Quentin Lindsey
Quentin W. Lindsey was by no means the most colorful or controversial person to work for Governor Hunt. But he had more long-term impact on North Carolina than most any of us.
Quent, who died September 21, was the Governor’s Science and Public Policy Advisor. He was instrumental in the establishment of the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the NC Microelectronics Center and the NC Biotechnology Center.
The School has produced scores of bright graduates. The Microelectronics Center put North Carolina in the hunt (so to speak) for high-tech industry in the early 1980s. The Biotech Center made the state a leader in the life sciences.
Quent was quiet and professorial, as befitted an economics professor at NC State. He had a student named Jimmy Hunt in undergraduate and graduate classes.
That wasn’t the first time he heard of Hunt. When I interviewed him in 2007 for my biography of the Governor (still available online and in fine bookstores, by the way), Quent recalled:
“I had a little project in Eastern North Carolina, on agriculture and development, and I included Wilson County in it. Jim’s father was a soil conservationist there, and I worked with him some.
“I always remember him telling me, when Jim was still in high school, that his son would be at NC State and he was going to be Governor.”
Quent left NC State in 1961 to work with the Ford Foundation in Burma and then Nepal. He said later, “A professor, when he needs some help, begins to think of his brightest students. So I sent a cable to Jim asking if he would be interested in being a member of our little team. I knew he would be interested because I was right in the center of the central government.”
Hunt, accompanied by his wife Carolyn and their two small children, took him up on the offer. The Hunts spent two years in Nepal, where their daughter Rachel was born. Hunt later said the experience taught him lessons about economic development that served him well as Governor.
Quent never stopped teaching, Hunt and all of us. And he had to be persistent and tough. Innovations like the Math-Science School and the Biotech Center ran into opposition from legislators and conservative advisors to Hunt, like his tough budget chief John A. Williams.
But Quent never stopped pushing. And North Carolina is better for it.
His passing received little notice, but he deserves great credit.
Quentin Lindsey
Quentin W. Lindsey was by no means the most colorful or controversial person to work for Governor Hunt. But he had more long-term impact on North Carolina than most any of us.
Quent, who died September 21, was the Governor’s Science and Public Policy Advisor. He was instrumental in the establishment of the NC School of Science and Mathematics, the NC Microelectronics Center and the NC Biotechnology Center.
The School has produced scores of bright graduates. The Microelectronics Center put North Carolina in the hunt (so to speak) for high-tech industry in the early 1980s. The Biotech Center made the state a leader in the life sciences.
Quent was quiet and professorial, as befitted an economics professor at NC State. He had a student named Jimmy Hunt in undergraduate and graduate classes.
That wasn’t the first time he heard of Hunt. When I interviewed him in 2007 for my biography of the Governor (still available online and in fine bookstores, by the way), Quent recalled:
“I had a little project in Eastern North Carolina, on agriculture and development, and I included Wilson County in it. Jim’s father was a soil conservationist there, and I worked with him some.
“I always remember him telling me, when Jim was still in high school, that his son would be at NC State and he was going to be Governor.”
Quent left NC State in 1961 to work with the Ford Foundation in Burma and then Nepal. He said later, “A professor, when he needs some help, begins to think of his brightest students. So I sent a cable to Jim asking if he would be interested in being a member of our little team. I knew he would be interested because I was right in the center of the central government.”
Hunt, accompanied by his wife Carolyn and their two small children, took him up on the offer. The Hunts spent two years in Nepal, where their daughter Rachel was born. Hunt later said the experience taught him lessons about economic development that served him well as Governor.
Quent never stopped teaching, Hunt and all of us. And he had to be persistent and tough. Innovations like the Math-Science School and the Biotech Center ran into opposition from legislators and conservative advisors to Hunt, like his tough budget chief John A. Williams.
But Quent never stopped pushing. And North Carolina is better for it.
His passing received little notice, but he deserves great credit.