North Carolina Award

The North Carolina Award is the highest civilian award bestowed by the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is awarded in the four fields of science, literature, the fine arts, and public service. Sometimes referred to as the "Nobel Prize of North Carolina", the award has been given to up to nine individuals each year since 1964. The awards, provided for by chapters 140A and 143B of the North Carolina General Statutes, are chosen by the North Carolina Awards Committee appointed by the Governor of North Carolina and supervised by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The award was designed by sculptor Paul Manship and was one of the last commissions he completed before his death.

History of the award
The award was proposed by state Senator Robert Lee Humber of Pitt County, who wanted to recognize people who had contributed to the betterment of North Carolina and inspire others. He won the award for public service in 1968.

Biographical essays are available for each North Carolina Award recipient in the ceremony program for that year. Ceremony programs are online through the North Carolina Digital Collections.

1960s

 * 1964:
 * Literature: Inglis Fletcher
 * Science: John Couch
 * Fine Arts: Francis Speight
 * Public Service: John Morehead, Clarence Poe
 * 1965:
 * Literature: Paul Green, Gerald Johnson
 * Science: Frederick A. Wolf
 * Fine Arts: Hunter Johnson
 * Public Service: Frank Porter Graham
 * 1966:
 * Literature: Bernice Kelly Harris
 * Science: Oscar Rice
 * Fine Arts: Arthur G. Odell Jr.
 * Public Service: Luther Hodges
 * 1967:
 * Literature: Jonathan Worth Daniels
 * Science: Carl W. Gottschalk, H. Houston Merritt
 * Fine Arts: Benjamin F. Swalin
 * Public Service: Albert Coates
 * 1968:
 * Literature: Vermont C. Royster, Charles Russell
 * Science: Stanley Stephens
 * Fine Arts: Hobson Pittman
 * Public Service: Robert Lee Humber
 * 1969:
 * Literature: Ovid Pierce,
 * Science: Kenneth Brinkhous
 * Fine Arts: Charles Stanford, Jr.
 * Public Service: May G. L. Kellenberger

1970s

 * 1970:
 * Literature: Frances Gray Patton
 * Science: Philip Handler
 * Fine Arts: Henry C. Pearson
 * Public Service: Terry Sanford
 * 1971:
 * Literature: Guy Owen
 * Science: no award
 * Fine Arts: James Semans & Mary Semans
 * Public Service: Capus Waynick, James E. Webb
 * 1972:
 * Literature: John Ehle
 * Science: Edward David, Jr., Harold Hotelling
 * Fine Arts: Sidney Blackmer
 * Public Service: William Dallas Herring
 * 1973:
 * Literature: Helen Smith Bevington, Burke Davis
 * Science: Ellis Cowling
 * Fine Arts: Kenneth Ness
 * Public Service: Samuel J. Ervin
 * 1974:
 * Literature: Thad Stem, Jr.
 * Science: James Wyngaarden
 * Fine Arts: William Fields
 * Public Service: Ellen Black Winston
 * 1975:
 * Literature: Doris Betts
 * Science: John Etchells
 * Fine Arts: Robert Ward
 * Public Service: William Friday
 * 1976:
 * Literature: Richard Walser
 * Science: C. Clark Cockerham
 * Fine Arts: Romare Bearden, Foster Fitz-Simons
 * Public Service: Juanita Kreps
 * 1977:
 * Literature: Reynolds Price
 * Science: Reginald Mitchiner
 * Fine Arts: Joseph Sloane, Jonathan Williams
 * Public Service: Elizabeth Duncan Koontz
 * 1978:
 * Literature: Manly Wade Wellman
 * Science: David Sabiston, Jr.
 * Fine Arts: Henry Kamphoefner
 * Public Service: Robert Garvey, Jr., Harriet Tynes
 * 1979:
 * Literature: Harry Golden
 * Science: Walter Gordy
 * Fine Arts: Sam Ragan
 * Public Service: Archie Davis, John deButts

1980s

 * 1980:
 * Literature: Fred Chappell
 * Science: George Hitchings
 * Fine Arts: Robert Lindgren
 * Public Service: Dan Moore, Jeanelle Moore
 * 1981:
 * Literature: Glen Rounds, Tom Wicker
 * Science: Vivian Stannett
 * Fine Arts: Adeline McCall
 * Public Service: Ralph Scott
 * 1982:
 * Literature: Willie Snow Ethridge
 * Science: Floyd Denny, Jr.
 * Fine Arts: Selma Burke, R. Philip Hanes, Jr.
 * Public Service: Nancy Chase
 * 1983:
 * Literature: Heather Ross Miller
 * Science: Frank Guthrie
 * Fine Arts: Mary Keesler Dalton & Harry Lee Dalton
 * Public Service: Hugh Morton
 * 1984:
 * Literature: Joseph Mitchell, Lee Smith
 * Science: Robert Hill
 * Fine Arts: Maud Gatewood, Andy Griffith
 * Public Service: George Watts Hill
 * 1985:
 * Literature: Wilma Dykeman
 * Science: Irwin Fridovich
 * Fine Arts: Claude Howell
 * Public Service: J. Gordon Hanes, Jr.
 * 1986:
 * Literature: A.R. Ammons
 * Science: Ernest Eliel
 * Fine Arts: Doc Watson
 * Public Service: Joseph M. Bryan, Billy Graham Emmett McRae
 * 1987:
 * Literature: Maya Angelou
 * Science: Robert Lefkowitz
 * Fine Arts: Harvey Littleton
 * Public Service: John T. Caldwell, Charles Kuralt
 * 1988:
 * Literature: Charles Eaton
 * Science: Pedro Cuatrecasas
 * Fine Arts: Edith London
 * Public Service: David Brinkley, William Lee
 * 1989:
 * Literature: Ronald Bayes
 * Science: Gertrude Elion
 * Fine Arts: Loonis McGlohon
 * Public Service: Roy Park, Maxine Swalin

1990s

 * 1990:
 * Literature: Leon Rooke
 * Science: H. Keith H. Brodie
 * Fine Arts: Bob Timberlake
 * Public Service: Dean Colvard, Frank Kenan
 * 1991:
 * Literature: Robert Morgan
 * Science: Mary Ellen Jones
 * Fine Arts: William Brown
 * Public Service: Elizabeth Dole, Jesse Meredith
 * 1992:
 * Literature: Louis D. Rubin, Jr.
 * Science: John Madey
 * Fine Arts: Chuck Davis
 * Public Service: William McWhorter Cochrane, Maxwell Thurman
 * 1993:
 * Literature: John Hope Franklin
 * Science: Oliver Smithies
 * Fine Arts: Joe Cox, Billy Taylor
 * Public Service: Eric Schopler
 * 1994:
 * Literature: Elizabeth Spencer
 * Science: Marshall Edgell
 * Fine Arts: Sarah Blakeslee
 * Public Service: Richard Jenrette, Freda Nicholson
 * 1995:
 * Literature: James Applewhite
 * Science: Clyde A. Hutchison, III, John Mayo
 * Fine Arts: John Biggers, Kenneth Noland
 * Public Service: Banks Talley, Jr.
 * 1996:
 * Literature: Betty Adcock
 * Science: Joseph Pagano
 * Fine Arts: Joanne Bath
 * Public Service: Martha McKay, John L. Sanders, Robert Scott
 * 1997:
 * Literature: Clyde Edgerton
 * Science: Robert Bruck
 * Fine Arts: M. Mellanay Delhom
 * Public Service: Thomas Kenan, III, Elna Spaulding
 * 1998:
 * Literature: Kaye Gibbons
 * Science: Martin Rodbell
 * Fine Arts: Robert Gray, Marvin Saltzman, James Taylor
 * Public Service: Emily Harris Preyer, L. Richardson Preyer
 * 1999:
 * Literature: Allan Gurganus, Jill McCorkle
 * Science: Robert Parr, Knut Schmidt-Nielsen
 * Fine Arts: Frank L. Horton, Herb Jackson
 * Public Service: Julia Jones Daniels, Frank Daniels, Jr., Henry Shelton

2000s

 * 2000:
 * Literature: William S. Powell
 * Science: William Fletcher
 * Fine Arts: S. Tucker Cooke
 * Public Service: Henry Bowers, Harlan E. Boyles, James Goodmon
 * 2001:
 * Literature: Kathryn Stripling Byer, Shelby Stephenson
 * Science: Royce W. Murray
 * Fine Arts: Arthur Smith
 * Public Service: W.W. Finlator, Robert Jordan, III
 * 2002:
 * Literature: Romulus Linney
 * Science: William Anlyan
 * Fine Arts: Cynthia Bringle, Martha Nell Hardy
 * Public Service: Julius L. Chambers, H. G. Jones, Edwin Wilson
 * 2003:
 * Literature: Jaki Shelton Green
 * Science: William E. Thornton
 * Fine Arts: Etta Baker, Mary Ann Scherr
 * Public Service: Frank Borden Hanes, James B. Hunt, Jr.
 * 2004:
 * Literature: Walter J. Harrelson, Penelope Niven
 * Science: Annie Louise Wilkerson
 * Fine Arts: William Ivey Long, Elizabeth Matheson
 * Public Service: Voit Gilmore, LeRoy T. Walker
 * 2005:
 * Literature: Randall Kenan
 * Science: Mansukh C. Wani
 * Fine Arts: Bland Simpson
 * Public Service: Joseph M. Bryan, Jr., Betty Debnam Hunt, Thomas Willis Lambeth
 * 2006:
 * Literature: Emily Herring Wilson, Michael F. Parker
 * Science: Charles A. Sanders
 * Fine Arts: William T. Williams
 * Public Service: Roy Park, Jr., James E. Holshouser, Jr., Thomas K. Hearn, Jr.
 * 2007:
 * Literature: William Leuchtenburg
 * Science: Viney Aneja, Darrel Stafford
 * Fine Arts: Jan Davidson, Rosemary Harris
 * Public Service: Jerry C. Cashion, Henry Frye, Burley Mitchell, Charlie Rose
 * 2008:
 * Literature: Charles Frazier, Margaret Maron
 * Science: Maurice Brookhart
 * Fine Arts: Gerald Freedman, Alexander M. Rivera Jr.
 * Public Service: Ann Goodnight, James G. Martin, Dean Smith, Fred and Alice Stanback
 * 2009:
 * Literature: Gerald Barrax
 * Science: Joseph M. DeSimone
 * Fine Arts: Mark Peiser, Bo Thorp
 * Public Service: Betty Ray McCain, Hugh L. McColl, Jr.

2010s

 * 2010
 * Literature: Carole Boston Weatherford
 * Science: F. Ivy Carroll
 * Fine Arts: Robert Ebendorf, Donald Sultan
 * Public Service: R. Michael Leonard, Margaret S. "Tog" Newman
 * 2011
 * Literature: Ron Rash
 * Science: Trudy Mackay
 * Fine Arts: Branford Marsalis, Vollis Simpson
 * Public Service: Charles E. Hammer, Jr., H. Martin Lancaster
 * 2012
 * Literature: Gary Neil Carden
 * Science: B. Jayant Baliga
 * Fine Arts: Lou Donaldson, Thomas H. Sayre
 * Public Service: Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Janice H. Faulkner
 * 2013
 * Literature: John Hart
 * Science: Myron S. Cohen
 * Fine Arts: John Cram
 * Public Service: Phil Kirk, John Harding Lucas, Walt Wolfram
 * 2014
 * Literature: Lenard Moore, Alan Shapiro
 * Science: Jagdish Narayan
 * Fine Arts: Ira David Wood III
 * Public Service: Betsy M. Bennett, Robert A. Ingram
 * 2015
 * Literature: Anthony S. Abbott
 * Science: Anthony Atala
 * Fine Arts: A. Everette James, Patricia McBride
 * Public Service: James T. Broyhill, Howard N. Lee
 * 2016
 * Literature: Joseph Bathanti
 * Science: Linda Birnbaum, Aziz Sancar, Paul L. Modrich
 * Fine Arts: Assad Meymandi
 * Public Service: Robert J. Brown, Jim Gardner
 * 2017
 * Literature: Margaret Donovan Bauer
 * Science: R.K.M. Jayanty
 * Fine Arts: Philip Freelon
 * Public Service: Loretta E. Lynch, Jane Smith Patterson, James H. Woodward
 * 2018
 * Literature: Michael McFee
 * Fine Arts: Bill Leslie, Barbara B. Millhouse
 * Public Service: Carolyn Q. Coleman, William L. Roper, Gene Roberts
 * 2019
 * Literature: Philip Gerard
 * Fine Arts: Lawrence J. Wheeler
 * Public Service: Deborah S. Proctor
 * Science: Catherine M. Wilfert, M.D.

2020s

 * 2020
 * Science: Ralph S. Baric, Francis S. Collins, Kizzmekia S. Corbett


 * 2021
 * Fine Arts: David Holt
 * Literature: André Leon Talley, Timothy B. Tyson
 * Public Service: Dudley E. Flood, Maria F. Spaulding
 * Science: Blake S. Wilson


 * 2022
 * Fine Arts: Eric Church
 * Literature: David Zucchino
 * Public Service: Eva Clayton, Mickey Michaux
 * Science: Priya Kishnani, Stanley Riggs