Saturday, October 4, 2025

A Distinguished Legal Opinion On North Carolina Credit Unions...

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John Sprunt Hill (1869-1961) was one of North Carolina's most successful bankers - and a distinguished lawyer.  

Mr. Hill was a remarkable leader within the powerful North Carolina business families (Duke, Watts, Carr, Hill), who controlled the American Tobacco Company - a worldwide fountain of wealth - in early 1900's North Carolina. 
 
Mr. Hill was also a Columbia-trained lawyer, who helped form N. C. Blue Cross Blue Shield, Central Carolina Bank, Durham S&L, built The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill and gave it (!) to UNC, funded the N.C. Historical Collection at the UNC-CH Library, owned numerous prosperous farms, was a State Senator... and that's just the short list.  Nobody's fool ... North Carolina's top banker,  business entrepreneur, brilliant attorney, concerned philanthropist, exceptional human spirit.
 
But did you know this about that distinguished North Carolina banker and attorney, John Sprunt Hill? 
 
"In 1913, Hill traveled to Europe in an effort to study rural credit systems that had sprung up there in response to widespread poverty. He returned to the United States intent on implementing a similar system at home. Hill remarked that, "Credit union membership is a certificate of character and a badge of honor. Let a person stay in the credit union for ten years and it changes his whole philosophy of life—it is a modern miracle." 
 
Soon after passage of the North Carolina Credit Union Act on March 6, 1915 - which Hill personally wrote and shepherded through the North Carolina Legislature - North Carolina's first credit union opened in 1916, in the southern Durham County community of Lowe's Grove. Hill was called the "Father of Rural Credit in North Carolina." [link entire NCpedia bio]
 
But here, listen to what that distinguished North Carolina lawyer, John Sprunt Hill, had to say about credit unions:
 
"Credit Unions are not banks. Banks are aggregations of money; Credit Unions are aggregations of men ."

"Credit Unions capitalize the character of the membership."

"A Credit Union organized within a group, the members of which have no credit problems, obviously fills no need and organizations of this type should not be encouraged."
 
"Credit Unions increase the general prosperity, and thereby improve the community and its other businesses, helping others to attain a better economic status." 

John Sprunt Hill a distinguished  banker, attorney, and citizen of North Carolina who understood: "There is a Difference"... and was proud to be the leading force in bringing that difference to North Carolina. 


   For a sound, unfiltered opinion on North Carolina credit union laws ... nothing better than going to the source! Don't you agree? 


 

6 comments:

  1. maybe the new/new need a module test ...
    and the others need a refresher course ;)

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  2. No. Don’t agree. It’s not 1915 anymore and we don’t needs this mentality. It’s why old/old SECU was decades behind the times.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe you consider it old and out of fashion. But an effective method never gets old. It's only updated with different positive ideas. That's where the new/new is losing it.

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    2. New/new = greed, as in every man for himself.
      Old/old= "Increase the general prosperity" through people helping one another

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    3. 10:04 ... pretty much sums up the difference between a bank and a credit union ...

      Delete
  3. This clearly explains the heart and soul and purpose of credit unions. The way I see it, we should be organized to help those with credit problems and to improve their economic status. Thanks for sharing this! -c

    ReplyDelete