The Wilmington morning star., 1947-07-27
Of LNC To Retire Soon
After rs Years Of Service

CHAPEL HILL, July -6-Harry
Conner, popular man at the Uni
versity of forth Carolina is quit
ting.
Voted one year the most valu-
able citizen in the University COM
munity, Harry Conner will be
greatly missed by everybody and
especially by the thousands of stu
dents who have received from him
aid, advice, encouragement and
the type Of affection that combine
to make up what is known here
as the Carolina spirit"
Through the years he has al
ways been acquainted with stu
dent leaders and their problems,
and aside from his duties as
YMCA secretary, he has served
as a sort Of unofficial adviser on
various and sundry problems. He
is consulted by students and fac
ulty as well, on selection of speak
ers, entertainment, and other ex-
t~ra-curricular subjects.
The University administration,
too, will also greatly feel his loss.
for when it has had a job to be
done, with no n specifically des-
ignated to do it, the job has often
gone to Harry omer.
All University presidents have
found him a valuable aide. For
mer President Harry w. Chase
once referred to him as 1.-The alb
lest YMCA secretary in the coun-
try" And DR.. Frank P. Graham,
president Of the University since
1880, said this week:
Harry Conner, for over a quar-
ter Of a century, has been a EN-
trail part of the intellectual, civic,
and spiritual life of the University
Of North Carolina, and he has had
a creative part in making Chapel
Hill a center of study and discus
sion of industrial, 'interracial, and
international relations with a spir-
itual dynamic at the center of it.
In all his activities and relations
he has, in the spirit and teachings
of the Master, worked toward the
bringing IN of the Kingdom Of God
on earth. The University of North
Carolina is grateful for his devot-
ed life and services and will al
ways claim him as one of her
sons, as a precious part of her
manifold life"
Chancellor Robert B. House,
said: "Hsrry Conner has been one
Of the creative persons in the Uni
versity ever since I have been
working for it-a moral force, an
Intellectual guide and stimulus,
and a spiritual power. l see him
with the utmost personal
and official regret"
Harry Conner loves people, and
that is probably why they love
aim. Seated at his desk in the Y
building, in the heart of the camp
is, he has been since 1921, the
haven for students who were in
distress, or who merely wanted a
Dit of information.
Back in the 1920's and .30's, Six
ty to seventy-five per cent of the
student body was, in whole Or in
part, on self-help, and it was the
Of Conner to find work for
them-moWing lawns to baby sit
ting, waiting OIL tables to posting
on the streets and numbers
on the htuses in Chapel Hill.
"a lot of the old-timers didn't
want numbers on their houses"
Conner related. "They said every
body knew where they iived-not
thinking about the green, bug-eyed
freshmen who couldn't even find
their way to calssrooms. But the
biggest problem was the visiting
parents. Many of the students, in
those days, lived out in town,
l AtAACl I11GlA LA QOA l11ltO4 1CSs 1111dS~
inc trying to direct someone to a
house in a town which had no
names on its streets or numbers
on its houses Many a time I had
to crank up the old Ford and
drive TIL Tough the sloshing mud
Cor choking dust), leading a proud
couple in search of Junior
In 1927, Conner founded the in
stitute of Human Relations. Serv-
ing as its director until 1945 he
started Carolina on the road to-
ward being the most platform
speaker conscious university in
the South.
Out Of the institute have arisen
two Of the University's most pop
ular and instrumental organiza-
tions-the Carolina Political union
and later the International Rela-
tons club, which have brought to
the campus such speakers as