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Former Raleigh mayor Smedes York releases memoir about life in NC

Former Raleigh Mayor and UNC alumnus Smedes York recently released a new biography entitled "Growing Up With Raleigh." The walls of his real estate company's conference room are adorned with personal photographs and sports memorabilia from his 50+ years in the public light.
Former Raleigh Mayor and UNC alumnus Smedes York recently released a new biography entitled "Growing Up With Raleigh." The walls of his real estate company's conference room are adorned with personal photographs and sports memorabilia from his 50+ years in the public light.

Born in 1941, York entered his adult years at a time when racial tensions and inequality were coming to a peak in North Carolina.

“When I was growing up, we talked about separate but equal facilities, but they really weren’t equal, and they don’t need to be separate,” York said.

He credits sports with his progressive attitude, especially after playing for N.C. State University’s basketball team as an undergraduate.

“I think sports played a lot into that role, particularly when I got in college — not only playing against African-Americans, but being friends and going to the movies and that sort of thing,” he said.

York later earned his MBA at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. He remains active on the Kenan-Flagler Board of Visitors.

“My time at UNC was the best two years of my life,” York said. “I loved Chapel Hill.”

From 1979 to 1983, York served as the mayor of Raleigh. He related his enjoyment of his experience in the position to time spent in college.

“Most people, when they think about their college experience, they think, ‘Yes, yeah,’ but they don’t focus on the fact that there’s a lot of stress in college with exams and that sort of thing, and that’s the way I think of mayor,” he said. “I look back at mayor as a very positive experience. I think the city moved forward, and it was great.”

Cindy Campbell, York’s public relations representative, summed up York’s influence on Raleigh in one short statement.

“Smedes York is Raleigh,” she said. “Past, present and future.”

York’s life mantra comes from a small note he carried during his deployment in South Korea during the Vietnam War.

“I wrote myself a little note and put it in my pocket, and the note said, ‘You’ve just got to try,’ and the date was 26 August, 1964,” he said. “In other words, you’ve got to do this, you’re here, you feel like you don’t want to be here, but you’ve just got to try.”

York said his progressive attitude throughout his life inspired him to write his new memoir, “Growing Up with Raleigh.”

“I feel like there were a lot of perspectives I had seen that would reflect all the history of the community ­­­­— not many contributions, but just that I had seen things in so many different aspects,” he said. “I wanted to do the book, and I got to thinking, ‘I’m not sure I want to write this book myself,’ so I met John Sharpe, and we hit it off.”

Sharpe, York’s co-author, said he enjoyed working with York during the five years it took to publish the book.

“He’s a man of enormous integrity and honesty with himself and the people around him,” Sharpe said.

After spending five years working on the memoir with Sharpe, York said he hopes readers will understand the extent of Raleigh’s transformation in recent decades.

“It’s just a book that hopefully will let others know that we’ve evolved, and this is how we evolved,” he said. “I hope they see the great city that’s evolved here, but also understand the history.”

arts@dailytarheel.com

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