Friday Award

The William C. Friday Award for Distinguished Service in Retirement recognizes exemplary accomplishments and contributions made during retirement. Nominees for this award may be anyone in the community; association with NC State University is not a requirement. Service can be at the local, state, national, or global level. Preference will be given to those whose activities are substantially different from their professional careers. The award may be made posthumously and up to two may be awarded in a given year.

Recipients (or a designee) will be honored at the Association’s May luncheon meeting and will be asked to speak about their experiences.

William C. Friday remained active and influential in a wide variety of capacities following his retirement as president of the University of North Carolina system in 1986. For example, he was the founder and co-chairmen of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics and was the host of the WUNC-TV series North Carolina People.

Read about The Friday Award Honorees

Nomination process:

The nomination should include the following:

  1. A one to two paragraph description of the nominee’s background (no CVs or resumes).
  2. A description of the nominee’s activities during retirement and their impact on the community.
  3.  A 200-word summary of the nominee’s background and their accomplishments, from the information provided above, as they relate to this award (suitable for framing).
  4. Two letters of support specific to the award, limited to no more than one page each.

A donation of $250 will be made to each of the awardee’s charity of choice. They will be given the option of presenting a formal talk or participating in a Q and A session during the May luncheon meeting, either virtually or in person. 

Nominations will be accepted through the first Monday of March each year and should be sent via:

Email (preferred) to: arfofncsu@gmail.com or via USPS to The Association of Retired Faculty; NCSU Box 7923, Raleigh NC, 27695-7923

For questions, contact arfofncsu@gmail.com