Max Ray Joyner, Sr.

Image source: Portrait of Max Ray Joyner

In 2016, Max Ray Joyner, Sr., received the Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year award recognizing his contributions to regional progress and advancement. In addition to his outstanding work as a business man and community leader, Joyner’s contributions to ECU have been exceptional. He is a lifetime member and past president of the Pirate Club, and a former member and past chair of the ECU board of trustees. Joyner is also a founding member and former president of the ECU Foundation, and former president of the East Carolina Alumni Association. He has served on the board of directors of the ECU School of Business, and on the Honors College Advancement Council. He also endowed the Max Ray Joyner Award for Faculty Service through Distance Education, awarded annually.

Joyner grew up near Greenville in the Red Oaks neighborhood. He attended Greenville High School where he met his future wife, Catherine “Kitty” Smith in 1949. After serving in the Korean War, Joyner returned to Greenville and enrolled at East Carolina College. In 1955, he graduated with a degree in business administration. For nearly four decades, Joyner worked at Jefferson-Pilot Insurance Company. Throughout his business career, Joyner remained active at East Carolina. In 1958, he raised $50,000 to build The Collegiate (now called Sycamore Hill) at Fifth and Holly, ECC’s first off-campus student apartment complex. Joyner also worked closely with President Leo Jenkins to establish the ECU Foundation and served as its founding president.

Joyner’s success in business enabled him to become one of ECU’s major important benefactors. He and his wife funded the first endowed chair at the Brody School of Medicine, the Catherine and Max Joyner Distinguished Professorship in Primary Care Medicine, as well as a scholarship for nursing students. The Joyners have given generously to the EC Scholars program for high-performing undergraduates. They have also supported the Four Seasons Chamber Music Series and the S. Rudolph Alexander Performing Arts Series, and are members of the ECU Friends of Music, the Friends of Theatre and Dance, and the Friends of Joyner Library.

Recognizing his exceptional leadership and generosity, the ECU Alumni Association presented Joyner with the Outstanding Alumni Award in 1981. At the state level, Gov. Pat McCrory appointed Joyner to membership in the Order of the Longleaf Pine, North Carolina’s highest honor. In 2015, the Joyners were awarded (Mrs. Joyner, posthumously) with the ECU Alumni Association’s Virgil Clark ’50 Distinguished Service Award, one of ECU’s most prestigious. The Joyners were also active members of ECU’s major philanthropic groups, including the Leo Jenkins Society, the Order of the Cupola, the Order of Wright Circle, and the Polaris Society. As former chancellor Richard Eakin noted, Joyner “has lived the very goals that ECU seeks to advance for eastern North Carolina with his service and commitment to improving the lives of others.”

Sources

• “2015 Alumni Award Recipients: Virgil Clark ’50 Distinguished Service Award.” ECU Alumni. http://www.piratealumni.com/s/722/hybrid/index.aspx?sid=722&gid=1&pgid=1854.
• Abramowitz, Michael. “Life of Service: Joyner Named Citizen of the Year.” Daily Reflector. January 23, 2017.
• Copeland, Elizabeth H., ed. Chronicles of Pitt County, North Carolina. Winston-Salem, NC: Hunter Publishing Company, 1982.
• Ferrell, Henry C., Jr., ed. Promises Kept: East Carolina University, 1980-2007. Greenville, NC: East Carolina University, 2006.
• “Joyner Honored as Citizen of the Year.” Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce, 2016. https://www.greenvillenc.org/2016-Citizen-of-the-Year.2181.0.html.
• Records of the Board of Trustees. UA01. University Archives, J.Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC.
• Tuttle, Steve. “Old School Values.” East, Winter 2014.

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