James B. Hunt Jr.: A Legacy of Leadership

As workers changed the muddy rut in front of his rural Wilson County home into a paved road, Jim Hunt saw the future. That thirteen-year-old boy first witnessed the legacy of visionary leadership, seeing the connection between “good-roads” legislation and his community’s new ability to get their crops to market. Raised by his parents to value education and fairness, taught to lead by the Future Farmers of America, and exposed to wider learning at NC State and UNC–Chapel Hill, that young boy became the state’s youngest lieutenant governor at thirty-five, its governor at thirty-nine, and its only governor to serve four terms.