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Paul K. Mueller, News Services, 919/515-3470

Nov. 5, 2003

NC State Honors Bill Friday with 2003 Menscer Cup

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

William C. Friday (center) was presented the 2003 Menscer Cup by Chancellor Marye Anne Fox and Darrell Menscer at a ceremony Nov. 4 sponsored by the NC State Foundation.

William C. Friday, president emeritus of the University of North Carolina system and an alumnus of North Carolina State University, has been awarded the 2003 Menscer Cup by the NC State Foundation in recognition of his lifelong service to the university.

He received the award in a ceremony Nov. 4 at Prestonwood Country Club in Cary.

A resident of Chapel Hill, Friday has been called “one of the most significant North Carolinians of the 20th century.” He served as president of the University of North Carolina System from 1956 until his retirement in 1986; is former president of the William R. Kenan Jr. Fund; former executive director of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust; and former vice-chairman of the N.C. Progress Board, among numerous other positions of leadership and public service.

He has served on many influential national task forces and commissions on higher education, including the President’s Task Force on Education, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education and the Knight Foundation National Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. In recognition of his leadership, he has received the American Council on Education’s National Distinguished Service Award for Lifetime Achievement, and is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees from public and private institutions.

A member of NC State’s Chancellor Circle, Friday received the university’s highest non-academic honor, the Watauga Medal, in 1985. He has also been awarded an honorary doctorate degree and received the Alumni Association’s Meritorious Service Award.

In 1996 he received both the James L. Fisher Award for Distinguished Service to Education and the World Citizen Award. In 1997, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Clinton, and in 1999 was named the first University Distinguished Professor of Honors at the University of North Carolina.

He currently serves on the steering committee for NC State’s Comprehensive Campaign, representing the Alumni Association, and is the honorary chair of the steering committee of the Campaign for Excellence. In previous years he served on the Park Scholars Selection Committee, twice was a member of the university’s Development Board and Foundation Board – both of which he served as president – and was a member of both the Alumni Merit Service Board and the university’s Board of Visitors. He is a Director Emeritus of the Watauga Club.

As executive director of the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, he helped lead the creation of the Kenan Institutes, one of which – the William R. Kenan Jr. Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science – is located at NC State.

The new Bill and Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, funded by the Friends of Bill Friday, will be located on Centennial Campus and will focus on team-oriented, cutting-edge educational research and teacher training.

Friday earned a bachelor’s degree in textile engineering from NC State in 1941, and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The NC State Foundation created the Menscer Cup award in 1997 to honor Darrell and Carolyn Menscer of Murrells Inlet, S.C., for “exemplary leadership of advancement efforts” at the university. While chairing the foundation and co-chairing the Campaign for NC State Students, Darrell Menscer led university fund raising, endowment management and alumni services.

Beginning in 1997, the Menscer Cup has been presented to an individual who best exemplifies the Menscers’ effort, leadership, voluntary service and dedication to NC State and the state of North Carolina. Darrell Menscer, speaking at the Nov. 4 ceremony, thanked Friday for his decades of service to the university, and presented the 2003 Menscer Cup award with “great pleasure and much respect.”

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