Joseph S. Ferrell, the 39th faculty member to serve as Secretary of the Faculty, passed away on Wednesday, January 29. Joe served as secretary for 20 years, from 1996-2016. He was a quiet force of nature whose influence is felt in faculty governance to this day.
Joe served during a time of rapid change and occasional tumult. When he began his term as secretary, Faculty Council minutes were still kept in books, university websites were new and rudimentary, and social media didn’t exist. It was under his leadership that the Office of Faculty Governance moved into the digital era. He provided a calm voice and steady leadership to faculty governance during the academic-athletic scandal of the early 2010s and at other challenging times.
Known for his ability to quote The Faculty Code of University Government verbatim from memory, Joe led several comprehensive efforts to revise and modernize the Code. He supported the leadership of eight chairs of the faculty during his term and deftly managed the staffing and coordination of faculty governance’s more than two dozen committees. Joe’s institutional memory was legendary—he was “the living archive of the campus,” in the words of former Chair of the Faculty Sue Estroff. In retirement, he continued to generously share his knowledge and wisdom with faculty officers whenever he was asked.
He often said that his favorite part of the Secretary role was writing and reading the citations of the recipients of honorary degrees and Distinguished Alumni awards at commencement and University Day, respectively. During his tenure, Joe brought a gentle sense of humor and a personalized touch to the preparation and reading of the citations of over 200 award recipients. Joe himself was the recipient of numerous distinguished awards, including the University’s C. Knox Massey Distinguished Service Award, the Thomas Jefferson Award, and the Carolina Alumni Association’s Faculty Service Award. At the end of his final term as secretary in 2016, the Faculty Council passed a resolution in honor of Joe and his service.
Joe was a native of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, who came to Carolina as an undergraduate in 1956 and stayed to earn his law degree. He departed the state only briefly to earn his LL.M. at Yale University, then returned to Carolina in 1964 to join the faculty of the Institute of Government (now part of the School of Government), where his expertise and careful scholarship in state and local government law and the state constitution ultimately led to him being named the Albert Coates Professor of Public Law and Government.
We at the Office of Faculty Governance knew Joe personally and spoke with him regularly during his retirement. We mourn his death and we will miss him.
