Luther Hartwell Hodges Papers, 1947-1969.

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Summary

Creator:
Hodges, Luther Hartwell, 1898-1974.
Abstract:

Luther Hartwell Hodges began his career as an executive for Marshall Field & Comapny, 1919-1950. He was later consultant to the Economic Cooperation Administration, 1950-1951; lieutenant governor, 1953- 1954, and governor, 1956-1960, of North Carolina; United Sates Secretary of Commerce, 1961-1965; head of the Research Triangle Foundation, 1966-1972; and president of Rotary International, 1967-1968.

Correspondence, subject files, political files, speeches and other writings, scrapbooks, and other private papers and audiovisual materials of Luther H. Hodges. Much of the material concerns Hodges's years with Marshall Field & Comapny, 1919-1950; his work with Rotary International, 1930-1972; and his chairmanship of Research Triangle Foundation, 1966-1972. Also included are some letters about the Economic Cooperation Administration in post-World War II Germany; a small amount of family correspondence; political speeches Hodges made as governor and Secretary of Commerce; books by and about Hodges; scrapbooks of clippings about Hodges's political career and about school desegregation in Little Rock, Ark., as well as in North Carolina; materials relating to a study of the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees; and trip reports to friends and family from many trips overseas, including trips to Asia and Africa.

Extent:
74000 items (114.0 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Luther Hartwell Hodges (9 March 1898-6 October 1974), businessman, North Carolina lieutenant governor and governor, United States Secretary of Commerce, and civic leader, was born at Cascade, Pittsylvania County, Va., the son of John James and Lovicia Gammon Hodges. The family moved to North Carolina soon after his birth.

The eighth of nine children of a tenant farmer, Luther Hodges went to work at age twelve as an office boy in a textile mill in Spray, N.C. Later, he worked his way through the University of North Carolina, where he was president of the student council and of his senior class. Upon graduation in 1919, Hodges accepted a job as secretary to the general manager of the Marshall Field & Company mills in the Leaksville-Spray (now Eden), N.C., area. He rose rapidly in the company--as personnel manager, production manager, general manager for all Marshall Field mills, and vice-president. Throughout his business career, he was involved in civic affairs, including the YMCA and the Rotary Club, and in politics by working in the election campaigns of others.

In North Carolina during this period, Hodges served as a member of the State Board of Education and the State Highway and Public Works Commission. In 1944, while living in New York, he volunteered for service with the federal government and was made price administrator of the textile division of the Office of Price Administration. He later served briefly as a consultant to the secretary of agriculture, and as textile consultant for the United States Army in Germany.

After his retirement from Marshall Field in 1950, Hodges became chief of the industry division of the Economic Cooperation Administration in West Germany. In 1951, he was a consultant for the State Department on the International Management Conference, a top-level technical assistance program for European business corporations. Throughout his career to this point, Hodges practiced his theory that businessmen should be involved in government.

Upon returning to North Carolina, Hodges in 1952 became a candidate for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. Although virtually unknown in many areas of the state, he conducted a vigorous grassroots campaign against more established politicians and led the field in the primary. No runoff was called, and Hodges was elected lieutenant governor in the fall. He was sworn in during the inauguration ceremonies of Governor William B. Umstead in January 1953.

Hodges became governor when Umstead died in November 1954. In the six years that followed, Governor Hodges used his experience in business to develop new approaches to the problems of North Carolina, particularly those relating to employment. His industrialization program was the hallmark for the South. He led trade missions at home and abroad, created a system of community colleges to provide training and education, supported the state's first minimum wage law, and supported the Research Triangle Park, which he called "the heart and the hope of North Carolina's industrial future."

Hodges sought to bring business management to government, creating a Department of Administration to coordinate fiscal and planning operations. In education, Hodges was able to increase appropriations, initiate a grass-roots campaign to gain public support for schools, and set a moderate course for school desegregation. He also sponsored a board of higher education to coordinate the state's college and university system. He was instrumental in court improvement and in prison rehabilitation programs, including work release.

In 1956, when he ran for his own four-year term, Hodges carried every county. He served as chairman of the Southern Governors' Conference and of the Southern Regional Education Board. At the end of his term, Governor Hodges was selected by President-elect John F. Kennedy to be his Secretary of Commerce.

In his four years as commerce secretary under presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, Hodges reorganized the Commerce Department, created an Area Development Administration to help depressed areas, and was instrumental in the passage and implementation of the Trade Expansion Act. He worked for greater international trade and tourism. He was also the nation's chief spokesman for free enterprise and business ethics in the period.

After his term as Secretary of Commerce, Hodges returned to Chapel Hill. He went to work for the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina at a salary of one dollar a year and continued to work for the economic development of the state. He lectured in the School of Business Administration at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In 1967, he became the president of Rotary International and for the next year traveled around the nation and the world for Rotary.

In 1922, Hodges married Martha Blakeney of Union County, N.C. They were the parents of two daughters, Betsy and Nancy, and a son, Luther, Jr. Martha Hodges died in 1969 after a fire in the Hodges's Chapel Hill home. The following year Hodges married Louise Finlayson, who survived him. Luther Hodges died in 1974 and was buried in Eden, N.C.

Scope and content:

This collection contains the private papers of Luther Hodges. The official papers of Luther Hodges as lieutenant governor and governor are in Raleigh, N.C., at the North Carolina State Archives. The official records of Hodges's tenure as Secretary of Commerce are presumably at the National Archives. Included in this collection are personal papers that, until 1994, were located in the private manuscript collections in the North Carolina State Archives. Papers in this collection are primarily related to Hodges's years with Marshall Field & Company, 1919-1950; his work with Rotary International, 1930-1972; and his chairmanship of Research Triangle Park Foundation, 1966-1972. Also included are some letters about the Economic Cooperation Administration in post-World War II Germany; a small amount of family correspondence; speeches made as governor and Secretary of Commerce; schedules and appointment books; trip reports to friends and family from many trips overseas, including trips to Asia and Africa; manuscripts of books written by and about Hodges; scrapbooks with clippings about Gov. and Mrs. Hodges, his political career, business matters, and desegregation; and audiovisual materials documenting Hodges's political speeches, public appearances, and travels.

Acquisition information:

Received through gift and transfer from various sources beginning in 1964 and continuing through 1994.

Processing information:

Processed by: Carolyn Hamby, with assistance from Nicole Byers, Culley Holderfield, Abigail Peoples, and Jennifer Warren, September 1995 with subsequent additions

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Anne Wells, 2019

This collection was processed with support, in part, from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of Preservation and Access.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Luther Hartwell Hodges papers #3698, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu