Former Chief Justice Frye Honored
Article Date: Sunday, July 08, 2007
Written By: Russell Rawlings
Henry Frye accepts award from Clark Smith, left, and Mike Colombo, right. |
The 30th recipient of the John J. Parker Award is former N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Henry E. Frye of Greensboro. The award was presented on Saturday, June 23, at the 109th NCBA Annual Meeting in Asheville.
It is considered the highest honor awarded by the NCBA.
Mike Colombo of Greenville, immediate past president and chair of the Past Presidents’ Council which selected Frye, made the presentation.
Frye served as an associate justice of the state Supreme Court from 1983-99 and as chief justice from 1999-2000. He also served 12 years (1968-1980) in the N.C. House of Representatives and two years (1981-82) in the state Senate.
Now of counsel with Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard, Frye became the first African American in the 20th century elected to the N.C. House of Representatives, where he served for 12 years, in 1968. He also served two years in the state Senate from 1981-82.
Frye and his wife, Shirley, have two children, Superior Court Judge Henry Frye Jr. and Harlan Frye, human resources director for the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources.
The former chief justice was born in the Richmond County town of Ellerbe. He graduated summa cum laude from North Carolina A&T State University in 1953 and received his law degree, with honors, from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1959. Frye has received alumni awards from both universities as well as honor doctorates of law from Shaw University, Fayetteville State University, Livingston College and N.C. A&T.
Henry and Shirley Frye were honored as the 2006 recipients of the American Judicature Society’s highest honor, the Justice Award. The award recognized their outstanding contributions to improving the administration of justice on the national level.
Frye’s legal and professional background spans more than 25 years in the private practice of law, and also extends to the military and banking industry. Frye founded and served for 10 years as president of Greensboro National Bank (which has since merged with Mutual Community Savings Bank). He was a munitions officer with the U.S. Air Force in Japan and Korea, and later served as a Judge Advocate General Area Representative with the Air Force Reserve.
Frye served as an NCBA vice president in 1988-89 and received the Liberty Bell Award in 2004.
“Upon receiving the highest honor of our YLD, the Liberty Bell Award, on Law Day in 2004,” Colombo said, “Justice Frye commented about the progress we have made as a nation since the U.S. Supreme Court made ‘separate but equal’ famous in Plessy v. Ferguson.
“He indeed has been a positive contributor to this progress and to the rule of law through quiet action, rather than controversy and publicity. Justice Frye concluded his Law Day remarks by encouraging us all to work together to make our state live up to its, motto, ‘To be rather than to seem,’ something Justice Frye has done throughout his life.”
The Judge John J. Parker Memorial Award was established in 1959 by the NCBA as “the highest honor of this association bestowed in recognition of conspicuous service to the cause of jurisprudence in North Carolina.” Underscoring the significance of the award is the fact that recipients are chosen as merited, not annually.
Judge Parker served with distinction on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1925 until his death in 1958, including 27 years of service as chief judge. He practiced law in Greensboro, Charlotte and his native Monroe, and served as special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General prior to his appointment to the bench. In 1944-45, Judge Parker served as an alternate judge on the International Allied Military Tribunal, better known as the Nuremburg Trials.
The award recognizes “conspicuous service” by members of the bar to the cause of jurisprudence in North Carolina.
The 30 recipients of the Judge John J. Parker Award, preceded by the year in which they were honored, are:
- 1959 J. Spencer Bell, Charlotte
- 1961 Hoyt Patrick Taylor Jr., Wadesboro
- 1962 Robert Franklin Moseley, Greensboro
- 1963 J. Will Pless Jr., Marion
- 1964 Albert Coates, Chapel Hill
- 1966 David Maxwell Britt, Fairmont & Lindsay C. Warren Jr., Goldsboro
- 1969 Raymond Bowden Mallard, Tabor City
- 1971 William Marion Storey, Raleigh
- 1972 Carroll Wayland Weathers, Winston-Salem
- 1975 James Dickson Phillips Jr., Chapel Hill
- 1977 Hamilton Harris Hobgood, Louisburg
- 1978 Susie Marshall Sharp, Raleigh
- 1981 Sam J. Ervin Jr., Morganton
- 1984 William F. Womble Sr., Winston-Salem
- 1986 Harry E. Groves, Durham
- 1987 Joseph Branch, Raleigh
- 1989 James B. McMillan, Charlotte
- 1991 Franklin T. Dupree Jr., Raleigh
- 1992 Carmon J. Stuart, Greensboro
- 1993 Russell M. Robinson II, Charlotte
- 1994 Julius L. Chambers, Durham
- 1996 William L Thorp, Chapel Hill
- 1997 James G. Exum, Jr., Greensboro
- 1999 Dr. Norman A. Wiggins, Buies Creek
- 2000 Walter F. Brinkley, Jr. Lexington
- 2002 Harry C. Martin, Asheville
- 2004 Robinson E. Everett, Durham
- 2006 Clarence W. “Ace” Walker, Charlotte
- 2007 Henry E. Frye, Greensboro