I’m doing something Saturday I haven’t done in years: go to a Democratic Party dinner.

There, I’ll remember a man who is little known to Democrats, but meant a lot to me – and to North Carolina.

The occasion is the state party Unity Dinner.

I’ve done my time at these things. I’ve half-eaten too many rubber-chicken meals and half-listened to too many too-long political speeches.

Why am I going? Because Anderson Clayton, the new chair, asked me to. And asked me to be a sponsor. And to give more money than I meant to.

I couldn’t say no. She’s good at asking for money.

The dinner will be at N.C. State’s Talley Student Union, named for Banks C. Talley Jr., long-time vice-chancellor of student affairs (pictured). He was instrumental in adding arts to my alma mater’s agricultural and engineering focus.

Few Democrats at dinner will know that Banks was Governor Jim Hunt’s first executive assistant – chief of staff, really – in 1977. He played a vital role in getting the administration off to a good start.

Banks was a surprise appointment – a university administrator, not a politico. Governor Hunt wanted someone with management skills and from outside politics to help organize his staff and Cabinet. Banks had been at State when Hunt was student body president (for two terms, of course). Hunt knew his work and his character.

I was the governor’s press secretary, and my office was beside Banks’s in the Capitol. We worked long hours together. He taught me a lot about working with people, staying focused and getting things done.

Banks agreed to work with Hunt for one year. Then he returned to State. All told, he served the University, the state – and the arts, which he loved – for more than half a century. He died in 2017.

At dinner, the people stuck sitting with me no doubt will hear this history.

I’ll ask them to raise a glass and honor a man who dedicated his life to serving North Carolina.

Read more about Banks: https://news.ncsu.edu/2017/10/in-memoriam-banks-c-talley-jr/