Luther H. Hodges

Luther Hartwell Hodges (9 March 1898ndash 6 October 1974) was the Democratic governor of the state of North Carolina from 1954 to 1961 and United States Secretary of Commerce from 1961 to 1965.

Hodges was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, on March 9, 1898, and moved with his family to Spray (which later merged with two other towns to become Eden, NC) when he was two years old, living much of his life there in Rockingham County, North Carolina. Hodges left for UNC-Chapel Hill at age 17, and moved back to Eden after college. He then went to work at Carolina Cotton and Woolen Mills in Leaksville, which was later purchased by Marshall Field. He remained with the company, working his way up from mill-work to executive positions, until he retired to enter politics. In 1923, he helped form the Leaksville Rotary Club, which later became known as the Eden Rotary. In the 1940's, he was appointed to the state Board of Education and the Highway and Public Works Commission. In 1945, he served as a consultant to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and to the U.S. Army in occupied Germany.

Hodges was elected the state's lieutenant governor in 1952 and succeeded to the position of governor in November of 1954 upon the death of Governor William B. Umstead. Two years later, he was elected on his own to a four-year term as governor. Because North Carolina had a one-term limit for governors at that time, Hodges had the longest continuous tenure in the office until Jim Hunt succeeded in getting the state constitution changed. During his time in office, Governor Hodges promoted industrialization and education, while attempting to limit racial tension. Research Triangle Park was established while he was governor. When he left his Washington post in 1965, he returned to Chapel Hill and was chairman of Research Triangle Park. In 1967, he served a one-year term as president of Rotary International, the only North Carolinian ever to hold the title.

He died in Oct. 6, 1974, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is buried in the Overlook Cemetery at Eden, North Carolina. There is a monument in his honor near a water fountain in Eden's Freedom Park.