Henry Clifton Ferrell Jr.

1934 - 2020

Henry Clifton Ferrell, Jr.

July 28, 1934 - August 21, 2020

Greenville, NC

Dr. Henry Clifton Ferrell, Jr., died on Friday, August 21, 2020, from complications of Covid 19. He was 86 years old and a proud member of the Cypress Glen Retirement Community.

Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, a public celebration of life will be held at a later date. His family will share a private graveside service at Pinewood Memorial Park.

A lifelong North Carolinian, Ferrell was born in 1934 to the late Henry Clifton Ferrell, Sr., and Mary Louise Williams Ferrell who raised their family in Greensboro, N.C. The eldest of five children, and a student of Guilford County Public Schools from kindergarten to his graduation from Greensboro Senior High School in 1952, he spent his younger days dedicated to his paper route, his youth group at his church, and his budding interest in the power of poetry and prose, especially focusing an eye towards American history. With three uncles serving in World War II, he became passionate about the war mobilization effort and the impact of it on his own community as well as the world at large. Watching the trains pulling in and out of the depot in Greensboro, his passion for the rails was a source of interest and pleasure for the whole of his life.

After graduating from high school in Greensboro, Ferrell set his sights on higher academic endeavors as he headed east to Duke University.. Planning to be an English major, due to his love of language, he was drawn towards a major in American history; for him, the two schools of thought were inseparable in his experience.

Working in the university cafeteria by day, moving through the carrels of the library at night and tutoring members of the football team, Ferrell paid his way through his undergraduate degree, energized by the intellectual challenge of the university campus. He graduated in 1956, with an AB in History. Fueled by strong professors in the History Department at Duke, he decided to pursue another degree, emerging with an MA in History in 1957. It was then that he decided that he decided he needed to teach.

Ferrell met his future wife, Martha Elizabeth Smith: a student at the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. They married in 1958. Ferrell, by this time, had begun his pursuits of a PhD from the University of Virginia, receiving his degree in 1964. Still in the thrall of history, he focused his dissertation on a prominent Virginian politician; eventually, the dissertation became a book: Claude A. Swanson of Virginia: A Political Biography, published in 1985. He would go on to write numerous essays, articles and reviews, many of them published in the Southern History Journal, during his academic career - all would center around the great scope of America's history.

Continuing his academic career, Ferrell relocated from Charlottesville to Greenville, N.C., to join the faculty in the History Department at East Carolina University in 1960; he spent 46 years there in the capacity of teacher, mentor, crusader and friend. During his years of academia, Ferrell actively pursued roles in the University by becoming involved in committee work that ranged from the Faculty Senate, speaking for fair policies for students as well as for his fellow academicians, to student-centered committees to the role of University Historian. He was Faculty Senate Parliamentarian for years with a keen knowledge of Robert's Rules of Order. Nothing was more important in a meeting than order and controlled discourse. In 2007, Ferrell wrote and published two books in his role as University Historian: No Time for Ivy: East Carolina University, 1907-2007, and Promises Kept: East Carolina, 1980-2007. Both books highlight ECU and its proud history in eastern North Carolina, conveying the rich fabric of the lives of many teachers and students over the years. His work with ECU earned him the respect and veneration of the academic community, but he loved his work in the classroom the most. With a passion for the New Deal and a commitment to rigorous instruction, he worked with undergraduate and graduate students alike. Retiring in 2007, Ferrell soon wrote and published a three-volume series entitled: The United States Congress and National Defense, 1915-1939. These volumes are standard reference material today for students studying the United States' Congress as it acted and reacted to events between World War I and World War II.

In addition to his service at ECU, Ferrell was an active member of Jarvis Memorial United Methodist Church since 1961. He dedicated himself to serving on various committees at the local level as well as the regional level, representing the congregation of Jarvis as a lay leader to the North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Raising three children as active members of the church, Ferrell also spent many, many hours there singing with a vibrancy in the choir. Perhaps his most significant contribution to the church community was his singing. Ferrell found a true sense of worship through his membership in the choir. For decades, he sang, with a confident tenor tone, and with a great sense of purpose and participation in the music ministry for the congregants at Jarvis. He loved the tradition of music throughout all of his years as a United Methodist.

Because of his commitment to ECU and Jarvis Church, Ferrell was tapped to become Vice Chair of the Greenville Utilities Commission in 1994. In this role, he worked with community leaders to improve services for residents in the community at large. Serving as chair of the commission, Ferrell was in place as chairman of the board when the devastating Hurricane Floyd ravaged Greenville in September of 1999. His leadership was instrumental in helping Greenville, and the beleaguered GUC, get back on its feet as the flooding Tar River damaged and destroyed many homes in the wake of its path. Ferrell was also instrumental in the expansion of the Water Plant in Greenville, which ensured the community with adequate and clean water. While an academician as priority, he was also invested in the community that he calls home. To help those in need was crucial.

Dr. Ferrell continued to be witty - a wordsmith and entirely open to the beauty of the natural world and heartily reminiscent. Prone to quick laughter and an impromptu history lecture upon occasion (frequently), Ferrell was an active and purposeful thinker. He insisted that our family remain alert in the chaos of what is now our country, and he reminded us of the glorious history of the United States and how it informed his life since he was a boy, standing by the tracks, watching the trains move the hopeful soldiers to make history.

Dr. Ferrell was preceded in death by his parents: Henry Clifton Ferrell, Sr., and Mary Louise Williams Ferrell. He is survived by his beloved wife of 62 years, Martha Elizabeth Smith Ferrell, and three children, their spouses and his grandchildren: Mary Elizabeth Ferrell and husband William F. McIlwain, III, of Winston-Salem; Martha Ann Ferrell Patterson and husband Rolvix Harlan Patterson, Jr., of New Bern, and Henry Clifton Ferrell, III, and his wife Susan Elise Brenner Ferrell of Wilmington, N.C. In addition, there are his eight grandchildren: Michael David Granger, Jr., of Denver, Colorado; Hannah Elizabeth Granger van Zeeland and husband Micah of Charleston, South Carolina; Rolvix Harlan Patterson, III, of Durham, N.C.; Charlotte Ferrell Patterson of Atlanta, Georgia; Henry Clifton Ferrell, IV, of Wilmington; Martha Kate Ferrell of Wilmington; Jesse William McIlwain of Washington, D.C., and Aliza Kathleen McIlwain of Winston-Salem.

In addition, Dr. Ferrell is also survived by his four siblings and their families: Forrest Andrew Ferrell and wife Becky of Hickory: Malcolm Rea Ferrell, Sr., and wife Alexey of Greensboro; Helen Claire Ferrell Morton and husband Richard of Greensboro, and Anne Bowles Ferrell Quillen and husband Bill of Crossville, Tennessee.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Jarvis Memorial United Methodist Church, 510 S. Washington Street, Greenville, N.C., 27834; or to the ECU Foundation, Henry C. Ferrell, Jr., Scholarship, 2200 S. Charles Blvd, Mail Stop 301 Greenville 27858.

Our family asks with great hopefulness that each member of our communities would please wear facemasks to ensure that those who are especially vulnerable to this virus may be safe, secure, and strong. We have an obligation to one another to care, to be selfless, and to think of others before ourselves.

Arrangements by Wilkerson Funeral Home and Crematory

Online condolences at www.wilkersonfuneralhome.com