Rockingham County honors retiring state official

When elected officials in Rockingham County and throughout North Carolina have questions about local government, it’s a good chance they will give David M. Lawrence a call.

Lawrence, a professor at the School of Government at the University of North Carolina, plans to retire in December.

A professorship has recently been named in his honor at UNC, and the Rockingham County Commissioners have approved $1,000 to go to this campaign. It will be given over the next two years, with $500 given each year.

W. Eugene Russell, attorney for Rockingham County, said Lawrence has helped the county in many ways over the years.

“David has always been open and accessible, and brought a great deal of expertise in answering various questions,” Russell said. “He’s a tremendous asset for the state, and we are fortunate that he spent his long career here helping us.”

Lawrence has helped many different local governments, by fielding questions and helping draft legislation. He has also taught courses and penned books which have helped local government officials.

Mike Apple, assistant county manager and director of fiscal services for Rockingham County, said a book called “Local Government Finance in North Carolina” has been a valuable resource to him in his 25 years of local government. Apple has also taken advantage of the training courses and seminars offered by Lawrence.

“Whenever I have questions about local government, David is the first person I think of and call for answers,” Apple said. “Resources like the School of Government and David Lawrence have aided me and every local government official in North Carolina.”

The campaign to raise funds for the professorship is still underway and will wrap up at the end of November, according to DeWitt “Mac” McCarley, attorney for the City of Charlotte. McCarley is the chair of the professorship committee, and said about $230,000 has been reaised toward a goal of $333,000 for the professorship. The campaign has been ongoing since January.

“This professorship is a combination of honoring David’s long tenure as the leading expert in local government law, and ensuring the School of Government continues to have high quality professors working local government officials,” McCarley said. “David is the foremost authority on local government law in North Carolina, and has helped me well over 100 times with difficult questions in my career.”

McCarley said Lawrence has probably touched the lives and careers of almost every local government manager and lawyer in North Carolina for the past 35 years.

“He is absolutely brilliant and has enormous insight and common sense,” McCarley said. “I think naming a professorship for David is the perfect way to honor his career as one of the best teachers I’ve ever known.”

Lawrence said he has a lot of possibilities for future projects once he retires. He will be consulting with his colleagues to see which projects will be the most valuable to complete in the coming years. Some of these may include developing Web pages on information that may be of use to volunteer fire departments or information that can be useful to elected board members about their procedures.

Many have said replacing Lawrence will be difficult, but he has confidence that local governments will still be able to get the assistance they need from the School of Government.

“Replacing a person is always difficult, and in some ways impossible, because each person has a unique set of things they’ve done,” Lawrence said. “But with the main things I’ve done and the main things other folks have done – those can be replaced. They get used to talking to the newer folks, so people can still get a lot of help here at the school.”

Lawrence has been a leading expert in his field for many years and is happy to have been recognized for his work.

“I’m thrilled to have this professorship named for me,” Lawrence said. “It is such a wonderful honor.”