Radford Marvin “Ralph” Garrett

Radford Marvin "Ralph" Garrett. Image Source: https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37086

Radford Marvin “Ralph” Garrett served as a trustee for a decade, from 1945 until his passing, due to cardiac problems, in 1955. Most notably, Garrett was a member of the Budget and Building Committee and from the year of his appointment was privy to discussions of various million-dollar initiatives for the substantial expansion of the campus, including construction of seven new buildings and major improvements to six existing ones. Much of this was planned, initially, by acting president Howard J. McGinnis (1882–1971), then furthered by President Dennis Hargrove Cooke (1904–1982), and brought to full realization by President John D. Messick (1897–1993). Throughout the changes in leadership, Garrett’s prominent devotion to the school’s growth and academic development helped inspire and guide its ambitious agenda for expansion on all fronts.

Appointed to the board in 1945 by Governor Robert Gregg Cherry (1891–1957) as part of his, Cherry’s, purge of pro-Meadows trustees, Garrett represented the economically powerful tobacco industry in Greenville. A decade before Garrett’s appointment, for example, over 51 million pounds of tobacco had been sold in Greenville’s warehouses, generating sales of over $16 million. No other enterprise in Greenville, Pitt County, or the entire eastern part of the state could, at that juncture, match tobacco as the driving force of the local economy and overall progress in the region.

As a highly successful tobacconist, Garrett well understood the importance of financial integrity and accountability: in 1935, his Person-Garrett Tobacco Company handled one-fifth of all sales in Greenville, totaling over 10 million pounds for $4 million in sales — roughly the equivalent of $71 million today. In 1944, Dr. Leon R. Meadows, president of ECTC had resigned while facing criminal indictment for embezzlement and false pretense. Yet a majority of the board at that time voted to exonerate him of financial wrongdoing, prompting Gov. Cherry not to reappoint pro-Meadows board members when their terms expired. Garrett, a well-connected Greenville businessman and respected leader in civic organizations, was named to the seat previously held by Mrs. Charles Samuel (Leila Suttle) Forbes (1883–1964) of Greenville, one of the pro-Meadows trustees not reappointed.

Soon after his appointment, Garrett was chosen to serve as chair of a board committee investigating the need for housing for prospective male students at ECTC. Garrett emphasized that ECTC was coeducational by charter, and that the state’s teacher shortage might be addressed by encouraging men to enter the profession. East Carolina could provide them, he suggested, with the necessary training if there were greater dorm space for young men on campus. At the time, half the male students at ECTC lived off campus and the remainder, in one wing of Ragsdale Hall, a dormitory for teachers. Garrett’s efforts on behalf of expanded housing for prospective male students not only contributed to the growth of the physical campus but also to the student body, especially male student numbers, and faculty strength as well.

In 1947, Clyde A. Erwin, state superintendent of public instruction and ex officio chair of the board, appointed Garrett to the search committee that soon recommended that Dr. John D. Messick be hired as East Carolina’s president. Earlier, the school had undergone considerable turnover in leadership beginning with Meadows’ resignation, followed by two years of stable but temporary leadership during Howard J. McGinnis’s tenure as acting president, then the one-year service of the newly hired president, Dr. Dennis H. Cooke. However, following Cooke’s resignation in 1947 to take a position at Woman’s College in Greensboro, East Carolina had to look once again for a new leader. Garrett and the search committee recommended, unanimously and without a ranked list of other candidates, Dr. John D. Messick. As things turned out, Messick not only took the job but remained for a dozen years, from 1947–1959, presiding over an era of extraordinary growth. From 1947 to 1955, the year of Garrett’s passing, he and Messick worked closely to advance East Carolina’s ever-expanding mission of truly coeducational teacher training.

In 1948, Garrett broke ground — in an unofficial ceremony recalling the 1908 groundbreaking that former Gov. Thomas J. Jarvis (1836–1915) had presided over 40 years prior — for a new dormitory for male students using, reportedly, the same spade used by Thomas Jarvis when he broke ground for the first building at the Training School. President Messick, the architect, Eric G. Flanagan (1892–1970) of Henderson, and the college business manager, Fitzhugh D. Duncan (1904–1991), were among those attending. The “spade,” reportedly kept in the board room of the Administration Building (later, Old Austin, no longer extant), signaled the allusion to Jarvis and the 1908 event. It is doubtful, however, that the tool Garrett used was indeed the one Jarvis had wielded at the first groundbreaking. As an iconic photograph of the 1908 groundbreaking shows, Jarvis had used a long-handled shovel, not a spade.

In 1951, Governor W. Kerr Scott (1896–1958), impressed with Garrett’s contributions to the East Carolina board, reappointed him to another six-year term. That year, the state legislature voted to upgrade East Carolina’s standing from a teachers college to a four-year liberal arts college with strengths in teacher certification. At least in part, East Carolina’s new status was built upon the prominent and energetic service that Garrett and others like him had rendered.

As with so many of his generation, Garrett, in his thinking about racial issues, did not yet see beyond the limits of the system of Jim Crow segregation that had prevailed in North Carolina and much of the country for nearly a half century. In May 1954, shortly after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling declaring segregation in public facilities such as schools unconstitutional, Garrett and the board responded via an appeal to East Carolina’s charter stating that the school was founded for the education of “young white men and women.” Earlier, in 1951, the board had voted to make such an appeal to the school’s charter as a means of disallowing prospective Korean students from applying for admission. Garrett’s passing in 1955 kept him from witnessing what would be one of the most momentous transformations of the campus with the onset of desegregation in the early 1960s.

In the spring of 1954, the trustees voted, at the board’s May 22 meeting, to name a number of buildings and locations on campus: (1) the Administration Building was named the J. B. Spilman Administration Building; (2) the Alumni-Faculty House (now the Honor’s College) was named the Mamie Jenkins Building; (3) the laboratory school was named Coates-Wahl Laboratory School (later, Wahl-Coates) honoring Dora Coates, an elementary education staff from 1922–1951, and Frances Wahl, then its principal; (4) the new faculty dorm was named Erwin Hall in honor of the late superintendent of public instruction, Claude Erwin; (5) the training school auditorium, also known as the little theatre, was named McGinnis Auditorium in honor of Howard McGinnis, former registrar and acting president of the school; (6) the two gates in front of the training school were named after Ann Redwine and Elizabeth Hyman, two teachers at the training school; (7) the entrance to Austin (now demolished) was named the Lewis-Ross gate in honor of Kate W. Lewis, charter member of the faculty, and Miss Ola Ross, assistant registrar for 43 years; and (8), the new dormitory for men was named in honor of Governor William B. Umstead (1895–1954).

The trustees also proposed that the new and very modern dorm for women be named after Garrett. However, Garrett did not concur and firmly requested that the dorm not be named for him. While the trustees yielded to Garrett’s wishes and so took no action at the May 22 meeting, by December of 1954, they had nevertheless voted to name the dorm, construction of which had only just begun, in honor of Garrett. The naming was soon publicly announced in the campus paper, the East Carolinian, and one of the leading state newspapers, the News and Observer. Apparently, Garrett, a wealthy and powerful but modest man of integrity, did not think campus buildings should be named after persons still in service to the college.

A native of Person County, Garrett grew up around and was part of the tobacco industry his entire life. Early on, although without the benefit of a higher education, Garrett worked for the Liggett Myers Tobacco Company in Durham and then for the G. R. Garrett Tobacco Company in Rocky Mount. In 1916, he moved to Greenville and joined T. A. Person and Co. before taking over the company and renaming it, in 1924, the Person-Garrett Tobacco Company. From 1924–1950, he served as president and then in 1950, became chairman of the board. He also served on the board of Jarvis Memorial United Methodist Church, was a founding member of the Greenville Rotary Club, and a lifetime member of the board of governors of the U. S. Tobacco Association. Following his passing in 1955, Governor Luther Hodges (1898–1974) filled the vacancy by appointing William Woodruff “T” Taylor, Jr. (1912–2008), a prominent attorney from Warrenton, N. C.

Sources

• “Board of Trustees Names Dorm for Women after Tobacconist: Garrett Dorm, Other Building Now Underway.” East Carolinian. December 16, 1954. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38364
• Cobb, K. W. “Short Crop and Good Prices Outlook for East’s Tobacco.” News and Observer. August 29, 1936. Section O, p. 1.
• “College Gets New President: Dr. John D. Messick of New Jersey Chosen for East Carolina Teachers.” Charlotte Observer. July 2, 1947. P. 10.
• “Discussion Held on ECTC Program: Committee Talks Plans $1,000,000 Building and Improvement Campaign.” News and Observer. November 23, 1945. P. 15.
• “Dorm Scheduled to Open Sometime before Christmas: Vice-President Duncan Says.” East Carolinian. October 20, 1955. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38384
• “Dormitory Work Starts at ECTC: Ground Broken for Building for Men in Ceremonies at Greenville.” News and Observer. November 18, 1948. P. 22.
• “Dr. Dennis Cooke of ECTC Resigns.” Wilmington Morning Star. May 22, 1947. P. 1.
• “East Carolina College Board of Trustees minutes May 22, 1954.” University Archives # UA01.01.01.01.04. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10268
• “East Carolina College girls' dorm.” University Archives # 0741-b7-fa-v7.a.17. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/2531″East Carolina Dorm Named Garrett Hall.” News and Observer. December 8, 1954. P. 7.
• “ECC Trustees Named by Governor Scott.” News and Observer. July 14, 1951. P. 16.
• “Effort to Reinstate E.C.T.C. Teachers Fails at Greenville.” Durham Morning Herald. September 5, 1945. P. 3.
• “England Looking to Colonies for Tobacco, He Says.” Times-News (Hendersonville). May 1, 1936. P. 3.
• “Five New Members Named to ECTC Trustees’ Board: Four Appointed for Terms of Six Years, One Named to Unexpired Term.” News and Observer. August 18, 1945. P. 2.
• “Garrett Hall.” University Archives # UA55.03.4317. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/36758; Also, University Archives # 0741-b12-fd-v12.d.1, https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/2980; University Archives # UA55.03.4317, https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/36758
• “Garrett Residence Hall.” University Archives # UA55.01.1073. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23047; Also, University Archives # UA55.01.1005. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23034
• “Ground Broken for Building for Men in Ceremonies at Greenville.” News and Observer. November 18, 1948. P. 22.
• “New Garrett Dorm.” News and Observer. September 16, 1955. P. 22.
• “Person Garrett Tobacco.” University Archives # 0741-b8-fc-v8.c.46. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/2685
• “Pitt Tobacconist Succumbs.” News and Observer. July 6, 1955. P. 3.
• “R. M. Garrett Leads Inquiry: Trustee of ECTC Seeks Information on Opportunities for Men as Teachers.” Charlotte Observer. January 19, 1946. P. 20.
• “Radford Marvin Garrett.” University Archives # F254.L35 V.3. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/37086
• “Students in Garrett Hall.” University Archives # UA55.03.11996. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/59021
• “Tobacco buildings [Person Garrett Co. Inc. Leaf Tobacco].” University Archives # 0741-b8-fc-v8.c.46. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/2539

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