Frank Pleasants Meadows

1927 - 2024

Frank Pleasants Meadows

December 20, 1927 - May 14, 2024

Rocky Mount, North Carolina - Frank Pleasants Meadows Jr., 96, died 14 May 2024 after a short period of declining health. Born 20 December 1927, in Macon, Georgia, the son of Frank Pleasants Meadows and Louise Spencer Avent Meadows, the family returned to Rocky Mount, NC before his 2nd birthday, where he lived the rest of his life. Frank graduated from Rocky Mount High School, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Wake Forest School of Law, where he and a classmate won the 1956 National Moot Court competition. Frank sat for and passed the CPA exam during the summer after graduating from Carolina. He kept current both his bar membership and his CPA designation until his 96th birthday.

Frank resisted the theory that New York was the only place where a legal specialty in taxation could be practiced and remained in his beloved Rocky Mount his entire career. He began a law practice specializing in business and tax in 1956. He was admitted to appear before many courts including the Federal Tax Court, U.S. Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court. More than one of his former law partners described him as "an attorney's attorney" on tax and accounting esoterica, either having an answer at hand or knowing where to find it.

After first attending the New York University Tax Institute in New York with his father while an undergraduate in 1946, Frank only missed two years of attendance until 2016, including an extended period where he was included on the Institute faculty on a rotating basis. A voracious reader, there was always a large stack of periodicals and white papers on the nuances of taxation and estate planning at hand, which was as much avocation as vocation to him.

Although he shared his father's dry sense of humor with those he knew well, Frank generally was quiet and more comfortable in the background. He was involved in the formative stages of local institutions still thriving 60 years later, including Nash General Hospital, Rocky Mount Academy, the Wood Green subdivision in west Rocky Mount, Westridge Swim Club and Nash Day Hospital. Much of the local economic development that took place from the mid 1960s through the 1990s included Frank's involvement as counsel to the Nash Economic Development office coordinating the organization, debt financing, and government incentive packages including Abbott Labs, Cummins Diesel, Phillips Fibers, Barcalounger, Ilco Unican among others.

Boy Scouts was an important part of Frank's youth and adulthood. He gained his Eagle and two palms with Troop 7; formed and was Scoutmaster of Troop 77 in Rocky Mount; and was Scoutmaster of the East Carolina contingent to the 1953 National Jamboree in California. He was later awarded the Silver Beaver and served many years on the East Carolina Council Board.

The Church of the Good Shepherd was also of lifelong importance from his baptism through the upcoming funeral and internment, singing in the Children's Choir, then continuous membership of almost 70 years in the Adult Choir. Frank served on the Vestry, as a Lay Reader, Chalice Bearer, and was instrumental in founding and chaired the Stewardship Trust from inception into its second decade.

Frank is survived by his wife of 64 years, Notie Vay White Meadows originally from Statesville, NC; his daughters, Sarah Elizabeth Meadows Johnson and Vada Louise Meadows, and son, Frank Pleasants Meadows III (Kip). He was predeceased by his granddaughter, Anna Louise Johnson. Frank leaves to carry on the Christmas traditions of reading the dinner blessing from the Book of Common Prayer, and singing Deck Us All with Boston Charlie to his grandchildren Sadie Estelle Meadows, Ayden Christopher Johnson, Alston McCullough Meadows, Elizabeth Holloway Earle, Frank Pleasants Meadows IV and Emily Avent Schemper; and one great-grandchild, Chet Edward Schemper. Although an only child, Frank is survived by a first cousin who has been like his sister since their childhood, Estelle Darrow Rice.

A Memorial Service and internment in the Church of the Good Shepherd columbarium will be held at 2 PM on Tuesday 21 May. In lieu of flowers, a contribution to the charity of your choice, with Church of the Good Shepherd Stewardship Trust, Rocky Mount Academy and the Boy Scouts of America East Carolina Council holding special meaning to Frank.

The family is particularly thankful for the kind and loving attention of a team of caregivers, his new friends, during Frank's period of declining health these last five months, and for many years of caring assistance from Calvin Pulley.