Carolina Law Alumnus Wade Smith ’63 will be among five UNC graduates honored at the annual University Day ceremony Sunday, Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. University Day is an occasion to remember the University’s past and celebrate its future. The date, October 12, marks the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the institution’s first building and the oldest state university building in the nation. The Carolina community first celebrated University Day in 1877, after Governor Zebulon B. Vance, as chair of the Board of Trustees, ordered that the day “be observed with appropriate ceremonies under the direction of the faculty.”
Smith has been one of North Carolina’s most acclaimed lawyers for nearly 50 years. Smith was an All-American high school football player with many college scholarship offers, but he chose to accept a Morehead Scholarship to Carolina where he excelled in both academics and athletics. He was co-captain of the football team and was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece. In 1964 he and his classmate J. Harold Tharrington founded the law firm of Tharrington Smith. In 2008 the North Carolina Bar Association established the annual Wade M. Smith Award “for a Criminal Defense Attorney Who Exemplifies the Highest Ideals of the Profession.” He has been included in the annual list of Best Lawyers in American for 25 years in succession. Smith served two terms in the North Carolina General Assembly; he has chaired the Board of Directors of the General Alumni Association, is a recipient of its Distinguished Service Medal, and is the permanent class president of the Class of 1960.
Read more about University Day.
-October 9, 2014