BillLindau

Voit Gilmore

Voit Gilmore: The good that lives after him
Submitted to The Moore County Independent, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006
With photo of Voit Gilmore's son Peter, Voit's widow Jody and Peter's wife, Carolina.
SPECIAL TO THE INDEPENDENT
Too bad Shakespeare never met Voit Gilmore.
When Marc Antony in Julius Caesar said, "The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones," he didn't say anything about exceptions to that rule.
The late philanthropist Voit Gilmore was such an exception. The Sandhills/Moore Coalition for Human Care Inc. showed how much the good you do can live after you when they named their new building after him -- on his birthday.
Gilmore, who came to Southern Pines just after World War II and served as a mayor, town councilman and operated a travel agency here, donated about nine acres of land around Indiana Avenue before he passed away last year. The future site of the Coalition's client services building, along with that of a Head Start facility, are on some of that land.
Gilmore (Oct. 13, 1918-Oct. 15, 2005) may very well have been the wealthiest person who ever lived in Southern Pines. But he didn't spend his money on big houses and expensive cars -- he used his money to do everybody some good. He didn't just make things happen by flashing his money around; he came out and actually helped, serving as a councilman and mayor in Southern Pines and a senator in the North Carolina legislature. He was a friend of my mother and father and two of his children were friends of mine and I am delighted to have known them for close to 40 years.
I've never been rich and I'm a bit of a socialist. At the same time, I've never judged people solely by the amount of their possessions. Meeting Voit Gilmore at an early age cured me of that kind of socioeconomic prejudice. And the local news media have shown us that the late political leader and businessman had a heart to match his bank account.
Naming a new building after the former state senator, travel agent, writer and mayor of Southern Pines was a great way to say thanks to this wonderful man.
Gilmore was one of the first people in Southern Pines that my parents got to know when we moved from Winston-Salem in August 1966. Winston-Salem, coincidentally, was Gilmore's birthplace.
One of his three daughters, Susie, was in my class at East Southern Pines High School, and one of his two sons, Peter, was in my Boy Scout troop, Troop 223. They went to other schools before they graduated, but I still remember them, and I met Peter when he came to the building dedication earlier this month. He is now vice-president of the Dole Fruit Company (I wonder how Liddy and Bob like that -- Voit was one of the biggest Democrats in the state!). He came up with his wife, Carolina, and he had the look of a big wheel: Tall, well-dressed, not a hair out of place and really trim, hardly the look of somebody about 52 years old.
Susie G. Stone lives in California. She worked in public broadcasting for many years and now she works in social services, Peter said.
The Gilmores owned a lot of land in the Sandhills and also the western part of the state. In 2002 he and his former wife, Kathryn McNeill, donated 452 acres of land and buildings at Purchase Knob to the Great Smoky Mountains National Forest. An eye-popping figure, but I'm not surprised.
The Gilmores owned much of the land around Pinecrest High school and the Pinecrest Plaza, on the outskirts of Southern Pines. In fact, some of my friends and I used to go swimming in a lake on his property behind the high school. Peter gave me a sly grin when I mention that lake and how we used to sneak out there when it got warm enough. I can't remember the Gilmores ever arresting anybody for trespassing, as long as you didn't leave a bunch of trash out there.
Felton Capel was one of Voit Gilmore's oldest friends. Their friendship went back to the 1950s, when Capel served on the Southern Pines Town Council. Capel has gone down in Sandhills history as the first African-American to serve on that particular governing body. He remembers Gilmore as a champion of civil rights and integration.
Voit Gilmore made his mark on our fair state as early as his college years. At the University of North Carolina, he was chairman of the Carolina Political Union (he graduated from UNC in 1939, with a degree in journalism). In that office, he performed the amazing act of getting President Franklin D. Roosevelt to come down and give a speech at the school.
After serving in the Navy in World War II, Gilmore secured a position at Pan Am Airlines, which flew him to places such as South America and Africa. This gave him a case of Wanderlust which he indulged all his life.
Early in the 1960s, his career in public service and travel really took off (pardon the pun). In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed him director of the United States Travel Service. His political career would include a few terms as mayor of Southern Pines and terms in the state senate. He also made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor of North Carolina.
He operated the Four Seasons Travel Agency and in the last years of his life lived in Pinehurst with his wife, Jody. He wrote a local newspaper column as well, talking about his various travels. In 2003, N.C. Gov. Mike Easley awarded him the prestigious Order of the Long Leaf Pine.
I can't imagine anybody not liking Voit Gilmore, not even rock-ribbed Republicans. I never new anybody personally who did so much good for so many people. We're all going to remember him and we're all so missing him.

posted by Bill Lindau @ 11:40 AM