7 Over Seventy 2021

What’s kept her here? It’s a simple — people.

“I look at what people have given to Greensboro, and what keeps me here is people and the things that they have started,” she says.

Vanderwerff speaks of Greensboro in the same way proud parents brag about their children. She names its parks and greenways, public libraries and services for immigrants and refugees among its many strengths.

She’s proud to live in a city with organizations like the Interactive Resource Center, The Family Justice Center and New Arrivals Institute, which help those most in need — the homeless, victims of domestic and sexual violence and immigrants and refugees. 

Vanderwerff’s ability to connect with the humanity in others, to put herself in their shoes, was instilled by a woman she most adored: her grandmother. They spent a lot of time together in her native Roanoke, Va.

“She was a privileged person, and she knew it,” Vanderwerff recalls.

Her grandmother often spoke of racial and socioeconomic injustices.

“It opened my eyes to begin to think for myself and to look around me,” Vanderwerff says. “I revered her and loved her so much.”

Women continued to influence Vanderwerff. Her list of Greensboro influences include Yvonne Johnson, Claudette Burroughs White, Carolyn Coleman, Katie Dorsett, Alma Adams and Nettie Coad.

“We could write chapters about every one of them,” she says. “I look at those women…and the discrimination they faced and the racism — institutional and structural — and I just marvel at what they accomplished. I feel like I’m standing on their shoulders.”

Vanderwerff’s civic engagement began 31 years ago with the League of Women Voters of Guilford County and continues today. Additional board memberships include Citizens for Responsible Government, Guilford Women Improving Race Relations and Greensboro Housing Coalition. She was heavily involved with the One City, One Book and One City, One Author programs through her various roles with the Friends of the Greensboro Public Library.

These days, she’s very focused on immigration reform and serves as founding member and chairwoman of the LWPT Immigration Policy Reform Roundtable. She’s also a founding member of the LWV N.C. Immigration League Action Team.

Her career accomplishments include her role as academic dean at Greensboro College and executive director of the National Alliance for Non-Violent Programming, a diverse network of national and international nonprofit women’s organizations.

“Because Whitney deliberately chooses to cast the spotlight and credit onto others, it is strikingly difficult to find public reference to many of her contributions," says Susan Stinson, who nominated Vanderwerff for the 7 Over Seventy award.

 "Her impact on public policies, programs and practices, often achieved through private meetings with those who govern, police, manage, judge, fund and sheriff our community, is known only by those individuals," Stinson says. "Though Whitney has tangibly changed countless individual lives, through her personal intervention, generosity, mentorship, advocacy, and support, her efforts are often known only to those individuals and sometimes unknown even to them.”

Since his retirement as manager of N.C. Principal Financial Group, Krumroy — whose friends and family call him Bob — devotes most of his free time and much of his financial resources towards charitable efforts benefitting underprivileged children.

As an executive, he was responsible for bringing the Principal Financial Group to North Carolina, building its largest operation in the U.S. and helping it become the country’s largest writer of 401K plans. His time in the financial services industry opened doors to civic leadership and put him alongside other executives with deep pockets.

While a Rotarian, he worked with city officials and a group of private donors to complete a public housing renovation for residents in a blighted East Greensboro community. He also led fundraising efforts for Greensboro Beautiful from 2012-2018, securing some of its largest funding gains.

But it’s his work as president of the Bikes for Kids Foundation that drives him now. He leads the foundation with longtime friend and finance industry colleague, Bill Pollakov.

Their foundation targets third-graders in Title 1 schools (those with families whose incomes are below the federal poverty level). They give more than 1,600 bikes annually in Guilford County alone. Thousands more receive them throughout state and country.

While each kid gets a bike, it’s more than that. It’s designed as a three-year curriculum in which their teachers lead discussions about goal-setting and what they want to be when they grow up. The students read character-building books — written by Krumroy — and write essays about their goals.

Greensboro is the program’s flagship, but it’s also used in California, New York, Pennsylvania., Florida, Tennessee and Georgia. Program expansions include Charlotte, Durham, Wilmington and Randolph and Carteret counties.

Krumroy "is committed to making Greensboro a place we will all want live,” says Suzanne Nazim, who nominated Krumroy for the 7 Over Seventy award.

She praises his commitment to Greensboro and its underserved children. Krumroy believes that inspiring them to “Think Big, Work Hard, Be Kind and make NO Excuses” (the title of a book he’s written for third-graders) and continue their education beyond high school will help stop generational poverty, which is the ultimate goal, she says.

For all of his career accomplishments — which also include authoring nine marketing books for the financial industry — Krumroy says it’s his community work that’s been the most gratifying. He’s happiest when working to help improve the lives of others.

“Being in the financial industry, we managed a lot of money. We met a lot of people who had a lot of money. There were those who were philanthropic, and those who were not; and those who were happy and those who were not. I found that those who were happiest were those who were givers. Giving is one of life’s greatest blessings,” he says.

There is an intended domino effect: The flora feeds the insects which feed the birds which encourages the proliferation of larger animals, from hawks and owls, to snakes, salamanders and frogs to deer.

“We (society) have brought in so many of these non-native, invasive plants that animals can’t use. It’s almost sterile for them,” the 76-year-old says. “It’s why a lot of our insect and bird populations are declining.”

An imbalanced Mother Nature impacts the food chain and food supply, she says: “I would like people to recognize that one fact – food supply.”

Poteat’s service and associations include Piedmont Land Conservancy, Audubon Society, Guilford County Parks & Recreation Commission, Carolina Butterfly Society and Piedmont Bird Club.

While on the Guilford County Open Space Committee, she helped evaluate, purchase and protect large tracts of pristine land, including Greensboro’s Benbow and Richardson-Taylor preserves, Oak Ridge’s Cascades Preserve, High Point’s Rich Fork Preserve, and Pleasant Garden’s Company Mill Preserve.

She has created an endowment through the Community Foundation of Greensboro to maintain her property and “continue the work after I’m no longer here.”

“Through her accomplishments, there are far greater areas where wildlife can find a safe home,” says Dick Feulner, who nominated Poteat for 7 Over Seventy.

Poteat's love of nature comes from growing up on her family’s farm — purchased 1952 — and growing food for the family. While on international business travel, she got a first-hand look at nature out of balance. Visits to India particularly resonated.

Today, her current home project is chopping and cutting 4.5 acres to add more pollinating plants. Since 2009, she has turned back time at her Poteat Deep River Preserve.

And over time, she has witnessed a more diverse and burgeoning bird population. She’s identified butterflies previously undiscovered in Guilford County. Her mountain mint attracts “a sea of bees.” Her native plants help protect water quality in the nearby Deep River while providing a haven for habitat.

“The results have been tangible, and it’s come much quicker than I had expected,” Poteat says. “It’s a joy to step outside and see that something is using plants that I planted.”

Native N.C. plants can include milkweed, sunflower, black-eyed Susan, wax myrtle, various ferns, calico aster, wild bergamot, pin oak and loblolly pine.

Non-native plants include kudzu or Bradford pear.

“I’ve gone from conservation to preservation, and now I’m in my education phase,” she says. “I’m trying to educate why native plants are important and encourage people to use native plants, small, not aggressive, easy to maintain and that look good in yards.

“I would like everybody to think about how simple the solutions are. I see how my work has made a difference that I can tangibly measure. This one little old lady in Guilford County. I hope that gives others hope.”

That 500,000-square-foot facility east of downtown Greensboro holds 11 million pieces of new and discontinued patterns, serving more than 10 million customers across the globe, including The Vatican, and generating $100 million annually.

If Bob Page, 77, were only defined by his business acumen and the global reach of Replacements, most entrepreneurs might be contented. But Page is neither content to rest on his business success nor is he comfortable with any one-dimensional persona.

“Bob is still living the values he learned from his father while growing up dirt poor on a tobacco farm in Rockingham County, about sharing and helping your neighbor," says Lisa Conklin, who nominated Page for the & Over Seventy honor. "This drives him personally and professionally.”

“To those who have much, much is expected,” Page recently told the News & Record.

Page is many things to many people:

• He and his employees have built three Habitat for Humanity homes and assisted with dozens of others.
• He recently opened “Bob’s Closet,” partnering with area non-profits to provide clothing to families, many new to the United States.
• He donated $100,000 to help Afghan refugees resettle.
• He hired more than 100 Kosovo refugees and offered them classes to learn English.
• He has financially supported the Triad Health Project, a local non-profit promoting sexual health and justice, since the mid-1980s. He provided that project a day center for those living with HIV.
• An advocate for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender rights, he has been a leader in defeating North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriage.
• He was a vocal opponent of legislation requiring transgender people to use public bathrooms to match their birth gender. That law, too, was defeated.
• He has quietly supported a wide array of nonprofits and community organizations working for social justice, equality and affordable housing.
• Through his unique business model, he has cast Greensboro into the national and international limelight. Page, Replacements and its products have appeared in or on Inc., Forbes and Fast Company magazines, the New York Times, CNN, "Animal Planet," "Guiding Light" and "Everybody Loves Raymond." Customers have included Oprah, Barbara Streisand, Ted Kennedy, Patrick Swayze and Carnival Cruise Lines. Rand McNally once named Replacements to its list of the nation’s top 25 free attractions.

“We do sell a product, but what we really sell is a memory,” Page once told Passports Magazine.

Last year, in recognition of exemplary community service, Page received North Carolina’s highest honor: The Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

Other distinctions include: N.C. A&T State University’s Human Rights Medal; the Welfare Reform Liaison Project Sonia Sotomayor Award; North Carolina for Community and Justice Brotherhood/Sisterhood Citation Award; Children of Vietnam’s Ben Wilson Humanitarian Award; Guilford Green Foundation Visionary Award; Latino Community Coalition Notable Latinos in the Triad; LGBT Business Owner of the Year.

Page shares a favorite inspirational quote: “To the world, you may be just one person. But to one person, you may be the world.”

Furman, 78, has a habit of seeing a need, coming up with a plan to do something about it, and then finding a way to help even more.

There’s his love of music. He learned the clarinet in the eighth grade, added bass sax in high school and played bass sax and alto clarinet at the University of South Carolina. He didn’t do anything with his music for a while after that.

But then he started playing contrabass clarinet with the Greensboro Concert Band. And after going to Candle Tea at First Moravian here, he gave the Moravian Band a try. He’s been playing with them for more than 20 years.

He branched out to a Moravian group that performs traditional music in costume at Old Salem. “To do that, I had to play an instrument that didn’t have a reed,” he says. “The easiest thing to do was to play a baritone horn, sort of like a mini tuba.” So, he learned that, too.

“I have a bad habit of going to hear these bands and saying to the director, ‘You know, I think I can play your music.’”

And because he knows a lot of instruments – by now almost too many to list – he started helping the bands at some of his grandchildren’s grammar schools.

But most significantly, there’s Picov Andropov — not the Magliozzi brothers’ chauffeur on “Car Talk,” but the project Furman came up with for the Ancient Order of Hibernians, an Irish Catholic fraternal organization.

Most members are retired, he says, and they looked at doing various projects.

That includes going to Room at the Inn, a faith-based program that provides housing and support for pregnant single women and single mothers with children. They would occasionally haul furniture to the homes of mothers leaving the facility. But the work was sporadic. He wanted to do more.

When he found out the Room at the Inn custodian had to go out every week to pick up food donated for residents, he had his answer.

The project started with three men picking up food at two places. Two years later, there are 19 volunteers. Ten are from the Hibernians, Furman says. Six are from Knights of Columbus at St. Pius X, and three are independent.

Furman now does the coordinating and fills in when a shift is open.

They go to 27 pickup sites, everywhere from Food Lion to Papa John’s Pizza.

They deliver about three-quarters of the food to Room at the Inn, but now they also drop off at Sanctuary House, a nonprofit that helps adults with major mental illness.

“If I can bring a trunkful from Starbucks or Kentucky Fried, I know I’m putting a dent in their food budget,” he says. And it keeps good food out of the landfill.

Also, he says, his work with Room at the Inn is “a right-to-life thing that men can do.”

Furman was a Latin teacher for many years, but he also spent time working for the Boy Scouts of America. It was good training for his current role.

Activities like organizing a jubilee showed him that “I really did like setting things up and making them go.

“I enjoyed getting this group together and thinking of a project that can work and making it happen.

“It really pleases me no end.”

Furman has been married to wife Betsy for 56 years, and they have four children: Tracy Furman, Jimmy Furman, Angie Murray and Alli Strafaci.

He mentions his 16 grandchildren by name — Bobby, Simone, Theo, Will, Sam, Brendan, Julia, Sadie, Andrew, Everett, Giuseppe, Giovanni, Salvatore, Corabella, Vincenzo and Ferruccio.

And, he says, all four families live nearby. “It’s wonderful watching them grow up. it’s been really good for us.”

Tracy Furman calls her dad an unsung hero.

“He has decades of commitment to serving those in need,” she says. “He seeks no recognition, and that is what makes him more outstanding than anyone else I know.”

Across Greensboro, Cutler, 74, is engaged, energetic, gregarious and ubiquitous. Cutler might use words like this when sending his quirky birthday greetings over Facebook, beginning with “You really know how to defy chronology with…”

“I’m always trying to improve things. And myself,” he says. “These are virtues instilled by my parents. There’s a Yiddish term — kvell. It means to be joyful, to have a sense of accomplishment, not in an egotistical way, but in helping others succeed. For me, it’s self-actualizing. This helps me grow. I’m willing to serve.”

Cutler’s passions include public education, human rights, inclusion, fellowship and faith.

His public service has provided awareness-raising for Habitat for Humanity, Guilford Child Development, The Salvation Army, Greensboro’s United Way, Guilford County Schools, Preservation Greensboro, and Summit House.

He has served on the Greensboro Human Rights Commission, the Greensboro Public Library, Greensboro Jewish Federation, Temple Emanuel, the NAACP Greensboro branch, and The Enrichment Fund for the Guilford County Schools — “the joy of finding ways to give away money to enrich the lives of children.”

He has graduated Impact Greensboro, Greensboro City Academy, and Guilford County Citizens’ Academy. He is a precinct judge, ensuring smooth voter operations.

“When I think of Ivan, I am reminded of the late Maya Angelou saying ‘…people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel,’" says Cutler's nominator John Graham.

Today, Cutler traverses Greensboro, capturing with his camera the activities of non-profits, clubs, and organizations: “The camera, just by holding it, becomes key to introductions and new friendships.”

He considers himself a photojournalist, a chronicler of Greensboro through his self-created MakingNewz! — an outlet linking community. The playful logo for MakingNewz! is a kid newspaper carrier, hearkening to Cutler’s boyhood days delivering the Los Angeles Times.

Reared in Compton, Calif. (“I was there before Dr. Dre”), Cutler is the youngest and last survivor of four brothers (“Looking at their ages, I think I was an oops!”). His father was Lithuanian, his mother Ukrainian. (“Clearly, I have an immigrant perspective of the United States, and it’s a good feeling.")

Living in Pasadena, Los Angeles, Alhambra and San Francisco, Cutler calls himself a “Californian Carolinian,” arriving in Greensboro in 1989 to work for Furniture Today magazine.

On the street, it’s easy to spot Cutler toting his signature camera and wearing a garishly colorful shirt or wild bow tie (“I tie them myself. Never perfectly. It brings both distinction and humility simultaneously.”)

Sporting salt-and-pepper hair and beard, he laughs when passersby remind him of portraying the Commandments-toting Moses at the Jewish Festival. “Moses,” they’ll tease, “let these ominous rain clouds go.”

There’s something more, something deeper. Cutler and his wife serve on the Chevra Kadisha, the Holy Society of men and women who prepare the Jewish deceased for burial. Because the deceased cannot express gratitude, this service is one of the great good deeds in Jewish faith.

“Responsibility defines us. And we define responsibility. There is no score card except in my heart,” he says. “It’s what you do when no one is watching you.”

Reserve officer. Jail security. Patrol deputy. Detective. Firefighter. First responder. Hostage negotiator. Sheriff’s SWAT member. First aid instructor. Firearms instructor. Honor Guard pallbearer for those who died in the line of duty. Even now at 78, he works part time in courtroom security.

Church is a Master Mason and Shriner, advocating for Shriner Burn Centers. “If your heart doesn’t go out to those children, you don’t have a heart.”    

In 1990, he was named Guilford Sheriff’s Deputy of the Year, an honor he shucks off: “I did my job. I didn’t do anything special.”

James Church’s law enforcement and firefighting career is evidence enough that he’s the Swiss Army knife of public safety and public service.

At the Guilford Sheriff’s Department, through four administrations, Church rose through the ranks, retiring in 2011 as Detective Sergeant. After working on patrol, he started in criminal investigations working burglaries and larcenies. Suspicious fires and arson cases followed. He next went to the major crimes division, investigating homicides. Somewhere, he found time to teach Basic Law Enforcement Training at GTCC.

His son Jeremy, a Greensboro Fire Department captain, describes a father who consistently demonstrated an indefatigable work ethic, bulldog tenacity, and team play.

If he sensed his children or colleagues were about to misstep, about to make a bad decision or about to embark on a fool’s errand, he would gently chide: “You cannot run a cow in the Kentucky Derby.”

“I have been blessed to have a front row seat to see exactly how selfless and giving a person can be," says Jeremy Church, who nominated his dad for the 7 Over Seventy honor. "Even after retirement, his dedication and service to community is present every day. In service to this community, he is a shining star.'"

James Church says he always felt called to be of service: “My Mom and Daddy were the same kind of way. At church during community prayers, they’d hear a neighbor was feeling poorly or in need. They’d get us all in the truck and we go pay a visit, bringing food or such.

“When I was a boy, if the church doors were open, my family was there. I was the youngest of seven children so I had eight good teachers — including Mom and Dad. I learned respect for others. I learned right from wrong. I learned what yes meant, what no meant, what maybe meant.”

In an earlier life, Church farmed tobacco and at one point he tried juggling that with his budding law enforcement career.

“Farming was good to my family but, my goodness, it was sun up to sun down. I told myself ‘One of these has got to go; I’ll die before I’m 40.'”

Looking back — and then looking forward — James Church would like to be remembered this way: “I hope I have really helped people, young and old, especially the kids.”

“If you’re able to affect in some way the life of one person, then the investment in that person was worth it,” Rhyne said.

Rhyne began his professional career in law but went into the Lutheran ministry. He felt everyone is equal and wanted to use ministry-driven social justice to bring about change.

“My folks always had a clear message that the family of God was THE family of God,” Rhyne said.

While an outreach assistant to the bishop for the Lutheran Synod of North Carolina, Rhyne visited an inner-city church in Philadelphia and was inspired to establish a racially integrated church in Greensboro. He helped found Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in the African American neighborhood of Warnersville.

The church’s message of inclusivity angered some, including members of the Ku Klux Klan. The first pastor being considered for the church received death threats and withdrew. Rhyne was asked to take his place and accepted. He also received death threats.

One day a highway patrol car pulled up in front of the church, Rhyne said. Out stepped Rufus Edmisten, North Carolina’s attorney general. He assured Rhyne there would be no more threats from the KKK, and the two have remained friends ever since.

As the church grew, Rhyne established community outreach programs for youth and those going through divorce.

“I don’t see myself as being significant, I see myself as a community organizer and facilitator,” Rhyne said.

For seven years, he was with the Lutheran Council in the United States and served part of that time as the National Director of Social Justice, which facilitated social ministry organizations around the country and coordinated refugee resettlement. As director of a refugee resettlement program for the church’s North Carolina Synod, Rhyne helped to find homes for 3,000 refugees, including Vietnamese Montagnards who settled in Greensboro.

Rhyne was an early proponent for school desegregation and served on the Greensboro commission to implement a plan.

His efforts to help marginalized people included Native Americans. Rhyne became friends with Lonnie Revels, a Greensboro resident and member of North Carolina’s Lumbee tribe. He helped Revels get a grant to create the Guilford Native American Association. Rhyne also served on the committee for the N.C. Commission on Indian Affairs.

Rhyne was also an advocate of the homeless. He participated on a committee to establish the Greensboro Urban Ministry.

“I still eat lunch there twice a week,” Rhyne said.

Rhyne said he doesn’t want to think about retirement. If refugees and immigrants continue to need his help, Rhyne said, he will be there for them.

“We have to stop, look and listen to determine how we can use our resources to help someone,” Rhyne said.

By age 14, Brown was doing her own writing. She went on to get college degrees in English and French literature. That was the start of a life as a writer who authored books on the African American experience and Civil Rights.

It was during her time as a student at Bennett College in the 1960s that she became passionate about anti-racism. Her father was a Civil Rights activist, and she participated in the Greensboro's 1960 sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters.

“It really started me on a trajectory of speaking out and writing about the evils of racism,” Brown said.

Some of her books include "Rainbow ‘Roun Mah Shoulder," "Crossing Over Jordan" and "Black Angels."

After getting a PhD in African-American literature and creative writing, she became an assistant professor of literature at UNCG and Guilford College before returning to her alma mater of Bennett College to take a position as a Willa B. Player Distinguished Professor of the Humanities.

While at Bennett, Brown penned and produced three plays for Bennett College Reader’s Theater including "Black Hands, White Marble," a play about sculptor Edmonia Lewis. The play was later performed at the Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem and UNCG.

Throughout her career, Brown has continued to advocate for civil rights. She said that even though she was not on the “front lines” of activism, she sees her role as a writer and educator as bringing clarity to social justice.

“I really do believe one way to change people is to bring them inside information,” Brown said.

She has delivered many lectures on Black history, taught seminars on the Black experience in America, participated on committees for racial justice and reconciliation and led walking tours of historic Civil Rights sites.

"She has been an incredible agent for change and a significant role model for so very many in our community," said Gail LeBauer, who nominated Brown for the 7 Over Seventy award.

Brown is also known for her roles at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, where she served on a leadership team to facilitate anti-racism consciousness.

She is also known for her singing and has performed with the Holy Trinity’s choir and the Spiritual Renaissance Singers, a choral group that performs concerts of African American Spirituals.

“It’s a part of my life that allows me to express my faith,” Brown said.

LeBauer considers Brown a servant leader. Brown said her faith and advocacy of social justice are intertwined.

“My work with anti-racism is essentially a spiritual calling and one of the things I think I was put on the planet to do,” Brown said.

Brown continues to write, having recently finished a collection of poetry she began last year during the pandemic. She plans to teach a class on Hildegard of Bingen and lead an anti-racist retreat.

“I’ll probably keep teaching until I can’t do it anymore,” Brown said with a laugh.

The recognition was fitting for a woman who has spent most of her 90 years in public service, advocating for equal opportunities for education for all children.

“It is staggering how one person can spend a life standing toe-to-toe with so many issues of critical importance on behalf of all of us — the education of children, the strength of families, preservation of local land, preservation of voting rights and women's rights — working to build the strengths of our society and eliminate the weaknesses,” said Ellen Weiner, who nominated Kearns for 7 Over Seventy.

Kearns’ grandfather, a school bus driver in the segregated South, was forbidden to pick up black children. It pained him that those kids had to walk to school. Decades later, as a member of the PTA at Northwood Elementary in High Point during desegregation, she diplomatically addressed concerns of parents when the school got its first black principal.

“We talked to them and said… ‘Let’s see if we can make our schools acceptable to all our children.’ It worked out OK,” Kearns said.

Her handling of the situation got the attention of the High Point Chamber of Commerce, which was looking to appoint someone to the High Point Board of Education to help with desegregation woes. The chamber called Kearns.

“I’ve never even been to a board meeting,” Kearns told the caller.

She took the appointment anyway.

Two years later, when North Carolina transitioned to school board elections, Kearns ran for a position on the High Point Board of Education and won, the first woman to do so.

A decade later, she helped lead the merger Guilford County’s three school systems.

“Change was in the air, and it took a very long time get that implemented,” Kearns said.

She also wanted to see magnet programs in High Point.

“Greensboro had 16 magnet schools; High Point had none,” Kearns recalls.

Kearns served four terms on an at-large seat on the Guilford County School Board. High Point also got its magnet schools, and Kearns served for over 25 years on the foundation to create one of them — the William-Penn School for the Arts.

Another, The Academy at Central, was later renamed for her.

Kearns was on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners for nearly a decade and was the first woman to chair the board.

“Her caring, her savvy, her gentleness, her strength, her leadership, her mentoring is astounding, especially in a … generation where females were rarely encouraged to speak up,” Weiner said.

Kearns called her service on the board of commissioners “golden.”

“We were among the first counties ever to declare Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday,” she said.

Kearns worked with former congressman Robin Britt to establish the Smart Start Partnership in Guilford County, for which she served on the board of directors.

“I was always a believer of education for very young children and their mothers,” Kearns said.

Kearns has long been an advocate for water quality and the preservation of green spaces. She served on a committee to look at buffer zones around the county’s watershed lakes.

She also helped to establish the Rich Fork Preserve.

These days she is working to save historic High Point properties and repurpose some of the city’s abandoned factories.

“Our big hope is to establish a greenway in the southwest portion of the city to make it more attractive to people who want to start a business,” Kearns said.

Kearns is grateful to have been a part of some of the most significant transitional points in Guilford County history.

“It has truly been an amazing journey,” she said.

“Dot Kearns didn't have many role models, but she is the role model of a citizen for all of us — women and men,” Weiner said.

Williams, who has a doctorate in education, was the associate vice chancellor for academic affairs career accomplishments at N.C. A&T University, where she led innovate academic-program-assessment initiatives and was the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools liaison for the university’s re-accreditation.

“In teaching, and also in working with nonprofit organizations, I never looked for a career that necessarily paid a lot, but found a career that was fulfilling,” Williams said.

Williams has a notable track record for securing funding for the university and nonprofit organizations, including grants from the Charles A. Dana Foundation, Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, Ford Foundation, Lilly Endowment, North Carolina Humanities Council, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

Williams’ cut her grant writing teeth when she worked for the United Negro College Fund. There she developed curriculum enrichment and faculty development for the fund’s member institutions. That experience landed her in the role as executive director of the Women’s Leadership Institute at Bennett College. Later, she served on the board of directors of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, where she was a member of the Grantmaking Impact Team.

Williams models her life on servant leadership – a kind of leadership based on Judeo-Christian principals.

“The idea is that people are interested in serving the least among us and doing selfless acts to help those in need of help,” Williams said.

Servant leadership resonates with her because of her experiences growing up in a small African American community centered around education and the Black church, she said.

“I witnessed a nurturing environment in that community,” Williams said. “I saw a lot of examples of people doing much with little… especially among the women.”

Williams was inspired by the strong women in her community and said her admiration of those women guided her in life. While at Bennett College, she managed to procure funding for two series of women speakers.

Williams is also a prolific writer. She has written books on Civil Rights leaders, including a young adult biography on Ella Baker.

“Writing for me has been a wonderful advocation because it fits my personality,” she said.

Williams profiled several Civil Rights leaders in a collection called “Servants of the People: The 1960s Legacy of African American Leadership,” which she later revised to include more women.

Williams is never far from a campus of higher learning and continues to teach as an adjunct instructor at GTCC.

“I have a passion for teaching and for sharing what I have learned with others,” Williams said. “Young people should be open to discovering new things and new avenues of expression.”

Particularly young women.

“I would say to young women to find out what is your passion and make it your career.”

During that time, he put a lot of hours into helping repair, or even build, homes for people challenged in some way by having a place to live.

Joe Borlick praises Wrenn’s “enduring, decades-long track record.”

“From the early days of his career to today, he has made a difference through community service and civic and social involvement,” said Borlick, who nominated Wrenn for the 7 Over Seventy honor.

After hurricanes Dennis and Floyd inundated parts of eastern North Carolina with floods in 1999, Wrenn was among volunteers who went to Grifton to help clean up or “muck out” as Wrenn calls it, and restore the homes of those affected by the flooding.

“It seemed like the thing to do. They were our North Carolina neighbors,” Wrenn said.

The devastation on people’s lives was remarkable, Wrenn said.

“They had literally nothing. The flood waters took their homes, their cars and their employment.”

He spent hours sorting through people’s possessions contaminated by flood water laced with petroleum and raw sewage.

“We would end up stacking everything at the curb. Furniture, clothes, shoes, books, paperwork,” Wrenn said.

They tried to salvage what they could, such as glassware and service ware.

Wrenn slept on a church floor with other volunteers, several of whom were in their 60s. One volunteer with a heart condition pulled nails from wood molding so it could be reused.

“That tells you if you are willing to volunteer, there’s a job you can do,” Wrenn said.

Wrenn’s hurricane recovery experience came into play six years later when he was asked to organize a team to help with the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. He chose the home of a widower in Gulfport, Miss.

“The water was so high that his living room vaulted ceiling had seaweed on the fan.”

Wrenn has also traveled to Arizona to help with a home and a church on the Navajo Nation.

Closer to home, Wrenn has been involved with Habitat for Humanity, helping floor and roofing crews build homes for people in Greensboro challenged by affordable housing. An advocate of housing for everyone, he was involved in with the nonprofit Affordable Housing Management for 15 years.

“I think housing is pretty fundamental. It helps with the solidarity of the family,” Wrenn said. “If a family has a decent place to live and a decent education, it pays back the entire community.”

Wrenn is also an advocate of the arts. He served for 12 years with the United Arts Council Sternberger Artist Center.

“It was very beneficial for me to be involved, because I had to be sensitive to their needs… to assist the facility to operate,” Wrenn said.Wrenn said his desire to volunteer is rooted in his experiences as a Marine in the Vietnam War. The war cost him friends in combat and later from exposure to the chemical Agent Orange, which was used as an herbicide during the war. Wrenn can only wonder at how he survived both.

“What I do have, though, is the health and ability to serve — something those dear friends lost.”

He said his volunteerism is a tribute to those comrades.

“Perhaps if I were not serving in the housing arena, I would be a volunteer, serving somewhere in some capacity.”

“He has the reputation across the state as Mr. Greensboro,” said James Solomon, who nominated Melvin for the 7 Over 70 award.

Melvin credits his parents for his drive to make Greensboro a better place.

“I was always taught by my parents to give back. I kept giving back, and one thing led to another,” Melvin said.

It all began when he was working at his father’s service station and was asked to join the Greensboro Jaycees.

“It taught me a lot about community service and what life was all about,” Melvin said.

Melvin’s name became synonymous with the Greensboro Jaycees, where he served as the organization’s president. He became the chairman for the organization’s most notable event, the Greater Greensboro Open and raised $1 million to get the golf tournament aired on national television.

“Back then, the Jaycee organization was a tremendous force,” Melvin said.

Melvin entered politics and was Greensboro’s longest-serving mayor, in the role for a decade.

During his time as mayor, he supported development of the Greensboro Coliseum, the creation of an improved sewage treatment plant, building downtown municipal office buildings, the creation of Bryan Park and laying the groundwork for the Randleman Reservoir.

“I looked at the job as an economic development job,” Melvin said.

Melvin’s drive did not go unnoticed by his longtime friend and philanthropist Joseph Bryan. Bryan tapped Melvin to help found and lead the Joseph Bryan Foundation.

“It gave me the opportunity at a retirement age to take on a new role to run a foundation with some very talented people,” Melvin said.

Under Melvin’s guidance, the foundation helped to bring the Elon Law School to downtown Greensboro, raising $30 million to do so. The foundation also made improvements to the Greensboro Coliseum, helped create Center City Park and a build a new baseball stadium.

“I’ve been involved with some people that allowed us to do some good things,” Melvin said. “Everything we did, like the baseball park and city park, was extremely important.”

Melvin also helped create Action Greensboro.

“Through Action Greensboro, we teamed up with other foundations to keep Greensboro vibrant,” Melvin said.

These days, Melvin is busy leading the development of the Greensboro-Randolph Megasite, an 1,800-acre site in Randolph County being created to attract a major manufacturer. Melvin said the loss of Burlington Industries and Cone Mills were a blow to the area and he is hopeful the megasite will bring back jobs.

“I’ve been working on that project for over eight years. We’re doing all that to give it away, which makes it very unique,” Melvin said.

Melvin said he does not envision Greensboro as being another Charlotte, but a “better Greensboro, a better region.”

“Nothing happens by looking backwards, so I’ve always tried looking forward.”

“When I was practicing law, if you had asked me what percentage of children in the United States were in poverty, I would have said 3%,” Britt said.

He learned it was more like 20%, and considerably higher for minorities.

Britt immersed himself in research on the disadvantages children of low-income families face later in life.

“Children who don’t have exposure to reading and good educational opportunities, whether at home or other settings, will arrive at school and can’t do what other kids do,” Britt said.

Project Uplift was so successful, it became one of George H.W. Bush’s 1000 Points of Light.

Former Gov. Jim Hunt took notice and appointed him Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. He wanted Britt to inaugurate the state’s new Smart Start initiative to establish a “Partnership for Children” in counties across the state. The program won the Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard University and the Ford Foundation.

“I looked all over the state to pick the person that I thought had the heart, the energy and the commitment to do early childhood education in a different way from any place in the country,” Hunt told the News & Record in 2019, when Britt retired.

“Robin went to work on it like a man possessed,” Hunt said. “It was just what he believed in. It worked in the way that I thought things should work. It was some of the best work that’s ever been done for our state.”

While secretary, Britt also established Family Resource Centers in counties highly impacted by poverty.

“Why some kids make it out of poverty is because there is an adult who takes an interest in the child,” Britt said.

Britt left Raleigh in 1998 and became the executive director of Guilford Child Development, a growing organization that helps low-income children and their families through a variety of programs such as Head Start, which prepares kids for entry into school.

“If you’re not reading at level by third grade, you will likely drop out of school,” Britt said.

Britt added the Early Head Start program to assist children as early as six weeks.

“The greatest brain development comes in the first three years of life,” Britt said.

The combined Head Start/Early Head Start program grew from 600 children each year to more than 1,400.

“Robin's inspired leadership as CEO of Guilford Child Development had a significant impact on Guilford County and made a tangible difference in the lives of its citizens, especially children and families in poverty,” said Michael Solomon, who nominated Britt for the 7 Over Seventy award. “He was a leader in raising consciousness to the importance of early learning and development to a child's success in school and in life.”

To help nurture children’s early development, Britt established Guilford Child Development’s Nurse Family Partnership, offering free nurse visits to low-income, first-time mothers. It was a first for North Carolina and has been replicated in other states.

“It’s the most transformative program that I am aware of,” Britt said.

Britt grew Guilford Child Development by adding needed services and doubling the workforce.

In addition to nurturing kids, Britt credits part of Guilford Child Development’s success to nurturing teachers.

“It’s getting mentors out into the classrooms and observing and helping them improve the dynamics of the classroom,” Britt said.

Despite retiring in 2019, he said he remains in touch with advocates of early education.

“The 70s are a decade of continuing contribution and continuing activity,” Britt said.