Photo courtesy of Clements Funeral & Cremation Services, Inc - Durham
Carrboro, North Carolina
CARRBORO ? John Robert Poe, Jr., of Carrboro, passed away Saturday, March 1, 2014 at Duke Regional Hospital, Durham. Born in Carteret County, Mr. Poe was the son of the late Rev. John Robert Poe, Sr. and Sallie Gattis Poe. He was also preceded in death by two sisters, Susan Faye Poe and infant...
Read MoreThank you all for your touching, heart-felt and comforting tributes. They mean so much.
Rose Etheridge
(wife of John Poe)
August 23, 2014
Please accept my condolences. I just found out today. Mr. Poe was a great man and wonderful friend. He recruited me to NCSSM. After I got there he made sure to check on me and make sure I was doing okay as I came from a small town. He will be missed but never ever forgotten.
Bonnie Williams
June 12, 2014 | Atlanta, GA
I was surprised and saddened by the notice of John's passing. He was a friend to all, and a great peacemaker.
I enjoyed his company and his conversation on many occasions. Even though I haven't seen him but a couple of times since moving to Maryland, I will miss him. He is among the few who left the world a better place than he found it.
Hugh Haskell
March 23, 2014 | Bethesda, MD
John had the greatest voice. I loved listening to him . We met about 25 years ago working at an educational testing firm. Good memories of a long ago time. I remember long chats at lunch time. Then he was the admissions officer at NCSSM where my son attended. Small world. Our spheres kept bumping into each other. He was a good guy. I'm sorry he's gone.
Christine Firpo
March 17, 2014 | Hillsborough, NC
He was a wonderful man who helped move the school from vision to history and changed our lives for the better. He was always warm and pleasant and he remembered everyone.
DeAhn Baucom
March 13, 2014 | Morrisville, NC
It is so hard to let good people go, but he was always a good steward. He was the reason I even thought about attending NCSSM, and with his warm personality, my mother needed little reassuring that I would be fine. My condolences to the family. He will be missed.
Imani Shahid-El Owens
March 13, 2014 | Raleigh, NC
I'm pretty sure the only reason my mom let me go away to boarding school was because she entrusted me to the care of John Poe...which was right. Mr. Poe had the perfect combination of dignity and gentility, and the knack of making everyone feel special. Plus he taught me an abiding appreciation for our whole state: I would sit in his office with that huge map of NC and he would tell stories about each county.
Mandy Slater, NCSSM class of 1986
March 12, 2014 | Washington, DC
He loved NCSSM almost as much as he loved the students who were drawn to go there. His incredible memory for people, for their names, their faces, for the details of their lives always amazed me.You always mattered to John Poe.
I never saw him not being kind.
Every time he was in Jackson County he'd come visit my parents' flower shop, just to say hello.
He was a wonderful man and he'll be terribly missed.
Phoebe Juel
March 11, 2014 | Cranberry Township, PA
I've only just read the news that "Mr. Poe" has passed away and I'm so terribly sad that this world has lost such a great soul. As many NCSSM students have said- he changed my life. For me, it was him convincing my mother that I would flourish in Durham, which I did.
And remarkably, when I ran into him at the gym last fall, he still remembered me 20 years after that fateful first meeting. All of us who knew, admired, and loved him were truly blessed to have had him in our lives.
Tonya Randell
March 10, 2014 | Chapel Hill, NC