Exhibit Highlights Hunt’s Namesake

Only a year after it opened, the Hunt Library on NC State’s Centennial Campus has become almost more famous than its namesake, James B. Hunt Jr.

Now through March 1, however, visitors at the library can learn more about Hunt, North Carolina’s only four-term governor, through an exhibit called “A Legacy of Leadership” in the Level 1 lobby of the gleaming new facility that was recently ranked No. 14 on a list of the world’s most beautiful libraries.

The exhibit follows Hunt’s journey from his rural Wilson County roots, through his years as a student at NC State and his career in politics, in which he was elected the state’s youngest lieutenant governor at the age of 35. He was elected governor four years later and became the state’s first governor to succeed himself after a change in the state’s constitution (1977-85). After leaving office for eight years, he was elected to two more terms from 1993-2001.

The onetime Future Farmer of America and two-term NC State student body president earned an undergraduate degree in agricultural education and a master’s degree in agricultural economics, before going to law school at UNC. He eventually became one of the nation’s most influential state executives and tied for the longest gubernatorial tenure in post-Constitutional U.S. history with 5,840 days in office.

The new exhibit celebrates Hunt’s profound impact on developing North Carolina into a national model of education, technology and growth in the New South.

Visitors can see the exhibit during the library’s regular operating hours.