NEWS

18th-century legal leader honored with professorship

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolinians know the name Ashe -- as in Ashe County, Asheville and Asheboro -- but many probably don't know about the man Samuel Ashe and his landmark contributions to history.

An eminent jurist, governor, attorney, statesman, patriot and co-founder of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ashe was a presiding judge and author of one of the state's most significant legal decisions and president of the Board of Trustees when the university opened its doors in 1795.

Now his name will take a deserved place at the UNC-CH School of Law.

The Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professorship in Constitutional Law is being established at the law school through a $333,000 pledge by Thomas Ashe Lockhart, Ashe's sixth-generation grandson and a graduate of Carolina and the law school. Lockhart's gift will be matched by a grant of $167,000 from the state's Distinguished Professors Endowment Trust Fund to create a $500,000 endowed professorship.

Lockhart said establishing the professorship was a “no-brainer.”

“When I learned last year from Dean Judith Wegner that the law school didn't have an endowed professorship in constitutional law, I knew that it should,” Lockhart said. “And I thought it would be wonderful and appropriate to have one in the name of Samuel Ashe.”

The Ashe professorship will be a reminder of the importance of a lawyer's character, independence, integrity, leadership, dedication to law and devotion to higher public education and public service, as exemplified through the life and service of Ashe. The professorship will enable the school to recruit or retain a faculty member with an extraordinary record and promise of accomplishment in the area of constitutional law.

“It seems especially fitting to create a lasting and living reminder of this important contribution to American jurisprudence and legal history through the creation of a distinguished professorship carrying the name of Samuel Ashe,” Wegner said. “And it is also fitting that one of his own descendants has made it possible with such a generous gift to the school.”

Law is part of the Ashe family heritage: Lockhart, who retired two years ago after 45 years of practicing law with the Charlotte firm of Cansler, Lockhart, Campbell, Evans, Bryant and Garlitz P.A., said there has been a lawyer in all but one generation since Ashe. Lockhart's son, Thomas Ashe Lockhart Jr., earned his law degree from Carolina last May.

Ashe is known in the legal world as the presiding judge and author of the decision in Bayard v. Singleton, a 1787 N.C. Superior Court case that established the principal of judicial review of the constitutionality of legislative action -- 16 years before the U.S. Supreme Court reached a similar conclusion in Marbury v. Madison.

Bayard was dramatized in the 1995 documentary “Loyalty on Trial,” produced by the School of Law for its 150th anniversary. The documentary was distributed among North Carolina high schools and won a prestigious national award in 1996 -- a Silver Gavel from the American Bar Association -- for excellence in fostering public understanding of the law and the American legal system.

Ashe played yet another important role in state history: He was a member of the North Carolina constitutional drafting committee in 1776 on which he fought successfully for a Bill of Rights. Ashe was a native of North Carolina and lived near Wilmington on the Cape Fear River.

As Lockhart points out, Ashe's contributions and commitment to the University are not insignificant. “Battle's history tells of how Ashe came to Chapel Hill in his seventies to examine the students about what they were learning,” Lockhart said.

Lockhart said his gift was motivated by his commitment to making the law school the best it can be. “The private sector has to step in and supplement what the state legislature provides to Carolina,” he said. “One area of concern is the ability to obtain and maintain top-quality teachers, and a good way to do that is to provide salary supplements through endowed professorships.”

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(Note: Copies of the video “Loyalty on Trial” may be ordered through the School of Law's Office of External Relations by calling (919) 962-0637, or writing CB #3380, Van Hecke-Wettach Hall, Chapel Hill, N.C., 27599-3380.)

News Services contact: Karen Stinneford (email: kstinnef@email.unc.edu)
School of Law contact: Mary Murray, (919) 962-0637