Ben Ruffin will forever be characterized by his vision and spirit as a public servant. My good friend passed away last December in his home, four days before his 65th birthday, from a heart attack.
Graduate students may recognize Ben Ruffin’s name because it appears on their undergraduate diplomas. As chairman of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, Ben’s signature appeared on every graduating student’s diploma including one of mine.
In 1991, Ben was appointed to the UNC Board of Governors, and in 1998 was elected as its chairman -the first and only black to hold the position. He won by a single vote over political heavyweight Clifford Cameron, former CEO of First Union Bank (now Wachovia).
Ben served as chairman until 2003, and his leadership resulted in the passage of the statewide Higher Education Improvement Bonds which represented the most significant investment in public education made by state voters in the history of our country.The $3.1 billion bond package has not only transformed N.C. State’s campus but the entire UNC and N.C. Community College system.
Ben’s path in life did not start out as one of North Carolina’s most influential political insiders. It began as the son of a maid and an Army soldier, on the streets of Durham fighting an entrenched system of inequality and exclusion. He worked, like many students today, at a tailor shop to pay his way through N.C. Central University. While in school and after graduation, he fought relentlessly for better jobs, housing and education in the city’s low-income neighborhoods. Perhaps that is why Ben and I connected so well.
I met Ben at Fayetteville State University my “first” senior year. When, in a hallway of the school’s gymnasium, he swore me in as member of the Board of Governors. Although my swearing in lacked an audience and the usual pomp and circumstance, Ben made it clear that students were full participants in the University’s decision making process. Students, then and now, only have a seat at the table, but Ben insisted that the student representative be included in the debate and be treated as a colleague.
After the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Ben became a member of Governor Jim Hunt’s administration. In 1977 he became the director of the N.C. Human Relations Council, an agency charged with ensuring equal opportunities in the areas of employment, housing, public accommodations, recreation, education, justice and governmental services.
Then in 1978, Ben became Hunt’s special assistant where he served as a liaison to black leaders to expand the number of minorities employed in state government. In that role, Ben was instrumental in increasing the number of black judges in the state from two to 17. After seven years in Hunt’s first administration, Ben become a senior corporate officer with both North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.
But I will always remember him as “my chairman.”
“Ben will always be remembered for his positive outlook on life, his great loyalty and determination, and his bedrock belief in the power of education to make our state a better place,” UNC System President Erskine Bowles said after Ben’s passing.
In 2002 I was able to give Ben Ruffin the John L. Sanders Student Advocate Award. The award is given annually by the UNC Association of Student Governments for superlative public service to the students of the UNC system. Ben was the award’s first recipient – it recognizes individuals who advance and improve the lives of North Carolina’s students. As you can see, Ben did that and much more.
If I was given one more opportunity to speak on behalf of the 200,000-plus students in the UNC system and the thousands that came before, I would say – “thanks Ben Ruffin for making our lives better and helping us believe that anything is possible.”
E-mail Andrew at [email protected].
