Location: US 74 Business (West Church Street) in Laurinburg
County: Scotland
Original Date Cast: 2013
State treasurer for twenty-four years, from 1953 until 1977, Edwin Gill guided the state’s finances through a time of tremendous growth and transformation. Born in Laurinburg to Thomas and Mamie Gill, Edwin attended Trinity College, 1922-24, leaving when he passed the bar examination.
Gill served briefly in the legislature, drafting the local government act and a bill to transfer responsibility for roads from counties to the state. In 1931, he joined Governor O. Max Gardner as his private secretary. (His dedication to Gardner was remarkable. He edited his papers and spoke at the dedication in 1948 of a state marker in Shelby about the governor.)
Gill was North Carolina commissioner of revenue, 1933-1942, positioning him for the long tenure as state treasurer. During his years in the latter post, state government spending increased from $132 million to $3 billion. He took pride in keeping the highest credit rating in those years. He had the nickname “Mr. Integrity” and is said to maintained that “in North Carolina we have made a habit of good government.”
Outside his work in the public realm, Gill, who never married, was a Renaissance man. Early in life he studied at the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts and remained a painter all his life. He was an early and ardent supporter of the North Carolina Museum of Art, and officer of the State Art Society. He played the piano and read widely.
In 1978 Archie K. Davis prefaced a booklet by Gill, published by the North Caroliniana Society, with these words: “. . . for thousands of North Carolinians, a chronology of his career fails to describe this complex yet ingenious, powerful yet humble, pragmatic yet innately cultured gentleman who has never been lured by the false gods of power and possessions from his deeply ingrained sense of duty, responsibility, and commitment.” Gill received honorary degrees from Duke University and Campbell College.
References:
North Carolina Manual (1975)
William S. Powell, ed., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, II, 298-299—sketch by William S. Powell
(Raleigh) News and Observer, May 7, 1950, and July 17, 1978
Ola Maie Foushee, Art in North Carolina (1972)
Edwin M. Gill, An Evening at Monticello: An Essay in Reflection (1978)
Edwin Maurice Gill Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill