Obituaries

Harvey E. Beech

Harvey E. Beech, one of the University’s first black graduates, died at age 81 on Aug. 7 after a long illness.

Beech was a student at Durham’s North Carolina School for Negroes — now North Carolina Central University — when Thurgood Marshall asked him to join a case against UNC in 1951.

Marshall, then a lawyer, challenged the separate-but-equal status of the law school. A decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals resulted in admission for Beech and four others into the UNC School of Law in 1951.

The next year, Beech and J. Kenneth Lee became the law school’s first black graduates. In 1955, the University admitted its first black undergraduate students.

A native of Kinston, Beech practiced law for 40 years, and served on the law school’s board of visitors and the Board of Directors for the Carolina Law Alumni Association.

He attended the school’s annual Black Alumni Reunion every year, speaking about his experience at UNC and the difficulties of being one of the first black students at a primarily white university.

In 2002, the University gave him a Distinguished Service Medal and honored him in 2004 with the William Richardson Davie Award for extraordinary service to the school or to society.

The University has named three awards after Beech — one for an outstanding senior, one for an outstanding faculty or staff member and one for an outstanding alumnus. He also endowed a scholarship at Lenoir Community College, and donated to the law school and to the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.

Max Steele

Max Steele, a famed author and former English professor, died at the age of 83 on Aug. 1 in Chapel Hill.

Steele, who directed the UNC creative writing program from 1967 until 1986, was an admired teacher and mentor to his students — many of whom went on to become authors in their own rights.

Steele graduated from UNC in 1946 after also attending Furman and Vanderbilt universities and the Sorbonne and Academie Julienne in Paris. He also served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II.

He returned to the University and taught in the creative writing program under Jessie Rehder, succeeding her as director in 1967. With fellow teachers, he crafted the program into a highly prized and nationally recognized undergraduate writing curriculum.

Steele was first published by Harper’s Magazine in 1944, and later his fiction writing brought him such honors as the Harper Prize, the Saxton Memorial Trust Award, the Mayflower Cup Award and O. Henry Prizes. He received grants for his work from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Steele’s books include “Debby,” “The Cat and the Coffee Drinkers,” and the story collection “Where She Brushed Her Hair”

Steele received honorary doctorates from Belmont Abbey College and Furman University and a distinguished award from Furman.

The family asks that donations be sent to a new Max Steele Scholarship Fund in lieu of flowers.

Checks can be written to the UNC Arts and Sciences Foundation, designating the Steele Fund, and mailed to the foundation at 134 E. Franklin St., Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514.