William B. Aycock led UNC through turbulent times

Former Chancellor William Brantley Aycock, who died Saturday at age 99, guided UNC through a tumultuous period in history.

Aycock was chancellor from 1957 to 1964. During this time the University saw an increase of 500 students each year due to the baby boom. Aycock created expansion projects to accommodate the growing student body despite facing budget cuts from the North Carolina legislature.

Colleagues recalled his principled leadership while the University community grappled with civil rights, women’s liberation, the Vietnam War and communism.

“He was a quiet, solid, brick of a leader,” said Jock Lauterer, a senior lecturer in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, who worked as a photographer for The Daily Tar Heel during Aycock’s time as chancellor. “We knew a firm hand was on the tiller.”

Defying the speaker ban

Aycock played an instrumental role in overturning the General Assembly’s speaker ban law, which prohibited speakers with “communist ties” from visiting UNC’s campus.

He traveled the state speaking out against the ban, providing the basis for the legal critique that eventually overturned the law in 1968.

“We knew the University had a great friend in Aycock; nobody ever doubted that,” Lauterer said. “Even though it took eight years for the law to be overturned, we all knew it wouldn’t stand with Aycock against it.”

Integrity in athletics

Following sanctions from the NCAA, Aycock forced basketball coach Frank McGuire, who won a national championship with UNC in 1957, to resign. To fill the vacancy, he promoted the assistant coach, Dean Smith.

“He hired Dean Smith because of his values,” Jack Boger, a law professor, said.

“Smith had a bad first couple of years, and he was hung in effigy by students, but Aycock wouldn’t get rid of him because he thought he was a good person.”

When a basketball player took a $75 bribe for point shaving, Aycock suspended him immediately. Students protested the suspension in front of Aycock’s house in the middle of the night.

Instead of sending the students home, Aycock held a town hall-style discussion with them in Gerrard Hall that night.

“I went on to say ... that the integrity of the institution was involved, and it simply was not something that could be dealt with on the basis of any kind of a technicality,” Aycock recalled in an interview. “And that I had done it, and I would do it again under the same circumstances. And I was pleased that when I left a couple of hours later, I was given a standing ovation.”

A passion for teaching

Aycock approached everything as a teaching moment.

“My dad had a great sense of humor, and I think he definitely used that in the classroom, but he was always very respectful of his students and their opinions, and he never wanted to embarrass anyone if they didn’t have the right answer,” said Nancy Aycock, his daughter.

Nancy Aycock said her father never saw himself as a career administrator. Once his tenure as chancellor ended in 1964, he returned to his teaching position at the law school.

“I had a big vacation from the time it took me to walk from South Building to Manning Hall, which is about 10 minutes,” Aycock said, recalling his transition back to teaching.

Aycock retired in the mid-1990s but maintained close to UNC, particularly the law school.

“Almost every law school alumni I met had a story about Bill Aycock,” Boger said. “He was so intellectually good, but he had the ability to capture students’ hearts as well as their minds.”

Summer Editor Sam Schaefer contributed reporting.

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