Join us for the 2024 Douglass Hunt Lecture, featuring Dr. Claire Jean Kim!
About the Douglass Hunt Lectures
The Carolina Seminars program organizes the annual Douglass Hunt Lectures every Spring. On the occasion of the first Douglass Hunt Lecture, which was held on October 23, 1995, Chancellor Paul Hardin recognized the contributions of Douglass Hunt to the University and to higher education, “Douglass Hunt always was and still remains enormously useful to the University of North Carolina. Indeed, he can’t help being useful because his close association with the University and the trust he earns daily by his life and work and friendships combine to inspire all of us who are influenced by him to redouble our own efforts to be useful to our beloved University”.
Douglass Hunt Biography
Douglass Hunt (1924-2011) was a 1946 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of UNC-CH and in 1951 he earned his law degree from Yale University. The following ten years he practiced law with the firm of Gardner, Morrison & Rogers in Washington, D.C. From 1961 to 1965 he served as Special Assistant to the Under Secretary, United States Department of the Treasury, and in 1965 was named the Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury. He began his tenure at Columbia University in 1969, first serving as Officer of Columbia University, later as Vice President for Finance and as Deputy to the President for Governmental Affairs.
In 1973, Douglass Hunt moved back to Carolina when Chancellor Ferebee Taylor appointed him to the position of Vice Chancellor for Administration where he served until 1980. From 1980 until his partial retirement in 1996, Douglass served as Special Assistant to the Chancellor.
Hunt continued to work part-time as Advisor to the Chancellor for Governmental Affairs until 2002. He became the university’s government relations officer and to keep track of federal legislation and programs affecting higher education. This included participation in the Association of American Universities’ Council on Federal Relations. He was also an active member with the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies and the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Hunt chaired the Residence Status Committee and was the officer designated to assure the university’s compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and with the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974. In 1986 Chancellor Fordham asked Hunt to serve on behalf of the Office of Chancellor as liaison officer in planning the University Bicentennial Observance alongside the Bicentennial Observance Planning Committee (Cole Committee) and the Bicentennial Case Statement Committee (Williamson-Mayer Committee).
Another of Hunt‘s responsibilities was oversight of the Massey-Weatherspoon Fund and the university programs that it supported, which included the C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Awards, Carolina Seminars, and several endowed professorships and scholarships.
Douglass Hunt received the C. Knox Massey Award for Distinguished Service and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Distinguished Alumnus Award, in addition to other honors.
The North Carolina Collections holds a speech by the The Epsilon Beta Chapter of the Chi Omega Fraternity honoring the dedication and service of Douglass Hunt.
More information regarding the astounding contribution of Douglass Hunt can be found in UNC-Chapel Hill’s university archive.
Learn more about previous Douglass Hunt Lectures