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North Carolina's Governors
In 1964 Bob Scott was successful in his bid for lieutenant governor, his first elective office. In the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 1968 Scott defeated J. Melville Broughton, Jr., son of the former governor, and Reginald Hawkins, the first African American to seek the office. In the fall Scott defeated Congressman James C. ("Jim") Gardner, the Republican nominee. Like O. Max Gardner, Scott left his imprint through reorganization and consolidation of governmental functions. From 300-plus state agencies Scott created seventeen cabinet-level departments. Over strong opposition Scott championed a single governing board for the institutions of higher education. In 1971 the legislature created the sixteen-campus University of North Carolina with a single president and thirty-two-member board of governors. During Scott's term North Carolina instituted a kindergarten program and bolstered vocational education in the high schools. The legislature increased taxes on gasoline, tobacco, and soft drinks to support highway construction and new programs. The governor placed an emphasis on planning and established the Council on State Goals and Policy and a system of multi-county planning regions toward that end. Scott deployed the National Guard and Highway Patrol to control unrest on college campuses. In 1980 Scott unsuccessfully challenged Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. in the Democratic primary for governor. From 1983 to 1994 he served as president of the state's community college system. Bob Scott died in January 2009 and was buried at Hawfields Presbyterian Church.
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The second governor (after Richard Dobbs Spaight, Jr.) to follow his father into office, Robert W. ("Bob") Scott (1929-2009) reorganized state government and restructured higher education. The heir to the Scott mantle was born in Haw River in Alamance County, where his forebears had farmed and worshipped at Hawfields Presbyterian Church for generations. His father, Kerr Scott, served as governor from 1949 to 1953. Young Scott attended Duke University and graduated from North Carolina State College in 1952.
