Photo Attribution: Governor James Hunt cutting the ribbon at a Solar House dedication. University Archives Photograph Collection. Campus facilities and views (UA023.005), Special Collections Research Center at NC State University Libraries. On the clean energy front, Gov. Hunt was an early leader. In 1981, he supported the creation of the solar house on the campus of his alma mater, NC State University, which has become a critical clean energy resource for NC.
Honoring the Lifetime Service of James B. Hunt, Jr.
Jim Hunt, the only four-term governor in North Carolina history, passed away last week at age 88. A champion for public education throughout his long public service career, Hunt was universally known as North Carolina’s Education Governor.
As the state’s Lieutenant Governor and then as Governor from 1977 to 1985, and again from 1993 to 2001, he left behind a broad body of public service work. Notably, “Smart Start, his nationally recognized early childhood initiative, helped North Carolina children get better child care, immunizations, and family services. A national leader on education issues, Governor Hunt’s Excellent Schools Act of 1997 raised standards and pay for teachers.” Smart Start was the beginning of public pre-kindergarten education in this state.
A Visionary Governor
“I can think of no one who shaped North Carolina’s recent successes as much as Governor Jim Hunt. Governor for 16 years, he was a visionary who founded Smart Start, raised teacher pay, protected air quality, and created the NC Biotech Center,” said Governor Josh Stein. “On a personal level, he was a mentor and dear friend. Anna and I are keeping Carolyn, Rachel, and the entire Hunt family in our thoughts and prayers. May Governor Hunt’s memory be a blessing. He certainly was for North Carolina.”
Environmental Record
While his first tenure as Governor included a major environmental injustice – locating a toxic waste landfill in a poor, predominantly Black area of Warren County – his later terms included major positive environmental protection accomplishments.
In particular, he supported and signed into law 1999 legislation to strengthen air quality protections, the “Ambient Air Quality Amendments.” The legislation passed only after fierce floor debates and multiple votes on amendments in both chambers of the NC General Assembly.
The final vote to approve this bill was the leading vote scored in the 1999 Legislative Scorecard published by NCLCV’s predecessor organization, the Conservation Council of North Carolina. “The legislation focused on the impacts of automobiles on air quality, providing for cleaner gas, expanding emissions inspection programs, and setting goals for the overall reduction of certain kinds of pollution.”
This legislation also served as a major precursor of the later Clean Smokestacks Act, which focused on polluting emissions from coal-fired power plants in North Carolina.
Service in Hunt’s Cabinet
Another Conservation Council/Voters connection came from Bill Holman, the organization’s first full-time lobbyist who built strong connections and influence in the General Assembly through years of hard, well-informed work. Holman served as Hunt’s final cabinet Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (the predecessor to the current Department of Environmental Quality).
Hunt’s appointees to key state boards including the NC Environmental Management Commission (EMC), especially during his second tenure as governor, also reflected a commitment to genuine scientific expertise and strong protections for clean air and water. Under those appointees, the EMC wrote and adopted strong rules implementing the state’s air and water quality statutes.
The NC League of Conservation Voters joins in honoring the lifetime of public service provided by the late James B. Hunt, Jr.
