Mr. Edwin Gill was my friend and mentor. I knew him for 30 years and during that time came to know him as one of North Carolina's greatest public servants. A native of Laurinburg, he entered Trinity College in 1922 and left two years later, after passing the Bar examination. While practicing law in Scotland County, he was elected to represent the County in the 1929 and 1931 sessions of the General Assembly.
In the legislature, he was a member of the subcommittees which drafted legislation creating the Local Government Commission and the takeover by the State of county road construction and maintenance.
When the 1931 General Assembly adjourned, Governor 0. Max Gardner named Gill as his private secretary. In 1933, Governor. C. B. Ehringhaus appointed Gill to head the newly created North Carolina Paroles Commission, a position he held 11 years. In 1942 he was appointed Commissioner of Revenue by Governor. Melville Broughton, serving in that position seven years.
In 1949 Gill joined former Governor Gardner in a Washington, D.C., law firm but left a year later to accept the appointment by President Harry Truman as collector of internal revenue for North Carolina.
In 1953, Gill was appointed State Treasurer by Governor William B. Umstead, to fill the unexpired term of Brandon Hodges. He was re-elected State Treasurer successfully until his retirement in 1977.
Mr. Gill, as everyone called him, was a brilliant man, well-read, and a lover of the arts. As a young man, he attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts. He painted as a hobby and was a zealous supporter of the North Carolina Art Museum. He was also respectable pianist and organist.
His greatest asset was his impeccable personal integrity and his great devotion to North Carolina. A lifelong bachelor, he considered the State and all its inhabitants his personal concern. On many a Saturday morning, Mr. Gill would call me and suggest we ought to go to the office and conduct the public's business. Inevitably, I would find myself on Saturday mornings driving to the Sir Walter Hotel where he lived and taking him to the office for a few hours work. I believe he felt guilty about being away from the office any time there was work to be done. He answered the telephone himself.
Mr. Gill's greatest achievement as State Treasurer was North Carolina's attaining its Triple-A credit rating in the early 1960s, which we have maintained continuously since. That feat has saved taxpayers millions of dollars in bond interest payments and has been a source of great pride among business and financial leaders. At a time when the national government and many other state governments have become careless with public funds entrusted to them, North Carolina citizens have benefited immensely from the example of financial prudence set into place by Edwin Gill.
Governor Dan K. Moore, commenting on Mr. Gill's financial acumen, once said, "Ed Gill is the only man I know who can see around a corner."
He is credited with coining the phrase, "In North Carolina, we have made a habit of good government," and he came to be known, as "Mr. Integrity."
Mr. Gill left big shoes to fill in the office of State Treasurer and his example is an ideal one to emulate.
During his years in Raleigh be was a member of the Edenton Street Methodist Church, where he taught Sunday School. BothDuke University and Campbell College awarded him honorary degrees. He died in July 1978 and was buried in Hillside Cemetery in Laurinburg.
Back