Rebekah Fulghum Kirby served on the East Carolina board from 1961–1973, corresponding to the school’s phenomenal growth in the 1960s, its successful drive for university status, and then the first years of its new medical school. Throughout her tenure, Kirby was a loyal and active supporter of East Carolina’s president, Dr. Leo W. Jenkins (1913–1989), and ECC board chair, Sen. Robert B. Morgan (1925–2016), as they charted paths forward for East Carolina, guiding the school to new heights of growth and service.
A native of Kenly, just west of Greenville in Johnston County, Kirby (née Fulghum) was raised with distinct political interests. Her father, a pharmacist, was also active in politics, serving eight terms in the state house of representatives. An excellent student in the public schools of Johnston County, Kirby completed her undergraduate degree at Greensboro College in 1940, majoring in English and minoring in French and Spanish. She briefly taught at Rankin High School in Greensboro before returning to Kenly to help manage her family’s drug store and farming interests.
In 1946, she married James Russell Kirby (1922–1994), a UNC law student originally from nearby Lucama in Wilson County. The couple eventually moved to Wilson where her husband established himself as an attorney and then launched a successful political career as a state senator, serving from 1963–1975. Also active in public affairs, Rebekah Kirby served as regional coordinator for women’s activities for Terry Sanford’s (1917–1998) gubernatorial campaign in 1960, while simultaneously working for John F. Kennedy’s (1917–1963) presidential campaign.
In 1961, Gov. Sanford appointed Kirby to the ECC board. A lifelong Democrat, Kirby’s politics mixed well with those of the new president of East Carolina, Leo W. Jenkins, and his ambitions for the school.
While generally a supporter of East Carolina’s bid for university status, as early as 1962 Kirby voted with the board to reject the possibility of East Carolina’s possible inclusion within the Consolidated University System dominated by UNC-Chapel Hill. At that time, nothing was said about East Carolina’s determination to become an independent, regional university, but apparently the sentiment of independence was already operative. Though unstated, Jenkins, Morgan, and the board might have feared that the Consolidated University would seek to control and limit East Carolina’s growth and development.
The Carlyle Report produced the same year, 1962, by Governor Sanford’s Commission on Higher Education had not mentioned the possibility of ECC’s inclusion in the Consolidated University and instead, called for a system of higher education wherein the Consolidated University stood at the pinnacle, while four-year colleges such as ECC, teacher’s colleges, and technical schools were at the base of the pyramid.
As a board member, Kirby supported revision of the Speaker Ban Law disallowing Communists from speaking on state-supported campuses. In 1965, she backed East Carolina’s approval of a policy recommended by the Speaker Ban Study Commission, on which her husband, Sen. James Russell Kirby, served, limiting the power of the Speaker Ban Law by returning authority over campus speakers to the boards of trustees of individual campuses. Although the new policy did not overturn the Speaker Ban Law, it decentralized implementation of it, allowing leeway as seen fit by trustees locally.
During East Carolina’s drive for university status in the mid-1960s, Kirby appeared prominently in a Daily Reflector photo, dated February 5, 1966, holding a green and white pennant bearing the school-name, “East Carolina University,” over a year in advance of it actually becoming a university. Kirby was accompanied by ECC Pres. Leo Jenkins and Sen. Robert Morgan, chair of the board of trustees. The Daily Reflector‘s caption explained the lighthearted moment:
“The First 'ECU' Banner. Already? . . . Not in fact. Not, just yet, But this strangely green-and-white ‘East Carolina University’ pennant — a sales and ECU idea booster by Greenville book merchant Jack Edwards — got a favorable reception at Friday’s ECC trustees meeting. President Leo Jenkins (left) and Chairman Robert B. Morgan admire lady trustee Mrs. J. Russell Kirby of Wilson, as she models the gag pennant.”
While good-humored, the picture also captured the serious political clout East Carolina had in its push for university status: not only was Morgan an ECTC alumnae and chair of the board of trustees, he was also a five-term state senator just elected, in 1965, president pro tempore of the senate. In Morgan, Jenkins had an incomparably loyal ally willing to use his power in the state legislature to help make ECC’s ambitions not so farfetched. Without Morgan’s support, the push for university status might well have fallen flat.
In 1969, Gov. Robert “Bob” W. Scott (1929–2009) reappointed Kirby to the East Carolina board. Her service concluded in 1973 when, in tandem with the reorganization of the state system of higher education orchestrated by Scott and the state legislature, new boards were named for all campuses.
In 1976, Kirby moved to Chapel Hill where she lived for over 20 years. During former Gov. Sanford’s tenure as president of Duke University, Kirby worked in his office as a speech writer and on special projects. She later joined Duke’s Office of Development as a staff writer and coordinator of endowments. In recognition of her long contributions, Duke awarded Kirby with honorary membership in the Founders Society upon her retirement in 1989.
Sources
- “3 ECU Trustees.” News and Observer. October 7, 1969. P. 3.
- “Board of Trustees.” October 1961. University Archives # UA55.01.1404. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23084
- “Board Vetoes University Status.” East Carolinian. November 2, 1962. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38781
- “Box 37, Kirby, Mrs. J. Russell (Rebekah), member of the Board of Trustees, 1961-1963; and,
- Box 37, Kirby, Mrs. J. Russell (Rebekah), member of the Board of Trustees, 1964-1969.” Records of the Chancellor: Records of Leo Warren Jenkins, 1960-1981. University Archives # UA02-06. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/UA02-06
- “EC Trustees Accept Speaker Ban Policy.” East Carolinian. November 17, 1965. P. 1.
- Erwin, Kate. “Hodges Raises Voice Against ‘ECU’ Plan.” News and Observer. April 21, 1967. Pp. 1, 2.
- Hardee, Roy. “ECC Plans to Press Its Case.” News and Observer. May 19, 1966. P. 1.
- “Leo Jenkins with Robert Morgan and Rebekah Kirby.” University Archives # UA55.01.1856. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/23169
- “Policy Adopted By ECC.” News and Observer. November 11, 1965. P. 1.
- “Rebekah Fulghum Kirby.” News and Observer. July 11, 2013. B6.
- “Three Industrialists Named to the Board.” News and Observer. October 18, 1961. P. 5.
- “Wilson Speaker Addresses Democratic Women’s Club.” [Burlington] Daily Times-News. February 10, 1962. P. 12.
Related Materials
Image Source: From The Echo (Greensboro College Yearbook), 1939. Junior year picture. No pagination. https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/28411?ln=en#?xywh=-1687%2C-166%2C7809%2C3315&cv=42
Image Source: From The Echo (Greensboro College Yearbook), 1940. Senior year picture. No pagination. https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/28405?ln=en#?xywh=-459%2C889%2C4065%2C1726&cv=31
Image Source: News and Observer, July 11, 2013. B6.
Citation Information
Author: John A. Tucker, PhD
Date of Publication: 09/1/2023