Café in Nags Head. Although it was lost to fire in 2007, ECU provided a replacement.
In the fall of 2009, Basnight – nearing retirement – toured the East Carolina Heart Institute, a $60 million facility to which he had lent his considerable support. Yet still, Basnight related that in visiting the facility he felt no more important “than any brick in the building.” He added, “The purpose [of the Heart Institute in healing] is paramount. That’s why I go to Raleigh.” In the featured picture, Basnight is being welcomed to the Heart Institute by a team of ECU administrators. Dr. Paul Cunningham, dean of the Brody School of Medicine, is shaking hands with Basnight (right). In the background, Dr. Phyllis Horne, vice chancellor for health sciences, and ECU chancellor, Steve Ballard, look on. In the early 1990s, Basnight had championed a form of universal health care for North Carolinians. Although an advocate for the interests of the whole state, Basnight, according to Tom Campbell, N.C. Spin moderator, “has been without equal as the champion for the East.”
Basnight was among the most powerful decision-makers supporting proposed legislation for an ECU dental school. “On several occasions, funding for the … school was taken from the budget. Many questioned whether or not the school would ever become a reality, but Marc promised leaders of eastern Carolina it would happen, and it did.” As with other supporters, Basnight recognized with dismay the chronic need for more dentists in eastern North Carolina. As a legislative supporter of ECU, Basnight continued the important line of political backers in Raleigh and the state legislature including James L. Fleming, Thomas J. Jarvis, Robert Morgan, Terry Sanford, Walter B. Jones, Sr., Bob Scott, and Jim Hunt to name just a few.
Sources
- “Doctor Basnight makes a house call.” East: The Magazine for East Carolina University. Winter 2010. Vol. 8, no. 2. Pp. 5-7. https://issuu.com/eastcarolina/docs/east_winter10.
- “Educators seek study for ECU dental school.” Rocky Mount Telegram. June 24, 2006. P. 6.
- “ECU graduates 3000.” ECU News Bureau. May 5, 2006. https://news.ecu.edu/archive/2006/05/05/ecu-graduates-3000/.
- Robertson, Gary D. “Basnight leaving N.C. Senate.” Reflector.com. January 5, 2011.
- “Supporters of ECU ask for Dental School.” Rocky Mount Telegram. March 18, 2006. P. 3.
Citation Information
Title: Marc Basnight
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 7/18/2019