UNCW professor given North Carolina’s highest honor award

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Gov. Roy Cooper has presented the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest honor, to six people for their accomplishments in fine arts, literature, science and public service.

The list of honorees included The Rev. William Barber, a civil rights activist, and longtime museum director Larry Wheeler. Cooper presented the awards during a ceremony Saturday at the Raleigh Convention Center.

One of the people honored with this award is UNCW Professor and author Philip Gerard.

The award’s website had this to say about the Professor:

“Award-winning author Philip Gerard is perhaps best known for his work Cape Fear Rising, a novel about the Wilmington Coup of 1898. He is the author of 13 books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. He has also written 11 documentary television scripts, numerous radio essays, several magazine series, and an award-winning radio drama. Gerard played a significant role in developing the Creative Writing program at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington shortly after joining the university’s English Department in 1989 and has seen the program grow to become a thriving department. An avid musician, Gerard plays guitar, dobro, pedal steel guitar and banjo, and often incorporates bluegrass, folk and original music into his readings. His work, both fiction and nonfiction, shines a light on North Carolina’s history, environment and culture.”

The General Assembly created the award in 1961.

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