Benson Lecture honors notable chancellor Leo Jenkins
The son of one of East Carolina University’s most notable leaders shared memories and lessons May 27 during the Nicholas H. Benson Lecture at the Brody School of Medicine.
Jack Jenkins, a retired Special Superior Court judge and the sixth child born to Leo Jenkins, ECU’s sixth president and first chancellor, presented “Leadership: Leo Jenkins Style” to a crowd at the event hosted by Brody’s Office of Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development.
Jenkins said his father’s mind was set to succeed when he first rolled into Greenville around 1947 after leaving New Jersey.
“This is home now,” Leo Jenkins said back then, Jack Jenkins shared, adding that it stood for his father’s ability to step up and make things better.
From there, a legacy was built.
Jack Jenkins, son of Leo Jenkins, ECU’s sixth president and first chancellor, presented “Leadership: Leo Jenkins Style” to a crowd at the event hosted by Brody’s Office of Faculty Affairs and Leadership Development. (Photo by Bobby Ampezzan)
Leo Jenkins, who served as dean before he became president of East Carolina College in 1960, stood at the helm during some of East Carolina’s most bustling, productive years in the 1960s and ’70s, when the school was poised for a greater presence in the east. Jenkins rallied campus and community to focus on expanding the reach and impact of what was then East Carolina College.
“He had this expression, ‘one more round, you need to go one more round,’” Jenkins said. “It comes from boxing.”
Leo Jenkins used that mindset to go up against obstacles he met along the way toward his vision of what ECU could become.
Among countless accomplishments, Jenkins guided the college into official university status, fought for a medical school in Greenville and oversaw expansion of academic, medical and athletic facilities. He also was instrumental in integrating campus without a court order, boosted support for creative and performing arts, and pursued changes on campus that impacted everyone from the student body to residents across eastern North Carolina.
“He also believed this concept of engagement of walking around,” Jenkins said of his father. “He would stop and chat.”
He would walk around campus often, talking with students and faculty and finding out what issues were important to them. He was also involved in many campus and community activities, groups and events.
“You name it, he was involved,” Jenkins said.
Jack Jenkins detailed some of the highlights of his father’s efforts to transform the university into hope for the future of eastern North Carolina. He shared his unique vantage point as the youngest child, watching his father lead through hardship and adversity.
Leo Jenkins retired in 1978 and passed away in 1989. He was posthumously honored in 2014 with the University Award, the highest accolade given by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors for distinguished service to higher education.
Jenkins reflected on his father’s time on campus and his legacy that still lives because the ECU community keeps it alive.
“Memories fade generationally, and most good deeds of our forebears ultimately are forgotten. Nevertheless, there are ways in which at least a few significant contributions of our predecessors can be memorialized effectively,” he said. “Through the years, I think East Carolina’s leaders and stakeholders have tried to do that with my father.”
He said he hopes the audience came away from his talk with a better understanding of how each person can make a difference in his or her own way.
“We all should strive to make our homes better, whether confined to our family or neighborhood, an entire region of the state or even beyond,” he said.
The memories, the legacy and the spirit of ECU always rushes back to Jenkins when he visits campus, he said.
“Whenever I return to visit friends, attend a game or even give a speech, the same feelings I had as a kid return as well,” he said. “There’s a certain spirit on that campus, an invisible but ever-present ‘something’ that I really can’t explain or define, but it’s there, and it grounds me in the basics of what really matters in life, of yesterday’s gone but not to be forgotten, and of tomorrows to come with so much hope and promise.”
Jack Jenkins graduated summa cum laude from ECU, going on to practice law in Greenville and Morehead City. He was appointed in 1993 as general counsel to the N.C. Department of Human Resources and in 1997 as general counsel to Gov. Jim Hunt. He was appointed Special Superior Court judge in 2001 and served two additional terms. He began writing after retirement in 2016.
The Nicholas H. Benson Lectureship hosts an internal or external scholar each year to speak on topics with broad relevance to the Brody School of Medicine community. The lectureship is named in honor of Dr. Nicholas H. “Nick” Benson, who served as a member of the medical school faculty for 34 years, including in positions from chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, vice dean of the school, medical director of ECU Physicians and interim dean of the school. He also worked to create the EastCare air ambulance program. The event honors his accomplishments and service to the medical profession.