William Woodruff Taylor, Jr.

Image Source: Buccaneer, 1958, p. 46.

William Woodruff “T” Taylor, Jr., was appointed to the ECC board of trustees in 1955 by Governor Luther H. Hodges (1898–1974), and served two five-year terms, ending in 1965. In 1967, Governor Dan K. Moore (1906–1986) appointed Taylor to serve yet again, this time for an eight-year term ending in 1975. With the reorganization of higher education in North Carolina during the administration of Governor Robert W. “Bob” Scott (1929–2009), Taylor was one of three elected from and by the ECU trustees to serve on the newly created Board of Governors overseeing all campuses within the state university system. As a member of the Board of Governors, Taylor had to step down from the ECU board. Though his term on the Board of Governors, ending in 1975, was brief, Taylor was one of the first ECU trustees to serve on both the East Carolina board and the state university system’s Board of Governors.

During his tenure as a two-term trustee from 1955-1965, Taylor emerged as one of the most politically involved supporters of the Pearsall Plan, an effort on the part of the state to minimize the impact of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, handed down in 1954, declaring segregation in the schools unconstitutional. The Pearsall Plan gave local school districts the authority to assign pupils to schools, and the right to close schools if desegregation initiatives proved to be unpopular locally. According to the plan, students were not required, if assigned to a school not of their liking, to attend. While ostensibly complying with the high court’s decision, the plan voiced explicit “condemnation and protest” against the 1954 ruling.

In the early 1960s, Taylor emerged as a vocal opponent of Communist and left-wing speakers on state supported campuses and as a supporter of speaker bans meant to prohibit the same. In 1962, in a panel discussion at Chapel Hill, Taylor declared that “the purpose of a state supported institution is to educate, not to indoctrinate.” He added that “there’s nothing sacred about the term ‘academic freedom’ for it’s also subject to the rules of society. Academic freedom must operate within reasonable bounds.” He further stated, “the public was shocked when they were told of the Communist influence in UNC.” Taylor concluded, reportedly, that UNC should fulfill the wishes of the public in expelling Communists from it.

Taylor’s hardline approach did not long prevail: In 1965, shortly after Governor Moore appointed Troy B. Dodson (1917-2002) of Greenville to replace Taylor on the board, the trustees voted to approve a moderated speaker ban policy, recommended by the North Carolina Speaker Ban Study Commission, returning control over speakers to the individual campus board of trustees, and allowing communists and left-wing speakers provided they be infrequent and for educational purposes. While Taylor most likely would have supported this policy, he, like ECC board chair and state senator Robert B. Morgan (1925-2016), preferred a less accommodating stand.

After a hiatus of two years, Taylor was appointed by Governor Moore to a third term as a trustee, this one for eight-years, expiring in 1975. Taylor’s return to the board in the fall of 1967 coincided with the state legislature’s elevation of East Carolina from a college to a university. His third term was dominated by ECU’s ongoing efforts to secure funding for a medical school, which he and all ECU trustees supported. Along more controversial lines, trustees faced unprecedented student unrest on campus due to, according to many, restrictive visitation rights for women in men’s dorms and vice versa. After attempting to hold the line against liberalized visitation, the trustees liberalized dormitory visitation rules, allowing women to visit men’s dorms every day from 1 pm until midnight. The same privileges would be granted to women’s dorms if requested by residents of those dorms. Taylor and Charles H. Larkins (1906–1975) were two of the most adamant opponents of liberalized visitation and voted against it.

Prior to the end of Taylor’s term, Governor Robert “Bob” Scott (1929–2009) presided over a major reorganization of the North Carolina State University System, including the creation of a Board of Governors overseeing all sixteen state-supported campus. The ECU board of trustees was given the power to elect from its ranks three who would serve on the Board of Governors. The board elected Taylor, along with Charles H. Larkins and Reginald McCoy (1916–2010), to serve. With his election to the Board of Governors in 1972, Taylor had to step down from his service as an ECU trustee. His term as a member of the Board of Governors ended in 1975.

Taylor was born in Warrenton, N. C. He studied at Davidson College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill but was unable to complete an undergraduate degree due to the Great Depression which forced him to suspend his studies while working to help his family earn a living. In 1932, he began coursework at Wake Forest’s Law School, and in 1933, before completing a law degree, passed the North Carolina Bar examination. Taylor practiced law until late 1941 when, with the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U. S. Army and served until honorably discharged. After WWII, he returned to Warrenton and resumed his legal practice. In 1950, he was first elected to the state legislature and served during the 1951, 1953, and 1955 regular sessions, and during the 1956 special session.

Taylor was a member of the North Carolina Bar Association and served as its president in 1957-1958. In 1962, he founded a legal firm in Raleigh — Maupin, Taylor & Ellis — where he practiced until his retirement in 1993. He was a founding member of the Lawyers Mutual Liability Insurance Company of North Carolina and member of its Board of Directors until 1994.

In 1991, Taylor received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Campbell University. During his retirement, Taylor authored a brief book, Let’s Tell Our Side of It for A Change.

Sources

• “Board Meeting Harmonious.” News and Record (Greensboro). January 6, 1972. P. 13.
• “Board of Trustees.” Buccaneer. 1957. P. 20. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15308
• Covington, Roy. “Lake Says He Wrote Pupil Act; Attorney Taylor Supports Claim.” Charlotte Observer. Jun 18, 1960. Pp. 1, 2.
• “Dorm Visitation Extended.” News and Observer. May 9, 1972. P. 5.
• “East Carolina College Board of Trustees.” Buccaneer. 1959. Pp. 46, 47. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/15309
• “EC Trustees Accept Speaker Ban Policy.” East Carolinian. November 17, 1965. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38906
• “ECC Trustee Board Adds Greenville Man.” Winston-Salem Journal. July 16, 1965. P. 8.
• “ECU Trustees Name 3 to New Statewide Unit.” News and Observer. November 18, 1971. P. 9.
• “ECU Trustees Set Fall Meet.” News and Observer. October 27, 1967. P. 2.
• “Ex-Legislator Says Lake Did Write Pearsall Plan.” Winston-Salem Journal. June 18, 1960. P. 1.
• “Ex-Trustees of ECU Get New Board Terms.” News and Observer. August 19, 1967. P. 24.
• Gilliam, Yolanda. “William ‘T’ Woodruff Taylor, Jr. ’32.” Davidson College — In Memoriam. https://inmemoriam.davidson.edu/2008/05/william-t-woodruff-taylor-jr-32/
• Goins, John. “On Academic Freedom: Panelists Clash on Question.” Daily Tar Heel. November 14, 1962. P. 1.
• Holder, Laurie. “University Adopts New Campus Speaker Policy: Way Set to End Ban Law.” News and Observer. November 13, 1965. P. 1.
• “Policy Adopted By ECC.” News and Observer. November 11, 1965. P. 1.
• Records of the Chancellor: Records of Leo Warren Jenkins, 1960-1981. Box 38: Taylor, William W., Jr., member of the Board of Trustees, 1960-1962, 1963-1967, 1968-1969. University Archives # UA02-06. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/UA02-06?q=East%20CArolinian%20W.%20W.%20Taylor
• Records of the Chancellor: Records of John Decatur Messick, 1947-1959. Box 7: Taylor, William W. Jr., Member of the Board of Trustees, 1955. University Archives # UA02-05. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N. C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/special/ead/findingaids/ua02-05?q=John%20D.%20Messick%20Paper
• “Taylor Not Around When Plan Drafted, Tom Pearsall Says.” News and Observer. June 19, 1960. Pp. 1, 2.
• “Taylor Siblings honor family tradition: Value education.” Carolina Connections. Summer 2010. http://givingpubs.unc.edu/documents/carolina_connections/archives/summer2010/stories/taylor/taylor.html
• Taylor, William W. Let’s Tell Our Side of It for A Change. News-Gazette Print Shop, 2000.
• Thuesen, Sarah C. “Pearsall Plan.” NCPedia. From the Encyclopedia of North Carolina edited by William S. Powell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. https://www.ncpedia.org/pearsall-plan
• “UNC Trustees Eye ECC Speaker Stand.” Charlotte News. September 11, 1965. P. 3.
• Wendt, Karen. “Board changes live-in bylines for sophomores.” East Carolinian. November 13, 1979. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/57231
• “William Woodruff ‘T’ Taylor, Jr.” News and Observer. May 16, 2008. P. 6B.

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